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The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration
Here Grof presents a useful model of the psyche--a model extended by his thirty years of studying non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is useful for understanding such phenomena as shamanism, mysticism, psychedelic states, spontaneous visionary experiences, and psychotic episodes. The model is also useful in explaining the dynamics of experiential psychotherapies and a variety of sociopolitical manifestations such as war and revolution.
This book might have been entitled Beyond Drugs. The second part describes the principles and process of the non-pharmacological technique developed by the author and his wife, Christina, for self-exploration and for psychotherapy. Grof explores in detail the components of this technique. He describes its method, its effective mechanisms, as well as its goals and potential. Its practice is simple, since it utilizes the natural healing capacity of the psyche.
This book might have been entitled Beyond Drugs. The second part describes the principles and process of the non-pharmacological technique developed by the author and his wife, Christina, for self-exploration and for psychotherapy. Grof explores in detail the components of this technique. He describes its method, its effective mechanisms, as well as its goals and potential. Its practice is simple, since it utilizes the natural healing capacity of the psyche.
342 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1987
About the author
Stanislav Grof
111 books624 followersGrof is known for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche—the field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Building on his observations while conducting LSD research and on Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto one's early fetal and neonatal experiences. Over time, this theory developed into an in-depth "cartography" of the deep human psyche.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 4, 2013
The book is divided into two parts. In Dimensions of Consciousness: New Cartography of the Human Psyche Grof presents his extended cartography of the psyche, which he developed from observations during clinical work with various psychedelics (mainly with LSD therapy). He argues that the model of psyche used in traditional psychotherapy is limited to the recollective-analytical level i.e. to biography and to the individual unconscious and is inadequate for understanding the dynamics of deep self-exploration, emotional and psychosomatic healing, personality transformation and consciousness evolution.
He offers a new model and adds two additional levels perinatal (related to experience of birth and death in perinatal stage) and transpersonal (i.e. experiential connection with any aspect of the phenomenal world).
However the most important distinction according to him, is not to be made between those levels (biographical, perinatal, or transpersonal) but between the hylotropic mode (ordinary waking consciousness that we normally have) and the holotropic mode a non-ordinary state of consciousness that can be reached by the use of psychedelic substances (drugs or plants); during trance dancing/drumming, shamanic rituals, near-death experience or through other methods.
He provides a detailed classification of transpersonal experiences that a person can experience in holotropic mode (for example: identification with other persons, animals, or entire physical universe; identification with mythological figures or universal archetypes). He often brings for illustration cases either from his own experience (when he experimented with LSD overdose) or from his patients' observations.
The second part New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration discusses his nondrug holotropic therapy which by controlled breathing brings a person in holotropic mode and enables him/her to have transpersonal experience. It should be said, that the book does not give any insturctions of how holotropic breathing session can be conducted independetly and recommends professional guidance.
The first part can be interested for those people who experiment with various psychedelic substances for pleasure or self-exploration, the second is for more elaborate reader, who indeed wants to find nondrug methods for reaching holotropic mode (but keep in mind, after reading this book you still won't know how to do it alone! :)
He offers a new model and adds two additional levels perinatal (related to experience of birth and death in perinatal stage) and transpersonal (i.e. experiential connection with any aspect of the phenomenal world).
However the most important distinction according to him, is not to be made between those levels (biographical, perinatal, or transpersonal) but between the hylotropic mode (ordinary waking consciousness that we normally have) and the holotropic mode a non-ordinary state of consciousness that can be reached by the use of psychedelic substances (drugs or plants); during trance dancing/drumming, shamanic rituals, near-death experience or through other methods.
He provides a detailed classification of transpersonal experiences that a person can experience in holotropic mode (for example: identification with other persons, animals, or entire physical universe; identification with mythological figures or universal archetypes). He often brings for illustration cases either from his own experience (when he experimented with LSD overdose) or from his patients' observations.
The second part New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration discusses his nondrug holotropic therapy which by controlled breathing brings a person in holotropic mode and enables him/her to have transpersonal experience. It should be said, that the book does not give any insturctions of how holotropic breathing session can be conducted independetly and recommends professional guidance.
