Stanislav Grof ??

[A.H.]

Well, here is one of those very tricky ones that I was talking about.

Serious credentials, very on-the-edge ideas... Do they really know something "more" or are simply deluded or real fraud?

Research needed...

http://www.holotropic.com/bio_stan-grof.shtml

[frederica]

He's quite an enterprise, but not everyone agrees with him. Read The Neglected Papers against Grof Therapy by Kate Thomas and Stephen Castro. Also website. www.citizeninitiative.com       www.citizeninitiative.com/against_grof_therapy.htm

[A.H.]

He's quite an enterprise, but not everyone agrees with him. Read The Neglected Papers against Grof Therapy by Kate Thomas and Stephen Castro. Also website. www.citizeninitiative.com       www.citizeninitiative.com/against_grof_therapy.htm

Thank you for those links Frederica. Very helpful. I was suspicios anyway.

After reading those links and some other internet sources my judgement would be - deluded (but I rethought that now)...

...(erased too many unnecesarry previously posted words)...

I did some checking and I conclude that I don't know enough to judge and even give opinion on this man. He IS SELLING, but I don't dare to conclude upon that if he really knows something real or is he valid or not.

I thought that you have more first hand information, since the most of the members of this forum are active in USA. If anyone finds some more counter information I am interested.

This links are from one person only and another that is related to him - mother... And after some checking that man I also doubt his credibility. And that is the only negative opinion I found on the internet.  Anywhere else he seems to be somewhat respected.

So I will wait for some more unbiased information.

[nemesis]

I was considering starting a thread about this man and discovered this one.

Grof's therapies are being used by countless new age "therapists" and highly dubious accredited / licensed therapists and the situation is serious and vulnerable people are being abused because of it.

One of the proponents of Grof's breathwork is a Mr Michael Stone

FB page here
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=539289055

Stone is the contact person for Grof's business in LA here
http://holotropicbreathworkla.com/

Now Stone keeps his FB friends private, however by checking out the "friends of" Stone on the FB page of another breathwork practitioner Crystal Dawn Morris we can see that he has some "interesting" friends. 

Firstly, just some shared thoughts about Crystal Dawn Morris.

For those that don't know Ms Morris is deeply involved with the "Phoenix Goddess Temple" and Sedona Temple / newage brothels but somehow mysteriously managed not to get arrested and charged in the recent raids.  This may be because her role relates to teaching and training?

Here is a link to a 2010 meetup event for the Temple of One (the "church" of the PGT) in which she is the co-organiser, along with Niki Faldemolaei (the latter facing serious criminal charges re the raids)

http://www.meetup.com/Sedona-Tantra-for-Awakening-Meetup-Group/events/12814821/

Ms Morris and Ms Faldemolaei are also organisers for the Sedona Tantra-for-Awakening meetup here
http://www.meetup.com/Sedona-Tantra-for-Awakening-Meetup-Group/

and in this meetup event
http://www.meetup.com/Phoenix-Pagans-Witches-Network/events/17522791/

the following text appears: (emphasis mine)

Taught by Crystal Dawn Morris, Core Faculty member for School of 1. She has spent the past 4 years developing and perfecting her internet presence and becoming a social media expert. She currently has 2 blogs wuth over 300 posts, almost 4000 Facebook friends and several Facebook fan pages. She has written and published 20 tantra related articles, produces her own Newsletter, has over 4500 Twitter followers and a YouTube channel. Her website, www.tantraforawakening.com gets over 4000 hits per month.

If you check out Ms Morris's FB friends page she has 179 friends in common with Niki Faldemolaei, largely an assortment of newage pimps and sex workers alongside various pretendians including:

Adam DeArmon (aka Adam Yellowbird)
Anastasia Tantrika (Owner* and Founder at London Tantric Temple / newage brothel)
Andrew Barnes ("sacred sexual healer" based in Australia)
Baba Dez Nichols (founder of the Sedona Temple / brothel - newage pimp with links to Romanian THB network MISA)
Bear Bearcloud - pretendian with strong links to the PGT and Sedona temple / brothels

I would be here all day if I listed all their dodgy mutual friends, hopefully those I included here will give you a fair idea of the situation. 

