Psychology of the future : lessons from modern consciousness research PDF
Preview Psychology of the future : lessons from modern consciousness research
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FUTURE SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology Richard D. Mann, editor PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FUTURE Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research STANISLAV GROF Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2000 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grof, Stanislav, 1931– Psychology of the future : lessons from modern consciousness research / Stanislav Grof. p. cm. — (SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-4621-2 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-4622-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Altered states of consciousness. 2. Consciousness. 3. Spirituality. 4. Psychology—Philosophy. 5. Psychiatry—Philosophy. 6. Transpersonal psychology. I. Title. II. Series. BFIO45.A48 G76 2000 154.4—dc21 00-025255 10 9 8 7 6 To Christina with much love and deep appreciation for your contributions to the ideas expressed in this book CONTENTS Preface CHAPTER ONE Healing and Heuristic Potential of Nonordinary States of Consciousness CHAPTER TWO Cartography of the Human Psyche: Biographical, Perinatal, and Transpersonal Domains CHAPTER THREE Architecture of Emotional and Psychosomatic Disorders CHAPTER FOUR Spiritual Emergency: Understanding and Treatment of Crises of Transformation CHAPTER FIVE New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration CHAPTER SIX Spirituality and Religion CHAPTER SEVEN The Experience of Death and Dying: Psychological, Philosophical, and Spiritual Perspectives CHAPTER EIGHT The Cosmic Game: Exploration of the Farthest Reaches of Human Consciousness CHAPTER NINE Consciousness Evolution and Human Survival: Transpersonal Perspective on the Global Crisis References About the Author Index PREFACE More than forty years ago, a powerful experience lasting only several hours of clock-time profoundly changed my personal and professional life. As a young psychiatric resident, only a few months after my graduation from medical school, I volunteered for an experiment with LSD, a substance with remarkable psychoactive properties that had been discovered by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratories in Basel. This session, particularly its culmination period during which I had an overwhelming and indescribable experience of cosmic consciousness, awakened in me an intense lifelong interest in nonordinary states of consciousness. Since that time, most of my clinical and research activities have consisted of systematic exploration of the therapeutic, transformative, and evolutionary potential of these states. The four decades that I have dedicated to consciousness research have been for me an extraordinary adventure of discovery and self- discovery. I spent approximately half of this time conducting therapy with psychedelic substances, first in Czechoslovakia in the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague and then in the United States, at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore, where I participated in the last surviving American psychedelic research program. Since 1975, I have worked with holotropic breathwork, a powerful method of therapy and self-exploration that I have developed jointly with my wife Christina. Over the years, I have also supported many people undergoing psychospiritual crises, or “spiritual emergencies” as Christina and I call them. The common denominator of these three situations is that they involve nonordinary states of consciousness or, more specifically, an important subcategory of them that I call holotropic. In psychedelic therapy, these states are induced by administration of mind-altering substances, such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, ibogain, and tryptamine or amphetamine derivatives. In holotropic breathwork, consciousness is changed by a combination of faster breathing, evocative music, and energy-releasing bodywork. In spiritual emergencies, holotropic states occur spontaneously, in the middle of everyday life, and their cause is usually unknown. In addition, I have been more peripherally involved in many disciplines that
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