Ralph Metzner - The Unfolding Self

PRAISE FOR THE UNFOLDING SELF

The Unfolding Self is a classic in the field of psychedelic experiences and personal growth. It was published the same year MAPS was founded and has become increasingly relevant over time.

Rick Doblin, PhD, Founder and Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

Drawing on decades of study and practice, Ralph Metzner explores powerful metaphors for transformation and awakening. The Unfolding Self is a timeless and essential volume for the libraries of modern day mystics and everyday seekers alike!

Tara Brach, PhD, Author of Trusting the Gold

Poring over The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience a quarter century after it first appeared, I am thrilled to find in its pages more relevance and significance than ever. Given the unprecedented challenges confronting humanity at this historical moment, we owe a debt of gratitude for the choice to republish this book and put it freshly in our hands. Ralph Metzner has an unparalleled capacity to evoke the wonders of human consciousness when it is nourished, trusted, and unleashed.

Joanna Macy, Author of World As Lover, World As Self

"Welcome to the mind of Ralph Metzner: scholarly, curious, informed by personal exploration of many different states of human consciousness and a desire to meaningfully integrate their contents into everyday existence.

William A. Richards, PhD, Author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

Transformational experiences are as unique as they are profound, yet each portrays universal truths of human nature. In The Unfolding Self, Ralph Metzner uses a tapestry of myth, allegory, and historical context to fathom this neglected aspect of human behaviorone that is vital to sciences understanding of humanity and where it might be heading.

Stanley Krippner, PhD, Affiliated Distinguished Faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies; Co-editor, Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining theScientific Evidence

In The Unfolding Self, Ralph Metzer brings together discoveries shared between himself and his colleaguessome of the great pioneers of mystical transformation of our timesand extensive research into psychological and spiritual traditions throughout the world. This book remains one of his major masterpieces and a gift to humanity.

Mariana Caplan, MFT, PhD, author of Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path

Ralph Metzners finely-woven narrative is as relevant today as it was decades agoa tribute and beacon illuminating the search for something deep and substantive that permeates the fabric of daily life.

Glenn Hartelius, PhD, co-author of The Ketamine Papers: Science, Therapy, and Transformation

The Unfolding Self is required reading for those interested in transformationfor themselves or for their work with others. If you are anything like me, this book will be one of those on your shelf that is dog-eared, highlighted, and underlined. Im thrilled to replace my well-worn copy with this new editionmore relevant today than ever.

Cassandra Vieten, PhD, Director of Research, Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, University of California, and co-author of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life

In this book, Metzner introduces the reader to the signposts marking the journey of evolutionary growth, charted in story, scripture, psychology, and poetry by a multitude of ages and peoples. The extraordinary range of his engaged scholarship and active practice has allowed him to navigate a cartography of psychospiritual transformation through which a life in the foothills can be transformed by what has been seen at the summit.

Mariavittoria Mangini, PhD, FNP

The Unfolding Self is a bridge between the awakening of consciousness in California during the 1960s and the timeless awakeningthe sacred legacy of planet earththat has been waiting since the beginning of time.

Manuel Almendro, clinical psychologist and Director of Oxigeme, Center for a Psychology of Consciousness

THE
UNFOLDING
SELF

Varieties of Transformative Experience

RALPH METZNER

Foreword by Diane Haug

SYNERGETIC PRESS

SANTA FE LONDON

Copyright 2022 by Ralph Metzner

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Published by Synergetic Press | 1 Blue Bird Ct. Santa Fe, NM 87508
& 24 Old Gloucester St. London, WCIN 3AL, England

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022902258

ISBN 9780907791959 (paperback)

ISBN 9780907791966 (ebook)

Cover design by Amanda Mller
Book design by Brad Greene
Managing Editor: Amanda Mller
Project Editor: Noelle Armstrong
Printed in the USA

I dedicate this book to my son Ari Krishna Metzner, who was born in 1966 and died in an accident in 1974, and whose joyous and exuberant spirit graced my life;

and to Angeles Arrien,
Basque seeress and wise woman,
creative teacher,
inspirer of visions,
long great friend of many lifetimes.

Ralph Metzner died peacefully at home in his own bed on March 14, 2019. As friends gathered just hours after he made his transition, there was a sense that he left his body on an outbreath as light as a feather. His face remained soft and relaxed; his hands rested gently on his chest in a position that could only be described as a mudra. A Good Death.

I had watched Ralph, my teacher, guide, friend, colleague, and co-conspirator, move consciously toward that transition over the last two decades of his life. For those of us who had the good fortune to gather with Ralph in the spirit of deep inner exploration, we all had repeated opportunities to practice the art of letting go. His teaching and guided divinations were rich with metaphor, symbol, myth, archetype, poetry, and storytelling. The Ralph I knew best was not only a scholar but the creator of sacred space, the alchemist-magician, the shaman, and bard.

Two or three years before Ralph died, we had a personal conversation about how he might craft his own death. He could feel it coming. His guided divinations in group settings were much more focused on the end of life. For those of us who knew him well, it felt like a time of personal preparationa rehearsal. From his wife Cathys reporting, at the end of Ralphs life his worldly business was complete, his intention was clear, and the veil between the worlds very thin.

Ralph Metzner created a respectful, soulful bridge to archaic, time-honored, cross-cultural practices for visioning and healing. In journeying with him, our lives were enriched.

When I learned that Synergetic Press had plans to re-publish Ralphs classic, The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience, I was delighted (and I sense that he is too!). I consider Ralphs books absolutely essential reading for those interested in the healing potential of expanded or extra-ordinary states of consciousness.

I am so grateful for the decades of exploring the inner landscape togetherof remembering where we came from and where we are headed. I offer a deep bow of appreciation for time spent together in the great Spirit Canoe.

Diane Haug

Glorieta, New Mexico

Twelve years had elapsed since the publication of The Unfolding Self, when the print-run and resources were finally exhausted and the rights reverted to me. Im grateful to Byron Belitsos, founder and president of Origin Press, for the superb production of that 1997 edition, and for keeping it in print that long.