Table of Contents
The Way of the Psychonaut: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys (Volume One)
The first book in a two-volume series, The Way of the Psychonaut, Volume 1 is one of the most significant works ever written about the human psyche and the spiritual journey.
These groundbreaking insights were made possible by Albert Hofmann’s discovery of LSD—the microscope and telescope of the human psyche—as well as other psychedelic substances. This comprehensive work is a tour de force through the realms of psychology and psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, maps of the psyche, birth, sex, and death, psychospiritual rebirth, the roots of trauma, spiritual emergencies and transpersonal experiences, karma and reincarnation, higher creativity, great art, and archetypes.
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.