The Ultimate Journey:
Consciousness and the Mystery of
Death by Stanislav Grof
Worth Reading And Then Keeping To Read Again
Beyond personal history and archetypal themes, a comprehensive
psychology must also address the fundamental significance of birth and
death. Stanislav Grof, M.D., renowned for his pioneering contributions
regarding the psychological and spiritual aspects of the birth process, now
adds invaluable insights from more than half a century of research and
personal discovery into the experience of death and dying. Dr. Grof
distills teachings from ancient wisdom and modern science that suggest
how to face the process of death and dying. The ultimate journey
challenges us all, and how we approach it is much more than major
personal issue. Those who come to terms with death in deep experiential
self-exploration tend to develop a sense of planetary citizenship, reverence
for life in all its forms, and spirituality of a universal and all-encompassing
nature. Such radial inner transformation might be humanityís only real

chance for survival. The Ultimate Journey describes ancient and
aboriginal ritual and spiritual practices that help us understand the
experience of death, develop effective ways of making dying easier, and
integrate it as a meaningful part of life. The book also summarizes modern
studies that shed new light on a variety of phenomena related to death and
dying, including psycho-spiritual death and rebirth, near-death
experiences, and the new expanded cartography y of the psyche that has
emerged from Grofís fifty years of research of psychedelic therapy,
Holotropic Breathwork, and spontaneous psychospiritual crises.
Personal Review: The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the
Mystery of Death by Stanislav Grof
Death and dying are the most universal and important experiences in
human life, yet until the late 1960s, prominent members of Western
civilization - including our medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists,
anthropologists, and philosophers - showed an astonishing lack of interest
in these crucial areas. "The only plausible explanation for this situation is
massive denial of death and psychological repression of everything related
to it." So begins Stanislav Grof's new opus on death, dying, and
transcendence, The Ultimate Journey, a heartfelt review of past and
present efforts to redress this serious omission in our culture.
Grof writes that our modern industrial civilization typically gives more
attention to the wardrobe, makeup, and even plastic surgery for the corpse
than to counseling dying individuals and their families. This is in marked
contrast to preindustrial societies for whom death and dying were
paramount in their worldviews and important inspiration for much of their
art and architecture. The shamans of many cultures - going back at least
thirty thousand years - began their careers with a spontaneous or induced
experience of death and rebirth. They explored, firsthand, territories of the
psyche that transcend the boundaries of individual consciousness.
Similarly, in the rites of passage, initiates were guided into non-ordinary or
holotropic ("moving toward wholeness") states of consciousness and had a
personal experience of numinous realities that transcend biological death.
In the ancient mysteries, neophytes participated in various mind-expanding
processes or "technologies of the sacred" to move beyond individual
consciousness and experience directly the higher transpersonal
dimensions of existence. The Goddess Mysteries of Eleusis, for example,
held near Athens for almost two thousand years - and which it is now
virtually certain used ergot, a naturally occurring form of LSD - had as their
participants many of the creative and intellectual giants of Western culture.
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Euripedes, Sophocles, Plutarch,
Pindar, Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero all attest to the life-changing power of
their holotropic experiences at Eleusis or the other mystery sites.
Grof further enriches this emerging new picture by reviewing important
developments in the fields of thanatology, scientific study of reincarnation,
near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, and messages and
visits from the Beyond. Reputable published data from researchers in

these fields, while by themselves cannot be considered "proof" of survival
of consciousness after death, together represent a wave of compelling
anomalous phenomena that have not been convincingly explained in the
traditional scientific paradigms. Grof suggests that the conflict between
science and spirituality was completely unnecessary and reflects a
misunderstanding between different domains of reality.
Grof also reviews the groundbreaking work with terminal cancer patients
conducted by staff at the Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland, the last
federally funded research project with psychedelics in the U.S. until the
modern era. Describing in detail the research design, protocols, and
procedure of these sessions, as well as a number of poignant case
studies, Grof recounts the dramatic and often surprising therapeutic results
the Spring Grove team observed in the five categories of: alleviation of
emotional suffering, physical pain and distress, fear of death and attitude
toward dying, time orientation and basic hierarchy of values, and
psychological condition of the survivors. He and his colleagues repeatedly
witnessed an astonishing process "that closely resembled the initiation
practices of the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth and often involved
experiential sequences similar to those reported in the Tibetan and
Egyptian Books of the Dead." The inner experiences of these individuals
gave them access to transpersonal and unitive domains of consciousness
that helped them to live their final days, weeks, and months with less
physical pain and fear of death, with more peace of mind, enjoyment of the
present moment, and improved quality in their relationships. The accounts
of these individuals' transitions are deeply moving and represented
exceptionally rewarding experiences for the caregivers. Based on this and
other well-published research, Grof invites administrators, legislators, and
politicians to inform themselves by reading the professional and scientific
journals, rather than the questionable reports of sensation-hunting
journalists. He makes a heartfelt and convincing case that we may be
depriving the dying of powerful healing tools to make their transitions
easier, more joyful, and more dignified.
I recommend this book to anyone seeking to come to terms with their own
or anyone else's mortality. From its strikingly appealing cover, its
presentation of humanity's rich mythologies of death and rebirth, the
reviews of consciousness research, and forty pages of brilliantly
reproduced sacred frescoes, evocative tomb paintings, vivid mandalas,
and precious personal photos - this book is itself an urgently needed
manual for conscious dying and conscious living. It seems clear that our
industrial civilization is plundering the earth to compensate for a deep
unconscious fear of death and dying. Yet modern consciousness research
is confirming what the shamans, mystics, and priestesses have always
known. As the poet Rabindrananth Tagore realized: "Death is not
extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come."

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