Meet JANE WATKINS

My spiritual journey began in 1966 at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. I studied many disciplines there, including Gestalt therapy, with noted psychiatrist Fritz Perls, who recorded my dream work in his book Gestalt Therapy Verbatim. I also apprenticed with master batik artist John Horler and the Guild of Hands. I created backdrops for the Big Sur folk festivals: a batik tent for Ravi Shankar and George Harrison and stage backdrops for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez.  I studied the bodywork technique that later became known as Esalen massage and practiced it for many years.

In 1970, I joined 40 Americans who traveled to Arica, Chile, for a ten-month training where we experienced the teachings of mystic philosopher Oscar Ichazo. His most famous contribution is the Enneagram, a nine-point map of the human psyche. We arrived in New York City from South America to practice and teach Ichazo’s work.

I also practiced, taught, and performed African dance with Baba Olatunji, who brought African drumming and dance to the United States in the 1950s. In 1975, I landed a job with Saturday Night Live as a masseuse to the on-air talent.  

 In 1980, I had a baby and moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, set up my Batik studio on a mango farm in South Kona, created paintings and fashion, swam with dolphins, paddled for Keoua Canoe Club (35 years of paddling outrigger canoes), picked mangoes, made art, danced, and raised my daughter. 

In 1992, I moved to California, my birthplace, where I continued bodywork, created a ceramic and batik studio, and had a robust practice selling art, jewelry, and ceramics.