Customer Reviews

The Stormy Search for Self: Understanding and Living with Spiritual Emergency

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The authors of STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SELF bring a unique set of life experiences to this book. Christina Grof has been through her own tumultuous psychospiritual awakening, while her husband Stanislav Grof, M.D. brings the insights he gained from his seventeen years as a pioneering LSD psychotherapist.

During the birth of her first child, at one point Christina felt something "snap" inside of her, and powerful electrical-like energies began rushing through her body, while brilliant white fireworks exploded in her head. These and similar symptoms of kundalini-energy arousal plagued her life from that day onward, and eventually she turned to alcohol for relief, resulting after several years in alcohol addiction. When she "hit bottom" with her alcoholism, the sense of total physical, emotional, and spiritual bankruptcy was the internal dying experience or "ego death" (the turning point in many psychospiritual crises) that she needed; from that day on, her kundalini symptoms disappeared and never returned.

As the Grofs began telling others about Christina's stormy spiritual awakening, they discovered that other people had been through similarly difficult periods of psychological instability and growth. However, others' troublesome symptoms had been triggered by a variety of events other than kundalini arousal, ranging from a near-death experience or a mystical experience, to unsought development of psychic powers or spirit guides or channeling or shamanic-initiation illness, to encounters with UFO-related otherwordly visitors, to psychiatrist John Perry's psychosis-like "return to the center" (which the book left me with only a vague understanding of; I wish the authors had explained this condition more clearly and completely). The Grofs also concluded that some addictions (like Christina's alcoholism) can be a sign of a "spiritual emergency" in progress. ("Spiritual emergency" is the authors' term for any period of emotional turbulence and/or mental confusion which is caused by a traumatic experience in a person's life; such conditions always have the potential for healing and growth leading to a higher sanity, deeper stability, and greater wholeness than ever before.)

The Grofs offer practical guidelines for anyone going through a stormy psychospiritual awakening, such as listening to music while expressing your feelings in dancing or other movement, while at the same time singing or chanting or otherwise vocalizing. They also suggest how family and friends can help, such as by remaining nonjudgemental, keeping your sense of humor, offering supportive physical contact like hugs, and trusting the process to eventually resolve itself provided it is simply supported and encouraged.

One way to encourage and support the growth process is simply by breathing more quickly and deeply than usual. During Christina's crisis, the Grofs had discovered that hyperventilation causes symptoms to temporarily intensify, eventually (after an hour or so of fast, deep breathing) to reach a climax, and then to subside for several days or weeks. Repeated hyperventilaton sessions--especially when done in a group with other hyperventilators, which greatly potentiates the process--results in permanent cessation of troublesome symptoms.

Two chapters of this book stand out for me. One is devoted to outlining Stanislav's new map of the psyche, which is based on his experience as an LSD therapist. Nearest the psyche's surface are repressed memories from childhood; deeper within lies the experiential (psychosomatic and emotional) memory of one's birth, as well as one's unconscious fear of death; deepest of all one encounters the spiritual or "transpersonal" dimension of the self, which can mediate contact with the divine during healing transcendent mystical or "peak" experiences. This new view of the subconscious helped me to understand how distressing psychological symptoms are formed, and how they can be cured

Another chapter explores the history of psychological crises, such as aboriginal rites of passage, the ancient Greek "mystery" religions, and the hero's journey in mythology; there is also a section on the teachings of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism about spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Another noteworthy feature of this book is the clear guidelines the authors provide for distinguishing a psychological growth crisis from psychosis. Since spiritual awakenings are often mis-diagnosed as psychosis, this section should prove quite useful.

STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SELF has reassured me on my own psychotherapeutic journey that I can indeed trust the intrinsic wisdom of the psyche, and the natural unfolding of my path of growth, to lead eventually to wholeness, as I simply support it with hyperventilation and other therapeutic techniques.

Other books I like are Stanislav Grof's BEYOND THE BRAIN, and also his THE ADVENTURE OF SELF-DISCOVERY. I also enjoyed SOUL RETRIEVAL by Sandra Ingerman, Whitley Strieber's COMMUNION, John Mack's PASSPORT TO THE COSMOS, and Betty Eadies's inspiring near-death account EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT, as well as THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GOPI KRISHNA.

In a time when life can be confusing and chaotic, it is with great joy to find a book that clarifies so much struggle and ambivalence that undermines many peoples special lives. This book gave me hope when all I saw was dismal and bleak. It explained everything I have been going through for four years now, and gave me encouragement not to try and stop the process that was awakening within myself. If your going through struggles that no one seems to understand and certainly seem to have a spiritual and cosmic connection, then this book is for you.

While I have reservations about the work done by the Grofs, I heartily recommend this book to anyone suffering from a crisis of spirit, particularly when accompanied by the symptoms of what used to be called shamanic illness (believe me, you'll know it if you have it). I don't know how many people who've negotiated this crisis who have told me they wished they had a resource to normalize their extrahuman experiences, experiences they believed (and were told by doctors and shrinks) represented the onset of insanity rather than a unique gift highly prized in more spiritually aware cultures of the past. This book is such a resource.

