Grof, Stanislav

From The SpiritWiki

Stanislav "Stan" Grof is a Czech-born psychiatrist who has been living in the United States since the 1960s. Grof is one of the principal developers of transpersonal psychology and research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of exploring, healing, and obtaining growth and insights into the human psyche.

Grof's Terms

Grof, Stanislav > COEX Systems, Dimensions of the Psyche, Inner Radar, Past Life Memories, Perinatal Matrices, Perinatal Realm, Psychedelic Therapy, Psycholytic Therapy, Usual Consciousness

Notes

Grof is one of the foremost Transpersonal Psychologists on the planet, writing many books and articles describing and analyzing Connection Experiences, or what he calls Holotropic States[1] or Transpersonal States.

Grof got started on his transpersonal path with a profound LSD experience he had while volunteering as a subject in LSD trials. [2] In this experience he confronted his unconscious psyche, downloaded a shit ton of information, and finally experienced an expansion of consciousness to cosmic levels.[3]


https://stangrof.com/

https://stangrof.com/images/joomgallery/ArticlesPDF/Global_Crisis_Future_of_Humanity.pdf

On Spirituality

"To prevent confusion and misunderstanding that in the past have plagued similar discussions, it is critical to make a clear distinction between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is based on direct experiences of other realities. It does not necessarily require a special place, or a special person mediating contact with the divine, although mystics can certainly benefit from spiritual guidance and a community of fellow seekers. Spirituality involves a special relationship between the individual and the cosmos and is in its essence a personal and private affair. At the cradle of all great religions were visionary (perinatal and/or transpersonal) experiences of their founders, prophets, saints, and even ordinary followers. All major spiritual scriptures -- the Vedas, the Buddhist Pali Canon, the Bible. the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and many others are based on revelations in holotropic states."[4]

On the Boundary Problem

Traditional psychology and psychiatry are dominated by materialistic philosophy and have no recognition for spirituality of any form. From the point of view of Western science, the mate- rial world represents the only reality and any form of spiritual belief is seen as reflecting lack of education, primitive superstition, magical thinking, or regression to infantile patterns of functioning. Direct experiences of spiritual realities are then relegated to the world of gross psychopathology, serious mental disorders. Western psychiatry makes no distinction between a mystical experience and a psychotic experience and sees both as manifestations of mental disease. In its rejection of religion, it does not differentiate primitive folk beliefs or fundamentalists’ literal interpretations of scriptures from sophisticated mystical traditions and Eastern spiritual philosophies based on centuries of systematic introspective exploration of the psyche. It pathologizes spirituality of any kind and together with it the entire spiritual history of humanity.[5]

'On Religion'

By comparison, the basis a organized religion is institutionalized group activity that takes place in a designated location (temple, church), and involves a system of appointed mediators. Ideally, religions should provide fur its members access to and support for direct spiritual experiences. However, it often happens that a religion completely loses the connection with its spiritual source and becomes a secular institution exploiting the human spiritual needs without satisfying them. Instead. it creates a hierarchical system focusing on the pursuit of power, control, politics. money, and other possessions. Under these circumstances, religious hierarchy tends to actively discourage and suppress direct spiritual experiences of its members, because they foster independence and cannot be effectively controlled.[6]

On the source of religion (echoes William James and others).

At the cradle of all great religions were visionary (perinatal and/or transpersonal) experiences of their founders, prophets, saints, and even ordinary followers. All major spiritual scriptures – the Vedas, the Buddhist Pali Canon, the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and many others are based on revelations in holotropic states of consciousness.[7]

On the elite nature of religion

However, it often happens that an organized religion sooner or later completely loses the connection with its spiritual source and becomes a secular institution exploiting the human spiritual needs without satisfying them. Instead, it creates a hierarchical system focusing on the pursuit of power, control, politics, money, and other possessions. Under these circumstances, religious hierarchy tends to actively discourage and suppress direct spiritual experiences in its members, because they foster independence and cannot be effectively controlled. When this happens, genuine spiritual life continues only in the mystical branches.[8]

On the nature of reality and the ontological status of self

Argues that evidence from Transpersonal Psychology requires a fundamental revision of our views of the nature of consciousness and reality. [9] Anything less than a complete overhaul of dominant materialist paradigms is, according to Grof, biased, closed-minded pseudoscience.

Suggests mainstream scientists are no different than fanatical religious hobgoblins.

"The nature and intensity of some of the mainstream scientists’ reaction to any form of spirituality, in general, and to transpersonal psychology, in particular, seems to mirror the fanaticism of religious fundamentalists. Their attitude lacks solid scientific grounding, ignores or distorts all existing evidence, and is impervious to facts of observation and logical arguments. Closer scrutiny reveals that what they present as an image of reality that has been scientifically proven beyond any reasonable doubt is a colossus on clay feet supported by a host of a priori metaphysical assumptions."[10]

On human health and well being

Grof's Psychedelic Therapy and all the work he did with LSD and other Connection Supplements constitute one of psychologists' first Trauma-focused Therapy systems. To this day, Grof's thinking remains perhaps the most sophisticated approach to understanding trauma, health, human development, and psychopathology. As he say:

"As a psychiatrist dealing on a daily basis with emotional problems that plague human life, I became keenly aware of various destructive and self-destructive patterns that are being passed like a curse from one generation to another throughout history. The traumas that the parents experience during their own development in the family of origin leave them emotionally wounded and unable to function adequately in the role of husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers. As a result, they inflict emotional wounds on their off spring. To break this vicious circle is one of the major challenges of modern psychology and psychiatry."[11]

On the nature and best practices of therapy

Grof has some awareness of the existence of inner guides. "Holotropic states tend to engage something like an 'inner radar', bringing into consciousness automatically the contents from the unconscious that have the strongest emotional charge, are most psychodynamically relevant at the time, and are available for processing at that particular time."[12] Grof notes that this represents a "great advantage in comparison with verbal psychotherapy, where the client presents a broad array of information of various kind and the therapist has to decide what is important, what is irrelevant, where the client is blocking, etc.[13]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. When the Impossible Happens. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.
  2. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. When the Impossible Happens. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.
  3. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. When the Impossible Happens. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.
  4. ↑ Grof, S. (1999). Technologies of the Sacred—Part Two. The International Journal of Humanities and Peace, 15(1), 93–96. p. 94. https://www.lightningpath.org/readings/Technologies_of_the_sacred_II.pdf
  5. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 33–34. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
  6. ↑ Grof, S. (1999). Technologies of the Sacred—Part Two. The International Journal of Humanities and Peace, 15(1), 93–96. p.93. https://www.lightningpath.org/readings/Technologies_of_the_sacred_II.pdf
  7. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 33. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
  8. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 33. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
  9. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 34. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
  10. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. When the Impossible Happens. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 200
  11. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. When the Impossible Happens.' Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.
  12. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 3–36. p. 13. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.
  13. ↑ Grof, Stanislav. “Psychology For the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research.” Spirituality Studies 2, no. 1 (2016): 3–36. p. 13. https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume2-issue1-spring2016/#2.

[[Is a related term::Trauma-Focused

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