The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One Quotes

“The human mind is so complex that many different theories can be constructed, all of which seem to be logical, coherent, and explain major facts of observation, yet at the same time are mutually incompatible or actually contradict each other.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“My consciousness expanded at an inconceivable speed and reached cosmic dimensions. I lost the connection with my everyday identity. There were no more boundaries or difference between me and the universe. I felt that my old personality was extinguished and that I ceased to exist. And I felt that by becoming nothing, I became everything.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“The fact that so many different cultures throughout human history have found shamanic techniques useful and relevant suggests that the holotropic states engage what the anthropologists call the “primal mind,” a basic and primordial aspect of the human psyche that transcends race, gender, culture, and historical period.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“the potential for a mystical experience is the natural birthright of all human beings,”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“Materialistic scientists have not been able to produce any convincing evidence that consciousness is a product of the neurophysiological processes in the brain.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“In view of the escalating global crisis brought about by the materialistic orientation of Western technological civilization, it has become obvious that we are paying a great price for having denied and rejected spirituality. We have banned a force that nourishes, empowers, and gives meaning to human existence from our lives.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“From observations arising from deep experiential therapy, the determined striving for external goals and the pursuit of success do very little in overcoming feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem, no matter the outcome of these endeavors. The feelings of inferiority cannot be resolved by mobilizing one’s forces to overcompensate them, but by confronting them experientially and surrendering to them.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“The Emerald tablet (Tabula smaragdina) by Hermes Trismegistus, which became the basic tenet of esoteric systems such as Tantra, Kabbalah, or the Hermetic tradition, confirms these observations with its message: “as above so below” or “as without, so within.” Each of us is a microcosm containing, in some mysterious way, the entire universe.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“We know we are just insignificant parts of the universe, but each of us is the entire universe.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Vol. 1: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“Swami Muktananda, the head of the Siddha Yoga tradition, used to say, “God dwells in you as You.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys

“The fact that at the core of emotional disorders is the birth trauma, a process of life and death, explains the intensity and depth that otherwise would be incomprehensible.”
― Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut Volume One: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys