Works
EVOLUTION ROAD
In American mythology there’s only one place more misconstrued than California, and that’s Esalen, the fabled personal growth center, located amidst the natural splendor of the Central Coast. EVOLUTION ROAD is a clear-eyed memoir of the six years Elizabeth Stacey spent at Esalen Institute. It turned out her workplace was reminiscent of a hippie commune in which the inhabitants resisted the kind of changes she was hired to make, in ways both funny and poignant. The story follows Stacey's exploration of the little-known role Esalen claims to play in the evolutionary flow of life on earth, as well as her own evolving awareness of how beholden she was to the systems that dominate and divide American society – the shiny, competitive, high-growth, well-organized presentations of "success." When the Sixties version of Esalen succumbed to devastating winter storms, she has to decide whether she will live out its values of equality and community.
Estimated publication date: 2025