The Way of the Psychonaut Vol. 2: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys - Softcover

Grof M.D., Stanislav

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0998276553 ISBN 13: 9780998276557

Publisher: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, 2019

Synopsis

The Way of the Psychonaut is one of the most important books ever written about the human psyche and the spiritual quest. The new understandings were made possible thanks to Albert Hofmann s discovery of LSD the microscope and telescope of the human psyche as well as other psychedelic substances. This comprehensive work is a tour de force through the worlds of psychology and psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, maps of the psyche, birth, sex, and death, psychospiritual rebirth, the roots of trauma, spiritual emergency and transpersonal experiences, karma and reincarnation, higher creativity, great art, and archetypes. Written in his late eighties, at the height of his magnificent career, The Way of the Psychonaut is possibly Grof s greatest contribution. The commanding breadth and depth of his knowledge is astounding, the tone of his writing easy and accessible, and his narratives brightened with amusing anecdotes, intriguing personal accounts, and brilliant case studies. Grof reviews the history of depth psychotherapy, the important revisions that are needed to make it more effective, and why the inner quest is such an essential pursuit. The second section of this encyclopedia focuses on the observations and experiences from the research of holotropic states that indicate an urgent need for a radical revision of some basic assumptions of mainstream psychiatry and psychology.

About this title

About the Author:

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with over sixty years of research experience in non-ordinary states of consciousness and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training: an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. degree (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine) from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Grof s early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was principal investigator of a program that systematically explored the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967 he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University and the Research Unit of Spring Grove Hospital in Baltimore, MD. In 1969, he became Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Catonsville, MD. In 1973 Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he developed, with his late wife Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork, an innovative form of experiential psychotherapy that is now being used worldwide. Dr. Grof is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and for several decades served as its president. In 1993 he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology, given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held in Asilomar, California. In 2007, he received the prestigious VISION 97 lifetime achievement award from the Foundation of Dagmar and Václav Havel in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 2010, he received also the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) for his pivotal contributions to this field. Among Dr. Grof s publications are over 150 articles in professional journals and the books LSD: Gateway to the Numinous; Beyond the Brain; LSD Psychotherapy; The Cosmic Game; Psychology of the Future; The Ultimate Journey; When the Impossible Happens; Books of the Dead; Healing Our Deepest Wounds; Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Art; The Stormy Search for the Self; Spiritual Emergency; and Holotropic Breathwork (the last three with Christina Grof). These books have been translated into twenty-three languages.

Review:

I consider Stanislav Grof to be a far-out eclectic involved in transpersonal psychology, psychedelics, and scientific psychiatry as well as a very dear friend who has made significant contributions with his work. --Ram Dass

If you have ever wondered what it would have been like to sit down and talk with Freud, Jung, or William James, you now have the opportunity to read the current, living works of one of the leading psychological theorists in modern history. Stanislav Grof serves as our guide through the territory of our own consciousness from our core essence to the furthest, most extraordinary frontiers. Scholarly, radical, historic, and original, this book is written in a completely accessible way each page holds the potential to stretch your mind just that little bit more. --Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D.

Future historians will describe the emergence of psychedelic compounds and plants in the mid-1960s as an event that radically changed psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. It also sent shockwaves through Western culture, transforming lifestyles, worldviews, the arts, theoretical physics, technology, and the computer industry. If you think this is an exaggeration, read The Way of the Psychonaut, Stanislav Grof s well-crafted and beautifully written account of an era that may save humanity in spite of itself. --Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

About this edition

• Publisher: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0998276553
• ISBN 13: 9780998276557
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 356