When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities

Feelings of oneness with other people, nature, and the universe. Encounters with extraterrestrials, deities, and demons. Out-of-body experiences and past-life memories. Science casts a skeptical eye. But Dr. Stanislav Grof―the psychiatric researcher who cofounded transpersonal psychology―believes otherwise.

When the Impossible Happens presents Dr. Grof 's mesmerizing firsthand account of over 50 years of inquiry into waters uncharted by classical psychology, one that will leave readers questioning the very fabric of our existence.

From his first LSD session that gave him a glimpse of cosmic consciousness to his latest work with Holotropic Breathwork, When the Impossible Happens will amaze readers with vivid explorations of topics such as:

- Temptations of a Non-Local Universe―experiments in astral projection
- Praying Mantis in Manhattan and other tales of synchronicity
- Trailing Clouds of Glory―remembering birth and prenatal life
- Dying and Beyond―survival of consciousness after death

When the Impossible Happens is an incredible opportunity to journey beyond ordinary consciousness, guaranteed to shake the foundations of what we assume to be reality, and sure to offer a new vision of our human potential.

Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist with more than sixty years of experience in the research of holotropic states of consciousness, a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states that have healing, transformative, heuristic, and evolutionary potential. In the past, he was principal investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.


Currently, he is professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, conducts professional training programs in holotropic breathwork and transpersonal psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). In 2007, he was granted the prestigious Vision 97 Award from the Václav and Dagmar Havel Foundation in Prague, and in 2010 the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) for his pivotal contributions to this field. He received an honorary PhD degree from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) and in 2018 another one for Psychedelic Therapy and Healing Arts from CIIS in San Francisco.


Among his publications are over 150 articles in professional journals and the books Beyond the Brain, LSD Psychotherapy, The Cosmic Game, Psychology of the Future, The Ultimate Journey, When the Impossible Happens, Healing Our Deepest Wounds, Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Art, The Stormy Search for the Self, Spiritual Emergency, and Holotropic Breathwork. He was also invited as a consultant for special effects in the Metro Goldwyn Meyer science fiction movie Brainstorm and the 20th Century Fox science fiction movie Millenium.


In August 2019, his life’s work encyclopedia, The Way of the Psychonaut, was published and the documentary film about his life and work was released: The Way of the Psychonaut: Stanislav Grof’s Journey of Consciousness. Learn more: thewayofthepsychonaut.com.


In May 2020, Stan and his wife, Brigitte Grof, launched their new training in working with holotropic states of consciousness, the international Grof® Legacy Training. Learn more: grof-legacy-training.com.


Stan and Brigitte have been happily married since April 2016. They live together in Germany and travel the inner and outer worlds in tandem, conducting seminars, trainings, and holotropic breathwork workshops worldwide. Learn more about Stan Grof and his work at stangrof.com.