THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death Stanislav Grof, M. D. MAPS The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies 10 THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY 100% of the profits from the sale of this hook will he devoted to psychedelic psychotherapy research. THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death ISBN 0-966001X-X-X (paperback) Copyright 2006 by Stanislav Grof, M.D. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means electronic or mechanical except as expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing by the publisher. Requests for such permission shall be addressed to: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) 2105 Robinson Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34232 USA Voice: (941) 924-6277 • Fax: (941) 924-6265 e-mail: [email protected] www.maps.org Project Editor: Brandy Doyle Book & cover design: Mark Plummer Eagle Nebula photo: ________ Text set in Figural Book for the Macintosh Printed in the United States of America by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, MI O@O _v Pefs^/-./ THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY II CONTENTS Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Shamanism: The Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy 2. Rites of Passage: Death and Rebirth in Ritual Transformation 3. Ancient Mysteries of Death and Rebirth 4. Death and Rebirth in the Great Religions of the World 5. The Posthumous Journey of the Soul 6. The Books of the Dead: Manuals for Living and Dying 7. Cultural Perspectives on the Nature of Reality and Consciousness 8. Dimensions of Consciousness: New Cartography of the Human Psyche 9. Consciousness on the Threshold of Death 10. The Mystery of Karma and Reincarnation 11. Messages and Visits from the Beyond 12. History of Psychedelic Therapy with the Dying 13. The Spring Grove Program 14. Psychedelic Case Histories 15. Psychedelic Metamorphosis of Dying 16. Psyche and Thanatos: Death in Western Psychology and Society Appendix: Aldous Huxley’s Conscious Approach to Death Literature Index THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY 13 FOREWORD THERE WERE A LIST OF THE MOST IFinfluential people in the 20th century (and now a bit beyond), Stanislav Grof would be among them. The importance of altered states of consciousness is now coming to be increasingly recognized and no one has worked this domain as productively as the author of this book. Grof’s work began in Czechoslovakia, where for four years he worked in an in­ terdisciplinary complex of research institutes in Prague and for another seven in the newly founded Psychiatric Research Institute. On coming to the United States in 1967 he continued his investigations at the Research Unit of Spring Grove State Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and in the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. Two covering facts about his work are worth noting before proceeding. First, in the use of psychedelics for therapeutic and personality assessment, his experience is by far the vastest that anyone has amassed, covering as it does over 3,000 sessions in which he spent a minimum of five hours with the subject. In addition, his studies cover another 800 cases his col­ leagues at Baltimore and Prague conducted. Second, in spanning the Atlantic, his work covers the two dominant approaches to psychedelic therapy that have been developed: psycholytic therapy (used at Prague and in Europe generally) which involves numerous administrations of low to medium doses of LSD or its variants over a long therapeutic program, and psychedelic therapy (conducted in America) which involves one or a few high doses in a short period of treatment. The relevant point of this tremendous database for this, Grof’s latest book, is that it is the experience of dying and being reborn—the “ultimate journey” that awaits us all—that effects the cure. That sentence is worth the reader’s pausing for a moment to ponder, for its implication is enormous. If, even intellectually—cognitively, cere­ brally—we were convinced that death is indeed followed by rebirth, this might go a long way toward curing nothing less than our lives. For fear is life’s disease. We have it from Carl Jung that he had never had a patient over forty years of age whose problems did not root from his fear of approaching death. 14 THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY The great virtue of this book is that, using what was said in the preceding para­ graph as its centerpiece, it encircles that centerpiece from all the relevant angles: his­ torical, theoretical, therapeutic, scientific, and philosophical. I don’t need to enlarge on this point, for a glance at the book’s table of contents will make it immediately clear. Being a philosopher myself, I particularly like Grof’s chapter on “Dimensions of Con­ sciousness: New Cartography of the Human Psyche,” but I have said enough. The best thing I can now do for this signally important book is to stop standing between the reader and Stanislav Grof himself. Huston Smith Berkeley, California August 22, 2005 THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY 15 AKNOWLEDGMENTS HE IDEAS AND CONCEPTS discussed Tin this book are based on observations and experiences from more than half a century of my research on non-ordinary states of consciousness, which has been not only an exciting scientific exploration of the hu­ man psyche, but also a fascinating journey of self-discovery and personal transforma­ tion. Over the years I have received invaluable support, encouragement, and inspira­ tion from many people who have played an important role in my life and shared with me their knowledge and wisdom—some of them as teachers, others as close friends and fellow seekers, and many of them in all these roles. I would like to express my deep appreciation for the pioneers who conducted the ground-breaking research of death and dying and opened the field of thanatol- ogy: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross for her research on the dying process and psychological work with dying patients, Karlis Osis for his deathbed observations of physicians and nurses, Russell Noyes, Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring, Michael Sabom, Bruce Greyson, and others for their paradigm-breaking research on near-death experiences, and Carl Simonton and Stephanie Matthews-Simonton for their exploration of psychological factors in the etiology and therapy of cancer. My special appreciation goes to the people who played a pivotal role in the de­ velopment of psychedelic therapy with cancer patients - Eric Kast, Valentina Pavlovna Wasson, Sidney Cohen, and particularly Aldous and Laura Huxley. In her book, This Timeless Moment, Laura offers an extraordinary account of her life with Aldous, in­ cluding his ideas regarding work with dying people, and particularly the moving ex­ perience of his own death transformed by LSD, which she administered to him at his request. I feel deeply grateful to Laura for her permission to include selected passages from this important document as the Appendix to this book. This book could not have been written without the experiences and observations from the period of my life when I was Clinical and Research Fellow and later Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Catonsville, 16 THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY Maryland, where I was privileged to participate in the Spring Grove Experiment, the last surviving official U.S. research program of psychedelic therapy. Over the years we conducted several large controlled studies with groups of neurotic patients, alcoholics, and narcotic drug addicts. We also administered psychedelics to mental health profes­ sionals for training purposes and conducted a program of psychedelic therapy for can­ cer patients, which is described at some length in this book. I initially arrived in the United States for a one-year stay, which became perma­ nent exile after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Spring Grove staff members welcomed me with much love into their research team and opened their homes to me. I spent seven years in Baltimore in this personally nourishing and professionally stimulating environment of like-minded friends. This period represents an unforget­ table time of my life and a source of many wonderful memories. The research we did together at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center using psychedelic therapy with terminal cancer patients is one of the most important sources of information for this book. I feel immense gratitude to this extraordinary group of people. Sanford Unger was the main architect and conceptual thinker of the Spring Grove research project and of its various controlled studies. In the early years of my stay in Baltimore, Sandy, his wife Eve, and his two little daughters became my second family. Walter Pahnke’s enthusiasm, energy, and dedication were essential for launch­ ing the programs of LSD and DPT psychotherapy with cancer patients. His background in medicine, psychology, and religion, combined with his unique personality, qualified him as the ideal person to head the research of psychedelic therapy with the dying. Walter himself died a tragic death in July 1971, before he could see the completion of his projects. William Richards played an important role in the LSD and DPT studies both as research theorist and as therapist. In various stages of research, other staff members of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center participated in the Spring Grove research as psychedelic therapists. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Thomas Cimonetti, Robert Leihy, the late Franco Di Leo, John Lobell, John Rhead, Sidney Wolf, and Richard Yensen. Mark Schiffman and Lockwood Rush operated the media department at the center. As a result of their commitment and enthusiasm, much of the case material described in this book was preserved in the form of videotape records. Helen Bonny contributed to the psychedelic studies in a unique combination of roles as musical advisor, co-therapist, and research assistant.