CONSCIOUSNESS EXPANSION
What I wish to share is what may be the most important
and potentially revolutionary of those new developments in psychology.
It is a consciousness expansion phenomenon of growing influence and popularity
that has huge political and social, as well as individual, implications.
It is interesting to me that many will have
read that last sentence and flashed "LSD!" — the last such phenomenon of
such import. Yet, though I am not speaking of LSD, this phenomenon
is directly rooted in the LSD research of those recent decades.
In fact this has to do with the premier world
researcher of LSD for therapeutic and consciousness expansion purposes
and the non-drug modality, called holotropic breathwork, he has developed
and is making increasingly available at comparatively low — hence revolutionary
— cost.
Stanislav Grof (1988) writes,
In the context of the traditional
systems of psychotherapy based on psychoanalysis, lasting changes of the
deeper psychodynamic structures underlying psychopathological symptoms
require years of systematic work. (p. 219)
But that,
It is not uncommon to reach, in the
first session with psychedelics or with holotropic breathing, early childhood
material, birth memories, or even the level of transpersonal experiences.
On occasion, dramatic and lasting psychological breakthroughs can occur
within a matter of hours and days. Although this is in no way a norm,
one psychedelic or holotropic experience can result in a major personal
transformation or can resolve a chronic emotional or psychosomatic problem.
(p. 25)
Primal Revolution
And yes I know, we have heard this before.
It smacks of a sales pitch. And for some of us it is highly reminiscent
of the claims of one particular growth technique of the early 70s.
That was primal therapy — often and derogatorily referred to as "Janov's
primal scream therapy."1
But you see, primal therapy did in fact live
up to much of its claims for many of us who experienced it. As expressed
in the songs of the rock group, Tears for Fears, and those of John Lennon
— whose two renowned albums, "Mother" and "Imagine" were written during
that time when he and Yoko were going through primal therapy — this therapy
did, and does, represent a revolutionary and effective challenge to the
dominant insanity of our culture and, specifically, to its out-dated concepts
about normality, psychopathology, and wellness.
In fact, it can be said that a great deal of
the adverse publicity that was targeted at primal — which created the derogatory
popular misconception — was a direct result of the very real threat it
posed to mainstream psychologists, psychiatrists, academics, and the cultural
and economic institutions that spread out from them. Beyond that,
it was/is a modality that requires a huge commitment from its participants;
and its claims were somewhat overstated, although not extremely so.
Finally, Janov made a great number of political blunders in presenting
and promoting his technique.
I mention all of this because it appears that
Grof's modality — though it is in many ways identical to primal therapy
in its process and its effects — does not partake of some of primal therapy's
major drawbacks. For example, it dispenses with the huge time and
money commitment that characterized primal therapy. This alone, for
a technique of consciousness expansion, has revolutionary implications
because it means it can be shared by the masses. In addition, however,
Grof has made some shrewd and correct political decisions in his presentation
of it.
HOLOTROPIC BEGINNINGS
Let me return to these points later on.
In the meantime, it might be helpful to give some background on this man
and on the modality he has developed.
Stanislav Grof was one of the first people
to receive and experience the new drug from Sandoz — LSD — back in 1956
while working in the psychiatric department of the Charles School of Medicine
in Prague in his native Czechoslovakia. He was immediately impressed
with its potential and soon found his way into a position at the Psychiatric
Research Institute in Prague where he was able to conduct a research project
on its use with patients suffering from various forms of psychiatric disorders.
This research led him to a personal crisis
in which he was forced to acknowledge the relative ineffectiveness and
superficiality of his psychoanalytic concepts and training. As he
later wrote,
Exploration of the human psyche with
these powerful catalyzing agents has shown beyond any doubt that the biographical
model developed by Freud's "depth" psychology barely scratches the surface
of mental dynamics. (Grof, 1988, p. 282)
Turning away from his traditional medical and
psychiatric background, he constructed a map of the psyche far more extensive
than Freud, or even Jung, ever dreamed. His model extended beyond
the accepted biographical elements to those with roots in experiences occurring
prior to and surrounding the time of birth, and beyond this even to an
array of experiences manifesting aspects of reality beyond the normal time-space
reality of the individual. He delineated an astounding variety of
such experiences — called transpersonal experiences — including,
at an apparent deepest level, experiences of Cosmic Consciousness and the
Metacosmic Void.
By the time he was offered an invitation to
do research at the Maryland Psychiatric Center in Catonsville in the mid-Sixties,
he had accumulated detailed records of a thousand LSD sessions conducted
for therapeutic purposes, as well as of a number conducted with artists,
scientists, mental health professionals and philosophers for purposes having
to do with facilitating problem solving, gaining a deeper understanding
of the mind, or enhancing creativity.
In subsequent years he deepened his theories,
based upon what had become the records of over four thousand LSD sessions
while doing psychedelic research in Maryland and later as the first scholar-in-residence
at Esalen. It was when, due to the mass hysteria surrounding the
popular use of psychedelics, all research on any positive potentials of
LSD was outlawed, that Stanislav Grof began his search to develop a non-drug
modality that would have the same kind of powerful therapeutic and consciousness-expanding
effects.
The technique he settled upon, which combined
a rebirthing-style or hyperventilation-type of breathing with evocative
music, bodywork, and art, he called holotropic from Greek roots
meaning "wholeness" and "moving towards." At around this time, he
also remarried. Together he and Christina developed and refined this
modality in workshops that they co-led around the world as well as at Esalen.
SPIRITUAL EMERGENCIES
Another potentially revolutionary development
occurred in 1980 that was a natural outgrowth of the extraordinary findings
of Grof's twenty-five years of research. It was clear to the Grofs
that people were healed and helped by experiencing a wide range of phenomena
in altered states of consciousness induced by their techniques. It
was equally clear that many people were experiencing these phenomena spontaneously
on their own and were having spontaneous healing, mystical, and growth
experiences. But rather than being allowed to run their course, these
people were very often intervened upon in mid-course by society and were
drugged, "put away," or worse.
Christina Grof decided to help create a network
that could be used to support these people through their crises in a way
that would not interrupt the natural healing process. Thus, the Spiritual
Emergency Network was born. To date, SEN has over 1,100 "helpers,"
receives about 150 phone calls monthly from individuals seeking help, and
has a mailing list numbering over 10,000. And it is growing.2
Now, it is exactly here that we see one revolutionary
implication of this movement. Authoritarian cultures tend to use
authoritarian treatment modalities, which have more to do with controlling
undesirable behavior (undesirable to those in power) than with fostering
wellness in any essential sense. Thus, what has happened is that
normal psychological healing crises — they are also called spiritual emergencies
— have been labeled psychopathology and have been responded to with all
kinds of coercive measures: from the mild extreme of authoritarian
talk therapy and "counseling" (back into agreement with the "normal" consensus)
to the brutal extreme of forcible drugging, electroshock, and even brain
surgery to remove or neutralize the "undesirable" and "troublesome" parts
of the brain and personality.
Relating to the milder, "talking," form of
coercion, we have Grof's (1988) words:
The therapeutic outcome of the [holotropic]
sessions is frequently indirectly proportionate to the amount of external
intervention. Some of the most productive experiences are those where
the client did everything himself or herself. Many traditional psychotherapeutic
methods see the therapist as the active agent who uses specific techniques
to change the psyche of the client in a certain direction, predicated by
the theory of a particular school. Individuals who have been trained
in such traditions might find it difficult to function as facilitators
in holotropic therapy, where much emphasis is put on the spontaneous healing
potential of the psyche. (p. 209)
Thus, what we have found out — which happens to
reinforce our naturalistic and positive view of human nature — is that
these "breakdowns" are most often "breakthroughs"!
The development of distressing symptoms that
do not have any organic basis can be seen as an indication that the individual
operating on false premises has reached a point where it has become obvious
that the old way of being in the world does not work any more and is untenable.
Such a breakdown . . . represents a crisis or even emergency, but also
a great opportunity. (Grof, 1988, p. 166)
These spiritual emergencies, which from the
viewpoint of the embattled status quo need to be labeled "mental illness"
and "break-down," can, from a revolutionary perspective, be happily
and more accurately interpreted as breaking-free and breaking-away
. . . from that status quo and from the repressive controls of the dominant
culture.
SOCIETAL RESISTANCES AND TRAPS
What I am saying is that a natural psychological
consciousness expansion is inevitable in human development; that this expansion
leads to more human, loving, and cooperative ways and perceptions and feelings
in individuals, together with greater individualism, creativity, assertiveness,
and awareness. But that, tragically, this natural unfoldment has
been resisted by societies that are threatened by such emergence of individualism
and cooperative good will among its masses. Autocratic and authoritarian
systems need unfeeling, numbed out, non-thinking, competitive, disunited,
and fearful populaces. These feelings feed such a system and lubricate
its workings.
And Western society's traditional tool of resistance
to such natural unfoldment has been the psychiatric profession.
The fact that Grof was a member of just such
a cadre of professional mind police, and that he was fully credentialed
in that respect, but is now working against this system, makes his efforts
all the more credible, hence influential in our society. I might
also point out that, unlike Arthur Janov who provoked a similar movement
in the early Seventies,3 Grof
is being careful in his truth-telling to not unduly antagonize his opposition.
He has also so far successfully avoided media traps that would attempt
to set him and his technique up for humiliation and ridicule and thus cripple
the spread of his techniques to where they are needed. Veteran psychedelic
researchers learn to be this wary.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN NOTES
1. See especially Arthur
Janov, The Primal Scream: Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis
(1970); and, for a look at the evolved primal therapy, see Paul Hannig,
Feeling
People: A Revolutionary Concept in Therapy, Lifestyle and Human Contact
(1982).
[return to text]
2. For help with spiritual
emergencies: Spiritual Emergence Network, 5905 Soquel Drive, Suite 650,
Soquel, CA 95073; phone (408) 464-8261. [return to text]
3. See, for example,
Arthur Janov, The Primal Revolution: Toward a Real World (1972).
[return to text]
CHAPTER SIXTEEN REFERENCES
Grof, Stanislav. (1988a). The Adventure of
Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy
and Inner Exploration. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Hannig, Paul. (1982). Feeling People: A
Revolutionary Concept in Therapy, Lifestyle and Human Contact. Winter
Park, FL: Anna Publishing Inc.
Janov, Arthur. (1970). The Primal Scream:
Primal Therapy, The Cure for Neurosis. New York: Dell.
Janov, Arthur. (1972). The Primal Revolution:
Toward a Real World. New York: Simon & Schuster.