Quotes from Stanislav Grof

Dying before dying has two important consequences: It liberates the individual from the fear of death and influences the actual experience of dying at the time of biological demise.

According to materialistic science, any memory requires a material substrate, such as the neuronal network in the brain or the DNA molecules of the genes.

A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.

Whether or not we believe in survival of consciousness after death, reincarnation, and karma, it has very serious implications for our behavior.

I spent much of my later childhood and adolescence very, very involved and interested in art, and particularly in animated movies.

Research challenges the materialistic understanding of death, according to which biological death represents the final end of existence and of all conscious activity.

Individuals approaching death often experience encounters with their dead relatives, who seem to welcome them to the next world. These deathbed visions are authentic and convincing they are often followed by a state of euphoria and seem to ease the transition.

The motif of death plays an important role the human psyche in connection with archetypal and karmic material.

At a time when unbridled greed, malignant aggression, and existence of weapons of mass destruction threatens the survival of humanity, we should seriously consider any avenue that offers some hope.

In the kind of world we have today, transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival.

The elimination of the fear of death transforms the individual's way of being in the world.

The beliefs concerning reincarnation have great ethical impact on human life and our relationship to the world.

There is no fundamental difference between the preparation for death and the practice of dying, and spiritual practice leading to enlightenment.

Unlike scientism, science in the true sense of the word is open to unbiased investigation of any existing phenomena.

For any culture which is primarily concerned with meaning, the study of death - the only certainty that life holds for us - must be central, for an understanding of death is the key to liberation in life.

A number of cases have been reported in which a dying individual has a vision of a person about whose death he or she did not know.

Traditional academic science describes human beings as highly developed animals and biological thinking machines. We appear to be Newtonian objects made of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, and organs.

The study of consciousness that can extend beyond the body is extremely important for the issue of survival, since it is this part of human personality that would be likely to survive death.

A text of Tibetan Buddhism describes the time of death as a unique opportunity for spiritual liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth and a period that determines our next incarnation.

I read Freud's Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis in basically one sitting. I decided to enroll in medical school. It was almost like a conversion experience.

He suddenly understood the message of so many spiritual teachers that the only revolution that can work is the inner transformation of every human being.

Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating reality itself.

This sense of perfection has a built-in contradiction, one that Ram Dass once captured very succinctly by a statement he had heard from his Himalayan guru: "The world is absolutely perfect, including your own dissatisfaction with it, and everything you are trying to do to change it.

The renaissance of interest in Eastern spiritual philosophies, various mystical traditions, meditation, ancient and aboriginal wisdom, as well as the widespread psychedelic experimentation during the stormy 1960s, made it absolutely clear that a comprehensive and cross-culturally valid psychology had to include observations from such areas as mystical states; cosmic consciousness; psychedelic experiences; trance phenomena; creativity; and religious, artistic, and scientific inspiration.