Notes to Chapter One
1. In his later work, Thomas Kuhn has begun differentiating more specific constituents and elements of what he originally referred to by the global term paradigm. He thus distinguished, for example, symbolic generalizations (the practice of expressing certain fixed relations in succinct equations, such as f=ma, I=V/R, or E=mc2); beliefs in particular models (planetary model of the atom, particle or wave model of light, model of gas as tiny billiard balls of matter in random motion, etc.); sharing of values (importance of prediction, testability, replicability, logical consistence, plausibility, visualizability, or acceptable margin of error); and exemplars (examples of concrete problem solutions in which agreed-upon principles are applied to various areas).
2. Examples of these are the basic axioms of Euclid’s geometry (only one straight line connects two points; two parallel lines never meet), Newton’s postulate of the indestructibility of matter or his laws of motion, and Einstein’s principles of constancy, or relativity.
3. According to Frank, the goal of science is to set up a system of relations between symbols and operational definitions of these symbols in such a way that the logical conclusions drawn from these statements become statements about observable facts that are confirmed by actual observations of the senses.
4. The following discussion of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm follows to some extent the formulations of Fritjof Capra in his books, The Tao of Physics (1975) and The Turning Point (1982). I gratefully acknowledge the influence he has had on my thinking on this subject.
5. The Greek name atomos is derived from the verb temnein, meaning “to cut”; with the negating prefix a-, it means “indivisible”—that which cannot be cut any further.
6. This concept was expressed in the most succinct form by “vulgar materialists.” They refused to accept consciousness as being in any way different from other physiological functions and maintained that the brain produces consciousness in much the same way the kidneys produce urine.
7. A similar point of view was recently expressed by R. D. Laing, in his articulate and well-documented book, The Voice of Experience (1982).
8. A good example of this experience is the vision of Charlotte analyzed in my book, Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (1975, pp. 227 ff).
9. A detailed description of the various types of psychedelic experience, with clinical examples, can be found in my book, Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975). A condensed version of this material constitutes chapter 2 of the present book.
10. The term perinatal is a Greek-Latin composite word; the prefix peri- means literally “around” or “near,” and natalis translates as “pertaining to delivery.” It suggests events that immediately precede, are associated with, or follow biological birth.
11. Occasional experiences of historical progression, precognition flashes, or complex clairvoyant visions of the future present a special problem in this context.
12. Examples of these are Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics (1975) and The Turning Point (1982); Lawrence LeShan’s The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist (1974); Arthur Young’s The Reflexive Universe (1976b) and Geometry of Meaning (1976a); Gary Zukav’s The Dancing Wu-Li Masters (1979); Nick Herbert’s Mind Science: A Physics of Consciousness Primer (1979); Fred Wolf’s Taking A Quantum Leap (1981); and Itzak Bentov’s Stalking the Wild Pendulum (1977). There are many others.
13. This concept of the dynamic vacuum shows a striking similarity to the concept of the metacosmic and supracosmic void found in many systems of perennial philosophy.
14. Most important aspects of this criticism of mechanistic science can be found in Gregory Batesoh’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972) and Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979).
15. This conceptual conflict between mechanistic science and modern revolutionary developments represents a replica of the ancient conflict among the major schools of Greek philosophy. The Ionian school in Miletos—Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander and others—considered the basic philosophical question to be: “What is the world made of?” “What is its basic substance?” In contrast, Plato and Pythagoras believed that the critical issue was the world’s form, patterning, and order. Modern science is distinctly neo-Platonic and neo-Pythagorean.
16. “Dissipative structures” derive their name from the fact that they maintain continuous entropy production and dissipate the accruing entropy by exchange with the environment. The most famous example is the so-called Belousov-Zhabotinski reaction, which involves oxidation of malonic acid by bromate in a sulphuric acid solution in the presence of cerium, iron, or manganese ions.
17. Erich Jantsch’s books, Design For Evolution (1975) and The Self-Organizing Universe (1980), can serve as unique sources of further information about the developments discussed above.
