"Hot springs" means different things to different people. To a group of four college kids on their first cross-country road trip, it means local girls with cheap cans of beer and stealing away for a moonlight walk and getting some nookie under the stars.
Turns out, we were wrong and innocence was our bliss, but enough about us. There are lots of legit, albeit trippy, places out there such as Harbin Hot Springs, about two-and-a-half hours north of San Francisco.
The retreat center is also open to the public, and it's the perfect place to experience a weekend of hot and cold soaking, yoga, massage, vegetarian cuisine and embracing your inner animal spirit. This is the kind of place you go by yourself without telling anyone, live through the old third eye for a week and come back able to lift refrigerators and put your leg behind your head.
Accommodations at the 1,600 acre center range from outdoor camping to "dome" accommodations that look like they came from the Tatooine school of architecture.
Tranquility in the big city might sound like an oxymoron, but we decided to suspend our disbelief long enough to check out The Chopra Center & Spa, located in a gold and saffron-hued subterranean space at The Dream Hotel. The primary draw? The facility was co-created by renowned wellness guru and self-help specialist Deepak Chopra, an endorsement that actually gave us some hope we'd be walking away feeling healthier--if not less stressed.
We went for a balancing facial based on the principals of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian science that attempts to harmonize one's mind-body type, or dosha. As our therapist did the assessment of our type, we asked so many questions that she had to gently remind us that Ayurvedic healing is something best experienced--not understood through the mind. So we settled in on the table and completely relinquished control for the next 80 minutes as she steamed, massaged and moisturized our congested skin. We surrendered so much that we actually drifted off.
In addition to facials, the Chopra Center has bodywork treatments and other spa services. Guests can also sign up for yoga classes or join in on complimentary guided meditation sessions. We would have stayed on to explore the pathway to enlightenment, but you know, we had to hightail it back downtown before our dry cleaner closed.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced Transcendental Meditation to the west 50 years ago. Now about 89, he's never talked directly about what caused the rift between him and the Beatles. It was their touting of him and his northern India ashram that helped make him into an international celebrity. By 1968, though, all the Beatles but George Harrison had rejected him and his teachings. The usual reasons given for this are that the Beatles found out that he was much more concerned with money and making passes at their female friends than with spiritual matters.
But according to new claims by Deepak Chopra, it was the Maharishi that did the rejecting, and he did it because the Beatles and their friends were taking drugs. Shocking, we know. The full quote, from today's Times of India, after the jump.
