Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Condor Books) [Paperback]

Stanislav Grof (Author)

Book Description

Series: Condor Books | Publication Date: July 1, 1996

An analysis of the effects of LSD on the human psyche.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Souvenir Press (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0285648829
• ISBN-13: 978-0285648821
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GROF'S FIRST BOOK YIELDS FUNDAMENTAL INSIGHTS, June 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Condor Books) (Paperback)

REALMS OF THE HUMAN UNCONSCIOUS: OBSERVATIONS FROM LSD RESEARCH is Stanislav Grof's first book, and since all his books build on the previous ones, this one is the foundation for all the rest. For example, its descriptions of psychedelic-induced states, such as the experience of cosmic unity, are more detailed here than in any of his later books. Hence, REALMS... may be the best of Grof's books to start with.

Since this book focuses on the low-dose LSD psychotherapy (which developed in Europe during the 1960s), and low-dose LSD therapy more consistently brings up childhood traumas than does higher-doses, it may be of special interest to Freudian psychoanalysts and psychodynamic-minded psychiatrists who want to be guided gradually from their current understanding to a more comprehensive view of the unconscious mind. It may also be of particular interst to anyone involved in low-dose or low-medium dose psychedelic therapy, since it is Grof's only book about low-dose therapy. (Grof's later book LSD PSYCHOTHERAPY focuses more on the medium-high dose therapy he eventually developed.)

I recommend this book to you if you are a student of the human psyche willing to enlarge your understanding of the human unconscious, if you can get a copy of the original hardcover edition to read. (The first paperback edition may also be fine although I have not seen it.) However, the 1994 Souvenir Press edition which I now own has dark, rough paper and smaller print than the highly readable hardcover edition in which I originally read this book...so if you have strong eyesight and a determined motivation you may plow through the 1994 Souviner softcover edition but otherwise I advise seeking out a copy of the hardcover.

Other books by Grof which I like: LSD PSYCHOTHERAPY, guidelines for therapists administering the medium-high dose psychedelic therapy which Grof eventually developed out of his early low/medium dose method; BEYOND THE BRAIN: BIRTH, DEATH, AND TRANSCENDENCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, a distillation of the author's new views based on his LSD research (this is his masterpiece, a summary of his life's work, and my favorite of all his books which I've read except PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FUTURE which I have yet to read); and THE ADVENTURE OF SELF-DISCOVERY, describing Grof's group huperventilation therapy, which has therapeutic results similar to LSD therapy; I also enjoyed Sandra Ingerman's SOUL RETRIEVAL, about welcoming home one's lost "inner-child" self.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it, September 8, 2003

By 

Dr Tathata (Omphalos, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Hardcover)

I more or less echo the sentiments of the review from the Green Mountain state, below.

This is Grof's first of many, many books on related subjects, and it precedes the period of time when he began to develop his holotropic breathwork techniques. In this work, he attempts to report on the preliminary findings and interpretations from his years of extensive psychiatric research involving LSD-25 at the Prague Psychiatric Research Center. In many ways, the model which he developed from this work has a consistency and a clarity which diminishes with the elaboration of the complexity of his later discoveries. Don't get me wrong. The complexity that he realizes in the further refinement of his model is appropriate--its just that the results of LSD research are more unambiguous and less complex than the "therapeutic" experiences that emerge from non-drug sessions of any sort, whether brought on by a close encounter with death, spiritual practices, or spontaneous emergence. In many ways, the LSD research exposes with great clarity the mechanisms which underlie the mysterious phenomena of "transformation". This is somewhat natural and obvious. However, across the spectrum of what Grof calls--non ordinary states--we are dealing with the amplification of mental processes. LSD is like turning the amplifier up to 11, right away. Other methods of mental amplification are more gradual, and take greater time and effort. Therefore, even though the end results may often be just as dramatic--the theoretical interpretations can be more ambiguous and require greater sensitivity to nuance. The complexity of psychological factors are more difficult to sort out. Somehow, these distinctions find their way into the presentations in Grof's books, and consequently, I think the later works are more difficult for newcomers to grasp. This book is fairly straightforward, and direct, and consequently is a good introduction to Grof's thinking, and its evolution.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars like the telescope for astronomy or the microscope for biology, November 11, 2009

By 

Justin Ritchie (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Condor Books) (Paperback)

Maybe we have to be born with an interest in the origin of consciousness, where it resides and how it operates, I'm one of those people. No explanation garnered by science, religion, mystics, or from indigenous wisdom has ever fully approximated what I've seen in the world. Transpersonal psychologist Stanislov Grof's first book, Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Dutton, 1976) reveals many fascinating accounts relayed from his personal experience while conducting hundreds of LSD sessions with patients. Grof offers his comments on what the trends of these experiences hint at, frankly admitting in the epilogue that such outlandish comments will draw harsh commentary from peers, but is wise in saying that omitting them will only continue the retardation of humanity's ability to understand the final frontier: the human mind.

