Author Guide · Psychiatry & Transpersonal Psychology
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In the 1960s Stanislav Grof was principal investigator of a research programme on LSD and other psychedelics at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague. In 1967 he moved to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and from 1969 he was chief of psychiatric research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. When legal research with LSD was shut down in the early 1970s, he and his wife Christina Grof developed a method without drugs, Holotropic Breathwork, during the fourteen years he lived at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. He is counted among the founders of transpersonal psychology, and his books try to map the experiences he saw in those sessions: birth, death, and states his patients described as mystical. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1975–2019 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Stanislav Grof has written more than twenty books. The best known are Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975), LSD Psychotherapy (1980), Spiritual Emergency (1989, with Christina Grof), The Holotropic Mind (1993) and The Way of the Psychonaut (2019). Start with The Holotropic Mind, written for general readers; below is what each book covers and how the scientific reception of his ideas has gone.
Where to Start with Stanislav Grof
If you want the most accessible overview
→ The Holotropic Mind (1993) — written with Hal Zina Bennett for general readers.
If you want the early psychedelic research
→ Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975) — his first book, drawn from the Prague years.
If you want spiritual crisis and how to respond to it
→ Spiritual Emergency (1989) — edited with Christina Grof.
If you want his late summary of everything
→ The Way of the Psychonaut (2019) — two volumes, written in his late eighties.
12 Stanislav Grof Books, in Order
Realms of the Human Unconscious
His first book, published in New York by Viking with the Esalen Institute. It sets out what he observed in the LSD research he led at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague. A later edition appeared in 2009 as LSD: Doorway to the Numinous.
The Human Encounter with Death
Written with Joan Halifax, to whom Grof was married from 1972 to around 1975, with a foreword by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Death and dying run through his work from here to The Ultimate Journey (2006).
LSD Psychotherapy
His clinical account of psychotherapy with LSD, based on the research he led in Prague and then in Maryland, where from 1969 he was chief of psychiatric research for the Spring Grove programme. It was first published by Hunter House in California, years after legal research with the drug had stopped.
Beyond the Brain
Published by SUNY Press, this is where he sets out his model of the psyche in full; as the subtitle says, it takes in birth, death and transcendence, not only the personal history that Freudian psychoanalysis, in which he trained, works with. His claim that people can relive their own birth is the part scientists have criticised most.
The Adventure of Self-Discovery
A SUNY Press book on, in the words of its subtitle, new perspectives in psychotherapy and inner exploration, published the year after he left Esalen in 1987.
Spiritual Emergency
An anthology edited with Christina Grof. It grew out of the Spiritual Emergence Network, which she founded at Esalen in 1980 after her own crisis, a Kundalini awakening, to help people in psychospiritual crisis avoid psychiatric stigma and find other support.
The Stormy Search for the Self
The companion to Spiritual Emergency, written by the two of them as a guide, in the words of the subtitle, to personal growth through crisis.
The Holotropic Mind
Written with Hal Zina Bennett and published by HarperCollins in San Francisco, this is the short, general-reader version of his ideas. The title uses his term “holotropic”, the mode of meditative, mystical or psychedelic states, which he contrasts with the “hylotropic” mode of everyday reality.
The Cosmic Game
Published by SUNY Press, it turns from therapy to the larger questions the subtitle names: what the experiences reported in non-ordinary states of consciousness suggest about consciousness itself.
Psychology of the Future
His case, as the subtitle says, for what psychology should learn from what he calls modern consciousness research. He returned to the title in a 2016 journal article, “Psychology for the Future”.
Holotropic Breathwork
The book on the method the two of them developed at Esalen as a non-drug approach: it combines faster, deeper breathing with evocative music, bodywork and mandala drawing. Christina Grof died four years later, in 2014. Grof now uses the trademark “Grof Breathwork” for the method.