The first part can be interested for those people who experiment with various psychedelic substances for pleasure or self-exploration, the second is for more elaborate reader, who indeed wants to find nondrug methods for reaching holotropic mode (but keep in mind, after reading this book you still won't know how to do it alone! :)
April 14, 2008
This book is essentially two different works. The first part is a discussion of Grof's catalog of types of transpersonal experiences that a person can have in an altered state of consciousness (psychedelic, mystical, trance, etc.). He also discusses his model of consciousness that encompasses the perinatal (near birth) experiences, biographical experiences (Freud, Adler, traditional psychiatry), and transpersonal experiences that appear to transcend biography whether in the domain of Jungian archetypes, paranormal phenomena, or mystical experiences of union with God, the universe, etc.
Grof is famous for treating psychiatric patients with LSD in the 60's and 70's. During those treatments and his own recreational use, he observed or had these transpersonal experiences. These days he has been doing Holotropic breathing as a way to induce the experiences without drugs.
The second half of the book is dedicated to how to do Holotropic breathing. It is a scheme based on the shamanistic practices of the !kung bushmen and Sufi chanting. It is essentially hyperventilating to induce an altered state. He combines music with the session to provide something to focus on, during the session.
I recommend this book for people interested in Transpersonal psychology as a discipline (itp.edu). The first half of the book can be especially helpful to people who have had spontaneous mystical experiences, so that they don't think that it is abnormal or crazy.
Grof is famous for treating psychiatric patients with LSD in the 60's and 70's. During those treatments and his own recreational use, he observed or had these transpersonal experiences. These days he has been doing Holotropic breathing as a way to induce the experiences without drugs.
The second half of the book is dedicated to how to do Holotropic breathing. It is a scheme based on the shamanistic practices of the !kung bushmen and Sufi chanting. It is essentially hyperventilating to induce an altered state. He combines music with the session to provide something to focus on, during the session.
I recommend this book for people interested in Transpersonal psychology as a discipline (itp.edu). The first half of the book can be especially helpful to people who have had spontaneous mystical experiences, so that they don't think that it is abnormal or crazy.
September 13, 2021
Brilliant and bold as Jung. He either figured it all out or its nonsense
COEX systems- systems of condensed experience. A constellation of similarly themed memories. They govern and organize diff levels of the psyche
BPMs ie. basic perinatal matrix- 4 stages of fetal experience. Relating to larger themes or erogenous zones or pathologies. Can be relived in the altered state.
1 the amniotic universe - oceanic cosmic unity
2 cosmic engulfment and no exit - descent into the underworld, dark grottoes, being stuck
3 death rebirth struggle - can be aggressive, sexual, demonic, scatological, fire, dionysian
4 death rebirth experience- ego death
existential crisis can precipitate a re encounter with birth on the perinatal level. Its a gateway between the individual and the collective and In order for resolution, this requires tapping into the collective unconscious. A space between psychology and mysticism.
Hylotropic mode of consciousness- experiencing a specific segment of consensus reality
Holotropic mode if consciousness- accessing all modes of existence, without limit to time or space or biographical history
Ultimate transcendence / nirvikalpa samadhi - no subject or object, no self or god, only formless consciousness
Reliving childhood events is transcending time and space
EXPERIENTIAL EXTENSION WITHIN CONSENSUS REALITY SPACE-TIME
Types of transcendence of space experience:
1. Experience of dual unity- fusing with another but retaining awareness of your identity. Ex. Sexual union. Baby with the mother. W a famous figure. W an animal, plant, or even inanimate object
2. Group identification- becoming one with the group or all living humanity
3. Oneness with totality of life on the planet
4. Experience of inanimate matter - sun, water, storms, subatomic particles, gems (Huxley said the reason we put such value on precious stones is that they are surrogates for mystical experience)
5. Planetary Consciousness
6. Traveling beyond earth
7. Identification with entire physical universe
8. Out of body experience
Types of transcendence of time experience
1. Fetal experience
2. Ancestral experience
3. Race experience- like the jew who had the LSD experience of reexperiencing circumcision. The participating elders were ashamed in their hearts. He was ashamed and inherited shame. Circumcision was a substitute for child sacrifice. Abraham tried to offer his son but had to circumcise him instead. He sacrificed his manhood. The firstborn son carries the guilt of his ancestors. He was to be sacrificed to God and is ashamed to be alive.
