Ralph Metzner

How to connect with those who have passed and learning to love in the face of pain • Shares a proven process that has worked for the author as well as thousands of others to communicate with deceased loved ones • Explores the use of mediums, past-life and between-life hypnotic regressions, a technique called Induced After-Death Communication, and channeled writing • Presents revelations about the soul’s life after death, the structure of the afterlife, how karma works, and how to love in the face of pain If you’ve lost a loved one or had a brush with mortality, you undoubtedly have wondered about life after death—or if it’s possible to connect with souls on the other side. After the tragic death of his son, Jordan, the author embarked on a journey for ways to communicate with his son across the veil. He discovered not only successful methods to connect with lost loved ones but also profound truths about the afterlife, the illusion of loss, and how pain is integral to our life purpose. McKay recounts techniques he tried in order to connect with his son, including collecting unusual experiences from family and friends, consulting mediums such as Austyn Wells, undergoing past-life and between-life regressions, engaging in a technique called Induced After-Death Communication, and using channeled writing, which he learned with the help of psychologist Ralph Metzner. The culmination of hundreds of channeled conversations with his son, the author presents revelations about the soul’s life after death, the structure and key events of the afterlife, how karma works, why we incarnate, our future as souls, and how to love in the face of pain. As Jordan reveals, nothing is truly lost. The soul is constant and, while pain seems to damage us, the damage is an illusion. Because, as Jordan says, “there is no end; the conversation goes on . . . between all the souls who love each other, living and dead.”

A classic guide to expanding perception and consciousness development. In this highly acclaimed classic, psychedelic elder Ralph Metzner presents a guide to six ancient systems, once known only to the initiated few, to expand awareness and free your consciousness from exterior limitations and cultural conditioning. Metzner begins with the I Ching, revered by the Chinese as the oldest and wisest book in the world. He explains how it reveals change as the evolutionary constant and offers a hands-on method of divination and guidance. He explores the Hindu and Buddhist Tantras of medieval India, ancient practices celebrating the union of male and female energies that transmute ordinary sense experience into ecstatic ritual worship. He examines the Tarot, revealing how the cards act as culture-transcending mirrors, bringing us through worlds of darkness and light in a complex journey. He looks at the practice of alchemy, explaining how it is a “psychic chemistry” of inner union through which we can transform planetary and cosmic energies. He explores the esoteric aspects of astrology, revealing the rhythmic cycles of the planets and how their phases may be experienced in terms of motion and emotion. He then examines in depth the yoga philosophy of Actualism, centered on the techniques of Agni Yoga, which allow you to use your living “inner fire” to illuminate the shadow parts of consciousness and burn out that which obstructs the free flow of energy. With a new foreword by UC Berkeley professor of neurobiology David E. Presti and featuring all of the original diagrams, this edition of Metzner’s classic text shows how each of these disciplines can help the modern individual become a fully aware and conscious participant in their own spiritual evolution.

Years after the Summer of Love, the promise of the psychoactive 1960s--that deeper self-awareness and greater harmony can be achieved through reality-bending substances and practices--is close to becoming a mainstream phenomenon. The signs are everywhere, from a renewed interest in the therapeutic effects of LSD to the popularity of ayahuasca trips and the annual spectacle of Burning Man. The Psychedelic Experience, created by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), is a foundational text that serves as a model and a guide for all subsequent mind-expanding inquiries. Based on a unique interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Psychedelic Experience remains a vital testament to broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances. For a new generation seeking the trip of a lifetime, The Psychedelic Experience is the essential guidebook to getting there.

Transformational experiences are as unique as they are profound, yet each portrays universal truths of human nature. In The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative ExperienceRalph Metzner, PhD, unveils common dynamics and archetypes of the transformative experience, offering seekers and those in the throes of personal or societal transformation a reliable guide. Drawing from multiple disciplines ranging across the world's cultures (beginning with his collaborations with Dr. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Harvard University in the early 1960s), Dr. Metzner explores subtle concepts using a tapestry of myth, allegory, and historical context. The Unfolding Self promises to provide its reader with valuable tools to become "wise, impartial judges" in their process of transformation into becoming a more integrated and fulfilled person. Readers who immerse themselves in these masterful descriptions can catalyze their own process of evolution.\No comparable psychology of spirituality exists that draws from such a rich lifework of scholarship, experiment, and spiritual practice. Drawing from multiple disciplines and ranging across the world's cultures, Dr. Metzner goes beyond his roots in transpersonal psychology to uncover universal structures of spiritual transformation. Readers who immerse themselves in these masterful descriptions can catalyze their own process of evolution.

