Bennett Hal Zina - The Holotropic Mind

This book is based on experiences, observations, and insights from thirty-five years of systematic exploration of the value of non-ordinary states of consciousness. During this time, I have received invaluable help and support from many people who have played important roles in my personal and professional life. I would like to use this opportunity to briefly acknowledge at least a few of them.

Joseph Campbell, who was for many years my dear friend as well as an important teacher, taught me much about the relevance of mythology for psychology, religion, and human life in general. His brilliant intellect, encyclopedic memory, and amazing capacity for creative synthesis brought unusual clarity into many areas that had been in the past misunderstood and confused by traditional science, religion, and philosophy.

Gregory Bateson, a generalist whose inquisitive mind explored many disciplines in search of knowledge, was the most original thinker I have known. I had the privilege of almost daily contact with him during the last two and a half years of his life when we both were Scholars-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. By his incisive critique of the errors and inadequacies of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm, he helped me to trust my own findings, which were often in conflict with mainstream psychiatry and traditional Western science.

I have received inestimable additional encouragement and support of a similar kind from several of my physicist friends who have done important pioneering work exploring the philosophical implications of quantum-relativistic physics and who have made significant contributions to the new worldview emerging in Western science. I am particularly grateful for my long friendship and cooperation with Fritjof Capra, and I appreciate deeply what I have learned from Fred Wolf, Nick Herbert, David Peat, Saul-Paul Siraque, and others.

One of the most significant intellectual events of my life was the discovery of holography and of the holonomic thinking in science, which provided a conceptual framework for a variety of otherwise incomprehensible and puzzling findings of modern consciousness research. Here I feel deeply indebted to the genius of Denis Gabor for the discovery of the principles of optical holography, to David Bohm for his holographic model of the universe and the theory of holomovement, and to Karl Pribram for his holographic model of the brain.

I remember with great affection two dear friends, Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich, the founders of humanistic psychology. They invited me in the late 1960s to participate in brainstorming sessions that gave birth to transpersonal psychology. The development of this new discipline, which brings together the ancient wisdom of the great spiritual systems of the world and the pragmatism of Western science, has become the passion of my life.

The work in the challenging and controversial field of transpersonal psychology and consciousness research would not have been possible without emotional and intellectual support of like-minded individuals. I have been extremely fortunate to have as my close personal friends many of the pioneers of the new thinking in psychology. These very special people have been for many years a source of encouragement and inspiration to me, to my wife, Christina, and to each other. My special thanks for this crucial role in our lives goes to Angeles Arrien, Michael and Sandy Harner, Jack and Liana Kornfield, John Perry, Ram Dass, June Singer, Rick and Heather Tarnas, Frances Vaughan, and Roger Walsh.

I reserve my deepest appreciation for the members of my immediate family to whom I have dedicated this book. My mother, Maria, and my brother, Paul, who is himself a psychiatrist and shares many of my interests, have been all through my life sources of great emotional and moral support. My wife, Christina, has been for the last sixteen years my most intimate friend, colleague, and fellow seeker. As we have shared many highs and lows of our joint life, I have learned to admire very much the courage and integrity she has shown during her stormy personal journey. Being an integral part of it has taught me many extraordinary and invaluable lessons that only life can provide.

In closing I would like to thank Harper San Francisco Publishers and particularly my editor Mark Salzwedel for making the publication of this book possible. Last, but not least, I feel deep gratitude to Hal Zina Bennett, who has brought to this project a rare combination of talents, including the writing skills and imagination of an accomplished author and an unusual understanding of non-ordinary states of consciousness. He helped me greatly to describe the findings of my research in simple and easily understandable language, making the information available to a broad spectrum of readers. Thanks to Hals unusual personal qualities, sharing the work on this projecta task that had its challenges and problemshas been very rewarding and brought us closer together.

Those whose contributions to this book were critical and essential have to remain anonymous. I feel great appreciation for thousands of people in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asiaclients, trainees, friends, and participants in workshops and various research projectswho have with extraordinary courage explored the depths and heights of their psyches and shared with me the results of their unconventional quest: without them this book could not have been written.

Stanislav Grof, M.D.
Mill Valley, August 1991

The subject matteris not that collection of solid, static objects extended in space but the life that is lived in the scene that it composes; and so reality is not that external scene but the life that is lived in it. Reality is things as they are.

Wallace Stevens

Within the past three decades, modern science has presented us with new challenges and new discoveries that suggest human capabilities quite beyond anything we previously even imagined. In response to these challenges and discoveries, the collective efforts of researchers from every profession and discipline are providing us with a completely new picture of human existence, and most particularly of the nature of human consciousness.

Just as the world of Copernicuss time was turned upside down by his discovery that our Earth was not the center of the universe, so our newest revelations, from researchers all over the world, are forcing us to take a closer look at who we are physically, mentally, and spiritually. We are seeing the emergence of a new image of the psyche, and with it an extraordinary worldview that combines breakthroughs at the cutting edge of science with the wisdom of the most ancient societies. As a result of the advances that are coming forth we are having to reassess literally all our viewpoints, just as with the response to Copernicuss discoveries nearly five hundred years ago.

The Universe as a Machine: Newton and Western Science

At the core of this dramatic shift in thought that has occurred in the course of the twentieth century is a complete overhaul of our understanding of the physical world. Prior to Einsteins theory of relativity and quantum physics we held a firm conviction that the universe was composed of solid matter. We believed that the basic building blocks of this material universe were atoms, which we perceived as compact and indestructible. The atoms existed in three-dimensional space and their movements followed certain fixed laws. Accordingly, matter evolved in an orderly way, moving from the past, through the present, into the future. Within this secure, deterministic viewpoint we saw the universe as a gigantic machine, and we were confident the day would come when we would discover all the rules governing this machine, so that we could accurately reconstruct everything that had happened in the past and predict everything that would happen in the future. Once we had discovered the rules, we would have mastery over all we beheld. Some even dreamed that we would one day be able to produce life by mixing appropriate chemicals in a test tube.