4. Past incarnation experience - the karmic experience, frequently involving extreme negative emotion. There seems to exist a state of high emotional arousal wherein all affective qualities converge and attain metaphysical dimensions. The pain of the tortured and the sadistic arousal of the torturer are the same. Individuals have to repeat in subsequent lives in alternating roles the same pattern until they reach the level of awareness which is necessary for the resolution of the karmic bond. They are in karmic bondage according to the karmic or akashic record. They can sometimes see how this pattern has repeated itself. The subject forgives and is forgiven. Because they are oppressor and oppressed. When resolved, they have overwhelming bliss.
5. Phylogenetic experiences- identifying with another species in another time
6. Experiencing past planetary evolution
7. Experiencing past evolution of the cosmos
8. Precognition, time travel. Or Psychometry- an experience of an objects past is triggered by holding an object
EXPERIENTIAL EXTENSION BEYOND CONSENSUS REALITY AND SPACE-TIME
1. Encounters with the deceased
2. Perception of auras, kundalini awakening, opening of chakras
3. Encounters with animal spirits
4. Encounters with suprahuman beings or spirit guides
5. Experiences with aliens
6. Experiences with mythological or fairy tale sequences
7. Experiences with deities
8. Experiences with archetypes
9. Understanding of universal symbols
10. Creative inspiration
11. Experience of the Demiurg, Creator God- ex. some consciousness playing out a game, an art work, of loosing and dissolving itself to rediscovering its pristine true nondual identity. It created the illusion of time and space in order to make this journey
12. Experience of Universal Mind or Cosmic Consciousness- identification w reality that underlies all realities. Transcending all things to merge w Source
13. Experience of the Void, Nothingness, Silence, emptiness paradoxically pregnant with form
12 and 13 are abstract but have extraordinary therapeutic potential. They can bring spiritual understanding of such a high level that everything is redefined and appears in a new perspective
Inner circle confrontation of archetypes can precede these figures in everyday life
Each human contains all information abt all existence
People operate below their capacity because they only see themselves as ego and body
Some transformative experiences have no content, they have sequences of built up energy followed by release and relaxation. The resolution can happen on an unconscious level. It can be an energetic blockage that has been removed
Many people feel they dont deserve an ecstatic experience unless it is followed by suffering
Physical support can be a powerful tool for those with emotional deprivation in childhood
Some traumas are the result of commission, others, omission. Commission produces fear, shame, despair. Ommision is when the child has needs that arent met- for nursing, cuddling, caressing. They leave a vacuum in the psyche. The client has to regress to the level of original trauma and be offered those needs. The adult is capable of facing and dealing with what the child couldnt. Its not reliving the event as it was (dissociatively) Its fully experiencing it for the first time that allows you to integrate it.
Visualize breath as a cloud of light, dont change its rhythm, follow the breath down to the pelvis, legs, feet, and back again
Freud- the future neurotic has childhood trauma that they didnt allow discharge of the emotional energy generated by the trauma and is now manifesting itself as neurosis
Some problems can be traced to experiences from the lives of ones ancestors and can be resolved by reliving and integrating those memories
Humans are not mechanistic Newtonian objects. They can function as infinite fields of consciousness and can transcend causality
Just because something alters your consciousness doesn't mean it changes your consciousness
To get rid of a phobia, bring it from the unconscious to the conscious, experience it fully and integrate it
“You never enjoy the world alright, till the sea itself flows in your veins, till you are clothes with the heavens and crowned with the stars, and perceive yourself the sole heir of the whole world, and more so, because others are in it, everyone sole heirs as well as you. - Thomas Traherne
Why do psychedelics? A more effective alternative to psychotherapy. They are tools for a spiritual quest and can mediate connection to the transpersonal realm. To gain insight into improving its ones life and finding meaning
Only a trusted sitter makes it possible to surrender, to work on relationship, to provide physical connection when working in traumas of omission. To be a trusted stand in for working through memories of broken trust. To provide extreme experience necc to force the facing of an issue
The experience of the mother for
the infant is like the experience of the entire world for the adult
Life is not red in tooth and claw bit a cosmic dance or divine play
Walter Houston Clark- Mainstream religion can be like a vaccine- you get a little something that protects you against the real thing. A false sense of having already arrived
Jung- institutional religion (false prophets) has as its main function the protection of people from their own direct experience of God
The west has repressed spirituality - the result is alienation, anxiety, self destruction, a crisis of meaning. The world needs direct spiritual experience
Jung- the most vital human need is to discover ones own inner reality through the cultivation of the symbolic life and to live in dynamic contact with the collective unconscious and the Self. This makes it possible to draw in the wisdom of the ages and the collective psyche
Psychedelics can only in themselves activate the psyche and mediate the emergence if the unconscious and superconscious into the conscious. If its destructive or therapeutic depends on set and setting. On higher doses, talking is discouraged. Let go of defenses and surrender to the healing potential of the mind
Optimal dose for therapeutic lsd session is 250-500mcg
COEX systems- systems of condensed experience. A constellation of similarly themed memories. They govern and organize diff levels of the psyche
BPMs ie. basic perinatal matrix- 4 stages of fetal experience. Relating to larger themes or erogenous zones or pathologies. Can be relived in the altered state.
