Beyond Death: The Gates of Consciousness

by Stanislav Grof

Explore a truly astonishing range of interests, philosophies, religions, and cultures -from alchemy to angels, Buddhism to Hinduism, myth to magic. The distinguished authors bring a wealth of knowledge, visionary thinking, and accessible writing to each intriguing subject in these lavishly illustrated, large-format paperback books.

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality, Art, Psychology, Death, Mythology, Science

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 1980

About the author

Stanislav 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.

Reviews

[Marjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the best cartographies of the worlds beyond death that I have ever read. The first chapters introduce you to the subject in a very readable way, while the second part of the book is dedicated to religious and artistic depictions of different characteristic stages that consistently appear trough out different religions, near death experiences, psychedelic sessions, and so on. What is truly great is that Grofs do not make much fuss about any of them and categorize these experience as more or less the same. Who knows what came first, right?

[Anton Zlatev · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many religions, the celestial realms represent the most desirable goal, the destination of the spiritual journey. For others, they are merely temporary stations in the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, or important but transitional stages in the evolution toward a state that transcends any form of existence. Hinduism, Jainism, various forms of Buddhism, and the Mesoamerican religions can be mentioned here as important examples of the second concept.

The hierarchical levels and orders of heavens are characterized by progressive disappearance of concrete elements and symbols drawn from ordinary reality. The lower heavens abound in mansions, cities, objects of gold, jewels and resplendent garments. The beauty of the highest realms is of a completely abstract nature. Of all the aspects of the physical world, the heavenly bodies, the star-filled sky and the infinite interstellar space of the far regions of the universe appear to be the only appropriate symbols and metaphors for the experience of the highest heavens.

But even descriptions of this kind, that are so frequent in religious scriptures, should not be taken as references to astronomical bodies, three-dimensional space and historical time.

The celestial realms represent an experiential reality that does not coexist with the 'objective reality' of everyday life. Only when the ordinary perception of the material world is transcended - as in deep meditation, psychedelic states, spontaneous mystical experience or physical emergency - can consciousness connect with the heavenly regions. For those who have had the privilege of such experience, the existence of heaven, Cod and celestial beings ceases to be a matter of belief and becomes self-evident reality.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was passing through Barnes and Noble the other day and noticed a table labeled 'Escapist Fiction.' Should the present CEO step down, my petition to take his place will include the mandate of every single Barnes and Noble worldwide keeping its Escapist Fiction intact, beach illustration header and all, but filled instead with piles of Grof's Beyond Death: The Gates of Consciousness. Wish me luck (O mockingbird).

[Giulio]

Nella versione italiana, edita da Red edizioni:
- Oltre la soglia (con Christina Grof);