Back to top
130.
Spiritual & Therapeutic Tyranny: The Willingness to Submit.
Original printed programme for a conference sponsored by the Esalen Institute and held in San Francisco between December 7-8, 1973. Single sheet of mauve coloured paper, printed in black on both sides, folded twice, as issued (45.7cm. sq., unfolded). Provides a list of the twenty-six participants, with brief descriptive texts, and the timetable of events scheduled at the Veteran's Auditorium and the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco.
The Esalen Institute intended the conference to alert followers of the human potential movement to the dangers of authoritarianism in psychological or spiritual development, particularly in the wake of the rising popularity of Werner Erhard's EST training (whose followers included Doug Engelbart, a vocal proponent of the potential of computers and the inventor of the mouse), Ron Hubbard's Scientology, and other cult leaders or gurus, among them Father Yod, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Sun Myung Moon, and Jim Jones. With headings such as 'Tyranny In The Small Group', 'The Appeal Of The Esoteric In Contemporary American Culture', and 'Political Action And The Inner Search', panel discussions included Stewart Brand, Arthur Hastings, Peter Marin, Paul Krassner, Jerry Rubin, Claude Naranjo, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, Michael Kahn, Thomas Szasz, Chogyam Trungpa, Michael Rossman, and Werner Erhard, an Esalen graduate himself and one of the leaders who had inspired the conference. Even though some of the gurus in question were guilty of taking advantage of their power, especially over women, none of the panels included women, an omission highlighted by a leafletting campaign staged outside the symposium.
The programme is accompanied by two letters on headed notepaper sent from Esalen in advance of the conference to the community activist, writer and organiser of the 1964 Free Speech Movement at the UC Berkeley, Michael Rossman, who appeared with Lee Sannella and Arthur Hastings in the panel discussion, 'On Using Psychic Powers'.
Faint dampstain along centre fold, o/w Very Good plus.