Grof discovered from working with patients suffering particular neuroses that a condensed experience brought about by ingesting a few hundred micrograms of lysergic acid diethylamide can induce profound healing experiences allowing people to transcend even lifelong problems. Many of the accounts are quite gruesome as Grof is working with some particularly psychotic people, he spares no details and I felt my gut wrench as descriptions of rapes, abuse, war scenes poured from the pages. However hard these accounts were to read, it was the very ability to relive these experiences (sometimes even from the perspective of others at the scene) that allowed the patients to ultimately improve.

The description of the power and capabilities of this condensed experience (COEX) framework makes up a large portion of the book. Grof notes that these highly symbolic psychodynamic experiences consist of material originating in the human unconscious. However, time after time, Grof wondered about the accuracy of the scenes and situations described by his patients reliving these condensed experiences. In those cases where he could follow up, he did so and confirmed that sometimes the details were quite exact. For example, a patient named Dana described a traumatic event that occurred when she around 12 months of age. Dana drew elaborate images of the room she was in at that time, including the patterns of embroideries. Grof independently followed up with Dana's mother and learned that the mother found Dana's description bristling with accuracy. The room was described almost photographically by Dana and was, "unquestionable because of the very unusual character of the furniture and some of the objects involved." There was no way Dana could have known this because before Dana was two years old, the family moved and the house was condemned, torn down and the furniture and objects weren't retained. There were no photographs of the room and the mother didn't recall ever mentioning anything from that room to Dana.

Another interesting observation Grof passes on is that repeated LSD sessions almost always led to the patient reliving his or her birth and various trauma associated with the birthing process. Patients would describe thoughts, feelings, and toxins that were passed to them by their mother while in the womb and in rare cases described exact scenarios their mother faced. Grof is highly skeptical (as I think we all should be) that the perinatal experience can pass on such a multitude of information to the eventual individual, forming the bases for neuroses and locking in patterns of life however there is a significant amount of evidence that (at the least) should amplify the significance of a birth.

The transpersonal, mystical and multidimensional experiences patients faced with quite regularity after reliving a birth experience were highly interesting. Grof breaks these phenomena into multiple categories: ancestral experiences, collective and racial experiences, past incarnation experiences, procognition/time travel, out of body experiences, ego transcendence, space travels, telepathy, animal/plant/planetary/extraplanetary consciousness, encounters with extradimensional intelligences/entities, intuitive understandings of universal symbols and consciousness of the universal mind. He then proceeds by laying out accounts describing these particular scenarios. The final two chapters which include these accounts are sometimes shocking but thoroughly mind blowing. One example: the ability for a patient to assume specific advanced yogic poses despite not even knowing what yoga is. To summarize these experiences would be to completely strip them of any comprehension so its best to watch Grof's videos on YouTube. I was continually amazed by the ability of patients to describe complex mythological sequences from obscure religions (ex. ahura mazda v ahriman from Zoroastrianism) or when patients described traumatic experiences from their parent's early childhood they had no way of knowing (but that Grof could confirm through follow-up with parents). Reading over these accounts seems to point to some sort of collective mind, encoded in our DNA or accessible in altered states of consciousness, something like the morphic fields Dr. Rupert Sheldrake has been working on. Equally amazing were the detailed accounts of alternate universes and the beings within.

Realms of the Human Unconscious indicates that the human mind is not only our most powerful asset but also our most underused asset as we rarely develop it. Perhaps consciousness is like a radio station we've tuned into for the time being, by modifying the receptors in our brains we can temporarily turn the dial on the radio hardware, allowing us to pick up a different signal. As Grof states early in the book, "It does not seem inappropriate and exaggerated to compare their [psychoactive drugs] potential significance for psychiatry and psychology to that of the microscope for medicine or the telescope for astronomy." I find it deplorable that society has been unable to build much on Grof's work in the last 33 years and this inability to accept responsibility for our unconscious is clearly leading to global complexity our current technology can no longer handle.