Stanislav Grof PDF
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When the Impossible Happens Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities Stanislav Grof M.D., Ph.D. Table of Contents PRAISE FOR WHEN THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS ALSO BY STANISLAV GROF PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PROLOGUE: Discovering Cosmic Consciousness My First LSD Session PART 1:THE MYSTERY OF SYNCHRONICITY: Twilight of the Clockwork Universe THE WAY OF THE ANIMAL POWERS: Praying Mantis in Manhattan THE DYING QUEEN: When Dreams Foretell What Comes by Day THE RAINBOW BRIDGE OF THE GODS: In the Realm of the Nordic Sagas THE PLAY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Swami Muktananda and Siddha Yoga THE GURU IN THE LIFE OF HIS DEVOTEES: Is the Siddha Yogi a Cosmic Puppeteer? DANCE OF THE WHITE SWAN: Underworld Journey in the Salish Spirit Canoe THE MAKING OF RAINSTORM: Our Hollywood Adventure THE WATERCOURSE WAY: Meetings with President Václav Havel UNDER THE SPELL OF SATURN: The Death of My Mother BLESSING OF THE GODS: Don José Matsuwa and the Huichol Rain Ceremony SRI YANTRA IN THE OREGON DESERT: UFO Visit or a Spectacular Hoax? A LESSON IN FORGIVENESS: Peyote Ceremony with Potawatomi Indians PART 2:TRAILING CLOUDS OF GLORY: Remembering Birth and Prenatal Life THE CHALLENGES OF NOON DELIVERY: The Story of Leni THE SCENT OF FRESH LEATHER: The Story of Kurt THE VISION OF THE OLD OAK TREE: The Story of Anne-Marie PRENATAL VISIT TO THE ANNUAL VILLAGE MART: The Story of Richard WINNING THE SPERM RACE: Experiencing the Cellular Level of Consciousness PART 3:REVISITING HISTORY: Farther Reaches of Human Memory EPISODE FROM THE RUSSO-FINNISH WAR: The Story of Inga THE LITTLE GIRL WITH WHITE PINAFORES: The Story of Nadja RETRIEVING MEMORIES OF THE STOLEN GENERATIONS: The Story of Marianne ANCESTRAL MEMORY OR PAST-LIFE EXPERIENCE? The Story of Renata PART 4:HAVE WE LIVED BEFORE? Reincarnation and the Akashic Record THE SIEGE OF DÚN AN ÓIR: The Story of Karl THE KARMIC TRIANGLE: Time Travel to Ancient Egypt IN THE CATACOMBS OF PECHORSKAYA LAVRA: Past Life in Czarist Russia WHEN SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES CAN BE DANGEROUS: Revisiting the Salem Witch-Hunt PART 5:ESP AND BEYOND: Exploring the World of the Paranormal SEEING WITHOUT THE EYES (MINDSIGHT): The Story of Ted MESSAGES FROM THE ASTRAL REALM: The Story of Richard PROOF FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE BEYOND? The Story of Walter CUT ROSES IN AUNT ANNE’S ROSE GARDEN: The Story of Kurt LUIZ GASPARETTO: Painters and Paintings from the Beyond A PARTY FOR EXU: Interview with the Orixás THE TABOO AGAINST KNOWING THAT WE ARE CLAIRVOYANT: Sessions with Ann Armstrong ANTS OF THE GREAT MOTHER GODDESS: A Visit to Palenque ULURU AND ALCHERINGA: An Adventure in Dreamtime TEMPTATIONS OF A NON-LOCAL UNIVERSE: Failed Experiment in Astral Projection CHANNELING THE AVATAR: My Mother, Sai Baba, and Holotropic Breathwork WHEN ALL IS ONE, THERE IS NO PROBLEM: Feats of the Korean Sword Master STRANGE LEGACY OF THE ANCIENT MAYA: Mystery of the Crystal Skull THE WONDERS OF SYNESTHESIA: Hugo Zucarelli and the Holophonic Sound GATEWAY TO THE ABSOLUTE: The Secret of the Toad of Light MATTER AND CONSCIOUSNESS: Ketamine and the Reenchantment of the World ON THE INCA TRAIL: Discovering the Secret of Trephination UFOS IN THE AMAZON: Alien Encounter of the Third Kind PART 6:UNORTHODOX PSYCHIATRY: Surprising Alternatives to Traditional Treatment THE PAIN THAT SURVIVED THREE CENTURIES: The Story of Norbert THE MALEKULAN PIG GODDESS: The Story of Otto INTERVIEW WITH THE DEVIL: The Story of Flora EMBODYING THE DAPHNE ARCHETYPE: The Story of Martha HEALING DEPRESSION BY A SEPHARDIC PRAYER: The Story of Gladys THE STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SELF: The Story of Karen WHEN HEARING VOICES Is NOT SCHIZOPHRENIA: The Story of Eva PSYCHIATRIC HERESY THAT BROUGHT FRUIT: The Story of Milada THE MAGIC OF SANDPLAY: When a Kitten Can Be Therapist PART 7:TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND MAINSTREAM SCIENCE WHEN SCIENCE BECOMES SCIENTISM: Carl Sagan and His Demon-Haunted World JOURNEY TO THE EAST: Bringing LSD to the Soviet Union PSYCHE AND COSMOS: What the Planets Can Reveal about Consciousness EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT SOUNDS TRUE BACK COVER MATERIAL PRAISE FOR WHEN THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS “This book is extremely intriguing in that it shows how a strong scientific mind confronts things which science cannot explain.” —RAM DASS Author of Be Here Now “This account of a remarkable life spent searching for new frontiers of consciousness is fascinating.” —ODE MAGAZINE “What all these [Grof’s] books have in common is the courage to speak in a forthright manner about experiences that are often judged as dysfunctional when expressed in general conversation.” —WISDOM: PUGET SOUND EDITION “Grof is one of the great explorers of this century. In this book, he has given us a collection of stories that, like those of Marco Polo, are so outside most of our experience that at first one tends to doubt their reality. However, if you are able to stay open, you see how profound, valid, and important these stories are and how much they extend our understanding of our own and humanity’s possibilities.” —JAMES FADIMAN, PH.D. Institute of Transpersonal Psychology “Far from the neurochemical artifacts and symptoms of toxic psychoses that main stream psychiatry would assert, Grof provides a compelling alternative approach to understanding and responding to such perturbations of inner experience ... In his most recent book [When the Impossible Happens], he has mapped a course for a new and more conscious field of psychiatry, one that honors the sacred plants and alkaloids passed down from ancient shamanic