More than 50 years after Timothy Leary encouraged an entire generation to turn on, tune in, drop out, there's been a resurgence of scientific research and popular interest in the use of psychedelic drugs for everything from therapeutic treatments to productivity boosts. The Psychedelic Reader collects the writings of luminaries from the dawn of the psychedelic era. With words from Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Sir Julian Huxley, Ralph Metzner, and more, this powerful anthology presents the entire psychedelic spectrum with both the seriousness and open-mindedness it requires. Once an alternative doorway into radical culture, LSD is now being re-examined for its possible mental health benefits. Take a visionary trip back to where it all began in The Psychedelic Reader... Half a century ago, the world changed forever when a Swiss chemist inadvertently ingested the experimental compound lysergic acid diethylamide. Many scientists expected LSD's radically psychoactive chemicals to revolutionize mainstream culture. The Psychedelic Review was founded in 1963 as a serious journal dedicated to the study of the potential of both natural and synthesized psychedelic substances. Presenting experts in the fields of anthropology, religion, pharmacology, poetry, and metaphysics, this pioneering journal had a dramatic impact on its times. Today, the benefits of LSD and other psychoactive drugs in treating depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD have sparked renewed research. The Psychedelic Reader offers a relevant guidebook to the foundations of a bold new era in mental health studies. Luminaries such as Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Sir Julian Huxley, and Ralph Metzner contribute insights on a variety of fascinating and controversial subjects. From precise dosage guidelines to ruminations on the poetry of Herman Hesse, this powerful anthology presents the entire psychedelic spectrum with both the seriousness and open-mindedness it deserves.

A deeply personal account of the scientific, shamanic, and metaphysical encounters that led to the development of Metzner’s psychological methods. Just as the search for the philosopher’s stone is the core symbol of the alchemical tradition, Ralph Metzner, Ph. D., psychotherapist and one of the respected elders of the psychedelic research community, sees it as the central metaphor of his life-long quest to find methods of healing and insight through heightened states of consciousness. Through captivating stories Metzner shares his encounters from the 1960s through the 1990s with genius scientists, shamanic healers, mystics, plant spirits, and animal guides that led to the development of his “alchemical divination” psychological methods, a structured intuitive process of accessing inner sources of healing and insight. He details lessons learned with psychedelic research legends Albert Hofmann, Alexander Shulgin, Terence McKenna, and Dennis McKenna. He reveals his deeply healing encounters with the Kahuna bodywork healer Morrnah Simeona, the first to introduce the Hawaiian Ho’oponopono healing method to the West, and his experiences with West African trance dancing and the psychoactive plant-drug iboga. ? In sharing his remarkable encounters, Metzner shows how the most meaningful lessons in the alchemy of life come not only from the geniuses we meet but also from the spirits we encounter along the way.

Sharing 15 detailed histories from his casebook and the innovative practices he uses in his therapeutic sessions, Metzner shows how the psychological problems we confront often derive from factors not considered in conventional psychotherapy, such as birth trauma, unconscious imprints from prenatal existence, memories from past lives, ancestral and familial soul connections, and even psychic intrusions. The case histories he describes include a wide spectrum of practices, such as the use of quiet meditative retreat, guided regressions, as well as imagery visualizations amplified by entheogens. He describes how tuning in with the spiritual overtones of our being and the karmic undercurrents of our lives can resolve issues such as a fear of intimacy, help heal the after-effects of abuse and abortion, reconcile estranged parental and ancestral relationships, dissolve fears left over from past incarnations, and convert malignant presences into protective allies. In addition to guided meditations, visualizations, and yogic light-fire exercises, the practices in his psychotherapy sessions at times include the selective use of small amounts of psychedelics, mind-expanding substances functioning to amplify awareness of the subtler realms of consciousness. Part of each case history gives a description of the particular visualization used, adding to the book’s practical use as a guidebook for transpersonal psychotherapists.