Simon Cox

Simon Cox is a martial artist, scholar, and teacher who spent six years training at Wudang Mountain, the spiritual home of Daoist culture and internal arts. Under Master Yuan Xiugang 袁修刚, he immersed himself in the Sanfeng lineage, studying tai chi, qigong, and Daoist meditation. His intensive training combined rigorous daily practice with rich cultural experiences, including performances and participation in Daoist festivals and ceremonies across China.

He later earned a PhD in religion from Rice University, where his research traced the forgotten history of the subtle body in Western thought. His book, The Subtle Body: A Genealogy (Oxford University Press, 2022), maps the evolution of this elusive concept across cultures, revealing the philosophical scaffolding beneath centuries of spiritual practice. Simon is currently a research fellow at Esalen’s Center for Theory & Research and a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions. He holds weekly conversations with Michael Murphy, Esalen’s co-founder and visionary engine, as part of a collaborative effort to illuminate the deeper architecture of Esalen’s mission.

Simon is currently writing a new book on Esalen’s intellectual history — a mythic excavation of Murphy’s “Big Vision”: the radical, reality-bending aspiration that seeded Esalen’s creation and continues to shape its evolutionary field.

Based in Penticton, British Columbia, Simon runs a thriving kung fu school with his wife, sharing the living tradition of Wudang martial arts. Through teaching, writing, and research, he continues to make ancient maps legible to modern travelers — bridging scholarship and mystery, movement and myth, waking life and the dreaming body.