Stanislav Grof,
M.D., Ph.D.

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years experience researching the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories influenced the integration of Western science with his brilliant mapping of the transpersonal dimension. On October 5, 2007 Dr. Grof received the prestigious VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel in Prague. Click here to visit the Stanislav Grof website and learn more about this prestegious award.

He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of Transpersonal Psychology and received an Honorary Award for major contributions to and development of the field of Transpersonal Psychology from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology in 1993.

Stanislav Grof is also the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and its past and current president. He has organized large international conferences throughout the world and continues to lecture and teach professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology.

Currently, Dr. Grof is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, and teaches at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA

Dr. Grof was born in 1931 in Prague where he received an M.D. from Charles University and a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine) from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. Between 1960 and 1967, he was Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

In the United States, Dr. Stanislav Grof served as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. He was also Scholar-in-Residence at Esalen Institute.

Dr. Grof’s extensive research includes experiential psychotherapy using psychedelics and non-drug techniques, especially the holotropic breathwork (a method he developed with his wife Christina), alternative approaches to psychoses, understanding and treatment of psychospiritual crises (“spiritual emergencies”), the implications of recent developments in quantum-relativistic physics, biology, brain research, and other avenues of the emerging scientific paradigm, for psychiatric theory and consciousness studies.

Among Stanislav Grof's publications are over 150 papers in professional journals and many books including Beyond the Brain, LSD Psychotherapy, Psychology of the Future, The Cosmic Game, and the newly-released When the Impossible Happens and The Ultimate Journey, as well as many more. To see the complete list of Dr. Grof's books click here.

Some of Dr. Grof's major contributions:

Stanislav Grof developed theory and practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and described it in his book LSD Psychotherapy, which has been until this day the only comprehensive treatise on this subject.

Stanislav Grof created a new extended cartography of the psyche that includes, besides the biographical-recollective level and the Freudian individual unconscious, two additional levels - perinatal (related to the trauma of birth) and transpersonal (including the ancestral, racial, collective, phylogenetic, karmic, and archetypal matrices).

He developed, with his wife Christina, Holotropic Breathwork (a method of psychotherapy that uses non-ordinary states induced by faster breathing, evocative music, and focused body work), and The Grof Transpersonal Training, an extensive training program for Holotropic Breathwork facilitators that has certified over 1000 practitioners in various parts of the world.

Stanislav Grof formulated jointly with Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, Sonya Margulies and Jim Fadiman the basic principles of transpersonal psychology, a discipline that explores the full spectrum of human experience and attempts to integrate spirituality and new paradigm science. He received from the Association of Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) on the occasion of its conference in Asilomar, CA, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its existence, a special award for his contributions to the development of this field. Transpersonal psychology has been rapidly growing since its inception in the late 1960’s. At present, it is being taught at several American universities and accredited schools, has two special journals, and symposia at professional conferences. Associations of transpersonal psychology also exist in many countries of the world.

Attempted to provide a solid theoretical basis for transpersonal psychology by exploring in his writings its relationship with various revolutionary advances of new paradigm sciences.

Founder and past President of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). Organized jointly with his wife Christina nine large international conferences of this association in Boston, MA; Melbourne, Australia; Bombay, India; Santa Rosa, CA; Eugene, OR; Atlanta, GA; Prague, Czechoslovakia; and Manaus, Brazil.

Together with his wife, Christina, they were invited by Metro’Goldwyn/Meyer as special consultants for the science fiction movie, Brainstorm, and later for the movie Millenium. At present, Stan Grof is interested in returning to this work in a project that would use the best of special effects available today to portray various non-ordinary states of consciousness in the context of movies with transpersonal orientation.

Christina Grof

Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Ms. Grof is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with mythologist Joseph Campbell and poet Muriel Rukeyser. A mother and wife, she is a former teacher of art, writing, and hatha yoga. Since 1976, she has given workshops and lectures in North and South America , Europe , Australia , and Asia. From 1976 until 1988, Ms. Grof was in residence at The Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, where she and her husband coordinated and led a series of 28 experimental month-long educational programs, as well as numerous workshops.

She also co-coordinated and participated in ten international professional conferences for the ITA (in Melbourne, Australia; Boston, Bombay, India; Davos, Switzerland; Santa Rose, CA; Killarny, Ireland; Eugene, OR; Atlanta, GA; Prague, Czechoslovakia; Santa Clara, CA; Manaos, Brazil), including "The Spiritual Quest, Attachment, and Addiction" (Eugene, Oregon, 1990) and "The Yearning for Wholeness: Addiction and the Spiritual Quest" (Atlanta, Georgia, 1991). Since 1986, she has taught at professional training programs in the United States and Europe, and training sessions for the staff at Sierra Tucson, an addictions treatment facility in Tucson, Arizona. In the last few years, she has focused on writing and lecturing.

Ms. Grof is the author of The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual Path (Harper San Francisco, 1993), the forthcoming memoir, The Eggshell Landing, and is currently working on a book of her paintings. Her other books, written with Stanislav Grof, M.D., are Beyond Death (Thames and Hudson, 1980), Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (J.P. Tarcher, 1989), and The Stormy Search for the Self (J.P. Tarcher, 1990). Each of her books has been translated into many languages. Some of her published articles have appeared in Crossroads: The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage , Louise Mahdi , Nancy Christopher and Michael Meade , Ed. (Open Court, 1997), Common Boundary , Re-Vision, the Spiritual Emergence Network Journal, Lotus Journal, and Honolulu Magazine. She has been interviewed on radio and television stations internationally and has been the subject of newspaper and magazine articles. She was also a consultant on the feature film, Brainstorm (1980) starring Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken. She is currently working on a book of her paintings.

Ms. Grof has presented at programs and conferences such as those sponsored by the New York Legislature ("Rites of Passage: A Comprehensive Approach to Adolescent Development"), International Committee on Alcoholism and Addictions (ICAA Ross Hospital Addictions Department (Ross, California), Hazelden/ Betty Ford Center Women's Conference, American Society of Addiction Medicine, The College of William and Mary (Project Taproot), University of Arizona Medical School, University of California Extension (Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Santa Clara), Santa Barbara City College Extension, John F. Kennedy Graduate School, The State of the World Forum, Marin Women's Services, US Journal/Health Communications, Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), Institute of Noetic Sciences, The Fetzer Institute, Claremont Jung Society, Association of Transpersonal Psychology (ATP), Association of Humanistic Psychology (AHP), International Transpersonal Association (ITA), Common Boundary, East-West Foundation, The Healing Woman, VOICES, and the Spiritual Emergence Network, as well as by various European, Australian, South American, and Asian groups.

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