Stanislav (Stan) Grof

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with over fifty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness and their healing potential. He is also one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology.

He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training – an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Grof ‘s early research involved the clinical uses of psychedelic substances and was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was Principal Investigator of a program systematically exploring the therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

After completion of this two-year fellowship, he stayed in the US and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence writing, giving seminars, lecturing and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife Christina Grof. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Esalen Institute.

Over the course of decades, Stan has collected data from thousands upon thousands of case studies. It was this information which led to the development of his model of consciousness, as well as the emergence of Holotropic Breathwork.

He is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and its past and current president. In this role, he has organized large international conferences in the United States, the former Czechoslovakia, India, Australia, and Brazil. At present, he lives in Mill Valley, California, conducting training seminars for professionals in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology and writing books. He is also Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and at the Pacifica Graduate School in Santa Barbara and gives lectures and seminars worldwide.

In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held at Asilomar, California.

He is the author of over 20 books, viewable on our recommended readings page. He has also published over 140 articles in professional journals. His books and articles have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Russian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, and Chinese.

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