Table of Contents
The Way of the Psychonaut (Vol 2): Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys
The second book of a two-volume set, The Way of the Psychonaut, Volume 2 is a crucial work on the human psyche and spiritual quest. These new insights were made possible by Albert Hofmann’s discovery of LSD and other psychedelic substances.
This comprehensive work explores psychology, psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, and maps of the psyche. It covers birth, sex, death, psychospiritual rebirth, trauma roots, spiritual emergencies, transpersonal experiences, karma, reincarnation, higher creativity, great art, and archetypes.
Written in his late eighties, The Way of the Psychonaut may be Grof’s greatest contribution. His knowledge is vast, his writing accessible, and his narratives enriched with anecdotes, personal accounts, and case studies. Grof reviews the history of depth psychotherapy, the needed revisions, and the importance of the inner quest.
As a father of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and a leading practitioner, Grof is deserving of a Nobel Prize in medicine. In these volumes, he unveils a new paradigm in self-exploration and healing.
The practical knowledge in this book will be invaluable for all serious seekers. The second volume focuses on research observations in holotropic states. It highlights the need for radical revisions in mainstream psychiatry and psychology and suggests areas for change and their nature.
About the Author
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with over fifty years of experience. He researches the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories integrate Western science with his mapping of the transpersonal dimension. On October 5, 2007, Dr. Grof received the VISION 97 award from the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel.
He is a founder and chief theoretician of Transpersonal Psychology. In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. Dr. Grof is the founding President of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). He served as its President for many years. He has organized international conferences and continues to lecture and teach. He offers professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology.
Currently, Dr. Grof is a Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. He also teaches at Wisdom University in Oakland, CA.
Dr. Grof was born in 1931 in Prague. He earned an M.D. from Charles University and a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. From 1960 to 1967, he was the Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague.
In the United States, Dr. Grof served as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. He was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was also Scholar-in-Residence at Esalen Institute.
Dr. Grof’s research includes experiential psychotherapy using psychedelics and non-drug techniques. He developed holotropic breathwork with his wife Christina. His work covers alternative approaches to psychoses and understanding psychospiritual crises (“spiritual emergencies”). He explores recent developments in quantum-relativistic physics, biology, and brain research for psychiatric theory.