Acknowledgments
Preface
1 General Introduction
The LSD Controversy
LSD and Its Effects in Human Beings
Empirical Basis for a New Theoretical Framework
Heuristic Value of LSD Research
2 Abstract and Aesthetic Experiences in LSD Sessions
3 Psychodynamic Experiences in LSD Sessions
COEX Systems (Systems of Condensed Experience)
Origin and Dynamics of COEX Systems
Manifestation of COEX Systems in LSD Sessions
Dynamic Interaction between the COEX Systems and Environmental
Stimuli
4 Perinatal Experiences in LSD Sessions
Perinatal Matrix I. Primal Union with the Mother
(Intrauterine Experience before the Onset of Delivery)
Perinatal Matrix II. Antagonism with the Mother
(Contractions in a Closed Uterine System)
Perinatal Matrix III. Synergism with the Mother
(Propulsion through the Birth Canal)
Perinatal Matrix IV. Separation from the Mother
(Termination of the Symbiotic Union and Formation of a New Type of
Relationship)
Significance of Basic Perinatal Matrices in LSD Psychotherapy
5 Transpersonal Experiences in LSD Sessions
Experiential Extension within the Framework of “Objective
Reality”
Temporal Expansion of Consciousness
• Embryonal and Fetal Experiences
• Ancestral Experiences
• Collective and Racial Experiences
• Phylogenetic (Evolutionary) Experiences
• Past-Incarnation Experiences
• Precognition, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, and “Time Travels”
Spatial Expansion of Consciousness
• Ego Transcendence in Interpersonal Relationships and the
Experience of Dual Unity
• Identification with Other Persons
• Group Identification and Group Consciousness
• Animal Identification
• Plant Identification
• Oneness with Life and with All Creation
• Consciousness of Inorganic Matter
• Planetary Consciousness
• Extraplanetary Consciousness
• Out-of-Body Experiences, Traveling Clairvoyance and
Clairaudience, “Space Travels,” and Telepathy
Spatial Constriction of Consciousness
• Organ, Tissue, and Cellular Consciousness
Experiential Extension beyond the Framework of “Objective
Reality”
• Spiritistic and Mediumistic Experiences
• Experiences of Encounters with Suprahuman Spiritual Entities
• Experiences of Other Universes and Encounters with Their
Inhabitants
• Archetypal Experiences and Complex Mythological Sequences
• Experiences of Encounters with Various Deities
• Intuitive Understanding of Universal Symbols
• Activation of the Chakras and Arousal of the Serpent Power
(Kundalini)
• Consciousness of the Universal Mind
• The Supracosmic and Metacosmic Void
Significance of Transpersonal Experiences in LSD Psychotherapy
Transpersonal Experiences and Contemporary Psychiatry
6 Multidimensional and Multilevel Nature of the LSD
Experience
Environmental Stimuli and Elements of the Setting
Personality of the Therapist and the Therapeutic Situation
Present Life Situation
Past Life History
Early Childhood and Infancy
Biological Birth and the Perinatal Period
Embryonal and Fetal Existence
Transindividual (Transpersonal and Transhuman) Sources
Epilogue
The Psychedelic Research Renaissance--A Review of Recent
Psychedelic Psychotherapy Research
by L. Jerome, Ph.D., Valerie Mojeiko, and Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
Notes
Index
About the Author
Stanislav Grof is a psychiatrist and is professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His 20 books include Beyond the Brain, Psychology of the Future, The Cosmic Genius and Spiritual Emergency.
“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*
“Stanislav Grof is the undisputed world authority on LSD and the
human psyche, and this book provides the best cartography of
consciousness for understanding the profound impact of entheogens
on the mind.”
*Alex Grey, artist and author of Sacred Mirrors and
Transfigurations*
“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*
“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 autho*
“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*
“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 Medit*
“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*
“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*
" . . . Grof's engrossing state-of-the-science overview argues
convincingly that continued LSD reserach will help patients,
parents, policymakers, and even spiritual seekers."
*Publishers Weekly, Feb 2009*
"Dr. Grof's efforts should be lauded and highly commended in the
scientific and medical community. His clinical research is
courageous and luminous to anyone who is conscious of the body's
metaphysiology and higher energy dynamics. This field of research
is as important to the human animal as molecular scientific inquiry
into the etiology of neoplasias."
*Dr. Ron Shane, reviewer, April 2009*
"Dr. Grof has helped to give us new ways of seeing the world . . .
He has opened a link between the psyche and the spirit."
*Nexus New Times Magazine, Sept/Oct 2009*
"For any serious student of psychedelics or psychology, this is an
important read that should not be ignored. In terms of building a
foundation for the future of the psychedelic movement and finding a
place for psychedelics in society, LSD:Doorway to the Numinous is
without question the text. Authoritative, insightful, and
self-aware."
*Psychedelic Press, UK, Feb 2010*
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