Jacob Atabet (28 page)

By 1962 Murphy was back in California and working with fellow Stanford graduate Richard Price to establish his vision for a community that would help people reach their full potentials. Using land owned by Murphy’s family, the two men founded the Esalen Institute, a retreat center that today hosts ten thousand visitors per year. The institute became a cultural touchstone, introducing ideas for personal growth and alternative healing and serving as a lecture base for luminaries such as Aldous Huxley and Fritz Perls.

In 1972 Murphy published his first novel,
Golf in the Kingdom
, about the strange, mysterious power that he (as the novel’s protagonist) experiences when meeting a mystical Scottish golf pro named Shivas Irons. The book became an instant classic and has sold more than 750,000 copies in the decades since its release. The book has recently been adapted into a movie starring Malcolm McDowell and Mason Gamble. Murphy followed this success with the novels
Jacob Atabet
(1977),
An End to Ordinary History
(1982), and
The Kingdom of Shivas Irons
(1997), the sequel to his bestseller. His nonfiction works include
The Future of the Body
(1993),
In the Zone
(1995),
The Life We Are Given
(1996), and
God and the Evolving Universe
(2002).

Murphy lives in Sausalito, California.

John Murphy, Michael Murphy’s great-great-grandfather. John Murphy was a captain in Washington’s army during the American revolution. This is the first Murphy the family has been able to trace.

John A. Murphy, Michael Murphy’s father. John Murphy was in his early twenties here. He was an attorney, also studying at Stanford.

The first staff at Esalen Institute, photographed when it opened in 1962. Murphy, at the far right, co-founded Esalen with fellow Stanford graduate Richard Price, second from left. At one point, Hunter S. Thompson served as security guard to the Institute; he was often seen standing outside with a rifle.

Dulce Murphy, James Hickman, Vlail Kaznacheev, Michael Murphy, and Larissa Zilenskaya at Esalen Institute. During the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, Michael and his wife, Dulce, launched a series of Soviet-American citizen diplomacy gatherings at Esalen. Through their programming, they sponsored Boris Yeltsin’s first trip to the United States, in 1989. Yeltsin cited the trip as a transformative experience, witnessing firsthand the contrast between the prosperity of the U.S. and the poverty of Soviet Communism.

Esalen Institute cofounders Murphy and Price in the late 1980s, sitting on the terrace of the convention center. Murphy and Price met as students at Stanford University. Soon after, they introduced Americans to some of the major hallmarks of self-help and personal growth: meditation, encounter groups, tai chi. In an interview with a Stanford alumni publication, Murphy once said, “Esalen had a catalytic role. We invented a new social form. I see Esalen as a meme, a cultural gene that was passed on.”

Michael Murphy and his son, Mackenzie. This photograph appeared in Andy Warhol’s
Interview
magazine in 1987, alongside an interview with Murphy.

Murphy at age fifty-three. In his forties and fifties, Murphy became a very competitive runner. In 1983, he placed third in the National Senior Championships for his age group.

Murphy with his wife, Dulce, and son, Mackenzie, at Esalen. Murphy and his wife travel to Esalen at least six times during the year to attend various conferences and gatherings. Dulce Murphy is the founder and executive director of Track II, a nonprofit organization that successfully bridges and bolsters citizen diplomacy between Russia and the United States.

Murphy with Zentatsu Richard Baker. Baker is the founder of the Creston Mountain Zen Center in California, Colorado, and Germany. He is also the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha.

Murphy with Anindita N. Balslev. Balslev has made major contributions to cross-cultural studies and dialogues around Indian philosophy and religion.