Overview

Many people are undergoing a profound personal transformation associated with spiritual opening. Under favorable circumstances, this process results in emotional healing, a radical shift in values, and a profound awareness of the mystical dimension of existence. For some, these changes are gradual and relatively smooth, but for others they can be so rapid and dramatic that they interfere with everyday functioning, creating tremendous inner turmoil. Unfortunately, many traditional healthcare professionals do not recognize the positive potential of these crises; they often see them as manifestations of mental disease and respond with stigmatizing labels, suppressive drugs, and even institutionalization. In The Stormy Search for the Self, Christina and Stanislav Grof, the world's foremost authorities on the subject of spiritual emergence, draw on years of dramatic personal and professional experience with transformative states to explore these spiritual emergencies, altered states so powerful they threaten to overwhelm the individual's ordinary reality. This book will provide insights, assurances, and practical suggestions for those who are experiencing or have experienced such a crisis, for their families and friends, and for mental-health professionals. It is also a valuable guide for anyone whose experiences, though untraumatic, may still be disorienting.

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Stanislav Grof is a psychiatrist with over sixty years of research experience in non-ordinary states of consciousness and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training: an MD degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a PhD degree (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine) from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Grof's early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was principal investigator of a program that systematically explored the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967 he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University and the Research Unit of Spring Grove Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1969, he became assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and continued his research as chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Catonsville, Maryland. In 1973 Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he developed, with his late wife Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork, an innovative form of experiential psychotherapy that is now used worldwide. Dr. Grof is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and for several decades served as its president. In 1993 he received an honorary award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology, given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held in Asilomar, California. In 2007, he received the prestigious VISION 97 lifetime achievement award from the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 2010, he also received the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) for his pivotal contributions to this field. Christina Grof was cocreator of Holotropic Breathwork, founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN), and the author of many books, including Beyond Death: The Gates of Consciousness; Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis; The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis (all with Stanislav Grof), and The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spirit. An actor of twenty-five-plus years, Amy Gorelow has used her extensive ear for accents in most of her audiobooks. She speaks French and Russian, and is also a multi-instrumentalist, excelling at the string bass. She lives in Chicago.

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