The Way of the Psychonaut
Two volumes, published with MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) in August 2019 and written in his late eighties. It covers the history of depth psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, birth, sex and death, trauma, spiritual emergency, transpersonal experiences, archetypes and art. A documentary about his life with the same title followed in 2020.
In What Order to Read Stanislav Grof
Grof’s books repeat and refine one model, so you do not need to read them in order. Publication order shows the shift in his work: the early books report clinical psychedelic research, the books from the late 1980s onwards are about crisis, breathwork and philosophy, and The Way of the Psychonaut gathers it all together.
Start with The Holotropic Mind, which needs no background. Read Beyond the Brain if you want the full theory, and the Wikipedia summary of the criticism of his birth hypothesis alongside it. Spiritual Emergency and The Stormy Search for the Self stand on their own.
A reading path
1. The Holotropic Mind (1993)
2. Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975)
3. Beyond the Brain (1985)
4. Spiritual Emergency (1989)
5. The Way of the Psychonaut (2019)
Everything Else Stanislav Grof Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 13 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Books with Christina Grof and others
5
5 books · 1977–2004
- 1977Dimensions of Dying and Rebirth
- 1980Beyond Death: The Gates of Consciousnesswith Christina Grof
- 1988Human Survival and Consciousness Evolutionedited with Marjorie L. Valier
- 1999The Consciousness Revolution: A Transatlantic Dialoguewith Peter Russell and Ervin Laszlo
- 2004Caterpillar Dreamswith Melody Sullivan
Later books on consciousness, death and art
8
8 books · 1983–2015
- 1983East & West: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Sciencelater editions dated 1985
- 1994Books of the Dead: Manuals for Living and Dying
- 2002The Call of the Jaguar
- 2006When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Reality
- 2006The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death
- 2009LSD: Doorway to the Numinouslater edition of Realms of the Human Unconscious
- 2012Healing Our Deepest Wounds: The Holotropic Paradigm Shift
- 2015Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Artincluding the visionary world of H. R. Giger
The years · 1931–2019
Quick facts about Stanislav Grof
- Known for
- He is known as a psychiatrist who researched the clinical use of LSD in Prague and Maryland, co-developed Holotropic Breathwork with Christina Grof, and helped found transpersonal psychology.
- 1931
- Born in Prague
- 1980
- Spiritual Emergence Network founded
- Born
- 1 July 1931, Prague, Czechoslovakia; his father was a chemical engineer
- Education
- MD, Charles University, Prague; PhD in medicine, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1965)
- Research
- LSD research in Prague; from 1967 Johns Hopkins and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
- Esalen
- Scholar-in-residence at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, 1973–1987
- Founded
- The International Transpersonal Association, 1977
- Married
- Joan Halifax (1972), Christina Grof (1978, died 2014), Brigitte Grof (2016)
- Honours
- VISION 97 award of the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation, Prague (2007)
The red mark is 1975: Realms of the Human Unconscious, his first book, drawn from the LSD research in Prague.
How Stanislav Grof Writes: Clinical Notes Turned into a Map
Grof trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst, and his books start where a clinician starts: with what patients reported in sessions. He builds a model out of those reports and keeps adding to it, so the same ideas — birth, death, rebirth, the holotropic mode — come back in book after book, often with case histories. The books written with co-authors, Hal Zina Bennett and Christina Grof, are the ones aimed at general readers.
His link to non-duality is indirect. He does not teach a non-dual path; he is a founder of transpersonal psychology, which treats mystical and spiritual experiences as material for psychology, and his term “holotropic” names the states, meditative, mystical or psychedelic, in which they occur. The Cosmic Game is the book that deals most directly with what those experiences suggest about consciousness.
His theory has been criticised by scientists, above all his idea that people relive their own birth. He in turn criticised other theorists: in a 2016 article he set out clinical objections to Ken Wilber’s spectrum model, which in his view gave too little weight to birth. See Books by Ken Wilber for the other side of that debate.
