An anonymous contributor writes:
From its beginning with Hunter Thompson, Joan B, Dick and Michael, Esalen has meant growth and exploration. This site provides a venue for those changed for the better to speak and commune. Gratitude and peace to all of, the shadow side as well as the light — after all, we must experience both to truly find ourselves.
An anonymous contributor writes:
[Esalen HR Director] Scott Stillinger is indeed a vacant smiling presence and yes, terrifying to many of us who graced the power of the land and spirit of Esalen, and his entire bloated department moves through the property like an amoeba. Now the Director of Guest Services has taken charge of individual departments’ personnel choices. Causing managers to be unable to staff their own departments is one of the largest mistakes she has made. I pray for intervention to come swiftly.
In addition, I send up prayers for the service of one generous, dedicated, hard working [Office Manager] Kathleen. Without Kathleen many seminarians would not be recognized for their loyalty and in her quiet way she does so much for so many, guests and staff alike. The main office would be lost without her, and now unfortunately the Office is short on staff, and I fear that guests will be agitated having to wait on the phone and at the front desk.
Please send your energy into Directors seeing the light. When a system is not broken, as Esalen was not broken, it does not need to be completely changed! The tried and true method of sending up work scholars, into extended students, into staff, really does assure that the power and spirit of Esalen continues.
Whether Esalen has been “broken” or not from a business standpoint, the growing consensus seems to be that naive outsiders in powerful management roles are derailing the Institute. With the Esalen community so overwhelmingly unhappy with Scott Stillinger, why does he not resign?
A contributor writes:
The individual leading Esalen is not, in fact, our sweet and entirely unqualified CEO. The individual’s name is Scott Stillinger. While he seems to be no more intelligent than Tricia, every Esalen community member I’ve spoken to about his character agrees that his vacantly amiable demeanor hides a soul mired in darkness. Calling him mechanical and incompetent would be a glib dismissal of a person whose power and influence at Esalen is vast. The extent of that influence, because it is unofficial, is unknowable. The means of his power, although unnamed and unacknowledged, is clearer. He controls Tricia through and within their undefined and suspect close personal relationship. He controls the community by expanding the role of his (obscenely bloated by any industry standards) department within the day-to-day operations of Esalen, and then tightening its grip. He controls the institute’s future. His agenda is entirely obscure. I personally do not find this state of affairs troubling. I find it terrifying.
A secret agent uploads:
Just auditing esaleaks.org security. I hope anonymouse.org give me some mice. -Ruby the Cat.
We hope it give you some mice also.
Through the generosity of an Esaleaks contributor, we are able to present Esalen’s complete federal tax returns (IRS Form 990) for the years 2002 through 2009, excluding 2006. The returns include annual compensation data for officers, directors, and trustees. Here we chart the totals:
How has the doubling of executive compensation helped the financially strapped Esalen to achieve its mission? Answers are invited from Esaleaks readers, especially Esalen officers, directors, and trustees.
The raw 990 documents may be downloaded in PDF format here.
Esaleaks would like to invite Community commentary on Esalen CEO Tricia McEntee’s video interview for the web site “Pebblestorm: Make money through enjoyment.”
In the interview, part of a “Unique Genius Superhero” series which apparently matches McEntee’s recent “Superhero” theme for Staff Week, the CEO discusses how a weekend of salsa dancing and yoga, followed by a weekend of collage, led her to the discovery her life’s purpose. McEntee says that her final collage, shown here, now serves as a “litmus test” for every decision she makes and how she does her job.
Cut from the pages of magazines, McEntee’s “vision board” intersperses new age vernacular like “deliciousness,” “sustainable living,” and “free spirited & fabulous!” with a symbolism consisting mainly of hearts, hands, plants, animals, rainbows and unicorns. The only philosophical content is a laser-printed set of platitudes which pay token service to Esalen philosophy but offer surprisingly little in the way of depth.
Does the vision represented in McEntee’s sparse collage serve convincingly as a litmus test for the how the CEO conducts her job and makes her decisions? McEntee says, “I could hardly separate my own life purpose from what Esalen’s mission is in the world as I saw it.” How well does her life purpose collage reflect the worldwide Esalen community’s sense of the mission of the institute?
