The Human Encounter With Death. Stanislav Grof & Joan Halifax.

The Human Encounter With Death.
Stanislav Grof and Joan Halifax.
Dutton: 1978.

Certainly one of the most interesting books I've read for quite some time. The authors are psychiatrists who administered LSD to dying cancer patients to see if it would alleviate pain or enable them to cope with their impending death. It did both -- sometimes, and in varying degrees.

After discussing this research project, the authors launch into a comparison of LSD sessions with both near-death/resuscitation experiences as well as initiation rites throughout world history. Not surprisingly, a major component is the death-rebirth experience (perinatal) where the subject describes a scene much like the process of birth; often followed by a transcendental feeling of unity with the cosmos. The authors, having experienced LSD themselves, may give too much credence to the reality of the hallucinations/insights, even after explaining that they are caused by lack of oxygen to the brain -- inhibited by LSD, through meditative breathing techniques, fasting, etc. Their argument is that because those archetypes are within all of us, they must point to an external reality. Not so sure...

Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. Viktor E. Frankl.

Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning.
Viktor E. Frankl.
Insight Books: 1997.

A series of lectures and essays by Frankl, the inventor/developer of Logotherapy, a theory of psychology he developed while in WWII concentration camps. Besides Jungian theory -- which really appeals to my aesthetic side -- this is the only psychology I have found which I feel is pretty much correct. His basic tenet is that people's primary objective is to find meaning, "logo", in and for our lives. Along with this, Frankl believes that man is spiritual at core. Thus, for us to be really happy, even in a concentration camp, we must see a spiritual meaning for our lives. This doesn't mean we have to know the Meaning of Life, but at least an individual meaning.

Logotherapy is practical, though not to the extreme of behaviorism, yet it keeps psychology existential and humanist, not reducing man to Freudian drives & impulses.

An extremely important book, with a lot of truth mixed in. A good one to reread every few years.