14 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i i n u m b e r 3 • w i n t e r 2 o o 7

Stanislav Grof Receives Vaclav Havel Award

R.M. Crockford

Another chapter in ’s history mistake,” and a Czech skeptics’ society as a city of unusual wonder was recorded accused Dr. Grof of “propagating absurd on October 5, when the VIZE97 Founda- ideas” by claiming that tion, created by playwright and former enables participants to re-experience past Czech president Vaclav Havel, presented lives and their own birth. But such a lifetime achievement award to Dr. criticisms were dismissed later in the Stanislav Grof, one of the world’s leading evening by Havel himself, in his speech to psychedelic researchers. Dr. Grof, who the packed auditorium. was born near Prague in 1931, pioneered “This prize is for visionaries, for LSD-assisted psychotherapy in Czecho- explorers, for people who overstep R.M. Crockford slovakia until he emigrated to the United boundaries and notice new and unpredict- [email protected] States in 1967. able connections,” said Havel. Such The ceremonies took place at the researchers take risks, he noted, because R.M. Crockford is a Canadian writer Prague Crossroads, a deconsecrated 10th- they’re often attacked by “hard traditional- researching the psychiatric use century church converted into a spiritual ists who can’t imagine that science could and meeting center by Mr. Havel’s founda- step beyond its own limits. These people of LSD in in tion. The day began with Dr. Grof signing can even be fanatical opponents to the 1960s. Last year, copies of New Perspectives in anything that is outside traditional MAPS published and Psychology, a collection of his recent thinking. In the name of rationality, they Stan Grof’s latest book, writings in Czech, and then joining a two- sometimes actually fight against new hour panel discussion about his work, and ideas.” The Ultimate Journey: the challenges of trying to reconcile “I’ve always believed that what Consciousness and the mystical experiences with organized happened once can’t be erased, that the Mystery of Death, religion and modern psychiatry. The whole history of our planet, and the available in the MAPS Webstore at: discussions, open to the public, were cosmos, is being written somewhere, that attended by about 100 well-wishers - a Being has its own memory,” Havel contin- MAPS.org/catalog. local magazine recently named Dr. Grof ued. “The work of Dr. Grof showed me one of the 20 most important spiritual that sometimes, something can return leaders in the Czech nation’s history - from this greater memory to our own along with several Czechs trained in consciousness. And that we can surpris- holotropic breathwork, a drug-free ingly experience, maybe only for a few method to induce non-ordinary states of minutes, something that happened a long consciousness that Dr. Grof developed time ago, or in faraway places, that we with his wife Christina. couldn’t know by other means.” “Many addicts are on a journey to find Havel and his wife Dagmar presented something, and they had several mystical Dr. Grof with a stylized staff of St. Vojtech, experiences, but most of them were not the patron saint of Bohemia. Afterwards, able to integrate them,” said Stanislav Dr. Grof said he was deeply moved by the Kudrle, a Czech psychiatrist who has used ceremony. It brought his work back to his breathwork to treat drug and alcohol birthplace, he noted, and it was an honor addicts for 18 years. “What Stan Grof did to be recognized by a statesman and is, he brought the maps, he brought the philosopher he greatly admires. model and the method which makes it “And then [there was] the tremen- possible to support these people on their dous surprise that Vaclav Havel had the quest.” courage to appreciate research in some- Not everyone was pleased about the thing that’s so controversial. It’s extremely awarding of the Havel prize to Dr. Grof. important in terms of other people taking Priests and psychiatrists were quoted in a a second look, because of who he is. I hope Prague newspaper that day saying the that it can ultimately help the field.” • foundation had made an “embarrassing