Our History

• With support from you and Esalen’s Center for Theory and Research  (CTR), we completed another year of the Abrahamic Family ReunionProject (AFR), which aims to bring peace and reconciliation to countries in political, cultural and religious turmoil. This project, now five years old, works to heal conflicts among the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious communities. The future of this work will include more international outreach, especially in the Middle East.

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• This year’s Potential China conference concentrated on “China’s GreenFuture” by joining young Chinese and American experts in sustainabilityand relate d fields to focus on the rise of the environmental movement inChina. Our guests included leading experts in China’s environmental movement; influential Chinese figures in business, academia and media; U.S. based energy and environmental scientists; and China watchersconcerned with China’s place in the global community

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• Our long-standing Russian-American work, now framed as the Russian-American Partnership Project (ERAPP), was launched at Esalen this past October with a gathering of outstanding Russians and Americans that included Vladimir Pozner and former American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock. The rationale for this initiative is based on two facts: first, that relations between Russia and America have deteriorated markedly in recent years; and second, that this deterioration has happened, paradoxically, at a time of unprecedented opportunity for Russian-American collaborations. While we move forward with this new initiative, we recognize that when it comes to our main mission, the cementing of Russian-American relations, we must acknowledge that  mission is not fully accomplished. For the first time, we have financial support from our Russian colleagues.