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Esalen History New Approaches to Psychiatry 1962: Richard Price co-founded Esalen with a strong personal commitment to finding ways to deal with psychosis that were more humane than the prevalent practices of institutionalization, medication, and electroshock.
1968: series of workshops and seminars entitled The Value of Psychotic Experience, designed to integrate and extend the theories of John Perry, R. D. Laing, Fritz Perls, and Kazimierz Dabrowski.
1969: Esalen launched the Agnews Project, a three-year study of alternative approaches to psychosis, in a California State mental hospital, drawing expertise from Esalen faculty and methods and with support from the National Institute of Mental Health and the California Department of Health. Dr. Julian Silverman, an eminent research psychologist from the National Institute of Mental Health, headed the program, which had three main objectives: 1) Identify, via neurophysiological lab techniques, those individuals who go through psychotic experiences and emerge as better integrated personalities. 2) Develop a unique therapeutic milieu, including encounter groups and didactic seminars, where certain patients are allowed to go through psychosis unmedicated. 3) Revise theories of acute schizophrenic reactions to include the possibility of positive, healing, or problem-solving features of the state as well as the more ominous features.
1976: Stanislav Grof and Joan Halifax-Grof led an Esalen month-long seminar for professionals and advanced students on "Schizophrenia and the Visionary Mind," including guest faculty such as Gregory Bateson, Erik Erikson, Jean Houston, Claudio Naranjo, Kenneth Pelletier, John Perry, Betty Fuller, and Will Schutz. Areas of focus included the biochemical, psychological and cultural variables in schizophrenia, the study of mystical experience, and various techniques for personal self-exploration (e.g. sensory isolation tank, biofeedback, bioenergetic work).
1980: creation of the Spiritual Emergence Network by Stanislav and Christina Grof, with Esalen sponsorship. This organization is a referral and information network which now has a worldwide presence and thousands of members.
1981-1988: seven invitational conferences at Esalen on "Alternatives to Institutional Psychiatric Treatment" convened by Larry Telles.
1984: month-long Esalen seminar for professionals and graduate students on "Spiritual Emergency: Understanding and Treatment of Transpersonal Crises" led by Stanislav and Christina Grof.
1987: invitational conference on "Spiritual Emergence," convened by Stanislav and Christina Grof.
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