Stanislav Grof was a pioneer researcher into the affects of LSD on the mind. He constructed a theoretical framework in which LSD experiences were mapped on to the early foetal and neonatal experiences. With the legal suppression of the use of LSD in the late 60s he went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues his work today.

Born 1931 in Prague, Czechoslovakia he received an M.D. from Charles University, Prague in 1956. He completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965. He also trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst.

In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to John Hopkins University, Baltimore, in the USA and went on to become chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Centre. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence developing his ideas.

He was the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). He is currently Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Publications

Among his books are

• Realms of Human Consciousness;Souvenir Press;ISBN: 0-285-64882-9(1975)
• Beyond the Brain;State Univ of New York PrESS;ISBN: 0873958993(1986)
• With Hal Zina Bennett;The Holotropic Mind;Harper SanFrancisco;ISBN: 0062506595 (1992).

External Links

Holotropic Breathwork http://www.holotropic.com/