practitioners and discovered in modern laboratories.” —SHIFT: AT THE FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS The Institute of Noetic Sciences “In the late eighteenth century the Australian platypus was an impossibility. The scientific community refused to consider this paradigm-breaking mammal— venomous, egg-laying, and duck-billed—as anything but a hoax. Two hundred years later we still refuse to accept that ‘the impossible’ does happen. Stanislav Grof challenges this narrow minded refusal by half a century of courageously unbiased research of non-ordinary reality in the depth of the human psyche.” —BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST, OSB “In this remarkable book, Stanislav Grof reflects upon half a century of research and experience in the realm of non-ordinary realities. The quality and quantity of these incidents place the ball squarely in the court of conventional science and psychotherapy, challenging their perspectives on personal identity, psychosis, and the very nature of reality. Some readers will dismiss When the Impossible Happens as the ravings of a deluded eccentric; for others, the book will be a life-changing experience.” —STANLEY KRIPPNER, PH.D. Coeditor, Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence “Acclaimed academics ... especially the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof author of numerous books on non-ordinary states of consciousness including his latest, When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities, go to extreme lengths to assure their unconventional research will stand up to scientific scrutiny ... When the Impossible Happens is sheer entertainment of the voyeuristic type ... That he is one of the foremost practitioners of LSD therapy adds greatly to his story.” —WWW.FOREWORDMAGAZINE.COM “Stan Grof’s new book, When the Impossible Happens, has become an instant transpersonal classic.” —PARADIGM BUSTERS “Dr. Grof is one of the great explorers of the human condition, and in this book you take the journey with him.” —WES NISKER Author of The Essential Crazy Wisdom “Dr. Stanislav Grof’s extraordinary life stories are indeed adventures of the Heroic Journey. I have had the privilege of participating in a number of these seemingly impossible happenings; they have all been life transforming. With great admiration and respect for Dr. Grof’s lifelong, dedicated work in transpersonal research, reading this book is such a pleasureable ‘wu wei’ joyride along the ‘Watercourse Way’ of the Great Tao.” —CHUNGLIANG AL HUANG Founder-president, Living Tao Foundation “When the Impossible Happens offers benefit for oneself and for everyone around one, for it spreads among us the ‘holotropic consciousness’ that makes the impossible happen.” —ERVIN LASZLO, PH.D. “This book presents his [Grof’s] mesmerizing firsthand account of over 50 years of inquiry into waters uncharted by classical psychology, an odyssey that will leave readers questioning the very fabric of our existence ... This is an incredible opportunity to journey beyond ordinary consciousness, is guaranteed to shake the foundations of what we assume to be reality, and is sure to offer a new vision of our human potential.” —ARIZONA NETWORKING NEWS “Stanislav Grof is a pioneer in the field of the inner exploration of consciousness.” —LOTUS GUIDE “Stan Grof is one of the world’s foremost researchers of the further reaches of the human mind. His understandings, which have helped so many, now become even more accessible and fascinating as he shares a multitude of powerful personal experiences, his adventures in non-ordinary reality.” —CHARLES T. TART, PH.D. Author of Altered States of Consciousness “Stan Grof’s mastery is to braid the wisdom found in the world’s spiritual traditions with scientific research. His own accounts of non-ordinary realities are validating, insightful reminders of how prevalent and important these realities are to our own spiritual development and creative contributions to the world.” —ANGELES ARRIEN, PH.D. Cultural anthropologist and author of The Four-Fold Way and The Second Half of Life “Stanislav Grof is a pioneering psychiatrist, world-renowned for his immense contributions to the field of psychotherapy (through methods involving LSD, as well as Holotropic Breathwork) and also to an expanded scientific paradigm that takes the spiritual or transpersonal dimensions of existence seriously. I believe this book will be recognized as a watershed work in the transition to a new cosmology for our time.” —RALPH METZNER, PH.D. Professor of Psychology, author of The Unfolding Self and The Well of Remembrance “Stanislav Grof challenges mainstream science and current views of reality with marvelous and exciting personal stories from a life of exploration at the frontiers of consciousness.” —MICHAEL HARNER Author of The Way of the Shaman ALSO BY STANISLAV GROF Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research The Human Encounter with Death LSD Psychotherapy Beyond Death: Gates of Consciousness Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy The Adventure of Self-Discovery Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth Through Transformational Crises The Holotropic Mind: The Three Levels of Consciousness and How They Shape Our Lives Books of the Dead: Manuals for Living and Dying The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness The Transpersonal Vision: The Healing Potential of Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness The Consciousness Revolution: A Transatlantic Dialogue Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death Call of the Jaguar TO CHRISTINA—my wife, lover, best friend, co-worker, and fellow seeker —who shared with me many of the adventures in non-ordinary realities described in this book and saw the impossible happen.
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