In the Media

Featured here are video, newspaper, magazine, book essays, and articles from various news media that have interviewed Steven or are about his work in wilderness, psychology, and ecopsychology. Note: Many of the dates, contact information, and prices that appear in older articles have changed.

Video & Film:
In the following videos I have short cameos or voice over, and more importantly they tell some stories about Esalen, its colorful history. and present day explorations:

Growth!: An Evolution of the Farm & Garden:
Just like the title sounds. Bruce Neeb and I started the Hot Springs Farm at Esalen in 1979.

Life is an Altered State of Being:
Esalen's exploration into "altered" states of being in dramatically different ways.

The Esalen Impact: Around the World, Within Mainstream Culture:
Over 60 years of experminents and innovations that reshaped many fields of study and the culture itself.

Supernature: Esalen and the Human Potential, Episode One: The Inkblot Institute: Filmmaker Scott Hulan Jones first episode of both the history and directions of Esalen Institute. Watch on YouTube on the link above.

Ecopsychology Interview: Network Earth a special TBS program for television. This came out shorly after the book Ecopsychology was published by Sierra Club press.

Articles & Interviews

Mary Oliver's Poems Taught Me How to Live. Author Steven Petrow writes about Mary Oliver's passing, her profound incluence on his life, and how he was first intoduced to her poems in a retreat at Tassajara with me many years ago. Pehaps only one other poet has touch my life like Mary Oliver's work has — a blessing.

Celebrating 40 Years Leading at Esalen: An article on the inside cover of the Esalen Catalog. Walking the Wilds Within

Voices of Esalen: Podcast interview with Steven Harper on the Wilderness in Big Sur and the Esalen Institute

This is a New York Times article about ecopsychology by Daniel Goleman the well-known author of Emotional Intelligence:
"Psychology's New Interest in the World Beyond the Self" - The New York Times

This piece by Mark Golin appeared as an essay in the book Positive Living and Health. Five Days of Serenity is Mark’s account of a 5 day Big Sur Wilderness Experience hiking workshop at Esalen. Mark was a writer/editor at Rodale Press from there he went on to edit Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Details, and now is the editor of People.com.

This Esquire Magazine article was in the 50th Anniversary issue and was titled: "The Enlightened Traveler: Mind Trips in Big Sur." It is a short piece about the hiking workshops I lead at Esalen Institute:
"The Enlightened Traveler: Mind Trips in Big Sur" - Esquire Magazine (pdf)

This Money Magazine article titled "Braving the Wilds to Survive the Office" interviewed me. At the time, corporations were beginning to use outdoor wilderness settings for teambuilding and training purposes. We were at the leading edge of what was then an emerging field.
"Braving the Wilds to Survive in the Office" - Money Magazine (pdf)

In this New Woman Magazine article "The Earth's In Our Blood writer Joan Arnold interviewed an number of contributors to the book Ecopsychology edited by Ted Rozsak. "The Earth's In Our Blood" - New Woman (pdf)



Shape Magazine writer Laurie Tarkan interviewed a few of the participants in the first Ecospychology Conferences held at Esalen Institute. "Nurtured by Nature" - Shape (pdf)

 

Travel writer Judy Dash wrote this short piece about Steve that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times: " Big Sur Spiritual Encounter"

Another longer article by travel writer Judy Dash about Big Sur and a workshop that she attended with Steven that appeared in a number of papers across the country under various titles. This version appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Nature Plays the Starring Role Along Big Sur's Dramatic Coastline"

Shape Magazine offered up a simple introduction to ecopsychology and what being out in the wilds might do for our well-being by writer Beth Howard: Happy Trails?

 

NPR Interview: What's Happening to Big Sur?: An NPR Interview with Steven Harper and Alex Cohne in June of 2008 about the Big Sur Wildfires.

Esalen Institute's Friends of Esalen Newsletter: article from the Winter/Spring 2012 Issue: "Steven Harper, Bridging Esalen's Generations"

Other Esalen-Big Sur Media Links:

New York Times article about Esalen Institute by Jeffery Kripal: "Esalen"

New York Times article about Big Sur and Esalen: " Big Sur Without the Crowds"