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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Growing Through Psychological Upheavals To a New Wholeness, September 12, 2002
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.
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by Stanislav Grof
by Stanislav Grof
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