18. The most famous example is the anecdotal observation reported by Lyall Watson, in Lifetide (1080), and referred to as the “hundredth monkey phenomenon.” When a young female Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata), on the island of Koshima, learned an entirely new behavior—washing raw sweet potatoes covered with sand and grit—this behavior was not only transmitted to her immediate peers, but appeared in monkeys on neighboring islands when the number of monkeys who had learned the trick reached a certain critical number.
19. In recent years, physics has been rapidly approaching the point at which it will have to deal explicitly with consciousness. There are prominent physicists who believe that a future comprehensive theory of matter will have to incorporate consciousness as an integral and crucial constituent. Different versions of this view have been expressed by Eugene Wigner (1967), David Bohm (1980), Geoffrey Chew (1968), Fritjof Capra (1982), Arthur Young (1976b), Saul-Paul Sirag, and Nick Herbert (1979).
20. The clinical data on which this assumption was based and the logical errors involved in their interpretation have been discussed (p. 00).
21. The sages of the Hwa Yen tradition (Japanese Kegon and Sanskrit Avatamsaka), see the whole embracing all universes as a single living organism of mutually interdependent and interpenetrating processes of becoming and un-becoming. Hwa Yen expresses this situation by the formula: “ONE IN ALL; ALL IN ONE; ONE IN ONE; ALL IN ALL.”
22. This means that exploring the holographic image from different angles unfolds and reveals aspects previously hidden; this is not the case in conventional photography or cinematography, where inspection from additional angles simply distorts the image.
23. David Bohm’s theories have been described in a number of articles in professional journals and in his book, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980).
24. The interested reader will find a popular explanation of these new avenues of brain research in Paul Pietsch, Shufflebrain: The Quest for the Hologramic Mind (1981).
25. A recent attempt of the Soviet scientist V. V. Nalimov to formulate a theory of the unconscious based on semantics and probability theory is of particular interest here. He explored this idea in Realms of the Unconscious: The Enchanted Frontier (1982).
Notes to Chapter Two
1. An important task of the therapist in traditional forms of psychotherapy is to distinguish the relevant material from the irrelevant, detect psychological defenses, and provide interpretations. The crux of such an endeavor is that it is paradigm bound. What is relevant is not a matter of general agreement; it depends on whether one is Freudian, Adlerian, Rankian, Kleinian, Sullivanian or an exponent of yet other schools of dynamic psychotherapy. When we add to this the distortion produced by countertransference, the advantage of experiential approaches becomes immediately obvious.
2. For the etymology of the word perinatal, see note 10, chapter 1.
3. Ego death and rebirth is not a one-time experience. During systematic deep self-exploration, the unconscious presents it repeatedly with varying dimensions and emphasis until the process is completed.
4. This description reflects the ideal situation of a normal and uncomplicated birth. A prolonged and debilitating course of delivery, the use of forceps or general anesthesia, and other complications would introduce specific experiential distortions into this matrix.
5. In the symbiotic state of union with the maternal organism, there is no dichotomy between subject and object as long as there is no interference. Disturbances of the intrauterine state or the pain and distress of birth seem to create the first distinction between “the suffering me” and “the hurtful other.”
Notes to Chapter Three
1. Many ideas discussed in this chapter were part of a background paper written for Fritjof Capra at the time when we were jointly exploring the relationships between psychology and modern physics. This explains a certain conceptual overlap with two chapters of his book, The Turning Point (1982).
2. The genetic proposition of psychoanalysis refers to psychogenesis and should not be confused with heredity. It deals with developmental logic, showing how past events have determined the history of the individual and how the past is contained in the present.
3. Defense mechanisms emerge as a result of the struggle between the pressures of the id and the demands of external reality. They show specific association with the individual phases of libidinal development and have a fundamental relationship to the etiology of various kinds of psychopathology. The most important defense mechanisms found in psychoanalytic literature are repression, displacement, reaction formation, isolation, undoing, rationalization, intellectualization, denial, regression, counterphobic mechanisms, withdrawal and avoidance, introjection, identification, acting out, sublimation, and creative elaboration. The best source of further information on defense mechanisms is Anna Freud’s pioneering book on the subject, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1937).
