Stanislav Grof

With more than 50 years experience, Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and co-founder of the field of transpersonal psychology.

Grof's pioneering research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness has made him a world-renowned expert in the exploration into the human psyche. Best known for his early studies on the effects of LSD on the psyche and psychedelic therapy, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences are mapped onto a person's early fetal and neonatal experiences. Following the suppression of legal LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to develop a theory that many states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques.

Born in Prague in 1931, Dr. Stan Grof received his M.D. from Charles University and Ph.D. from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. In 1993, he received an Honorary Award for his contributions and development of the field of Transpersonal Psychology from the Association of Transpersonal Psychology and was more recently awarded the prestigious VISION 97 award from the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel in Prague in 2007.