Soul's Code

We've expanded our slide show, Transcendental Movies, from 9 classics to 12. Our new additions: Fur, Being John Malkovich and Last Year at Marienbad
BY SOUL'S CODE — That last choice, Marienbad is set in a mid-century, is a 1961 classic by the French "new wave" director, Alain Resnais). Set in an upper class Grand Tour-like [...]

Most of the gurus and guides on Soul's Code would answer that spirituality is an unmeasurable quality. But  a regional economist would answer the above question with two words: Ojai, California

BY PAUL KAIHLA — Ojai, CA is to spirituality what Silicon Valley is to technology. Due east and a 40-minute hop inland from Santa [...]

In our mind, a spiritual resort is a place where you can go out of mind. A place that's therapeutic not just for your body but your most over-worked and over-heated organ in this mad, mad world -- your brain. A spiritual resort is a place that chills your brain organ to the point that [...]

In our mind, a spiritual resort is a place where you can go out of mind. A place that's therapeutic not just for your body but your most over-worked and over-heated organ in this mad, mad world -- your brain. A spiritual resort is a place that chills your brain organ to the point that [...]

No. 9
The Chopra Center, Carlsbad, CA: Dr. Deepak is dismissed by purists as Spirituality Lite but let's face it: he's done more than most people alive today to bring consciousness studies and mind-body work into the mainstream.
Cost: $325 - $1,000 + per night.
Fine Print: The "center" is actually a meditation and ayurvedic treatment facility within [...]

No. 7
Sycamore Mineral Springs, San Luis Opisbo, CA: A for-profit venue, Sycamore is nonetheless as devoted to wellness in all its forms as the other destinations on this list. It offers everything from Qi Gong to hyphotherapy. It also happens to sit at the northern end of the California "central coast" wine region that the movie Sideways made famous. 
Cost: $165 [...]

No. 4
Breitenbush Hot Springs, Detroit, Oregon: Like Esalen, this is a workshop resort. But unlike Esalen's coastal perch, Breitenbush sits at the end of a deep, remote gorge in the Cascade Mountains, southwest of Portland, OR. Its cedar sauna is heated by a bubbling hot springs that sits below the building's floor boards, and [...]

No. 3
Wickaninnish Inn, Tofino, BC: It's not an official spiritual retreat center -- it's a commercial eco-resort. But this is that rare for-profit venue where heaven truly does meet earth, and earth meets heaven. Where old-growth rainforest meets whale-watching. This dreamy outpost on the far side of Vancouver Island feels like its perched on the [...]

No. 2
The Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA: Call it the cradle of West Coast civilization. Founded in the 1960s, it was here that figures like Joseph Campbell, Abraham Maslow, Fritz Perls and an Episcopal priest-turned-Zen Buddhist named Alan Watts fused eastern mysticism with modern psychology. They seeded mega-trends ranging from Gestalt Therapy to Star [...]

No. 1
Harbin Hot Springs, Middletown, CA: Three hours north of San Francisco, this new age community features the only real mineral hot springs in the vicinity of Napa Valley wine country. Equally noteworthy, it is the birthplace of a deeply-somatic therapy called watsu, a word conflated from "water" and "shiatsu". Think Swedish massage [...]