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LSD Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Psychedelic Medicine
LSD Psychotherapy is a valuable source of information for those who are involved with LSD in any way, as parents, teachers, researchers, legistlators or students of the human psyche. The approach to healing described in this book is inspired by the eternal desire of humankind for wholeness and an enduring grasp of reality.
351 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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2190 people want to read
About the author
Stanislav Grof
119 books690 followersStanislav Grof is known for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche—the field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Building on his observations while conducting LSD research and on Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto one's early fetal and neonatal experiences. Over time, this theory developed into an in-depth "cartography" of the deep human psyche.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 31, 2019
Eternally grateful to Stan Grof for the monumental psychological research he conducted with LSD, and this enlightening book.
This book has saved me from confusion and pain, shedding light on indescribable transcendent experiences of cosmic proportions which have transformed my life in supremely positive ways.
The text is dense and the vocabulary is of a psychotherapist trained in Freudian theory. However, if you are deeply interested in psychedelics, psychology, or have begun the path of psychedelic assisted self-discovery, pick up this book.
Stan Grof’s research provides the best psychological framework for understanding the progressive stages of LSD assisted psychotherapy humanity has to date. The book may provide comfort as you will know that the experiences of unfathomable discomfort, anguish and terror you inevitably encounter with high doses of LSD are not unique to you, nor are they abnormal.
I highly recommend this book, and I cannot wait to see what the future of transpersonal psychology holds for those suffering of mental illness, and humanity as a whole.
This book has saved me from confusion and pain, shedding light on indescribable transcendent experiences of cosmic proportions which have transformed my life in supremely positive ways.
The text is dense and the vocabulary is of a psychotherapist trained in Freudian theory. However, if you are deeply interested in psychedelics, psychology, or have begun the path of psychedelic assisted self-discovery, pick up this book.
Stan Grof’s research provides the best psychological framework for understanding the progressive stages of LSD assisted psychotherapy humanity has to date. The book may provide comfort as you will know that the experiences of unfathomable discomfort, anguish and terror you inevitably encounter with high doses of LSD are not unique to you, nor are they abnormal.
I highly recommend this book, and I cannot wait to see what the future of transpersonal psychology holds for those suffering of mental illness, and humanity as a whole.
July 2, 2019
What a trip!
December 26, 2008
Hands down the finest book on psychedelics and their effects -- whether catalyzing, synergetic, destructive or merely confusing -- on the human mind. My credentials to such a review are admittedly slim -- a year of very inapplicable organic and inorganic chemistry, over a thousand individual doses of lysergic acid dyethylamide's twenty-fifth derivative and an unpublishable private literature that goes 1,400 miles an hour (tuppence to the first person to bag the reference) -- but trust me on this one. Dr. Grof has written a fine book that'll stand alongside Shulgins's extraordinary PIHKAL for years to come.
August 28, 2017
Reading about psychedelic healing, like any semi-woo thing, is a little difficult because my grade-school epistemology about these things has really broken down. If you stick with the grade school (or silicon-valley-nerd) viewpoint of "the Scientific Method is right, woo is wrong", you'd miss out on a lot of really valuable stuff. Grof and other LSD therapists have clearly _clearly_ helped a ton of people in ways that we don't exactly know how to nail down yet.
However, this guy's also way older than me, and probably wooier than me. The "old" is a minor problem because occasionally you realize he's got some misconceptions that we've moved past since then - sexual fetishes are lumped in with other "problematic behavior", and maybe even homosexuality too. (Don't drag him yet; it was a passing reference and maybe his thinking has evolved since he wrote this book too.) Also, he talks a lot about rebirth experiences and how so much of therapy is about reliving past traumas including the trauma of birth. Isn't that, well, Freudian hooey? Or, getting back to "I don't really know how to know things", maybe the Freudians were right, really, and it was only the "scientific method is right, everything else is wrong" viewpoint that got me slagging on them to start with.
The "wooier" is a minor problem too - sometimes I'm a little weirded out by his descriptions, and I'm wondering "wait, are we getting into crystal healing territory?"
Also this book is a little long and wordy.
But forget all that - this book is a neat introduction to LSD psychotherapy. Go in with an open mind and it might reveal to you, as it did to me, a whole world you didn't know about, based on thousands of hours of Grof and his coworkers' lived expertise.
