Allies for Awakening
Guidelines for productive and safe experiences with entheogens
by Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.
paperback / $30.00 / 978-1-58790-308-3 / 192 pages / 5.5” x 8.5”
Psychology / Spirituality / Personal Growth
Entheogenesis means the growing realization that we human beings and the world around us are much more than simply material organisms living and evolving on a material planetary body. We are multi-dimensional spiritual, cosmic, noetic, psychic and physical beings. The central insight that emerges from entheogenic states and is confirmed by the perennial spiritual traditions of East and West, is that at every level, from macro-cosmic to micro-cosmic, from atoms and animals, to trees and planets and stars, Spirit dwells within created forms and expresses through them.
This monograph is based on 50 years of experience as a participant-observer in the international underground sub-culture involved with entheogenic, consciousness-expanding substances. The author discusses the uses and values of such substances when the explicit intention or purpose is for spiritual awakening, psychotherapy, healing, increased understanding and the enhancement of creativity.
The intent of this documentation is not to prove or promote any particular method or treatment of any condition. The evaluation of entheogens needs to be in terms of how productive these experiences are of healthier approaches to the issues of living in these times, in this world. Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. is a recognized pioneer in studies of consciousness and its transformations. He is a psychotherapist and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he was also the Academic Dean for ten years in the 1980s.
He collaborated with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in the studies of psychedelic drugs at Harvard in the 1960s, and co-authored The Psychedelic Experience. His books include Maps of Consciousness, The Well of Remembrance, The Unfolding Self and Green Psychology; as well as two edited collections on the science and phenomenology of ayahuasca and the psilocybin mushrooms. He is founder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, an ecological educational organization, and teaches a training program in Alchemical Divination.