4. Jay Haley presented a brilliant and humorous analysis of this frustrating situation in his paper, “The Art of Psychoanalysis” (1958).
5. According to Sullivan’s description, the “good nipple” gives milk and also a sense of comfort and security. An “evil nipple” provides nourishment, but in an unsatisfactory emotional context, as in the case with an anxious, tense, or unloving mother. A “wrong nipple,” such as the infant’s own thumb, feels like a nipple, but fails to provide nourishment or security.
6. Freud’s biographer, Ernest Jones (1961), gives a fascinating description of Freud’s reaction to Rank’s publication of The Trauma of Birth (1929). According to Jones, Freud experienced a deep emotional shock on reading the book. He was deeply concerned that Rank’s discoveries might overshadow his own contributions to psychology. In spite of this, his approach to the matter was initially very fair; he referred to Rank’s ideas as “the most important progress since the discovery of psychoanalysis,” and suggested that they should be given proper scientific attention. It was not Freud’s scientific disagreement but his deep political concerns that prompted him to excommunicate Rank. They were triggered by disquieting letters from Berlin warning Freud that Rank’s heretical views would cause an incurable schism in the psychoanalytic movement.
7. It deserves special notice in this connection that Jean Paul Satre’s philosophy and literary work were deeply influenced by a poorly resolved mescaline session that was dominated by elements of BPM II. This matter has been explored in detail in a special paper by Thomas Riedlinger (1982).
8. It was Einstein who during a personal meeting encouraged Jung to pursue the concept of synchronicity (1973b). Particularly close was Jung’s friendship with Wolfgang Pauli, one of the founders of the quantum theory, which found its expression in a joint publication of Jung’s essay on synchronicity and Pauli’s study of the archetypes in the work of Johannes Kepler (Pauli 1055).
Notes to Chapter Four
1. It should be clear from the context that we are limiting our discussion to problems caused by psychological factors and are excluding conditions that have an obvious organic cause, such as total exhaustion by a severe physical disease, paraplegia, or serious chemical dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system.
2. The Latin saying, Inter feces and urinas nascimur (“We are born among feces and urine”) is thus not a philosopohical metaphor, but a realistic description of a typical human delivery, unless specific provisions are made to modify it.
3. Regular observations of reliving the pain associated with the cutting of the umbilical cord contradict the medical claims that this procedure cannot be painful since the umbilical cord has no nerves. Careful study of newborns during the cutting of the cord clearly reveals the presence of behavioral reaction to pain.
4. This was, according to the CIA reports quoted in the book, the sexual preference of Adolf Hitler. A dictator aspiring to become the absolute ruler of the entire world wanted in his private sexual life to be bound, tortured, humiliated, and defecated on.
5. The use of all these ingredients makes good sense from the point of view of modern psychopharmacology. The plants from the nightshade family contain powerful psychoactive alkaloids attopine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine, while the toad skin is the source of the psychedelic dimethylserotonin or bufotenin.
6. Strong, irrational, and incomprehensible feelings of guilt can be absolutely unbearable and actually drive the individual to commit crime. The ability to link this guilt to a concrete situation usually brings a certain degree of relief. This condition, in which guilt precedes and actually generates crime, is known in psychiatry as pseudodelinquency. A typical criminal usually does not suffer from guilt and his conflict is with society and justice, not of an intrapsychic nature.
7. Jane English (1982), who has been systematically studying the implications of elective Caesarean birth, describes some additional characteristics, such as bonding with the obstetrician and subsequent specific distortions of relationships with persons of the same sex, different body tension patterns, defensiveness in relation to physical approach, and others.
