Founders

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with more than sixty years of experience in research of holotropic states of consciousness, a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states that have healing, transformative, heuristic, and evolutionary potential. In the past, he was Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA.

Currently, he is a Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA, conducts professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and Transpersonal Psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). In 2007, he was granted the prestigious award, Vision 97,  from the Václav and Dagmar Havel Foundation in Prague, and in 2010, the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) for his pivotal contributions to this field. He received an honorary Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology ( ITP) and in 2018  another one for Psychedelic Therapy and Healing Arts from the Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, California.

Among his publications are over 150 articles in professional journals and the books Beyond the Brain; LSD Psychotherapy; The Cosmic Game; Psychology of the Future; The Ultimate Journey; When the Impossible Happens; Healing Our Deepest Wounds; Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Art; The Stormy Search for the Self; Spiritual Emergency; and Holotropic Breathwork (the last three with Christina Grof who passed away in June 2014). He was also invited as a consultant for special effects in the Metro Goldwyn Meyer science fiction movie Brainstorm and the 20th Century Fox science fiction movie, Millenium.

Since April 2016, Stan has been married to Brigitte Grof. They live together in Germany and California conducting seminars, training, and holotropic breathwork workshops, and worldwide training, too.

In August 2019, his life´s work encyclopedia, The Way of the Psychonaut, was published, and the documentary film about his life and work was released,  The Way of the Psychonaut- Stan Grof and the Journey of Consciousness (www.thewayofthepsychonaut.com).

In May 2020, together with his wife Brigitte Grof, they launched their new training in working with Holotropic States of Consciousness, the international Grof® Legacy Training.