This book is Grof’s classic exploration of the nature of consciousness and the self.First published in 1985, it has lost none of its pertinency, nor has it become any less strange and striking.During the 1960s Grof was the foremost psychotherapist working with entheogens.He personally oversaw several thousand LSD sessions.According to Grof, almost all of his theories emerged from these studies.
From the point of view of spirituality broadly construed, one of the most interesting portions of this volume is the opening chapters where Grof applies contemporary philosophy of science, particularly the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Physics, to the study of the mind and states of consciousness.In short, Grof argues that the view that the material world can be described without reference to a human observer is a false one.Hence the mind cannot be reduced to the material brain.This then leads to the formulation of what Grof calls the “bootstrap philosophy of nature” which “not only rejects the existence of basic constituents of matter, [but] it accepts no fundamental laws of nature or mandatory principles whatsoever.All theories of natural phenomena, including natural laws, are considered in this view to be creations of the human mind.”Grof’s critique of modern scientism and materialism remains one of the best available to the scientific layperson.
Later in the volume Grof sets forth his own tripartite view of the self.His three realms are the biographical, the perinatal, and the transpersonal.Concerning the perinatal realm, which is the realm that concerns the trauma of the birth process, I am skeptical of a realist view, although it is fascinating that the imagery of birth so permeates mysticism and shamanism.
All in all, this book is a must read for anyone who would like to understand the scientific side of religious experience, and the way in which these sorts of experiences fit in with the mind, brain, and the material world which science defines.Additionally, Grof speaks a bit about his Holotropic Breathwork, which is a breath technique designed to create peak experiences similar to those that sometimes occurred in patients during his LSD research.Having experienced this breath technique in a recent course, I should say that it is quite everything that Grof alleges it to be.