However, this guy's also way older than me, and probably wooier than me. The "old" is a minor problem because occasionally you realize he's got some misconceptions that we've moved past since then - sexual fetishes are lumped in with other "problematic behavior", and maybe even homosexuality too. (Don't drag him yet; it was a passing reference and maybe his thinking has evolved since he wrote this book too.) Also, he talks a lot about rebirth experiences and how so much of therapy is about reliving past traumas including the trauma of birth. Isn't that, well, Freudian hooey? Or, getting back to "I don't really know how to know things", maybe the Freudians were right, really, and it was only the "scientific method is right, everything else is wrong" viewpoint that got me slagging on them to start with.
The "wooier" is a minor problem too - sometimes I'm a little weirded out by his descriptions, and I'm wondering "wait, are we getting into crystal healing territory?"
Also this book is a little long and wordy.
But forget all that - this book is a neat introduction to LSD psychotherapy. Go in with an open mind and it might reveal to you, as it did to me, a whole world you didn't know about, based on thousands of hours of Grof and his coworkers' lived expertise.
November 23, 2008
An excellent book, although I certainly wish it'd had more of a physiological emphasis than psychological. Oh well; Dr. Grof isn't that kind of doctor, and this is a step in the right direction. As someone who considers amolecular psychology to be a bunch of religious hogwash (no matter how many licenses of R and SPSS psychologists might buy -- OH MY GOD WE FIT A LEAST SQUARE TO THIS DATA; WRITE IT UP IN APA FORMAT AND PUBLISH IT AS LAW! Bah just go laugh at this), I read this more as a philosophical treatise and guidebook for Set+Setting than a text, and in that role it was awesome. A lot of the ideas I'd had percolating (or even written down in essay form) about several hundred LSD experiences across my first twenty years found themselves expressed here far more poignantly and rigorously; beyond those insights, Dr. Grof still had plenty to offer.
Like the majority of my drug-related books, this has been stolen (or at least loaned, then forgotten), sigh.
Like the majority of my drug-related books, this has been stolen (or at least loaned, then forgotten), sigh.
July 15, 2025
This is a classic and highly recommended read for anyone working professionally with psychedelic therapy. A definite pioneer and giant on whose shoulders to stand, Grof and his work remains in many respects very influential in the field. The book gives an overview of the history of psychedelic and psycholytic therapy from times when LSD was seen as a promising though still inadequately researched tool for curing mental ailments and for personal growth, not yet criminalised and its image tainted by widespread careless use with unfortunate consequences. The book contains intriguing case studies and obviously extensive clinical experience that motivate the use of psychedelics for treatment resistant mental disorders and further research, which is fortunately happening again after a long hiatus.
Heavy Freudian emphasis and related confident interpretations at points made me question the authority of the book. Birth trauma (namely Grof’s model of perinatal matrices) and some interpretations of transpersonal and mystical experience are controversial and I would have appreciated a more self-critical presentation of especially the former, but nonetheless due to their remaining influence in relatively widespread Grofian practice principles (including in Holotropic breathwork), it was educational to read about. The various paintings and drawings with relevance by patients provided additional delight.
Heavy Freudian emphasis and related confident interpretations at points made me question the authority of the book. Birth trauma (namely Grof’s model of perinatal matrices) and some interpretations of transpersonal and mystical experience are controversial and I would have appreciated a more self-critical presentation of especially the former, but nonetheless due to their remaining influence in relatively widespread Grofian practice principles (including in Holotropic breathwork), it was educational to read about. The various paintings and drawings with relevance by patients provided additional delight.
February 2, 2019
Fantastic book. An absolute must if you're interested in both psychedelics and psychotherapy. I'm quite skeptical of many of Grof's conclusions, but nevertheless, his vast experience with LSD and psychotherapy can't possibly be ignored. Lots of great insight in the book, not only regarding LSD or psychotherapy but for human nature itself.
I'm amazed at the amount of work put into this book. It's very comprehensive, far more than I could ever expect. Also with a fantastic work with scientific references. Even ignoring the content of the entire book which is magnificent, the book is already a valuable asset even only for its immense collection of literature regarding LSD. I already knew a fair bit about Grof but this has deepened my respect for him and his life work.
I'd warn that it's quite a heavy read. Even though it's 374 pages long, it seems that the font used is smaller than usual. It felt more like a 500-600 book. But still worth it of course!
I'm amazed at the amount of work put into this book. It's very comprehensive, far more than I could ever expect. Also with a fantastic work with scientific references. Even ignoring the content of the entire book which is magnificent, the book is already a valuable asset even only for its immense collection of literature regarding LSD. I already knew a fair bit about Grof but this has deepened my respect for him and his life work.
I'd warn that it's quite a heavy read. Even though it's 374 pages long, it seems that the font used is smaller than usual. It felt more like a 500-600 book. But still worth it of course!