I just wanted to establish a little bit about Ms Morris before proceeding

Now back to Mr Michael Stone, who is the contact person for Grof's business in LA

Crystal Dawn Morris and Michael Stone have 62 FB friends in common
including

Anastasia Tantrika (Owner* and Founder at London Tantric Temple / newage brothel)
Baba Dez Nichols (founder of the Sedona Temple / brothel - newage pimp with links to Romanian THB network MISA)
Viryam Robertson (newage pimp / owner of "tantric temple" in New Zealand)

about 50% of the remaining mutual friends are "sacred sexual healers" / "tantric masseuses" / "Goddesses" / "Dakinis" / "Dakas" (newage sex workers)

Perhaps there mutual friends are unsurprising as Stone lists "tantra" as one of his interests on FB

on thing that really concerns me is that Stone turns up as a FB "friend" of one of MISA's UK based "temples" (of course a newage brothel) Ecstatic Joy Tantra Temple.  It only has 25 FB friends and Stone is one of them.   
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003098522183&sk=friends&v=friends

So basically, I am not drawing any large conclusions from this, yet, but to say that the LA representative of Grof's Holotropic Breathwork in Los Angeles is friends with a number of newage sex workers and pimps and is one of only 25 friends (at least on FB) of a brothel owned by a huge Romanian THB network.

Pushed for time,  but more info to follow.






*IME people who claim to be the owners of newage brothels may not be and may be coerced / manipulated by pimps and traffickers - in this instance I lack sufficient data to know what is going on

[nemesis]

Just another interesting website promoting Holotropic Breathwork

The "School of Tantra" owned by Sasha Alex Lessin Ph.D. (I think this guy is probably worthy of his own thread)

His FB page is here
http://www.facebook.com/sashalessinphd

He is FB friends with
Niki Faldemolaei (currently facing serious criminal charges re the Phoenix brothel raids)
Anastasia Tantrika (Owner and Founder at London Tantric Temple / newage brothel)
Baba Dez Nichols (see above post)
Gypsy Lynn Edmondson (currently facing serious charges re the PGT raids)
Kenneth Ray Stubbs (advocate of "sacred prostitution" and defender of the PGT)
Tracy Elise  ("Mystic Mother" of the PGT - currently facing very serious criminal charges in relation to the recent raids)
Viryam Robertson - (newage pimp / temple owner in New Zealand)
Wayne Clayton (currently facing serious criminal charges re the PGT raids)

There are also countless newage sex workers in his friends list, as well as lots of "breathwork" practitioners

anyway, back to his website which is here
http://schooloftantra.net (use a proxy)

the page relevant to Holotropic Breathwork is here (use a proxy)
http://schooloftantra.net/Education/HolotropicBreathing/holotropic.htm

I will C&P the text

Group Class 3rd Saturday Monthly, 9AM - 4 PM

In Dr. Stanislav Grof's Holotropic Breathing you breathe to music and get holos--experiences, images and insights so you grow. Holos, properly integrated, can cure your psychic, emotional and physical  ills, so you enjoy, know and love more.  In Grof Breathing, you evoke inner experiences and express them your way. If you're healthy  and happy, Holotropic sessions expand your awareness; if you suffer, breathwork helps you heal.

Combine Holotropic Breathwork with your tantric practice to open up to Source and remember who you really are.  Breathe, share breath, reconnect to the divine and create divine partnerships that energize your life, create ecstasy and bliss.

also

HOLOTROPIC BREATHWORK: DRUGLESS PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY
  by Sasha Lessin, Ph.D.

A matron, reliving her childhood, rocks and wails, held by a woman half her age; an athlete, re-experiencing his birth, desperately pushes his head through the hands of his partner; a smiling priest sits in lotus and for the first time knows the oneness with God he has preached about for years.  About them on pads in the dimly-lit room lie a dozen other close-eyed, hypnotized "breathers", each attended by a partner.  Some breathers writhe, shriek or cry; others remain still, silent and peaceful.  Inundated by evocative music and encouraged by focused bodywork, all are deeply immersed in the unfolding of their inner worlds.

     These workshop participants are engaged in a powerful growth process: Holotropic Breathwork.   Holotropic Breathwork grew from a challenge confronted in 1976 by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.  Grof and his colleagues had created the most effective psychotherapy ever developed.  But the American and other governments banned their work.

