A Tribute to Stanislav Grof
The Psychedelic Imagination: Celebrating Stanislav Grof on his 91st Birthday by Susan Hess Logeais
When I first met Stan Grof in the summer of 2013, I knew that telling his story would allow me to share the incredible insights and discoveries that his sixty-year career represented. An important part of Stan’s legacy is his fourteen-year tenure as the Esalen Institute’s Scholar-in-Residence, as well as the International Transpersonal Conferences he organized during this period. Through both activities, Stan brought together paradigm breaking scientists, philosophers, and spiritual masters representing multiple disciplines. The information his guests presented offered participants an expanded understanding of their role in the universe, while Stan’s holotropic breathwork technique gave them an experience of it.
The world vision resulting from these collaborations describes a collective dimension with consciousness as the ground of all being – and the individuated forms inhabiting this hologram, as expressions of the source of creation. There are theoretical variations to this understanding, but one thing is clear – we participate in the creation of our reality. We do this through our beliefs, our thoughts, our dreams, and our fears.
The Way of the Psychonaut, a documentary that follows Stan’s path of exploration and discovery, invites viewers to begin their journey of participation. It describes a process of awakening and introduces audiences to concepts formulated by visionaries who worked with Stan at Esalen or presented at his ITA conferences. The full-length expert interviews provide greater detail regarding these techniques and ideas and are available through the livestream archives on our website, free of charge.
We hope that viewers use The Way of the Psychonaut to expand their understanding of reality, realize that we are connected to all of creation, and begin imagining a better world into being.
Susan Hess Logeais is a writer, director, and co-producer of the documentary, The Way of the Psychonaut, which explores and celebrates the life and work of Stanislav Grof, psychiatrist, pioneering researcher of non-ordinary states of consciousness, and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology.
