Psyche Unbound

Psyche Unbound: Essays in Honor of Stanislav Grof is an extraordinary compilation of 22 essays that honor the path-breaking lifework of Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., the world’s leading researcher in psychedelic-assisted therapy, breathwork, and the exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness. Psyche Unbound features contributions from thought leaders of the last five decades, including a piece from Joseph Campbell’s 1971 lecture in the Great Hall at Cooper Union and Huston Smith’s 1976 summary of Grof’s work as it relates to the study of religion and mysticism. More recent writing includes reflections by renowned psychiatrists and researchers that discuss the importance of Grof’s contributions on the current wave of interest and research into psychedelic-assisted therapies and alternative states of consciousness. Psyche Unbound, considered a festschrift for Stanislav Grof, includes essays that explore Grof’s work on numerous fronts including transpersonal sexual experiences, implications for social and cultural change, comparative studies with Asianreligious systems, the perinatal dimensions of Jean-Paul Sartre’s transformational 1935 mescaline experience, and parallel findings from quantum and relativistic physics. Edited by Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., and Sean Kelly, Ph.D., Psyche Unbound also features contributions from renowned academics, scientists and researchers including Charles Grob, Michael Mithoefer, Jenny Wade, William Keepin, Thomas Purton, Thomas Riedlinger, Fritjof Capra and more.

Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and cultural history at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He teaches courses in the history of ideas, archetypal studies, depth psychology, and religious evolution. He frequently lectures on archetypal studies and depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, and was formerly the director of programs and education at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. He is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind, a history of the Western world view from the ancient Greek to the postmodern widely used in universities. His second book, Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, received the Book of the Year Prize from the Scientific and Medical Network, and is the basis for the upcoming documentary series The Changing of the Gods. He is a past president of the International Transpersonal Association and served on the Board of Governors for the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.

Sean M. Kelly, Ph.D., is Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. He has published numerous articles on Jung, Hegel, transpersonal psychology, and the new science and is the author of Individuation and the Absolute: Hegel, Jung, and the Path toward Wholeness (Paulist Press, 1993). Sean is an editor (with Donald Rothberg) of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers (Quest, 1998) and a translator (with Roger Lapointe) of the French thinker Edgar Morin's book Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium (Hampton Press, 1999). Along with his academic work, Sean has trained intensively in the Chinese internal arts (taiji, bagua, and xingyi) and has been teaching taiji since 1990.

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master's thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife, dog, and empty rooms from three children, one of whom is in college and two have graduated.