PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE FUTURE LESSONS FROM MODERN CONSCIOUSNESS RESEARCH Stanislav Grof Received November 11 2015 Revised November 26 2015 Accepted December 5 2015 ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to summarize my experiences and observations concerning the nature of the human psyche in health and disease that I have amassed during more than fifty years of research of non-ordinary states of consciousness. I will focus specifically on those findings that represent a serious theoretical challenge for academic psychology and psychiatry and suggest the revisions of our current understanding of consciousness and the human psyche that would be necessary to come to terms with the new data, understand them, and explain them. Key words Transpersonal psychology, consciousness research, holotropic states of consciousness, spirituality 1 Holotropic states of consciousness My primary interest is to focus on experiences that have healing, transformative, and evolutionary potential and those that represent a useful source of data about the human psyche and the nature of reality. I will also pay special attention to those aspects of these experiences that reveal the existence of the spiritual dimensions of existence. For this purpose, the termnon-ordinary states of consciousness is too general, since it includes a wide range of conditions that are not interesting or relevant from this point of view. Consciousness can be profoundly changed by a variety of pathological processes – by cerebral traumas, by intoxications with poisonous chemicals, by infections, or by degenerative Spirituality Studies 2 (1) Spring 2016 3
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