1 the amniotic universe - oceanic cosmic unity
2 cosmic engulfment and no exit - descent into the underworld, dark grottoes, being stuck
3 death rebirth struggle - can be aggressive, sexual, demonic, scatological, fire, dionysian
4 death rebirth experience- ego death
existential crisis can precipitate a re encounter with birth on the perinatal level. Its a gateway between the individual and the collective and In order for resolution, this requires tapping into the collective unconscious. A space between psychology and mysticism.
Hylotropic mode of consciousness- experiencing a specific segment of consensus reality
Holotropic mode if consciousness- accessing all modes of existence, without limit to time or space or biographical history
Ultimate transcendence / nirvikalpa samadhi - no subject or object, no self or god, only formless consciousness
Reliving childhood events is transcending time and space
EXPERIENTIAL EXTENSION WITHIN CONSENSUS REALITY SPACE-TIME
Types of transcendence of space experience:
1. Experience of dual unity- fusing with another but retaining awareness of your identity. Ex. Sexual union. Baby with the mother. W a famous figure. W an animal, plant, or even inanimate object
2. Group identification- becoming one with the group or all living humanity
3. Oneness with totality of life on the planet
4. Experience of inanimate matter - sun, water, storms, subatomic particles, gems (Huxley said the reason we put such value on precious stones is that they are surrogates for mystical experience)
5. Planetary Consciousness
6. Traveling beyond earth
7. Identification with entire physical universe
8. Out of body experience
Types of transcendence of time experience
1. Fetal experience
2. Ancestral experience
3. Race experience- like the jew who had the LSD experience of reexperiencing circumcision. The participating elders were ashamed in their hearts. He was ashamed and inherited shame. Circumcision was a substitute for child sacrifice. Abraham tried to offer his son but had to circumcise him instead. He sacrificed his manhood. The firstborn son carries the guilt of his ancestors. He was to be sacrificed to God and is ashamed to be alive.
4. Past incarnation experience - the karmic experience, frequently involving extreme negative emotion. There seems to exist a state of high emotional arousal wherein all affective qualities converge and attain metaphysical dimensions. The pain of the tortured and the sadistic arousal of the torturer are the same. Individuals have to repeat in subsequent lives in alternating roles the same pattern until they reach the level of awareness which is necessary for the resolution of the karmic bond. They are in karmic bondage according to the karmic or akashic record. They can sometimes see how this pattern has repeated itself. The subject forgives and is forgiven. Because they are oppressor and oppressed. When resolved, they have overwhelming bliss.
