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The Secret Chief: Conversations With a Pioneer ofthe Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement

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This book points to the possibility of remembering the parts of ourselves we forgot long ago. It's a poem to the forgotten realms of being human and declares the potential to reclaim ones totality. For someone thinking of using psychedelics, there are instructions here for their proper use. For someone who has already used them, there are footnotes from infinitude. This book, and this subject will change you. No longer will you be stained by the propaganda of the drug war. The sacrements of freedom exist. Whether they be psychedelics, meditation, yoga or dreaming. A friendly, helpful voice speaks out to you from the pages of this book. You will be better for listening. Be careful, this is not recreation. This is you, that you are exploring. Have some respect.

This little treasure of a book contains a series of conversations that LSD researcher Myron Syolaroff, author of Thanatos to Eros, had with an anonymous psychotherapist, "Jacob" who successfully utilized a variety of psychedelic substances during his many years of practice.

Early in his career, after being trained as a Jungian analyst, Jacob discovered the enormous potential that psychedelics had for psychotherapy. Because of the abundant psychological benefits and the incredible spiritual transformations that he witnessed in his clients, Jacob chose to utilize substances like LSD and MDMA in his practice despite their illegality. Risking imprisonment, he turned on thousands of people during the course of his career and was loved by many. Jacob died in 1988 at the age of 76.

The Secret Chief covers the process that Jacob developed for selecting and preparing candidates, information about the psychoactive substances and their proper dosages, along with guiding principles for running both individual and group sessions. This extremely valuable book also includes several fascinating case histories, an extensive list of resources, and touching commentaries by such notables as Stanislav Grof, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, and Albert Hofmann.

The Secret Chief is the story of Jacob, a remarkable, affable, dearly loved, man who made an impact on the lives of several thousand people. A Jungian trained therapist, Jacob discovered the remarkable attributes of psychedelic drugs and their ability to accelerate growth and understanding in his clients. When our nation, considered to be the greatest bastion of freedom and liberty in the world, decided to make all psychedelic substances illegal, Jacob was faced with a great dilemma. How could he possibly give up the most effective tools he had ever encountered for helping to free clients from thier difficulties, bring resolution to their problems, and introduce them to new levels of satisfaction in life never before contemplated? Morally, he felt he could not, and chose to risk incarceration rather than derprive his clients of these outstanding aids. This decision brought new life and transformative realizations to many. This book is a review of Jacob's work, how he got started, his methods for administering substances within the context of therapy, the screening of candidates, the dynamics of group experiences, the process of dertermining effective dose levels of various substances, and the optimum sequence for utilizing them. Outcomes of the work are described. Appendices include a survey of the literature of psychedelic therapy, a bibliography, and accompanying texts by Stan Grof, Ann Shulgin, Albert Hofmann, and Sasha Shulgin. One hundred percent of the profits from the sale of this book are pledged to psychedelic research.

This book reveals some of the true promise of psychedelic therapy that is obscured in other popular histories of the era that focus on the (albeit fascinating) aftermath of Dr. Leary et. al. ('Acid Dreams' and 'Storming Heaven').

The most valuable aspect of the book, and its main focus, is an oral walkthrough of a session with the therapist Jacob. Mr. Stolaroff has done a valuable service in preserving Jacob's insights into what works and what doesnt work.

Though, I was confused when Jacob described his purely religious orientation to the therapy yet didnt elaborate hardly at all on his own 'theological' outlook or experiences.

Also, in my opinion, Jacob goes to an extreme in asserting at one point that transformation *requires* such entheogens. He seems to unfairly discount the traditional religious retreat practices and experiences.

Personally, I side with the theory that such entheogens merely unveil latent faculties that can be cultivated by traditional retreat type practices without the need for entheogens at all.

Also, one danger, perhaps, in the outlook and process described in this book, is its almost complete lack of orientation to 'Right View' (in the Buddhist sense) as the precursor to 'awakening'. The Buddha stressed that insight into Right View was a key prerequisite. Yet, this therapy seems to presume it is largely irrelevant.

I would recommend Thaddeus Golas' 'The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment' as a complement to this book, as Golas himself broke through via entheogens, yet does not see them as absolutely necessary, and focuses on orienting to 'Right View' first as the means to awaken (his book is out of print, but available online now, search for the title in google).

Let me try this again. The Secret Chief is a fantastically written, conversational and often warm and humorous overview of a real pioneer in the field of psychology. Few researchers or clinicians are willing to boldly sidestep well-known but mostly unfounded restrictions on their practice.
The hero of this story is a man that truly put his clients/patients first and upheld their well being as the foremost goal. From his uncanny ability to listen to what they were saying to his courage and wisdom in guiding them along the path toward recovery and growth, the reader is brought in to delightfully pick up on the knowledge gained.
Operating not just from a medical expert perspective but from a caring human being equally engaged in the challenge of life, the therapist intuitively, assertively spurs the client onto self discovery and mind expansion. Tools of the psychological trade vary. The respective benefits of varying methods of therapy are discussed, and the trail blazing of supposed "radical" "innovative" methods occurs. That they have ever been explored is impressive. That there is a definite need to continue research and practice in this field is made resoundingly evident within the pages of this remarkable, insightful book.

Highly recommended.

Brian Wallace, author, Labyrinth of Chaos

As a Master's candidate studying psychology, I am thrilled to have stumbled upon this book! Finally, some of the "darker" areas of the field have been illuminated by a first-hand expert.
Written in a conversational tone, this book is safely navigated by the jargon-wary among us, and is entertaining as well as educational. Pick this one up if you have an interest in the fringe movements in psychology, have an open-minded approach to what is considered therapeutic, and/or simply are intrigued by the spiritually enhancing capabilities of psychedelic drugs.

Very interesting journal of discussions between Stolaroff and Jacob about psychedelic therapy. Covers many tools, but focuses around LSD-25. Good look into author's self-discovery and well as discovery of methods in individual and group therapy. Fast read, well worth it.

People like Jacob give us "permission to hope" and inspiration to create a better future. This short book can provide ideas about how we can participate.