8. The new technique of underwater birth introduced by the Soviet physician, Igor Charkovsky, of Moscow’s Scientific Research Institute, deserves special attention in this context.
9. The anatomical structure of the uterus involves a very complex arrangement of muscular fibers combining longitudinal, circular, and spiral elements. The uterine arteries have a winding course woven into this complex muscular fabric. As a result, every contraction compresses the vessels and interrupts internally the contact between the mother and the child mediated by the placental blood supply.
10. A former colleague of mine who committed suicide can be mentioned here as an example. He was a prominent university professor specializing in psychiatry and toxicology. In one of his attacks of periodic depression, he killed himself at the institute where he worked, opening his throat wide by several deep cuts of a razor blade. If he had just wanted to end his life, he knew of many poisons that would have served the purpose in a clean, elegant, and painless way. Yet, something in him drove him to choose a drastic and bloody way to do it.
11. According to popular lore and the descriptions of persons who have been rescued from death in snow and ice, the initial period of agonizing cold and freezing is followed by an experience of soothing warmth, pleasant melting, and a condition that resembles sleep or a stay in a nourishing womb.
12. The origins of this phenomenon are not altogether clear. There seems to be some connection to the birth practices of certain ethnic groups in which women deliver in a standing position, or to phylogenetic memories of the delivery of some mammalian species in which birth actually involves a fall.
13. For a most interesting discussion of the relationship between shamanism and psychosis, see the paper by Julian Silverman, “Shamans and Acute Schizophrenia” (1967). The shamanic state of consciousness and shamanic techniques have been explored from a modern point of view in Michael Harner’s excellent book, The Way of the Shaman (1980) and in Mircea Eliade’s classic study, Shamanism: The Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1964).
14. It seems appropriate here to mention a scholarly and well-documented book by Wasson, Hofmann and Ruck, The Road to Eleusis (1978). The authors bring strong evidence that an ergot preparation with ingredients chemically close to LSD-25 was used as a sacrament in the death-rebirth mysteries in Eleusis for almost 2000 years.
15. Observations from the practice of holotropic therapy (described on pp. 387-9) are relevant from this point of view. It does not require a powerful psychoactive drug like LSD to confront experientially the perinatal or transpersonal levels of the psyche. A supportive environment, faster breathing, and evocative music will in a matter of minutes induce in a group of randomly selected individuals unusual experiences that would be traditionally labeled as psychotic. Yet, this phenomenon is short-term, fully reversible, and conducive to psychosomatic healing and personality growth.
Notes to Chapter Five
1. The term disease, or nosological unit (from the Greek nosos, “disease”), has a very specific meaning in medicine. It implies a disorder that has a specific cause, or etiology, from which one should be able to derive its pathogenesis, or the development of symptoms. An understanding of the disorder in these terms should lead one to specific therapeutic strategies and measures, and to prognostic conclusions.
2. The principle of the intensification of symptoms is essential for psychedelic therapy, holonomic integration, and Gestalt practice. The same emphasis also governs the practice of homeopathic medicine and can be found in Victor Frankl’s technique of paradoxical intention.
3. Lobotomy is a psychosurgical procedure that in its crudest form involves severing the connections between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain. This technique, for which the Portuguese surgeon Egas Moniz received the 1949 Nobel prize, was initially used widely in schizophrenics and severe obsessive-compulsive neurotics. Later, it was abandoned and replaced by more subtle microsurgical interventions. The significance of irrational motifs for psychiatry can be illustrated by the fact that some of the psychiatrists who did not hesitate to recommend this operation for their patients later resisted the use of LSD on the premise that it might cause brain damage not detectable by present methods.
4. A detailed discussion of the problems related to psychiatric diagnosis, definition of normalcy, classification, assessment of therapeutic results, and related issues is not possible here. The interested reader will find more relevant information in the works of Donald Light (1980), Thomas Scheft (1974), R. L. Spitzer and P. T. Wilson (1975), Thomas Szasz (1961), and others.