     25 years of meticulous scientific research had proven LSD-assisted psychotherapy the most effective treatment for alcohol and narcotics addiction, emotional, psychosomatic and relational problems, and for the anguish of terminal cancer.  Psychedelics, in controlled settings with expert guidance, had also proven invaluable for those seeking personal and spiritual growth.

     LSD--a non-specific emotional amplifier with no adverse physical side-effects--let patients watch their unconscious.  They saw, felt and resolved painful memories, womb experiences, images of past-lives and spiritual sequences.  They released inner conflicts and trapped feelings that had led to their problems.  They relaxed, enjoyed life and responded well to stress.  Yet, reacting to widespread public abuse and hysteria, the U.S. and other nations ended all legal LSD therapy.  Grof had found a therapy that solved most mental health and growth needs but could not use it.
 

He left government employ and signed on as Scholar-in-Residence at Esalen Growth Center in Big Sur, California.  There, over the next decade, he explored alternate, nondrug, means of reaching the deep healing that resides in the unconscious.  His wife, Christina, helped him combine methods from art, primal, gestalt, music, movement and Jungian therapy with bioenergetics, psychosynthesis and rebirthing as well as ancient and modern spiritual and shamanic practices.  Their synthesis, Holotropic (which means moving toward wholeness) Therapy, met the challenge of a safe, legal means for self-directed inner exploration of the unconscious as powerful as LSD therapy.

Breathwork's a heady blend.  A Grof workshop frees and uplifts you if you can handle deep emotions and welcome spiritual experiences.  Only if.  Breathwork's too strong for very disturbed--or weak-hearted--people.

     A Holotropic session starts tamely enough.  The leader tells participants to expect repressed memories, womb feelings, past-life pictures and spiritual visions.

Participants pair up.  One partner of each pair, "the breather," reclines, watched by his partner.  The leader suggests breathers relax deeply, breathe faster and more fully and notice images behind their closed eyes. For a few breathers, these relaxed beginnings deepen into blissful memories of pleasures and triumphs in life, intimations of floating in a loving womb, of undrugged birth into a loving family.

     But for a breather who feels trapped or one who never stops struggling, nightmarish images unfold.  If he feels trapped, he'll likely remember times he felt helpless and hopeless.  He imagines caged animals, a fetus caught in a womb he's outgrown, a concentration camp, Hell.

     If a breather's a compulsive struggler, he remembers conflicts; he pictures war or battles with animals.  He may arch his neck and push like a fetus fighting for birth.

     His feelings may build for two hours, climax and release.  Now relaxed and reflective, he draws a mandala to symbolize his experience.

     Then the other half of the group breathes.  Then all participants review the workshop.  What do they get?

     Most get freedom.  Freedom from being pushed-around by their own internal, unconscious forces.  Grofwork frees people from confusing the present with their internal images.  When you recognize your images, they stop dimming your view, damping your delight.
 

  Holotropic Breathwork Group January $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group February $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group March $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group April $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group May $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group June $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group July $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group August $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group September $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group October $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group November $125
   Holotropic Breathwork Group December $125
   Holotropic Private Session - $600 - 1 student
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 2 students $600 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 3 students $400 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 4 students $300 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 5 students $240 each
 
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 6 students $200 each
   Holotorpic Private Session - $1200 - 7 students $171 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 8 students $150 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 9 students $134 each
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 10 students $120 ea
   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 11 students $109 ea
 

   Holotropic Private Session - $1200 - 12 students $100 ea
 
 

Here's some articles to read to explore Holotropic Breathing and experiences it brings.    
Heighten Your Holos: Get More From Grof Breathwork by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.
Holotropic Breathwork with Voice Dialogue by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.
Karma Clearing: Dying to this Life by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.
Pastlives: Learn From Lives Lapsed by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.
Prepare for Holotropic Breathing by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.
Spiritual Emergency Psychic Flooding Heralds Spiritual Emergence by Sasha Lessin, Ph. D.

I am not yet drawing any conclusions

At this stage all I am interested in doing is in demonstrating that Holotropic Breathwork (HB) has been embraced by the newage "tantric" community, a community that is, as regular readers here will know, deeply involved with sex work and with trafficking in human beings.  

More to follow...


edited to add another link

this is to another of Lessin's websites

templeoftantra.org/wordpress/testimonials/

when you click on the link it invites you to click on another link to access the testimonials and that link takes you to another site tantratestimonials.com

I will C&P the text in case people don't have a proxy

A Letter From Baba Dez Nichols
Published October 5, 2011 | By TantraTestimonials
A letter from Dez.

