Stanislav Grof
Stanislav Grof
Dr. Stanislav Grof is an exceptional scientist and psychiatrist who, in his research and scientific work spanning over half a century, has consistently focused on the transformative and healing potentials of altered (holotropic) states of consciousness.
Based on decades of observing his clients’ experiences in holotropic states of consciousness, he developed a groundbreaking paradigm of the extended cartography of the human psyche. With this paradigm, he expands the biographical dimension, which includes Freud’s individual unconscious, by adding two further dimensions: the perinatal, first described a century ago by psychoanalyst Otto Rank, which Grof expanded and deepened, connecting it to the experiences of the fetus in the womb and birth; and the transpersonal, which encompasses ancestral, racial, collective, phylogenetic, karmic, and archetypal records of individuals and groups, a concept Carl Gustaf Jung termed the collective unconscious.
He was born in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, and played a significant role in the scientific research of psychedelics as a therapeutic agent in the 1960s and 1970s, first in his home country and later in the United States of America. At the Maryland Psychiatric Research Centre, he led for many years the only official psychedelic therapy research project still existing in the USA at that time. He developed the theory and practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Holotropic Breathwork was developed by him and his wife Christina while he worked as a resident scholar at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, from 1973 to 1987. Holotropic Breathwork is a powerful form of self-exploration and healing without the influence of psychoactive substances, which has since been continuously practiced by participants in thousands of workshops and professional trainings across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Today, there are over 1000 certified Holotropic Breathwork facilitators worldwide.
Stan Grof, along with Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, Sonya Margulies, and Jim Fadiman, is one of the founders and leading theorists of transpersonal psychology, the fourth and youngest branch of psychology and a scientific discipline that explores the full spectrum of human experience, integrating spirituality and new scientific paradigms.
Christina Grof
Christina Grof
Christina Grof (1941-2014) was an author, teacher, artist, psychotherapist, founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network, and co-creator of Holotropic Breathwork. She was the president of the Holotropic Breathwork Facilitator Training, Distinguished Vice President of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), and an advisor to the board of the Spiritual Emergence Network. For over thirty years, she was active in the field of transpersonal psychology, which considers emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of human nature and functioning as indispensable for understanding individuals and humanity.
Ms. Grof was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with mythologist Joseph Campbell and poet Muriel Rukeyser. She was a mother and a wife, as well as a teacher of art, writing, and Hatha Yoga.
She led workshops and lectures in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. From 1976 to 1988, she and her husband lived and worked at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where they coordinated and led a series of 28 experimental one-month educational programs in transpersonal psychology, as well as numerous workshops.
