In a book club and starting to plan your reads for next year? Check out our 2025 picks.

The Legendary Esalen Institute: Background information when reading Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Mar 26, 2019, 368 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2020, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

The Legendary Esalen Institute

This article relates to Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

Print Review

EsalenIn Rajeev Balasubramanyam's novel, Professor Chandra Follows his Bliss, about a man's golden years' journey to finding himself, Oxford Professor P. R. Chandrasekhar takes a course in self-awareness at California's legendary Esalen Institute. Tucked between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Esalen is gifted with the relaxing sounds of sea lions as they frolic in the tide, truly dark night skies resplendent with millions of twinkling stars, and hot mineral springs to relax the body and mind.

If there is any place that can be called the seat of America's counterculture and humanism movements it might be Esalen. The nonprofit organization owes its 20th century origins to Stanford graduates Michael Murphy and Dick Price, who created it in 1962 as a retreat dedicated to the exploration of what Aldous Huxley called human potentialities. Because its origins coincided with the era of the Baby Boomers' experimentation in thought, mind/body connections, Eastern philosophy, and consciousness-enhancing drugs, it was regarded early on as place that catered to self-indulgent hippies and so-called navel gazers.

Meditation RoomOver the ensuing decades, Esalen attracted some of the foremost thinkers and experts in humanism to conduct courses focusing on everything from healing, relaxation, self-exploration, and therapy to transcendental meditation, paranormal activity, economic inequality, psychology, yoga, and death. The roster of teachers boasts such diverse names as Timothy Leary, Ansel Adams, Deepak Chopra, Susan Sontag, Aldous Huxley, Joan Baez, Ida Rolf, Ray Bradbury, and scores more. There is hardly an avenue of human potential that has not been touched by or had its roots in Esalen's 120 acre estate.

Art BarnAs with any institution, the passing years have seen changes and adaptations in management, philosophy, and mission. The most recent changes have evolved from a desire to appeal to a younger clientele. Storms and mudslides forced the retreat to close in early 2017, and it eventually reopened with more limited access under a corporate management structure. But Esalen Healing Arts Institute still welcomes guests interested in mindfulness, massage, humanism, relaxation techniques and much more.

View of Esalen on the bluff housing the hot springs
Mediation room
Art barn

Filed under Places, Cultures & Identities

Article by Donna Chavez

This "beyond the book article" relates to Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss. It originally ran in April 2019 and has been updated for the March 2020 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens
    by Raul Palma
    Raul Palma's debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens introduces Hugo Contreras, who came to the ...
  • Book Jacket
    The MANIAC
    by Benjamin Labatut
    The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut is an ambitious work that falls squarely into the category of fiction...
  • Book Jacket: Blood Test
    Blood Test
    by Charles Baxter
    Brock Hobson is a loving single father, a Sunday School teacher, and an upstanding and honest ...
  • Book Jacket: The Barn
    The Barn
    by Wright Thompson
    The barn doesn't reek of catastrophe at first glance. It is on the southwest quarter of Section 2, ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Libby Lost and Found
    by Stephanie Booth

    Libby Lost and Found is a book for people who don't know who they are without the books they love.

Who Said...

They say that in the end truth will triumph, but it's a lie.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

H I O the G

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.