Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution

Edited by Stanislav Grof
Assisted by Marjorie L. Valier

Subjects: Human Evolution
Series: SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology
Paperback : 9780887065286, 328 pages, January 1988
Hardcover : 9780887065279, 328 pages, February 1988

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Table of contents

Introduction
Stanislav Grof

1. Human Survival: A Psycho-Evolutionary Analysis
Roger Walsh

2. Transpersonal Vision
Frances Vaughan

3. The Transformed Beserk: Unification of Psychic Opposites
Marie-Louise von Franz

4. On Getting to Know One's Inner Enemy: Transformational Perspectives on the Conflict of Good and Evil
Ralph Metzner

5. Modern Consciousness Research and Human Survival
Stanislav Grof

6. Individuality: A Spiritual Task and Societal Hazard
John Weir Perry

7. Thoughts on Mysticism as Frontier of Consciousness Evolution
Brother David Steindl-Rast

8. Jesus, Evolution, and the Future of Humanity
John White

9. The Buddhist Path and Social Responsibility
Jack Kornfield

10. Transition to a New Consciousness
Karan Singh

11. The Darkness of God: Theology After Hiroshima
James Garrison

12. The Incomplete Myth: Reflections on the "Star Wars" Dimension of the Arms Race
Michael E. Zimmerman

13. Laying Down A Path in Walking: A Biologist's Look at a New Biology and Its Ethics
Francisco J. Varela

14. Pacific Shift: The Philosophical and Political Movement from the Atlantic to the Pacific
William Irwin Thompson

15. Space-Age and Planetary Awareness: A Personal Experience
Russell L. Schweickart

16. Near Death Experiences: Implications for Human Evolution and Planetary Transformation
Kenneth Ring

17. The Omega Project
Kenneth Ring and Alise Agar

18. Death, The Final Stage of Growth
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Contributors

Index

Description

In addition to the apocalyptic prospect of global nuclear destruction, there are other dismal scenarios involving resource and environmental issues that are less imminent but still serious in the long term. Past analyses, seeking remedies, have focused on symptoms rather than causes. They represent extensions and expressions of the same philosophies and strategies that created these situations.

This book brings a fresh and optimistic perspective to the problem area. It explores modern consciousness research and transpersonal psychology for practices that accelerate the development of consciousness. It covers a wide range from laboratory techniques of experimental psychiatry, transpersonal psychotherapies, and Jungian psychology to the Oriental and Western mystical traditions.

Stanislav Grof, MD, is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years of experience in research of non-ordinary states of consciousness. He has been 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 the Johns Hopkins University; and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute. He is currently Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, conducts professional training programs in holotropic breathwork, 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). In 2007, he was granted the prestigious Vision 97 award from the Vaclav and Dagmar Havel Foundation in Prague. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration; Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science; Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy; The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness; and Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research; all published by SUNY Press.