LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious

299 Pages·2009·3.58 MB·English

by  Stanislav Grof

DOORWAY
LSD
TO THE
NUMINOUS
“Dr. Stanislav Grof’s LSD: Doorway to the Numinous is an extraordinary
alchemical text that overturns many commonly held beliefs about the nature of
individual identity and consciousness. Based on his 2,500 clinical sessions using
LSD as a therapeutic tool before the substance was interdicted, Grof’s book
explores the vast dimensions of inner experience that have been ignored and
marginalized by the mainstream. He also provides a theoretical framework for
understanding these amazing experiences that synthesizes Freudian and Jungian
insights into the dark matter of the unconscious and the primal drives that
secretly impel us to act. A must-read for all serious students of consciousness.”
DANIEL PINCHBECK, AUTHOR OF 2012: THE RETURN OF
QUETZALCOATL AND BREAKING OPEN THE HEAD
“The most significant development in the recent history of depth psychology,
and the most important advance in the field since Freud and Jung themselves,
has been the work of Stanislav Grof.”
RICHARD TARNAS, PH.D., AUTHOR OF
THE PASSION OF THE WESTERN MIND
“A breakthrough work.”
JEAN HOUSTON, PH.D., COAUTHOR OF
THE VARIETIES OF PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE
“I know of no work that so well incorporates the findings of Freud, Jung, and
Rank, adding fresh insights that the methods of these psychotherapists could
never have achieved. It certainly goes beyond Freud. It brings new clarification
to Jung. It throws new light on the topic of death and resurrection symbolism, as
well as on religious imagery. I do not doubt that others working in this field will
find Dr. Grof’s discoveries a basis for a whole new strategy of research.”
JOSEPH CAMPBELL, AUTHOR OF THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND
FACES, THE MASKS OF GOD, AND MYTHS TO LIVE BY
“Stanislav Grof’s research is the most important contribution to personality
theory in several decades.”
ABRAHAM MASLOW, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST, COFOUNDER OF
HUMANISTIC AND TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY, AND
AUTHOR OF RELIGIONS, VALUES, AND PEAK EXPERIENCES
“An exceptionally clear and readable introduction to the evolving psychology of
the spirit—transpersonal psychology—that is one of the most exciting
developments of our times. Grof is far and away one of the leading scientists
exploring this field.”
CHARLES TART, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, PSI: SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
OF THE PSYCHIC REALM, AND LIVING THE MINDFUL LIFE
“Dr. Grof’s studies of the mystical experience in LSD therapy represent an
extremely valuable scientific approach to consciousness research from which
many people can benefit.”
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE, TIBETAN LAMA AND
AUTHOR OF BORN IN TIBET, SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM,
AND MEDITATION IN ACTION
“Grof has had far and away more experience in psychedelic research than
anyone else and has come up with the most comprehensive and helpful
framework for interpreting the data in this bewildering area.”
HUSTON SMITH, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS
AND BEYOND THE POST-MODERN MIND
“Grof marshals an impressive array of data and speculation in support of the
timely demand that Western science acknowledge consciousness and its many
nonordinary states.”
RICHARD ALPERT (RAM DASS), PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST,
SPIRITUAL TEACHER, AND AUTHOR OF BE HERE NOW,
GRIST FOR THE MILL, AND THE ONLY DANCE THERE IS
“A fascinating journey through previously uncharted realms of the psyche
guided by one of the world’s foremost consciousness researchers. A remarkable
account of the extraordinary depths of the human psyche.”
FRANCES VAUGHAN, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF
AWAKENING INTUITION AND THE INWARD ARC
To my brother, Paul, and my parents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to use this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to at least some
of the many preceptors and friends to whom I owe thanks for invaluable help or
guidance during various stages of the research work that has resulted in the
publication of this book. I first became acquainted with LSD in 1955 in the
department of Dr. George Roubí ek, former Associate Professor of the
Department of Psychiatry, Charles University School of Medicine in Prague; it
was Dr. Roubí ek who introduced this compound into Czechoslovak psychiatry.
During the last two years of my medical studies, when I was working as a
volunteer in the faculty psychiatric hospital, I had the opportunity of observing
and interviewing some of the LSD subjects in Dr. Roubí ek’s pioneering
experiments. In his department and under his auspices, I had, in 1956, my own
first LSD session; this experience deepened and intensified my already existing
interest in psychedelic drugs to the extent that it has become my life’s work. I
often remember with much appreciation the gentle presence of my brother, Paul,
who was at the time a medical student and offered to take care of me during this
memorable session.
During the early years of my research, I received inestimable help from Dr. Milo
Vojt chovský; at that time, he headed the interdisciplinary team in which I
began my LSD explorations, focusing on the relationship between the effects of
various psychedelic drugs and the symptomatology of schizophrenia. After
several years of exciting and fruitful cooperation with his research group, I
shifted my interest from the “model psychosis” approach to diagnostic and
therapeutic experimentation with psychedelics. Although our professional
cooperation had been relatively short-lived, our personal friendship continued far
beyond the point of our intellectual parting. I remember with gratitude and
appreciation the basic training in scientific thinking and methodology that I
received during this period.
In this context, I am particularly indebted to Dr. Lubomír Hanzlí ek, Director of
the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where I carried out most of the
research on which this book is based. The LSD study could not have been
conducted and completed without his unusual open-mindedness, understanding,
and support during the years of my unconventional explorations of this new
scientific frontier. I also wish to thank in this connection my two former
colleagues from the same institute, Dr. Julia Sobotkiewicz and Dr. Zden k
