History

In the 1870ies Thomas Slate purchased a plot of land in the environs of Big Sur, and built premises there to make use of the Hot Springs so as to be able to alleviate his severe arthritis. In 1910, Slate sold the land to Dr. Henry Murphy, a doctor from Salinas in California. Murphy bought the grounds with the intention to found a spa following the example of Baden-Baden in Germany. The official name was "Big Sur Hot Springs", although it was referred to more often as "Slate's Hot Springs"

The construction of Highway 1, along the Pacific Coast, had just begun, however, it was completed only after 18 years of building. The Coast Highway was officially inaugurated in 1937; nevertheless it was closed to the public with the outbreak of the 2nd World War.

After the re-opening at the end of the war, the Murphy family made different attempts to render the location economically productive. A restaurant was opened and access to the Hot Springs was only possible with an admission fee. In the 1950ies a couple of hotels were built, but this was not what Dr. Murphy had originally thought of.

Michael Murphy - the nephew of Dr. Murphy - and Dick Price were colleagues at the Stanford University in the 1950ies, however, they had lost contact.

After having met again at Frederic Spiegelberg's, a common teacher of theirs, they discovered that they shared the same ideas and decided to found the Big Sur Project in 1961. The idea was to develop a kind of forum that went further than established scientific methods. Inspired by Aldous Huxley's idea of "Human Potential Movement", a place of refuge for research in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and therapy came into being. The grounds were placed to their disposal free of charge.