All commentary is welcome. Full video and transcript follows:
TM: Hi. I’m Tricia McEntee. I’m the new CEO of Esalen Institute, which the magnificent, magical retreat center on the coast of California in Big Sur. And our mission is all about human and social transformation in the world.
Q: That’s great. So Tricia, recently, in the last year or so, you got really clear on your purpose. So I love to hear about just the process you went through to get clear on it.
TM: Yeah, I was — yeah, it was a phenomenal process, actually my background is really in the business world of being a CPA and very kind of strictly left-brain business oriented, and I was here as the CFO, and I was really trying — you know, I’m passionate about the mission of Esalen, and I was in a place where I was trying to find how I could bring more of that into my work and my job, and I went on — I — it started with like this wonderful salsa dancing and yoga extravaganza workshop that I went to with my daughters in Puerto Rico and we just had a great time really opening up and playing together, and then I came back, and the very next week I got back I went to an inspirational leadership workshop here at Esalen, and that workshop really talked about mission and focus and purpose and I was — you know — it was, as well, kind of a very playful approach, kind of a more right side of the brain approach — and then I was preparing — shortly after that I was preparing for a pretty serious conversation with the Chairman of the Board, exploring ways that I could be more influential and how I could bring my passion more into my work, and as I was trying to prepare for that, I just started this — I basically made a vision board, or a collage, I didn’t really realize what I was — was it a planned process, I just started cutting out different things in magazines that just really spoke to me about my purpose and what really moved me in my life, and it — and I as I put it together I didn’t really know what I was putting together, I just started cutting and pasting and I couldn’t stop and it went on for a whole weekend and I barely slept or ate, and when I got it almost done I kinda stepped back and took a look at what I was creating and just — the purpose, my mission, my life’s mission, just, just came out — it was like a 30 second — a 60 second — moment, and I just knew, of all the pieces and pictures that I had cut out, what my purpose in life was, and it was such that I could hardly separate my own life purpose from what Esalen’s mission is in the world as I saw it. So it was a really “aha” moment for me, knowing that this is where I belonged in life. This is my calling and where I need to be. And it was a blast, it was great fun too.
Q: How did you — so what is your purpose, your calling, your — I’ll focus the video on it while.
TM: Okay. It’s “always stay connected to your heart, courageously respond to the call of leadership, humbly commit to a life of open exploration and growth, be a witness to the miraculous unfolding of spirit, and relish the journey, it will exceed your wildest dreams.”
Q: [reading] “Yahoouo!”
TM: [laughs] Yeah. “Yahoouo!”
Q: Alright, so one last question which is, so now what are you doing with it?
TM: Well, at this — about four months after I created this, the CEO position became available. It wasn’t even an open position at the time — I had no idea — and when it became available it was, again, my wildest imagination that I would be the one in this job, but here I am, it’s a year later, and I am using this [looking at collage] — basically, my mission statement — as a litmus test for pretty much every decision I make and the way I go about my job. And I’m having a great time doing it.
Q: Hey, Tricia, thank you so much for your story, and also for just the work you’re doing here at Esalen. It’s really powerful.
TM: Thank you very much.
McEntee was promoted to CEO after a community-endorsed worldwide search for the position was scrapped by the Board, in favor of hiring the former CFO.
Esaleaks stands not only for the right of people to speak anonymously, but for the particular power of anonymous speech to air marginalized voices and to enlarge the overall Esalen discourse.
The Nine’s collective stance, we have hoped to establish, is that subjective speech without names or faces has a unique power to challenge the status quo, as evidenced not only by some of the great political writings of the 20th Century, not only by many an Esalen séance, but by our own progress. Esaleaks has challenged the unilateralism of the Esalen directorial class, bringing discussions into a new context free from establishment spin and the peril of retribution.