5. Phylogenetic experiences- identifying with another species in another time
6. Experiencing past planetary evolution
7. Experiencing past evolution of the cosmos
8. Precognition, time travel. Or Psychometry- an experience of an objects past is triggered by holding an object
EXPERIENTIAL EXTENSION BEYOND CONSENSUS REALITY AND SPACE-TIME
1. Encounters with the deceased
2. Perception of auras, kundalini awakening, opening of chakras
3. Encounters with animal spirits
4. Encounters with suprahuman beings or spirit guides
5. Experiences with aliens
6. Experiences with mythological or fairy tale sequences
7. Experiences with deities
8. Experiences with archetypes
9. Understanding of universal symbols
10. Creative inspiration
11. Experience of the Demiurg, Creator God- ex. some consciousness playing out a game, an art work, of loosing and dissolving itself to rediscovering its pristine true nondual identity. It created the illusion of time and space in order to make this journey
12. Experience of Universal Mind or Cosmic Consciousness- identification w reality that underlies all realities. Transcending all things to merge w Source
13. Experience of the Void, Nothingness, Silence, emptiness paradoxically pregnant with form
12 and 13 are abstract but have extraordinary therapeutic potential. They can bring spiritual understanding of such a high level that everything is redefined and appears in a new perspective
Inner circle confrontation of archetypes can precede these figures in everyday life
Each human contains all information abt all existence
People operate below their capacity because they only see themselves as ego and body
Some transformative experiences have no content, they have sequences of built up energy followed by release and relaxation. The resolution can happen on an unconscious level. It can be an energetic blockage that has been removed
Many people feel they dont deserve an ecstatic experience unless it is followed by suffering
Physical support can be a powerful tool for those with emotional deprivation in childhood
Some traumas are the result of commission, others, omission. Commission produces fear, shame, despair. Ommision is when the child has needs that arent met- for nursing, cuddling, caressing. They leave a vacuum in the psyche. The client has to regress to the level of original trauma and be offered those needs. The adult is capable of facing and dealing with what the child couldnt. Its not reliving the event as it was (dissociatively) Its fully experiencing it for the first time that allows you to integrate it.
Visualize breath as a cloud of light, dont change its rhythm, follow the breath down to the pelvis, legs, feet, and back again
Freud- the future neurotic has childhood trauma that they didnt allow discharge of the emotional energy generated by the trauma and is now manifesting itself as neurosis
Some problems can be traced to experiences from the lives of ones ancestors and can be resolved by reliving and integrating those memories
Humans are not mechanistic Newtonian objects. They can function as infinite fields of consciousness and can transcend causality
Just because something alters your consciousness doesn't mean it changes your consciousness
To get rid of a phobia, bring it from the unconscious to the conscious, experience it fully and integrate it
“You never enjoy the world alright, till the sea itself flows in your veins, till you are clothes with the heavens and crowned with the stars, and perceive yourself the sole heir of the whole world, and more so, because others are in it, everyone sole heirs as well as you. - Thomas Traherne
Why do psychedelics? A more effective alternative to psychotherapy. They are tools for a spiritual quest and can mediate connection to the transpersonal realm. To gain insight into improving its ones life and finding meaning
Only a trusted sitter makes it possible to surrender, to work on relationship, to provide physical connection when working in traumas of omission. To be a trusted stand in for working through memories of broken trust. To provide extreme experience necc to force the facing of an issue
The experience of the mother for
the infant is like the experience of the entire world for the adult
Life is not red in tooth and claw bit a cosmic dance or divine play
Walter Houston Clark- Mainstream religion can be like a vaccine- you get a little something that protects you against the real thing. A false sense of having already arrived
Jung- institutional religion (false prophets) has as its main function the protection of people from their own direct experience of God
The west has repressed spirituality - the result is alienation, anxiety, self destruction, a crisis of meaning. The world needs direct spiritual experience
Jung- the most vital human need is to discover ones own inner reality through the cultivation of the symbolic life and to live in dynamic contact with the collective unconscious and the Self. This makes it possible to draw in the wisdom of the ages and the collective psyche
Psychedelics can only in themselves activate the psyche and mediate the emergence if the unconscious and superconscious into the conscious. If its destructive or therapeutic depends on set and setting. On higher doses, talking is discouraged. Let go of defenses and surrender to the healing potential of the mind
Optimal dose for therapeutic lsd session is 250-500mcg
May 19, 2020
An impressive work describing the map of the unconsciousness, and perinatal matrices based on the research and experiments conducted by Stanislav Grof and his colleagues. The book also shows the evidence of multiple health benefits of the holotropic states. It is also one of the books that can/should be read more than once as it reveals more with every time.
March 3, 2020
The book is about how to handle a spiritual awakening. How to cope, and describing therapies that can facilitate the spiritual growth. Especially about holotropic breathing and it's approach to altered states of conciousness.
May 26, 2021
This was one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Every subject was well researched and thought out. If you are looking for a book that will leave you speachless this is it!
October 2, 2021
This is more than just a fascinating book. It’s a blueprint of your past — and your future.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews