The Importance of Set and Setting in Psychedelic Experiences

"I realized people were not having LSD experiences; they were having experiences of themselves. But they were coming from depths that psychoanalysis didn't know anything about." — Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof, M.D., (stanislavgrof.com) is a psychiatrist with more than 60 years of experience in research of "holotropic" states of consciousness, a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states that have healing, transformative, and evolutionary potential.

Previously, he was 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, MD, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA.

Currently, Stan is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA, and 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 the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA).

His publications include more than 150 articles in professional journals and books like Psychology of the Future, The Cosmic Game, and Holotropic Breathwork, among many others.

In this wide-ranging interview, we cover many topics, including:

• Some of his main takeaways after supervising or guiding ~4,500 LSD sessions
• The place and role of "wounded healers"
• Limitations and uses of traditional psychoanalysis and talk therapy
• Holotropic breathwork and some similarities to MDMA
• Stories of odd synchronicities and the seemingly impossible
• Stan's strangest personal experiences on psychedelics
• What Stan believes humanity most needs to overcome: division and destruction

I hope you'll enjoy this in-depth conversation with Stan Grof!

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