Dytrych, both of whom participated in the LSD research in Prague of which I
was the principal investigator.
In our everyday discussions, these two kindly shared with me the experiences
from the LSD sessions of their patients and made their records readily available
for my studies. Although partially based on their clinical material, the theoretical
concepts described in this book have been developed independently of the
concepts and approaches of these two colleagues; the ideas expressed in this
volume are entirely my responsibility. I owe words of gratitude to Dr. Thomas
Dostál, whose understanding, encouragement, and friendly help were essential at
a time when I was exploring uncharted territories of the human mind in relative
isolation from most of my professional colleagues.
In addition to the above, I would like to mention the nurses of my department in
the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, whom I found to be extremely
cooperative and helpful during the years of my LSD research. They
demonstrated unusual interest and trust by volunteering for their own LSD
training sessions in order to understand the drug experiences of our patients and
their therapeutic impact. In everyday clinical work, they patiently tolerated the
often dramatic circumstances of the new experimental treatment program and
with unrelenting enthusiasm and dedication carried out all the extra duties
imposed on them by the LSD program.
A decisive factor in the inception and completion of this book was my two-year
fellowship in the United States (1967–1969), which gave me the necessary time
and proper frame of mind to write the first version of the manuscript
summarizing my LSD research. I am especially indebted to the Foundations’
Fund for Research in Psychiatry in New Haven, Connecticut, whose generous
financial support made my stay in the United States possible. I would also like to
express my deep appreciation to Dr. Joel Elkes, Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Elkes extended to me the
invitation to come to Johns Hopkins Hospital as a clinical and research fellow
and granted me invaluable help and guidance during my stay.
Special words of gratitude are reserved for Dr. Albert A. Kurland, Director of the
Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Assistant Commissioner for Research
of the Maryland State Department of Mental Hygiene. It was under Dr.
Kurland’s auspices that I have been able to continue my LSD research work
from my arrival to the present. I would also like to mention in this connection
the members of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and their families.
The friendly atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding that they created,
not only in the Center but also during many of our jointly spent evenings and
weekends, helped me considerably in adjusting to my new life in the United
States. I especially appreciate the friendship of Robert Leihy and his wife,
Karen, whose house became my second home for many years.
This book probably would not have been written and published without the
encouragement and support of many of my American friends, who kept
reassuring me about the importance of the information that I had to offer. My
special thanks belong here to Huston Smith, Joseph Campbell, Walter Clark,
Margaret Mead, Alan Watts, Laura Huxley, Anthony Sutich, Gaby and Sonja
Margulies, and, particularly, Abraham Maslow.
I am deeply grateful to Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California, and the increasing
network of affiliated human potential centers in the United States and Canada for
offering me the opportunity to give lectures, seminars, and workshops in which I
could test the early formulations of my ideas in contact with understanding and
sympathetic audiences. Esalen Institute also generously offered to my wife and
me extraordinary and congenial conditions that made it possible for us to work
on a long-planned series of books.
Over the years, one encounters certain people who become close friends as well
as primary catalysts of important changes in one’s life. In this regard, I am
deeply indebted to Robert Schwartz and Lenore Schwartz for the role they have
played in my personal as well as professional life. It was through their generosity
that my wife and I have been able to free ourselves temporarily from
administrative duties and research activities in order to concentrate our efforts on
writing. I want to mention in this context Michael Murphy, Richard Price, Julian
Silverman, Andrew Gagarin, and Richard Grossman, all close friends of ours,
who, along with the Schwartzes, have created ideal conditions for our work.
My brother, Dr. Paul Grof, has contributed to this book in a unique combination
of roles. His research background in psychiatry gave him the necessary
qualifications and knowledge, and the nature of our lifelong relationship made it
possible for him to be my most determined supporter and my most candid and
unrelenting critic.
It is hard to find adequate words of thanks and gratitude for the contributions to
this volume made by my wife, Dr. Joan Halifax-Grof. During our joint lectures,
seminars, and workshops, and in many of our private discussions, she has helped
me to put the LSD findings in a broad cross-cultural perspective, crystallize new
concepts, and find the proper formulations for my ideas. As a co-therapist in the
research project using LSD assisted psychotherapy with individuals dying from
cancer, her anthropological background as well as personal sensitivity added
many new and relevant dimensions to research and treatment. In our home, she
created an atmosphere conducive to rich intellectual cross-fertilization and
productive writing. Her enthusiasm, energy, and deep emotional commitment
have been a powerful remedy during periods of creative diastole and inertia. Her
constant encouragement and assistance have been the necessary ingredients for
the completion of this text.
Those who have played the most important role in the development of the
concepts described in this book and who have brought the greatest personal
sacrifice have to remain anonymous—the hundreds of patients and LSD subjects
who were part of this research. These people found enough trust and courage for
repeated journeys to the unknown and shared with me their experiences from the
most fascinating of all frontiers. I am deeply grateful to all of them for their
participation in this study and for their unique individual contributions that have
made this book possible.