The title says it all. The path one treads on the search for the Self is at times fraught with unpleasant experiences. Memories, traumas and negativity which the human entity identifies with, resurface during this quest, and must be dealt with if one is to 'grow'. The book sets this much out well, but fails to go beyond. Or rather, it would seem that one would need the help of a Grof-trained person for dealing with the storm.

An excellent book for anyone who's ever wondered if they are having a psychic experience or a psychotic experience. Details the Grof's personal experiences and lists other types of spiritual emergencies. Also gives excellent advice about how to cope with a spiritual crisis. Everyone involved in spiritual pursuits should read this book because the potential negative side effects of meditation, prayer, etc. are rarely mentioned elsewhere.

STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SOUL brings together Christina Grof's tumultuous kundalini/alcoholism crisis with her husband Stanislav Grof's seventeen years' experience as an LSD psychotherapist.

When the couple began sharing with others about Christina's stormy psychospiritual awakening (which began with the birth of her first child as powerful electrical-like energy coursed through her body and brilliant white fireworks exploded in her head), they discovered that many other people had been through similarly difficult, dramatic experiences. Yet instead of kundalini awakening, others had been confronted with a variety of diverse events, from near-death or mystical experiences, to UFO/extraterrestrial encounters, to shamanic opening, to development of psychic powers or channeling or spirit guides; the Grofs also concluded that some cases of alcoholism or other addiction are due to a potentially positive spiritual awakening that is trying to happen; and they describe several additional types of "spiritual emergencies," as they term these sorts of crises.

Although often mis-diagnosed as psychosis, a psychospiritual awakening crisis can be worked through, using techniques such as hyperventilation, resulting in growth and a positive resolution, just as Christina's alcoholism-kundalini crisis resolved when she hit bottom with her alcoholism, helped along by her husband's knowledge from LSD psychotherapy.

For indeed, Stanislav had noticed that his wife's symptoms were similar to what people go through in LSD therapy (in large part reliving birth, and confronting death). He dovotes a chapter to describing the levels of the psyche that he discovered as an LSD therapist (the surface layer of childhood traumatic memories, and deeper in the unconscious the experiential memory of birth, while deepest of all lies the transpersonal or spiritual aspect of the self). With his understanding, and the couple's discovery that hyperventilation can resolve troubling symptoms in a way quite similar to how LSD therapy resolves problems (by reliving birth and facing one's mortality over several dozen intense, dramatic therapy sessions), Christina had reached a new stability, and freedom from her kundalini symptoms which ended her hunger for alcohol to blunt the symptoms.

The authors offer guidelines for distinguishing a psychospiritual awakening from psychosis, which should be helpful for anyone falsely diagnosed as psychotic, or anyone wondering if they are going crazy (which is a not uncommon feeling in a spiritual emergency).

They also offer suggestions for working through one's symptoms and so cooperating with one's growth process, such as singing and dancing and yelling to music; also included are tips for friends and family who want to help, such as trusting the process to eventually resolve itself with encouragement and support.

I have been going through my own psychospiritual journey of awakening for about fifteen years, and I found STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SELF to be quite reassuring and helpful in trusting my own growth process...I recognized some of my own symptoms in the pages of this self-help masterpiece.

I have found STORMY SEARCH... more useful since I have also read other books such as Stanislav Grof's comprehensive distillation of all he learned from his almost two decades as an LSD psychotherapist, BEYOND THE BRAIN: BIRTH, DEATH, AND TRANSCENDENCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY; THE ADVENTURE OF SELF-DISCOVERY, about the Grof's hyperventilation therapy technique (which I've found useful in resolving several severe panic attacks about a year ago in my own life); Sandra Ingerman's SOUL RETRIEVAL: MENDING THE FRAGMENTED SELF, a modern shamanic view of welcoming home one's lost inner child self which may have split off in childhood due to trauma; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GOPI KRISHNA, about his kundalini awakening; Whitley Strieber's and John Mack's books about otherworldly visitors (such as COMMUNION and PASSPORT TO THE COSMOS); LSD PSYCHOTHERAPY, Grof's guidbook for psychedelic therapists; and Betty Eadie's near-death bestseller EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT.

Original thinking that reaches back to psychodynamics but is far more ambitious in its range, the ideas put forth are original and inspiring, but the content is highly subjective and I found it filled with anecdotes but not always convincing, and far from instructive or providing direction or comfort for anyone going through such a crisis, or witnessing a loved one in such a crisis. In this age of prescription pad psychiatry, this is a very different approach to crisis and growth, but I wish there was more substance here. The very fact that the book discourages people from more traditional treatment is reason off to provide more substance, and less dogma. The thinking is original, and inspiring, but that doesn't make it necessarily reliable. I was disappointed by the end of the book.

This book actually contains two different books: an overview over different spiritual paths and a courageous description of the life of Christina Grof. It is about a deep crisis, alcoholism, LSD, kundalini. It is not about psychosis. And it is very little about holotropic breathwork: the method devised by the Grofs themselves.


The book would have profited, if it would have been split in two different ones. Anyhow the Stormy Search for the Self might be helpful for people in a strong psychic crisis.