It is said that change is only possible in response to crisis. The location certainly helps its lofty ambitions, as there’s no nicer spot in the whole valley than the scented gardens to experience the pink moment or to generally soak in the beauty of the surrounding scenery. If you really want to get in touch with your inner self, however, you can join the guided morning meditation that takes place at the centre at Meditation Mount, four miles east of town, which was founded in 1971 with the aim of promoting an enlightened world through the power of creative meditation. Not surprisingly, this is a favourite retreat for the Hollywood set, who come to salve their spirits amid the leafy oak trees. The most luxurious of the lot, however, is the superb Spa Ojai in the equally splendid Ojai Valley Inn, a pampering resort at the west end of town with landscaped gardens, an 18-hole championship golf course, tennis courts and swimming pools – as well as recreational activities including full-moon yoga in a yurt and astrological readings. Meanwhile, the award-winning Enhanced Day Spa is a full-service spa with a broad range of treatments, including a five-hour session that will leave your body feeling like it’s floating on tiny bubbles. Ojai is the Silicon Valley of spirituality, a nouveau hippie utopia with the power to heal A couple of years later, indie songster Ray LaMontagne crooned about never getting back to Ojai, giving the town a mellow hipster anthem of its own. It was here that Robert Pattinson hid out after his fling with Kristen Stewart in 2012, lying low in Reese Witherspoon’s house before showing up in the Deer Lodge biker bar and farm-to-table restaurant. Fittingly, Frank Capra opted to have the valley represent the mythical Shangri-La in his 1937 film Lost Horizon.Ī new generation of pathfinders and Hollywood types have made Ojai their own spiritual Shangri-La this has caused some friction with more established locals over the rising cost of real estate, but has cemented the town’s reputation as a place that people come for healing.
In its wake there came a steady stream of soul pilgrims and settlers looking to bask in the glow of enlightenment, including a who’s who of A-list celebrities from Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo to Johnny Cash and Anthony Hopkins. Ojai’s transformation into the hippie hideaway it is today began after an alleged epiphany experienced by celebrity mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1922, where an intensive period of meditation left him “God-intoxicated”. There’s no nicer spot in the whole valley than the scented gardens to soak in the beauty of the surrounding scenery Whatever your thoughts on invisible forces, there’s no escaping the enchanting appeal of the “pink moment” – a fleeting period just before sunset when the valley walls that frame its northern edges take on a reddish alpenglow that will soothe the mind. The native Chumash, whose word for “moon” gave the town its name (you pronounce it “Oh-hi”), felt the pull of what they believed was the valley’s mystic energy, later quantified into a pseudo-scientific theory about a mysterious electromagnetic vortex generated by plate tectonics. Only 90 miles north-west of Los Angeles, Ojai is the Silicon Valley of spirituality, a nouveau hippie utopia with the power to heal. It might not look too different from other small towns in the Ventura valley, but take a closer look at the clusters of single-storey buildings spaced out along the broad main street and you’ll find an abundance of New Age shops, kooky art galleries and mind-body spas. Sun-splashed Ojai has long been a spiritual magnet for seekers of every description. The mysterious alpenglow – an optical phenomenon that materialises as a horizontal glow just after sundown – graces the eastern walls of the Ojai valley
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