Grof presents a post-Newtonian paradigm, in which the quantum world of Bohm et al., allows for non-ordinary realities (now quite a conventional view but we are talking 1993 here), as the backdrop to an interesting collection of transpersonal experiences in those realities. He also presents a theory of the genesis of human neurosis from what he calls 'perinatal' experience -- that is, experience surrounding the event of birth, which he states has profound effects on subsequent life.



Anyone who has researched some of the more extraordinary human transpersonal capabilities will be familiar with the kinds of past lives, entity encounters, OBEs, psychic episodes and so forth which Grof details. He has very good case studies, but the theoretical standpoint is what interests. He illustrates many interesting phenomena unlocked by regression or sudden experience of the transpersonal. The mind is aware of far more than we think, and human fixations can stem from perceptions many psychologists have ruled out of bounds. By resetting those bounds Grof is revealing new aspects of human functioning.



A great theoretical idea is the COEX ('system of condensed experience'), introduced on pages 24-8 but unfortunately not followed up elsewhere. We group or daisychain experiences together on the basis of a similar emotional or physical tone; the concept works very well alongside energy work in my experience, and followers of the Taoist 'Water Method' or of Gendlin's 'Focusing' work, for example, will find it useful indeed. I look forward to reading more about it in another Grof work sometime.



Much experiment with his own brand of shamanic breathwork, and with LSD, has brought Grof to the conclusion that the birth event is the root of most COEX systems and affects we experience. He divides the perinatal into four periods, from the often heavenly womb experience to the hell of initial contractions, the dionysian blood and thunder of movement through the birth canal, into the hard-won wisdom of a new state attained in the outside world -- death/rebirth.



I must admit, this idea didn't immediately win me over, despite some very intriguing case studies. It was only later, when I began to meditate privately on it, that I realized just how much there was to it. Particularly interesting is Grof's observation that the fetus experiences many feelings of the mother during pregnancy and birth, and the compaction and din of passing through the mother's sexual organs (which for her will have sexual associations) is seen as the root of many difficult sexual/violent feelings in later life. This is already a rather interesting new spin on the Freudian, and when you combine it with Grof's observations of mystical experience and expanded mental functioning opened up by re-accessing such memories, you have a fine addition to the recipes for human wholeness. I now consider it quite an advance in knowledge.



Perhaps the only downside to it is that, just as with Freudian theories, it's open to overuse -- you could start to see it absolutely everywhere, a little indiscriminately. Some of Grof's ideas on the use of birth imagery as rabble-rousing in war are interesting, but the reduction of nazi concentration camps to simple elaborations of type II womb experiences is a little much! We threaten to go back to the days of seeing every skyscraper as 'phallic' in the Freudian style. As a tool, the perinatal matrix is useful, but it certainly isn't the whole toolkit.



There is an enjoyable sense of adventure in what Grof has done, and his theory is formulated from repeated empirical experience which is based on biology and therefore ought to be cross-cultural. Even though he isn't always clear on the relation of his birth-event ideas to the transpersonal experiences and abilities that seem to accompany their recollection, he will certainly get you thinking along interesting lines if this sort of transpersonal psychology is your thing.