• Includes contributions from Rick Doblin, Charles S. Grob, Stan Grof, Stanley Krippner, Dennis McKenna, the late Christian Rätsch, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Claudia Mueller-Ebeling, Dorothy Fadiman, Luis Eduardo Luna, and others
• Explores Ralph’s childhood, his time at Harvard with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), his work with Agni Yoga and transpersonal psychology, his development of ecopsychology, and his in-depth psychedelic research
Renowned as a pioneering psychologist, psychedelic elder, alchemical explorer, and shamanic teacher, the late Ralph Metzner (1936–2019) contributed profoundly to consciousness research, transpersonal psychology, and contemporary psychedelic studies across his more than 50-year career.
Celebrating the life and legacy of Ralph Metzner, this book explores how Ralph touched the lives of those around him in extraordinary and remarkable ways, recasting people’s worldviews and inspiring the flowering of creativity, personal growth, and spiritual transformation. There are recollections from the pivotal years of the Sixties, when Ralph conducted research with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). Other contributors describe Ralph’s involvement in the School of Actualism in the 1970s and the profound impact that Agni Yoga had on Ralph’s explorations of consciousness and his healing therapies. We also learn about Ralph’s development of Green Psychology, or ecopsychology, his mystical work exploring prenatal realms of consciousness and channeling, and his healing and transformative “Vision Circles.”
Academic colleagues and a who’s who of fellow psychedelic researchers share stories from their work with Ralph, illuminating his depth of knowledge and broad impact. This book paints a complete portrait of Ralph Metzner in his well-known roles as therapist and psychedelic pioneer and as an intrepid explorer of consciousness until the very end of his life.
“This book will take you through the labyrinth to the origins of what it means to explore one’s consciousness in its purest form. This is a beautiful testament to one of the great pioneers of our time. Today’s psychedelic renaissance could have never existed if it weren’t for the gift of life that was Ralph Metzner.”
“Ralph was able to explore and articulate an enormous range of both innovative and ancient ideas and practices in ways that continue to ripple out into the larger world. This is a worthy testament to a visionary scholar whose life has made a difference.”
“A remarkable and lovingly warm tribute to a true 20th-century pioneer in psychedelic, transpersonal, and consciousness studies whose cultural influence and scholarly contributions to our understanding of psychedelics and altered states have led to the reemergence of psychedelic research today. Ralph’s incredible life is beautifully told in these pages.”
“Over the sixty years I knew Ralph, he remained the best educated, most curious, and most open man I’ve ever known. Where others saw walls, he not only saw doors but propped them open and urged us to follow him to experience new facets of our interconnections and underlying unity.”
