When the Impossible Happens (50 page)

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The Stormy Search for the Self A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crises.
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Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

For information on Holotropic Breathwork workshops and facilitator training, please contact:

Grof Transpersonal Training
38 Miller Ave, PMB 516
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Web site: www.holotropic.com
E-mail address: [email protected]
Phone: 415-383-8779
Fax: 415-383-0965

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine), is a psychiatrist with over fifty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training—an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Grof’s early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was principal investigator of a program systematically exploring the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

After completion of this two-year fellowship, he stayed in the United States and continued his research as chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as assistant professor of psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Doctor of Medicine. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence writing, giving seminars, lecturing, and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife, Christina Grof. He also served on the board of trustees of the Esalen Institute.

He is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and is its past and current president. In this role, he, along with Christina, has organized large international conferences in the United States, the former Czechoslovakia, India, Australia, and Brazil. At present, he lives in Mill Valley, California, conducts training seminars for professionals in Holotropic Breath work, transpersonal psychology, and writing books. He is also professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and at the Pacifica Graduate School in Santa Barbara and gives lectures and seminars worldwide.

In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held at Asilomar, California.

He has published over 140 articles in professional journals, as well as numerous books, which have been translated into sixteen languages.

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BACK COVER MATERIAL

“This book is extremely intriguing in that it shows how a strong scientific mind confronts things which science cannot explain.”

—RAM DASS, author of
Be Here Now

“I love Stan Grof’s wild and true stories. An amazing scientist, he offers a vast, mysterious perspective that opens our minds like a huge starry sky.”

—JACK KORNFIELD, PH.D., Buddhist teacher and author of
A Path with Heart

“A fascinating account of extraordinary experiences in the life of a world famous pioneer in consciousness studies. Filled with personal stories, this book reveals Grof as and intrepid explorer on the frontiers of human possibilities.”

—FRANCES VAUGHAN, PH.D., author of
Shadows of the Sacred.

“Reading Stanislav Grof’s latest book is to enter an enchanted universe. At first surprising then as the ‘A-ha experience’ repeats, ever-more enlightening and natural, this is a book that everyone needs, and will be able, to read ease and with pleasure.”

—ERVIN LASZLO, PH.D., philosopher and author of
Science and the Akashic Field

“Freud illuminated a few rooms of consciousness, as did Jung; Grof tours the entire house.”

—JAMES FADIMAN, PH.D.,
Institute for Transpersonal Psychology

Feelings of oneness with others, nature, and the universe. Encounters with extraterrestrials, deities, and demons. Out-of-body experiences and past-life memories. Science casts a skeptical eye. But Dr. Stanislav Grof—the psychiatric researcher who co-founded transpersonal psychology—believes otherwise.
When the Impossible Happens
presents Dr. Grof’s mesmerizing firsthand account of his fifty-year inquiry into waters uncharted by conventional psychology, an odyssey that will leave you questioning the very fabric of your existence.

From the first LSD session that gave Dr. Grof a glimpse of cosmic consciousness to his latest work with Holotropic Breathwork™,
When the Impossible Happens
explores fascinating experiments in astral projection; remarkable tales of synchronicity; memories of birth and prenatal life; the survival of consciousness after death, and much more. Here is an incredible opportunity to journey beyond ordinary consciousness—guaranteed to shake the foundations of what we assume to be reality—and sure to offer a new vision of our human potential, as we contemplate
When the Impossible Happens.

STANISLAV GROF, M.D., PH.D.

One of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology, Dr. Grof is the president of the International Transpersonal Association, and a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Pacifica Graduate Institute. His numerous books include
Beyond the Brain
and Psychology of the Future.