Top 70 Stanislav Grof Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “We are not just highly evolved animals with biological computers embedded inside our skulls; we are also fields of consciousness without limits, transcending time, space, matter, and linear causality.”

— Stanislav Grof

2. “The human psyche shows that each individual is an extension of all of existence.”

— Stanislav Grof

3. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

5. “LSD is a catalyst or amplifier of mental processes. If properly used it could become something like the microscope or telescope of psychiatry.”

— Stanislav Grof

6. “It is possible to transcend the usual limitations of the body, ego, space, and linear time.”

— Stanislav Grof

7. “The function of the brain is to reduce all the available information and lock us into a limited experience of the world. LSD frees us from this restriction and opens us to a much larger experience.”

— Stanislav Grof

8. “Many of us who have experienced psychedelics feel very much that they are sacred tools. They open spiritual awareness.”

— Stanislav Grof

9. “Western science is approaching a paradigm shift of unprecedented proportions, one that will change our concepts of reality and of human nature, bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern science, and reconcile the differences between Eastern spirituality and Western pragmatism.”

— Stanislav Grof

10. “Coming to terms with the fear of death is conducive to healing, positive personality transformation, and consciousness evolution.”

— Stanislav Grof

11. “If consciousness can function independently of the body during one’s lifetime, it could be able to do the same after death.”

— Stanislav Grof

12. “I believe that used responsibly and in a mature way, the entheogens mediate access to the numinous dimensions of existence, have a great healing and transformative potential, and represent a very important tool for spiritual development.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

14. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

15. “Each of us can manifest the properties of a field of consciousness that transcends space, time, and linear causality.”

— Stanislav Grof

16. “Ritual use of psychedelic plants and substances has been a particularly effective technology for inducing holotropic states of consciousness.”

— Stanislav Grof

17. “It is possible to see the intermediate state between lives as being in a way more important than incarnate existence.”

— Stanislav Grof

18. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

19. “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

20. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

22. “I believe it is essential for our planetary future to develop tools that can change the consciousness which has created the crisis that we are in.”

— Stanislav Grof

23. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

24. “The elimination of the fear of death transforms the individual’s way of being in the world.”

— Stanislav Grof

25. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

27. “The key experiential approach I now use to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness and gain access to the unconscious and superconscious psyche is Holotropic Breathwork, which I have developed jointly with Christina over the last fifteen years. This seemingly simple process, combining breathing, evocative music and other forms of sound, body work, and artistic expression, has an extraordinary potential for opening the way for exploring the entire spectrum of the inner world.”

— Stanislav Grof

28. “Uncomplicated birth seems to be the blueprint for coping with all later difficult situations in life. Various complications, such as prolonged and debilitating delivery, the use of forceps, or heavy anesthesia appear to be correlated to specific problems in dealing with future projects of all kinds. The same is true for induced birth, premature delivery, and Caesarean section.”

— Stanislav Grof

29. “The knowledge of the realm of death makes it possible for the shaman to move freely back and forth and mediate these journeys for other people.”

— Stanislav Grof

30. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

31. “Whether or not LSD research and therapy will return to society, the discoveries that psychedelics made possible have revolutionary implications for our understanding of the psyche, human nature, and the nature of reality.”

— Stanislav Grof

32. “Patients reported that their psychedelic sessions were an invaluable experiential training for dying.”

— Stanislav Grof

33. “There are people who can start having very powerful experiences without taking psychedelics. It can happen against their will. This is a universal phenomenon.”

— Stanislav Grof

34. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof

35. “LSD was not a pharmacological agent generating exotic experiences by its interaction with the neurophysiological processes in the brain. This remarkable substance was clearly an unspecific catalyst of the deep dynamics of the human psyche. The experiences induced by it were not neurochemical artifacts, symptoms of a toxic psychosis as mainstream psychiatrists called it, but genuine manifestations of the human psyche itself.”

— Stanislav Grof

36. “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

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

— Stanislav Grof

38. “Many instances exist of small children who seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body, another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually shortly after these children begin to talk.”

— Stanislav Grof

39. “Many cultures have independently developed a belief system in reincarnation that includes return of the unit of consciousness to another physical lifetime on Earth.”

— Stanislav Grof

40. “Spiritual intelligence is the capacity to conduct our life in such a way that it reflects deep philosophical and metaphysical understanding of reality and of ourselves discovered through personal experience during systematic spiritual pursuit.”

— Stanislav Grof

41. “In some instances, the accuracy of past-life memories can be objectively verified, sometimes with remarkable detail.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

43. “As long as I had easy access to psychedelics at the government-sponsored research project, most of my energy went into psychedelic sessions.”

— Stanislav Grof

44. “The psyche of the individual is commensurate with the totality of creative energy. This requires a most radical revision of Western psychology.”

— Stanislav Grof

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

— Stanislav Grof

46. “The problems that stand in the way are not of economical or technological nature. The deepest sources of the global crisis lie inside the human personality and reflect the level of consciousness evolution of our species.”

— Stanislav Grof

47. “Ancient eschatological texts are actually maps of the inner territories of the psyche that seem to transcend race and culture and originate in the collective unconscious.”

— Stanislav Grof

48. “Experiences of BPM II are best characterized by the triad: fear of death, fear of never coming back, and fear of going crazy.”

— Stanislav Grof

49. “The new formula in physics describes humans as paradoxical beings who have two complementary aspects: They can show properties of Newtonian objects and also infinite fields of consciousness.”

— Stanislav Grof

50. “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.”

— Stanislav Grof