February 16, 2017
Very comprehensive exploration at the history of LSD as a therapeutic tool. Digs deeply into various schools of thought on LSD and psychotherapy. Geoff offers many models on how to work with LSD within a therapeutic context and specific conditions it can help. Geoff also spends adequate time looking at some of the potential hazards within a therapeutic setting.
The problem with the book, as is the case with all of his books, is the overly academic writing and the lack of practical applications and specific interventions to employ. Geoff spends very little time on how the integration process is best framed. And spends virtually zero time on, and gives very little credence to, Indigenous views of working with plant medicines. Furthermore, his writing style is often boring and put the reader to sleep.
The problem with the book, as is the case with all of his books, is the overly academic writing and the lack of practical applications and specific interventions to employ. Geoff spends very little time on how the integration process is best framed. And spends virtually zero time on, and gives very little credence to, Indigenous views of working with plant medicines. Furthermore, his writing style is often boring and put the reader to sleep.
November 2, 2022
Quite simply the closest thing to a bible for the psychonaut community. Grof's bravery and intelligence shines across the decades. Written in a golden-age for psychedelic research, LSD Psychotherapy charts Grof's voyages into the uncharted territory of his patient's subconscious realms. Although I disagree with the idea of traditional psychotherapists involving themselves in 'healing' people; there is always an exception or two that proves the rule. Grof is one such exception: A remarkable scientist who was more magician than therapist. Something he perhaps failed to acknowledge; that his skills were not something that could be taught. Nonetheless, this book is essential reading for anyone looking to heal themselves using more modern, solo methods.
May 21, 2020
What an incredible tome, a masterpiece! The language was a bit complex at times and made it slow and difficult to read through, but it was definitely worth the effort. This has revolutionized my understanding and approach to psychedelic use.
Grof is an absolutely brilliant and inspiring psychologist and author, condensing 20 years of groundbreaking research into this amazingly comprehensive book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in psychedelic therapy with any substance, not just the one which was the subject of Grof's life work.
Grof is an absolutely brilliant and inspiring psychologist and author, condensing 20 years of groundbreaking research into this amazingly comprehensive book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in psychedelic therapy with any substance, not just the one which was the subject of Grof's life work.
May 12, 2021
BY FAR the most comprehensive and useful book on the high-dose psychedelic experience I have read. This should be required reading for anyone (other than Indigenous folks with their own traditions) who want to work with psychedelics, clinical or spiritual. And, I would even venture to recommend this as individual preparatory work for a high-dose experience. Yes, it's thorough, but astronauts study and train for decades before traveling to the moon... we might as well read ONE BOOK before embarking on a trip THROUGH space-time.
January 1, 2023
Stanislav Grof is an undeniable genius. This book should be exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art. It transcends literature and is living art. Grof's book introduced me to LSD and allowed me to free myself from the humdrum horror of contemporary 'politics' and 'society'. Only Phoenix Kaspian's book 'MDMA Solo' comes close to matching Grof's radical approach to healing. If you only read one book before tripping your face off (calmly and responsibly), make it LSD Psychotherapy. I wish I could give it 420 out of five. Five was the limit.
August 25, 2018
It's a little dated, with its references to freudian psychoanalysis, but it's the most the thorough discussion of psychedelics I've read yet.
January 5, 2024
Quite academic. It's a little sad to see that all this related knowledge is from that one generation of researchers. And the research stopped in recent years.
September 27, 2018
was interesting and changing to read! =)
December 8, 2009
A sui generis investigation into the therapeutic dynamics (that once were but are no more) of psychotropic substances in psychotherapy. Offers, perhaps, the ultimate method of Active Imagination developed by Carl Gustav Jung. These days such a study would be impossible, ever since LSD has been classified as a Schedule A narcotic by Nixon (who also created the DEA).
November 10, 2011
A clinical analysis of Grof's significant history treating psychiatric patients with LSD. Overall quite interesting, but a little dry. A good read for anyone interesting in psychotherapy. Clearly LSD works in the clinical setting.
August 15, 2008
I read this in college. Very interesting if you think that the mind has many layers. I wouldn't do LSD though.
January 28, 2011
Probably the best book I've read so far on non-ordinary states of consciousness accessed through psychedelics.
October 11, 2019
Grof knows all the gory details of how to work with tripping people and what their experiences mean. It was nice to see some of my implicit intuitions written out explicitly, and I learned a lot.
November 8, 2022
This book is extraordinarily great
November 14, 2024
Grof good.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews