Esalen is neither a school, nor a church, nor a spa, nor an inn, nor a monastery . . . and yet its utterly unique mixture contains a bit of all of the above.Perched on 27 acres of Big Sur coastline where the mountains meet the sea, its magical beauty makes it feel a little like the Garden of Eden. Esalen hosts 20,000 visitors a year who come for a weekend or a week or a month or longer to learn, to grow, to explore, to heal, or to carve the near edge of the future, the cutting edge of humanity.