Global project Grof® Legacy Training
The text on this page is copied from from Stanislav Grof's website www.grof-legacy-training.com, where you can find many other information in English.
Grof® Legacy Training is based on Stanislav Grof’s research into psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and spiritual emergencies. His work has been published in two comprehensive volumes “The Way of the Psychonaut: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys,” television courses, lectures, interviews, and many books.
Participants in this training will develop theoretical and practical knowledge and skills that are the result of more than 60 years of research of holotropic states of consciousness – a large category of non-ordinary states that have a healing, transformative, heuristic, and evolutionary potential. Holotropic states were identified and coined by Stanislav Grof; the term holotropic means literally “moving toward wholeness.”
Holotropic is a new word (neologism) that is composed of two Greek words - holos, meaning whole and trepo/trepein, meaning moving toward or being attracted by something. Holotropic is related to the commonly used term heliotropism — the property of plants to always move in the direction of the sun. The holotropic states of consciousness that the participants in our training will study represent a common denominator for phenomena that are important in health and emotional disorders of the human psyche.
Training authorized under Grof® Legacy Training will be conducted within various countries or regions of the world the way Stan Grof would like it to be taught. In the GROF® Legacy Training, experience and instruction in holotropic breathwork will be given, for legal trademark reasons, under the brand name GROF® Breathwork. While authorizing trainers who have been known by Stan as exceptional carriers of his work, GROF® Legacy Training is not responsible for the individual training programs, the content of their websites, their compliance with the laws of their various countries, or the actions or omissions of their trainers or trainees.
THE TRAINEES WILL STUDY TO BECOME:
- Sitters, researchers and experiencers in psychedelic sessions
- Supporters of persons in spiritual emergency
- Facilitators, breathers, and sitters in holotropic sessions (GROF® Breathwork)
- Students of transpersonal psychology
- Assistants with dying people
- Apprentices in the study of archetypal astrology for work with holotropic states of consciousness
The main quality of the training will naturally depend on the experiences and theoretical and practical knowledge of the teachers guiding the courses. Grof® Legacy Training will provide abundant resources for both teachers and students from Stan’s sixty decades of consciousness research. These resources include books, videos, Power Points, articles, paintings, films, audios and telecourses for which we will have permission.
Sri Yantra is the most sacred archetypal symbol of Tantra. It represents the union of Masculine and Feminine Divine. Her other name is Nava Yoni Yantra (five triangles Yantra) because four upward-pointing triangles represent the goddess's masculine embodiment, while the five downward-pointing triangles symbolize the female embodiment.
RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR GROF® LEGACY TRAINING FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
The two volumes of The Way of the Psychonaut are the basic sources of the training. This two-volume encyclopedia has been specifically created to provide all the most important information for taking or guiding inner journeys (psychedelic and holotropic breathwork sessions) and in working with Spiritual Emergencies. All the chapters are provided with literature that help teachers and students give lectures and write papers or dissertations.
The Psychonaut books will be accompanied by 90 minutes of the film bearing a similar name: The Way of the Psychonaut: Stan Grof’s Journey of Consciousness, produced by Susan Hess Logeais.
We are in the process of translating the Psychonaut books into many languages (Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, Czech, Korean, Mandarin Chinese). This will enable students to read these books at home and deepen all that they learn in their classes. We are also in the process of creating subtitles in several world languages for the Psychonaut movie where it will be showing.
TELECOURSES
Psychology of the Future (Shift Network) … 7 weeks
The Way of the Psychonaut (Shift Network) …. 24 weeks
Is Archetypal Astrology the Rosetta Stone of the Human Psyche (Shift Network) …. 8 weeks (with Rick Tarnas)
Psyche and Cosmos (Shift Network) …. 16 weeks (with Rick Tarnas)
Holotropic States of Consciousness: Technologies of Sacred (Science and Non/Duality)
1. Radical Revision of Psychology
2. Spiritual Emergency
3. Understanding Violence and Greed
4. Cosmic Game
Shiva Nataraja, the Hindu god of the Lord of the Dance, creates and destroys the universe. He has appeared in many of Stan Grof´s psychedelic sessions, and he considers him his most important archetype. Shiva has also been present in several remarkable synchronicities which involved Shivait Swami Muktananda, the head of the Siddha Yoga lineage.
"Stan Grof is one of the most brilliant and heart full visionaries of our time, and his work brings life-changing benefit to those who follow it.
His powerful legacy includes revolutionary worldwide trainings combining the wisdom of psychedelic exploration, transformative breath work, maps of consciousness, spiritual emergency, transpersonal psychology, and so much more. He has woven the understandings and skillful means of modern psychology, medicine, physics, anthropology, art and music, shamanism, healing and universal spirituality into a whole, reflecting the breadth of consciousness itself, and the invitation to awaken to this vast mystery."
Jack Kornfield PhD. Buddhist teacher
Other than occasions where Stan and/or Brigitte Grof will teach in an individual Grof® Legacy Training program, the Grofs will not receive any profit from Grof® Legacy Training or from the trademark GROF®. Grof® Legacy Training and the brand name Grof® Breathwork for holotropic breathwork have been created with the goal of protecting and spreading the Grof® work. Stan and Brigitte Grof believe it belongs to the world and should be taught for the generations to come.