A Call for Unity in Our Community from Baba Dez Nichols
on the Arizona Temple Raids

While many sex positive practitioners do not consider their work religious, it is imperative that we as a community of sexual healers stand united in this defense of our brothers and sisters who do. The recent raids on Arizona Temples have set the stage for a Landmark case with international implications and has become an opening for all those who practice with love whether you call it Tantra, Sex Work or Whole Body Healing.

Federal and State governance of sexual liberation has become a wildfire that threatens to consume those fundamental rights of the individual deliberately enshrined in the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. The USA’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or deprivation of liberty without due process have fallen as casualties in the war against responsible sexual behavior. Today the “war” targets one of the most deeply held fundamental rights – the First Amendment right to freely exercise one’s religion.

The recent raids of the Oklevueha Native American Church’s Sedona Temple (ONAC of ISTA) and Phoenix Goddess Temple (ONAC of MMW) in Arizona are examples of these threats that would give rise to serious constitutional claims under the due process clauses of the federal and state constitutions.

What we as a community can do is heal ourselves first by stepping out of our judgment of another’s practice and into service from our hearts. The support network is requesting contributions of knowledge, testimonials and hosts for fund-raising events and can be found at schooloftemplearts.org. The legal fund intends to raise between $150,000 and $1.5 Million for what could be as short as six months or as long as a ten year process. At the very least we can hold space for the process to unfold into unconditional love for our brothers and sisters, law enforcement and our governance system for they can heal as well. We are all ONE and this is a paradigm shift. Together we can heal it with love.

Go to http://nativeamericanchurches.org/legalfund to contribute and receive the blessings and benefits of responsible people that are standing up for the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. By making a contribution to the Oklevueha Native American Church of ISTA your services or funds directly support the ONAC of ISTA’s Sedona Temple and ONAC of MMW’s Phoenix Goddess Temple legal funds.

Bio

BABA DEZ NICHOLS is an Internationally renowned speaker and teacher, Daka, author, singer-songwriter, and transformational guide, trained in the Sacred Temple Arts to share, inspire, and support others in their integration of the divine masculine and feminine (Shiva/Shakti) energies within. He is the founder of the Sedona Temple and School of Temple Arts and the Annual Daka-Dakini Conferences for sacred sexual healers, Tantra teachers and practitioners. He has studied, assisted, and been blessed with the presence and wisdom of many masters around the world for over 30 years. His path is to travel worldwide and help others deepen in their truth and power, find healing & enjoyment in transformation, and manifest grounded results. He is currently on tour promoting the release of his documentary Sex Magic, his book Sacred Sexual Healing: The Shaman Method of Sex Magic and his music CD Thank the Moon.

www.babadez.com (Baba Dez’s Home Page)

Donate to the Legal Defense Fund. Stand behind religious freedom for all.

$
   
Posted in Baba Dez Nichols, Testimonials | Leave a comment
Pamela Buckner Testimonial for Tracy Elise
Published October 5, 2011 | By TantraTestimonials
Pamela Buckner

I have visited this church and known Sister Tracy Elise for 30 years. She is more sincere than any Baptist or Catholic or any other religious devotee I have ever met. Her Spiritual purpose drives everything she does; her primary intention is to heal with Tantra, and she has many people who love and have been healed by her, who have learned to heal alongside her.

(from fb)

Donate to the Legal Defense Fund. Protect religious freedom for all.

$
   
Posted in Phoenix Goddess, Testimonials, Tracy Elise | Leave a comment
Kris Fireheart Testimonial for Tracy Elise
Published October 5, 2011 | By TantraTestimonials
My experience of Tracy Elise is that she is a strong devotee of her Faith. As Minister of the Goddess, her passion and creative force is apparent. I first spoke to her over the phone, even hundreds of miles away her conviction and devotion was obvious.

In the 3 years that I have known Tracy Elise, the depth of her Faith has been clear. When visiting the Phoenix Goddess Temple to teach, I found a welcoming and vibrant Community. It was evident to me this is a place for all who worship the Goddess.