On December 28th, a veteran Esalen contributor wrote to scorn us for the publication of “Super-hero mission” with a bevy of pejoratives, seeking to openly name the article’s author. We responded by inviting him (twice) to contribute his own different interpretation of Tricia McEntee’s much-criticized Staff Week presentation. He (twice) declined, deriding Esaleaks as “immature and shameful” and pronouncing that “a bystander who observes a beating must take action to stop it.” That conversation was only disappointing, but much to our shock it became the first domino to fall in a conflict — that culminated in the trashing of our Internet server, our site going missing for nearly two weeks, and some powerful realizations about conflicting agendas within our own ranks.
That people would sooner attack the very venue of Esaleaks for its imperfection, than contribute to its positive potential, is a commentary on the desperation of a whole cadre which is seeking consolidated power through controlling not only the discourse but also its container. Some would prefer us to behold an uncomplicated painting of Esalen (and indeed placate themselves by gazing upon it too) than to let be promulgated the complex and sometimes hideous picture of Esalen’s spiritual neglect and decline into superficiality. But we, the larger Community, and those of us who remain at Esaleaks, are not afraid to scrutinize, to articulate, to get messy, and to hopefully paint a new picture of Esalen together that is as rich as the human potential.
The whole story of Esaleaks may one day appear in a history book — but with our internal battles now past, and so much happening at Esalen, we wish now only to return to our focus. Our mission is clear as ever. We are back, at dear expense, stronger than before, to publish your words. It is not the goal of the editors to please or appease every reader — and whatever one might find lacking or disagreeable in one contribution, one is beckoned to improve or counteract with better words of new invention. Whether our editors might now be exposed or scandalized by those of conflicted values or shaky conscience, we can assure you that the identities of our many contributors will remain absolutely anonymous, and we will continue to discuss Esalen here. With wishes for personal empowerment, growth, and transformation in 2012, we await your contribution.
The Esaleaks Editors
Speak your truth Esalen Staff.
As an older member of the Esalen tribe, I want to open a door to you current staff at Esalen, allowing for you to express yourselves, in a possibly more honest conversation than otherwise, by using the intermediary of willing Nine.
So, with interest and curiosity, and if you so desire to answer, I ask you:
Thank you for responding. From a caring Esalen member.
—Anonymous
Growing up in rural America, my early life was naturally involved with Christian Fundamentalist subcultures. We often had Mormon missionaries appear on our doorstep. My family would invite them in to hear what they believed. We were taught by our parents how to examine the nature of Christian belief systems — to ask ourselves whether these Christian ideals, these concepts and their terms, formed a coherent and logical world view.
So picture a young woman Mormon missionary on your doorstep, alert, emotionally honest, inspired, full of herself, on a mission from God for humanity. Now imagine that same young woman, Tricia McEntee, grown up and CEO of the famed Esalen Institute, still on her Salvationist mission for humanity.
There she was, introducing this year’s 2011–2012 Esalen Staff Week. Ms. McEntee proceeded to give her talk outlining the future of Esalen, as she sees it, with the title “Inspiration into the Future.” What followed was actually a mostly incoherent, rambling monologue. She followed the standard form of Salvationist Mormon missionary rhetoric, about how this vision of hers will change the world as we know it. She even broke down in tears, filled with the emotion of potential salvation she was bringing to us with her testimony.
Like Sarah Palin, she spoke as a provincial, with a very limited range of existential terms. She failed to muster even the least of philosophical vocabularies, and resorted to superlatives — amazing this, awesome that. How different from the distinguished leaders and teachers of our past: Aldous Huxley, Gregory Bateson, Allan Watts, George Leonard, Buckminster Fuller, and so many others.
And then, toward the end of the week, community members were instructed to perform an exercise in which we were to don paper capes, which were supposed to represent our “super-hero nature.” Our paper capes were to be worn in order to remind us that we were all super-heroes. How soon can we expect the mandatory investiture of Mormon Sacred Underwear at Esalen Institute? How long until Esalen philosophy and spirituality are fully consumed by shallow religiosity?
—Anonymous
If Esaleaks is creepy disinformation then why doesn’t everyone just openly air all the “real” information and then everyone will be informed, able to create their own opinions and action plans based on “the facts” and transparency? A virtuous state of communication between people would be achieved. The solution seems so simple to me. —Anonymous