History of Grof training
In 1988 my late wife Christina and I started Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT). After traveling worldwide for 25 years conducting holotropic breathwork, and leading training for 10 of those years, we had grown weary of the administrative aspects of the training program and wanted to concentrate more on writing and teaching. In 1998, we sold GTT to Tav and Cary Sparks. In 2000, we transferred the trademark in Holotropic Breathwork to the Sparks for free and without additional compensation. After the payments agreed in the sale of GTT we did not receive any financial profit from GTT except compensation for actual teaching.
I am very grateful for all the work that Tav and Cary Sparks, the teachers, organizers and facilitators of GTT have done with so much dedication to holotropic breathwork over the years. There are also experienced teachers of my work outside GTT who have done skillful and heartful training for several decades and trained many people, for which I am also very grateful. All of these people belong to the Holotropic community.
In June 2014 Christina Grof passed away. I am deeply grateful for her contributions to the work; together we co-created the method holotropic breathwork at Esalen where we lived and offered many workshops over 14 years including co-leading of 30 month-long Esalen seminars, numerous retreats with Jack Kornfield combining holotropic breathwork with Vipassana Buddhist meditation, and many other holotropic breathwork workshops and seminars worldwide. Along with founding the Spiritual Emergency Network, Christina worked in the field of addiction and led together with me many International Transpersonal Association conferences. Christina authored her own contributions and we co-wrote several books together. Christina’s legacy can be found at www.christinagrof.com.
In 2015 I started traveling around the world again doing workshops and teaching trainings. Since April 2016 Brigitte Grof (née Ashauer) and I are happily married. Brigitte is an accomplished psychologist and artist, who learned holotropic breathwork with us at Esalen in 1986 before we had any formal training. Later Brigitte participated in several of the early trainings and we worked together for many years. Since 1990 she has been leading holotropic breathwork workshops and teaching my work in Europe (www.brigittegrof.com). Since our wedding, we have worked jointly in China, countries of Latin America, USA, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Czech Republic. Brigitte is the person who knows me and my work best. Eventually I would like her to continue the legacy of my work.
In August 2018 I had a stroke that has affected my speech center. Luckily my mind is completely clear and I am not paralyzed. During the stroke I had the feeling that I died and came back because of my love for Brigitte and my work. Now we are living, working and creating together, and sharing our inner and outer travels. She has been an amazing support for me with her love, experience and knowledge for my projects. Most recently these include The Way of the Psychonaut Encyclopedia and documentary film, aswell as our return to Esalen in the spring of 2018 and 2019.
After my stroke, I decided it was time for me to consider the legacy of my work in the decades to come. I have discussed my hopes for the work with many people around the world and received much advice, enthusiasm and support. I have also received a great deal of feedback from many people about their own hopes and dreams for teaching and training. As much as I appreciate the GTT holotropic breathwork trainers, facilitators and participants, I, myself, am not associated with the Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT) anymore.
At this stage, I have realized that I need to encourage the development of a broader platform for my work, as well as acknowledge and support the many teachers outside GTT who are great carriers of the work. Toward these goals, in the May 2020, Brigitte and I launch a new training platform: The GROF® Legacy Training. The training will be broader than holotropic breathwork and will focus on working with holotropic states of consciousness in many settings. In addition to supporting people in holotropic breathwork, this will include sitting in psychedelic sessions, accompanying dying people, and working with people in spiritual emergencies, as well as considering a holotropic approach to the understanding and study of art, the global environmental crisis, and many other human pursuits.
GROF® Legacy Training will authorize qualified teachers in the various countries to lead their own trainings in working with holotropic states of consciousness. The theoretical basis of the GROF® Legacy Training is my new encyclopedia, The Way of the Psychonaut, and many other teaching materials such as teleseminars, films, Power Points, and our many articles and books, as well as the personal teachings of the trainers.
We believe it is important that students will have the opportunity to learn Transpersonal Psychology, which I helped found, from an academic as well as practical perspective. We also strongly encourage learning and researching the connections between holotropic states of consciousness and archetypal astrology, the work of my close friend and colleague Richard Tarnas. The two volumes of The Way of the Psychonaut have been specifically created to provide all the most important information for taking or guiding inner journeys, including psychedelic and holotropic breathwork sessions, as well as supporting Spiritual Emergencies. All the chapters reference literature that will help teachers and students give lectures and write papers or dissertations.
In the GROF® Legacy Training we will use the brand name Grof® Breathwork for my work holotropic breathwork for legal trademark reasons. We wish all those people associated with GTT well in their continued training under the brand name Holotropic Breathwork®. Our goal in beginning GROF® Legacy Training is solely to support others who we believe are qualified to carry and expand the legacy of my work. We will not receive any financial profit from our trademark Grof® or from the GROF® Legacy Training unless we are actually teaching in any of the programs. We are enthusiastically looking forward to supporting holotropic studies and working with many old and new friends in the fresh decade just opening. (www.grof-legacy-training.com).I have deep love, admiration and respect for everyone who is finding the courage to undertake these deep inner healing and transformative journeys! For me you are all part of one holotropic community.
Stanislav Grof Germany, April 2020 (www.stangrof.com)