Watch
Stanislav Grof on Buddha at the Gas Pump
Stanislav Grof is interviewed for the Buddha at the Gas Pump series at the Science and Nonduality Conference on 24 October 2015. From the official Buddha at the Gas Pump channel.
Frequently asked questions about Stanislav Grof’s books
How many books has Stanislav Grof written?
More than twenty; his Wikipedia bibliography lists 25 titles, some written or edited with others. Twelve are the key books on this page, from Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975) to The Way of the Psychonaut (2019); the other 13 are listed below them.
What are Stanislav Grof’s books in order?
Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975), The Human Encounter with Death (1977), LSD Psychotherapy (1980), Beyond the Brain (1985), The Adventure of Self-Discovery (1988), Spiritual Emergency (1989), The Stormy Search for the Self (1990), The Holotropic Mind (1993), The Cosmic Game (1998), Psychology of the Future (2000), Holotropic Breathwork (2010) and The Way of the Psychonaut (2019).
Where should I start with Stanislav Grof?
The Holotropic Mind (1993), written with Hal Zina Bennett for general readers. If you want the psychedelic research itself, start with Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975).
What is Stanislav Grof’s most famous book?
Among researchers, Realms of the Human Unconscious (1975) and LSD Psychotherapy (1980), his accounts of the clinical LSD research. For general readers, The Holotropic Mind (1993), and more recently The Way of the Psychonaut (2019), which also gave its name to a 2020 documentary about him.
What is Holotropic Breathwork?
A method Grof and Christina Grof developed at Esalen as a non-drug approach after legal research with LSD was stopped in the early 1970s. It combines faster, deeper breathing with evocative music, bodywork and mandala drawing. Grof now uses the trademark “Grof Breathwork”. Their book on it is Holotropic Breathwork (2010).
What do scientists criticise in Grof’s work?
Mainly his claim that people can relive their own birth. Susan Blackmore (1991) called his birth explanation of near-death experiences “pitifully inadequate”, Chris French (2005) wrote that birth is only superficially similar to such experiences, Michael Shermer (1997) argued there is no evidence for infantile memories, and Lawrence Patihis and Helena Younes Burton (2015) suggested his patients may have formed false memories of birth. Holotropic Breathwork itself has been described in the medical literature as a prolonged, voluntary hyperventilation procedure, and has been studied as a possible adjunct to psychotherapy rather than as an established treatment.
What is a spiritual emergency?
The term the Grofs used for a psychospiritual crisis that they saw as a possible step in personal transformation rather than only as illness. Christina Grof founded the Spiritual Emergence Network at Esalen in 1980, after her own crisis, to help people avoid psychiatric stigma and find other support. Their books on it are Spiritual Emergency (1989) and The Stormy Search for the Self (1990).
Did Stanislav Grof work with LSD legally?
Yes. He led an LSD research programme at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague and continued in the United States at Johns Hopkins and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, until legal research with the drug was largely stopped in the early 1970s. His books describe that research; they are not guides to taking drugs.
Is Stanislav Grof still alive?
Yes. He was born in Prague on 1 July 1931. He had a stroke in August 2018 that affected his speech, and lives with his wife Brigitte Grof in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 2020 the two of them launched the Grof Legacy Training.
What is the connection between Grof and Ken Wilber?
Both are leading names in transpersonal psychology. In a 2016 article, “Ken Wilber’s Spectrum Psychology: Observations from Clinical Research”, Grof set out his objections to Wilber’s model, chiefly that it neglects birth and perinatal experience.
Footnotes
- Stanislav Grof — Wikipedia
- Stanislav Grof (emeritus) — Grof Transpersonal Training
- Stanislav Grof papers — Purdue University Archives
- In Memoriam: Christina Grof — Esalen Institute
- The Way of the Psychonaut — MAPS
- Books by Stanislav Grof — Psymon bibliography
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy.”
— Stanislav Grof, widely quoted remark on psychedelic research
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