Notes to Chapter Six
1. Hylotropic (derived from the Greek hylé, “matter” and trepein, “to move toward”) means matter-oriented.
2. Holotropic (derived from the Greek holos, “whole” and trepein, “to move toward”) means aiming for wholeness or totality.
3. In a personal discussion about the application of the holonomic theory to psychopathology, Karl Pribram offered a very interesting simile. He pointed to the fact that neither the solid shore nor the waves in the open ocean present any problem or danger and can be easily handled by a human being. It is the interface between the sea and the solid ground, the water line where these two modes conflict with each other, that is the site of dangerous turmoil.
4. Anaclitic needs (from the Greek anaklinein, “to lean upon”) are primitive needs of an infantile nature, such as the needs for being held, rocked, cuddled, and fed.
5. For a detailed discussion of the influence of COEX systems, basic perinatal matrices, and transpersonal governing systems, see Grof, LSD Psychotherapy (1980, pp. 218-227).
6. A dramatic clinical illustration of this phenomenon appears in my book, LSD Psychotherapy (1980, p. 219).
7. Experiences involving perinatal elements have a therapeutic power and potential that is beyond comprehension for psychotherapists used to never-ending and tedious analytical work within the biographical realm. The therapeutic and transformative impact of near-death experiences and experiences of psychological death is illustrated by David Rosen’s study (1975) of ten survivors of suicidal jumps off the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay Bridges, in San Francisco. All of them showed signs of a profound personality transformation, although the fall from the railing to the surface of the water lasted only three seconds of clock time, and the successful rescue operations took a matter of minutes. Similar changes can often be observed in survivors of serious diseases, accidents, and operations. I mention these extreme examples to illustrate the extraordinary transformative potential of certain powerful experiences. Utilization of these healing mechanisms in a safe and supportive set and setting offers new, revolutionary possibilities for psychotherapy.
8. Fritjof Capra, in a lecture on holistic medicine and modern physics, once used a poignant example from everyday life to illustrate the absurdity of the symptomatic orientation in therapy. He asked the audience to imagine a driver who responded to the red light on the dashboard of his car, indicating a critical oil shortage, by disconnecting the cables leading to the warning signal system. Satisfied that he had adequately handled the problem, he would then continue driving his car.
9. Parallels to this situation in physical medicine would be suppressing vomiting that would free the stomach from its toxic content, interfering with the process of inflammation that is trying to eliminate a foreign body, or prescribing sedatives for sexual tension instead of endorsing sexual activity.
Notes to Chapter Seven
1. The reader interested in the therapeutic use of psychedelics can find more information in my books Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975), The Human Encounter with Death (1977), and LSD Psychotherapy (1980).
2. Richard Tarnas’ forthcoming book available at present only in mimeographed form is a unique source of information about the understanding of transit astrology I am talking about. An excellent basic handbook on transit astrology is Robert Hand’s Planets in Transit (1976).
Notes to Chapter Eight
1. Psychohistory is a new social science that studies historical motivation. It applies the method of depth-psychological analysis to historical events with special emphasis on child-rearing practices of various periods and the childhood dynamics of important historical figures.
2. The most fascinating and promising explanatory system for the dynamics of historical events of large scope is, in my opinion, transit astrology, based on archetypal symbolism. A demonstration of its power and relentless logic would by far transcend the scope of this book. A scholarly and extremely well-documented discussion of this approach can be found in the manuscript by Richard Tarnas mentioned in note 2, chapter 7.
3. If maximum rather than optimum body size were the goal and ideal of evolution, the dinosaurs would still be around today and would represent the dominant species; there is a most interesting discussion of this topic in the fable about the “polyploid horse,” in Gregory Bateson’s Mind and Nature (1979). Higher and lower blood pressure or temperature, increase and decrease in the number of blood cells, deficit and surplus of hormones—all these extremes in both directions are associated with specific problems. Similarly, more food, water, vitamins, and minerals are not necessarily better for the organism than a lesser supply of these items; for all of them there are certain optimal values.