Tracy Elise has a vision and created a beautiful physical space in which to gather to honor our shared beliefs. When walking down the halls of the Phoenix Goddess Temple, there was a definite sense of dedication and beauty. Bright colors adorned the Temple space, beautiful artwork of Goddesses lined the walls. When connecting with the other Community members who were often present, I felt welcomed. No matter what day, there was always a Yoga class, Religious Service, or some impromptu gathering happening.

I am grateful for the vision Tracy Elise brought to this world, in the form of the Phoenix Goddess Temple and hold the right to gather sacred in my heart. For me the right to assemble and share time with kindred Spirits is paramount to my Spiritual practice. As human beings are social entities, when this right is denied we deny our very nature.

Namaste.

Kris Fireheart
Priestess

$
   

there is more, the aboce is just to give you an idea

the point I want to make here is that that Sasha Lessin's tantra website's page marked "testimonials" takes you to a page that is entirely made up of messages supporting the Phoenix Goddess Temple and the Sedona Temple

I am just adding more information linking Grof's breathwork to pimps and trafficking networks

[nemesis]

Another practitioner of Grof's Holotropic Breathwork (HB) is the fraud Michael Smith aka C Mikkal Smith

Soullab Presents: "Sacred Breathwork" Weekend Workshop
January 13-15th, 2012

RESERVE YOUR SPACE HERE: http://fb.eventpal.com/PurchaseTicket.aspx?eId=3239

Friday night intro. lecture- 7 pm,
Saturday 9:30 am 12 am . . . and
Sunday 9:30 til 3:00 pm

Register Early: Register by December 13, 2011- $300. Add PROMO CODE "2012" *** After December 13, 2011 or at door - $350.

RESERVE YOUR SPACE HERE:
http://fb.eventpal.com/PurchaseTicket.aspx?eId=3239

Open to the public.

Soullab presents:

Jungian psychologist and medical anthropologist Dr. C. Michael "Mikkal" Smith of the Crows Nest Center for Shamanic Studies to New Orleans for the first time.

Open to the public, this weekend workshop is the product of Mikkal's 30-year practice with major influences from the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung, the holotropic theory and breathwork technique developed by Stanislav Grof, M.D., the "heart path," of indigenous shamanism, and from the practice of focusing on a felt-sense developed by Eugene T. Gendlin, Ph.D.

Based in Southwest Michigan, Mikkal has conducted his training programs in France, Belgium, South Africa - and now, New Orleans.

The author of Psychotherapy and the Sacred and Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue: Retrieving Soul/Retrieving the Sacred, he offers workshop participants the tools to create a life they really want and shape their destiny in heart-centered and earth-honoring ways.

*** 2-Year Certification Program Available: This workshop is also the first workshop of a 2-year Sacred Breathwork Certification Program for those who wish to continue learning these techniques for their healing professions or for personal growth.

The 2-year program comprises five weekend workshops and one 5-day intensive retreat each year - all to be held in New Orleans. For more information: http://crowsnestshamanism.com/workshops.html or call Kelly Nezat in New Orleans at 504-453-9009 or email: kelly@soullab.org

C.G. Jung: "The approach to the numinous is the real therapy."
The Sacred Breathwork workshop actualizes the philosophy that retrieving the Sacred means retrieving the most powerful force of healing there is - for both the Jungian psychotherapist and the shamanic healer. Heart-centered and earth-honoring shamanism accesses that inner "axis mundi" for healing.

• Explore cartographies of psyche and cosmos, active dreaming groups, rites of passage, ritual leadership, shamanic journeying, indigenous heart psychology and counseling, therapeutic use of sacred music, worship, dance, and art.

• Connect deeply and safely with the Sacred through non-ordinary states of consciousness, for purposes of worship and renewal, healing of old wounds, and exploration of the visionary and archetypal realms of the collective unconscious.

For more details: http://crowsnestshamanism.com/workshops.html
or contact Kelly Nezat- 504-453-9009 or Kelly@soullab.org

This is an amazing opportunity to learn from Mikkal and journey through sacred breathwork.

Please RSVP to Kelly@Soullab.org and let me know if you are interested and for accomodations.

source:
http://fb.eventpal.com/PurchaseTicket.aspx?eId=3239

there is a thread about Smith in the Frauds section here

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3516.0

[berry]

http://www.kevinrdshepherd.net/html/12___grof_transpersonalism.html

Google Findhorn and Grof