Aldous Huxley's 'Human Potentialities' talks (1960–61) — the seed of Esalen
event
Esalen started with a talk by Aldous Huxley about untapped human abilities.
Who they are
Aldous Huxley's 'Human Potentialities' talks, 1960–61[1].
What they do
This is the seed idea of Esalen.
How it works
Co-founder Dick Price heard Huxley say we are 'pretty much the same as we were twenty thousand years ago', and that what we have become was 'wholly potential and latent in man'. The records show three such talks — April 1960, MIT in November 1960, and San Francisco in January 1961 — and the sources disagree on which one Price heard.
Why it matters
Huxley's point was about unlocking what we already have, not breeding better people.
The engine's record — word for word
[
Report #196] **In plain terms:** the talks by Aldous Huxley that Esalen's co-founder Dick Price heard and took as Esalen's starting idea.
THREE DOCUMENTED TALKS: (1) 25 April 1960, 'Who are We?: Human Potentialities, Lecture VI' (UCLA Huxley Papers; no venue recorded); (2) MIT, Lecture VII, 16 November 1960; (3) UC San Francisco Medical Center, 'Man and Civilization: Control of the Mind' symposium, evening address of 28 January 1961 (published 1961). Kripal and Anderson say Price heard it in 1960 at the UCSF Medical Center; Kripal's source is Anderson (Upstart Spring, pp. 10–11). Which talk Price heard is unresolved — the 1961 symposium is the only documented UCSF delivery.
WORDS. As printed by Anderson and quoted by Kripal: 'we are pretty much the same as we were twenty thousand years ago … We have in the course of these twenty thousand years actualized an immense number of things which at that time and for many, many centuries thereafter were wholly potential and latent in man.' The published January 1961 text says instead '15 to 20 thousand years ago' and 'extremely little biological change in human beings since that time'. No text says Darwinian evolution 'ceased'. The doctrine is latent capacity, not breeding.
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