Allies for Awakening: Guidelines for Productive and Safe Experiences with Entheogens
About this book
Entheogenesis means the growing realization that we human beings and the world around us are much more than simply material organisms living and evolving on a material planetary body. We are multi-dimensional spiritual, cosmic, noetic, psychic and physical beings. The central insight that emerges from entheogenic states and is confirmed by the perennial spiritual traditions of East and West, is that at every level, from macro-cosmic to micro-cosmic, from atoms and animals, to trees and planets and stars, Spirit dwells within created forms and expresses through them. This monograph is based on 50 years of experience as a participant-observer in the international underground sub-culture involved with entheogenic, consciousness-expanding substances. The author discusses the uses and values of such substances when the explicit intention or purpose is for spiritual awakening, psychotherapy, healing, increased understanding and the enhancement of creativity. The intent of this documentation is not to prove or promote any particular method or treatment of any condition. The evaluation of entheogens needs to be in terms of how productive these experiences are of healthier approaches to the issues of living in these times, in this world. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. received his undergraduate degree at Oxford University and his doctorate in clinical psychology at Harvard University, where he also held a post-doctoral fellowship in psychopharmacology at the Harvard Medical School. He collaborated with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in studies of psychedelic drugs and co-authored The Psychedelic Experience. He is a psychotherapist and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he taught for 30 years. Ralph is the author of The Well of Remembrance, The Unfolding Self, Green Psychology, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture (with Ram Dass); editor of two collections of essays on ayahuasca and on psilocybe mushrooms; and author of a series of seven books on The Ecology of Consciousness.