Keith Thompson on early Esalen, the Center For Theory and Research, and Paranormal Human Potential

Voices of Esalen

Keith Thompson is an author, independent journalist, talk radio host, and former U.S. Senate staff member. Keith’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the new book, The UFO Paradox: The Celestial and Symbolic World of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in which he reveals how the UFO phenomenon ultimately represents a call from the cosmos for humanity to open to greater dimensions of reality and recognize that our understanding of the universe is still far from complete. Together we talked about how he discovered Esalen in 1975 from a New Yorker article, his friendship with Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, how he became involved in the earliest incarnations of Esalen’s Center for Theory and Research, the genius of Esalen’s "no one captures the flag" approach, the "Tuesday morning phenomenon," and the links between the paranormal and the aims of the human potential movement.