How Stanislav Grof Helped Launch the Dawn of a New Psychedel

[HeartCore]

April 10, 2010
The world of medicine may finally be ready to catch back up with psychedelic pioneers, whose work was rejected a half-century ago.

Next week, the brightest lights of the psychedelic cognoscenti will gather in San Jose, California. Leaving swirls of tracer visions in their wakes, they will converge from around the world at an incongruously bland Holiday Inn, 50 miles south of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that once served as the pulsing capital of Psychedelistan. There, several hundred turned-on and tuned-in doctors, psychologists, artists and laypeople will participate in the annual conference of the http://www.maps.org .

For four days, they will explore -- through workshops and lectures, nothing more -- the widening gamut of clinical inquiry into the uses of the psychedelic experience, a global resurgence of which has led to hopeful talk of a "psychedelic revival."

Read the rest of the article at Alternet.org:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/146393/ho ... search_era

 

[IJesusChrist]

what i would do to go to that.

apparently not buy a ticket and skip class. :roll:

 

[Special K]

Wow this is exciting!

I have been a huge fan of Stanislav Grof ever since I read his book "When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities"

He is a wonderful, brilliant man who has helped the psychedelic-loving community more than most people will ever know.

I hope all goes well at the convention.



Special K

 

[_Avatar_]

Thank you for posting this. There's a lot about Stan Grof's early career in that article that I had not read about before.

I vaguely remembered Terence McKenna saying that some kind of book gave him a much more serious approach to the use of psychedelics, but I had forgotten which book he mentioned. Recently I decided to listen to some of his lectures again in my car. The CD starts with a couple of mp3s from James Arthur. Listening to it, I suddenly realized it hadn't been McKenna who had commented upon someone's book, but Arthur, and to my great delight he actually mentioned one of Grof's books. James said (and I paraphrase): "Stan Grof's "Realms of the Unconscious" saved my psychedelic life, basically. I realized I had had no idea of what I was doing and was lucky to have made it this far without getting myself seriously hurt."

I personally think every serious psychonaut should read at least one of his books from cover to cover (doesn't really matter which book).

Grof has definitely been one of the most important psychedelic researchers of the past century. He's been a pioneering theoretical psychologist and an extremely broadminded therapist. A very sweet person, and fortunately still with us.

 

[HeartCore]

I read the Holotropic mind just a week after my first big psilocybin journey and really loved it. I'm not sure if it saved my psychedelic life but it certainly helped

 

[_Avatar_]

The conference has started.

Lorenzo Hagerty wrote: "Just wanted to let you know that Allyson and Alex Grey made it to the Psychedelic Science Conference currently underway in San Jose. And they looked GREAT! Both of them were still wearing upper body casts after breaking their backs in a very serious automobile accident about a month ago, and yet they still flew all the way across the country to speak at the conference as promised. What can you say beyond BRAVO!"

Now that's what I call dedication to the good cause. rayer:

 

[azmishz]

A really nice idea. I appreciate it much !