L.S.D.

[Otto Sell]

"Inter faeces et urinas nascimur"

Stanislav Grof:
http://www.primalspirit.com/Grof_PlanetarySurvival_art.htm

"Realms of the Human Unconscious" - The Viking Press, New York 1975
("Topographie des Unbewußten," Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1978)
There are some more books by him, but this is the first and basic source.

"The Human Encounter with Death" - with Joan Halifax, E.P. Dutton, New York
1978
("Die Begegnung mit dem Tod," Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980)

"LSD-Psychotherapy" - Hunter House, New York 1981
("LSD-Psychotherapie," Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1983)

In his "Beyond the Brain. Birth, Death and Transcendence in Psychiatry" (The
State University of New York Press, Albany, N.Y. 1985,) ("Geburt, Tod und
Tranzendenz. Neue Dimensionen in der Psychologie," Kösel, München 1985) he
gives some sort of summary of his previous work including the reference to
Hitler's scatological sex-life.

Grof had been working legally in Czechoslovakia with LSD from 1956 helping
many people with "his" therapy. He received an invitation to the US in 1965.
He went there in 1967 and found a totally different situation, dominated by
the hype around LSD in the media. Leary's "Turn On Tune In Drop Out" and the
mass use of psychedelia among the youngsters wasn't the best thing for the
reputation of the drug. Grof stayed in the USA and later showed some
affection for the esoterical scene like most of us, trying to develop non
drug-related techniques for his therapy.

In the pieces Doug quoted there are abbreviations: (BPM II) and (BPM III).
This should be explained. Grof speaks of a system of four "perinatal
matrices." Each of these is connected with specific experiences regarding
our birth which can be brought up again by LSD and other substances and
techniques. According to this system there is no such thing as a
"horror-trip" but a necessary reworking of coded experiences of BPM II and
III while those nice things we sometimes encountered come up when we're in
BPM I or IV on the trip. What the media called "horror-trip" is just a
(according to Grof necessary) consequence of the process, dangerous only
through unaccompanied drug-use outside any therapeutically controlled
environment. Most of the weekend-users stayed at BPM I:

BPM I is the undisturbed existence in the womb, before the birthprocess
itself begins, connected with oceanic feelings of peace and happiness,
feeling one with the mother.
BPM II is the first clinical stage of birth, defined by the beginning
antagonism with the mother. Since the birth channel is still closed this
phase can be experienced in LSD-session as Doug quoted: "hellish and almost
archetypal image of an utterly hopeless and oppressive no-exit situation."
BPM III is connected with the second clinical stage, going onward through
the birth channel. The fetus has to fight for his life the first time. At
LSD-sessions this phase comes with "elements of violence, bestiality,
scatology, and sexual abuse of
women and men-including rape and sadistic practices" - GR is full of theses
images and Grof was surely delighted when (if) he read it, especially the
Pudding-episode.
BPM IV, the third clinical stage, is end of the unity. Elements of death and
rebirth, death of the ego occur and finally the explosive decompression, the
great white or golden light.

Anybody who has LSD-experiences or is simply interested should consider to
take a look into this. I cannot recommend all of his later books but his
first one fascinates me every time I look into it, most of all the case
studies.
It goes without saying that none of these substances ever passed my throat
again after I read all this...

Otto

"One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small"
(Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit)