Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist with almost 50 years of experience in research of nonordinary states of consciousness. He has been the principal investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and scholar-in-residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. It was at Esalen that Stan Grof codeveloped, with his wife Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork™, a technique that includes deep, connected breathing, music, art, and trained facilitation with the goal of wholeness, healing, and wisdom.
Currently, Stanislav Grof is professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, conducts professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and founding president of the International Transpersonal Association.
Among Stanislav Grof’s publications are more than 150 articles on Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology in professional journals and the books Realms of the Human Unconscious; The Human Encounter With Death (with Joan Halifax); LSD Psychotherapy; The Adventure of Self-Discovery; Beyond the Brain; Books of the Dead; The Holotropic Mind; The Cosmic Game; The Transpersonal Vision; The Consciousness Revolution (with Ervin Laszlo and Peter Russell); Psychology of the Future; Beyond Death; The Stormy Search for the Self; and Holotropic Breathwork (the last three with Christina Grof). He also edited the books Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science; Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution; and Spiritual Emergency (the last with Christina Grof). His books have been translated into more than 15 languages.
What People are Saying About Stanislav Grof
"Stanislav Grof is one of the most important pioneers in the scientific understanding of consciousness."
—Deepak Chopra, author of Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul
