Works by
Ralph Metzner
(Writer)
[1936 - ]

Books

• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1963) by Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, and Timothy Leary

• Ecstatic Adventure (1968)

• Maps of Consciousness: I Ching, Tantra, Tarot, Alchemy, Astrology, Actualism (1971)
  How they work, how they may be applied as explorations of the mind, and what they can contribute to the search for meaning and growth toward individuality.

• Know Your Type: Maps of Identity (1979)
  People are fascinated with analyzing their own characters and those of friends and enemies. Doing so often leads to greater self-awareness. Know Your Type explores the process of identity classification from a psychological perspective and examines many different personality types, including those that correlate to body shape: the skinny-boned ectomorph, the soft and fleshy endomorph, and the muscular mesomorph. This spirited and informative guide, featuring tests and worksheets that allow readers to determine their own identity type, enables readers to better understand themselves and the world.

• Opening to Inner Light: The Transformation of Human Nature and Consciousness (1986)

• The Well of Remembrance: Rediscovering the Earth Wisdom Myths of Northern Europe (1994)
  In his introduction to The Well of Remembrance, author Ralph Metzner provides a telling explanation of the theme of his work: "This book explores some of the mythic roots of the Western worldview, the worldview of the culture that, for better and worse, has come to dominate most of the rest of the world's peoples. This domination has involved not only economic and political systems but also values, basic attitudes, religious beliefs, language, scientific understanding, and technological applications. Many individuals, tribes, and nations are struggling to free themselves from the residues of the ideological oppression practiced by what they see as Eurocentric culture. They seek to define their own ethnic or national identities by referring to ancestral traditions and mythic patterns of knowledge. At this time, it seems appropriate for Europeans and Euro-Americans likewise to probe their own ancestral mythology for insight and self-understanding." Focusing on the mythology and worldview of the pre-Christian Germanic tribes of Northern Europe, Metzner offers a meaningful exploration of Western ancestry.

• The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience (1998)
  New, expanded version of Opening to Inner Light: The Transformation of Human Nature and Consciousness.  
  In The Unfolding Self Dr. Ralph Metzner unveils the dynamics and archetypes of transformative experience-offering seekers reliable guidance along their own inner path. 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.

• Ayahuasca: Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature (1999)
  Ever since the "consciousness revolution" in the 1960s, dedicated spiritual seekers and scientific researchers from all continents have explored the world of psychoactive and hallucinogenic plants. In Ayahuasca, objective scientific information and the narratives of ayahuasca users -- shamans and others -- are presented together. Readers will also learn the pharmacology of this Amazonian plant.

• Green Psychology: Transforming our Relationship to the Earth (1999)
  A visionary ecopsychologist examines the rift between human beings and nature and shows what can be done to bring harmony to both the ecosystem and our own minds.

  • Shows that the solution to our ecological dilemma lies in our own consciousnesses.

  It is becoming more and more apparent that the causes and cures for the current ecological crisis are to be found in the hearts and minds of human beings. For millennia we existed within a religious and psychological framework that honored the Earth as a partner and worked to maintain a balance with nature. But somehow a root pathology took hold in Western civilization--the idea of domination over nature--and this led to an alienation of the human spirit that has allowed an unprecedented destruction of the very systems which support that spirit.
  
  In Green Psychology Ralph Metzner explores the history of this global pathology and examines the ways that we can restore a healing relationship with nature. His search for role models takes him from shamanic ceremonies with the Lacandon Maya of Mexico to vision quests in the California desert, from the astonishing nature mysticism of Hildegard von Bingen to the Black Goddesses and Green Gods of our pagan ancestors. He examines the historical roots of the split between humans and nature, showing how first sky-god worshiping cultures, then monotheisms, and finally mechanistic science continued to isolate the human psyche from the life-giving Earth. His final chapters present a solution, showing that disciplines such as deep ecology and ecofeminism are creating a worldview in which the mind of humanity and the health of the Earth are harmoniously intertwined.

• Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom (2005)
  Over 30 contributors share their expertise on the chemical, biological, cultural, psychological, and experiential dimensions of psilocybin mushrooms

  • Describes in vivid detail the consciousness-expanding experiences of psychoactive mushroom users

  • Provides firsthand accounts of the controversial Harvard Psilocybin Project, including the Concord Prison and Good Friday studies

  Teonanácatl was the name given to the visionary mushrooms used in ancient Mesoamerican shamanic ceremonies, mushrooms that contain psilocybin, the psychoactive agent identified by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD. The rediscovery of these visionary mushrooms by the Mazatec healer Maria Sabina and mycologist R. Gordon Wasson ignited a worldwide mushroom culture that inspired the consciousness revolution of the 1960s.
  
  This book describes in vivid detail the consciousness-expanding experiences of psychoactive mushroom users--from artists to psychologists--and the healing visionary inspiration they received. It provides firsthand accounts of studies performed in the controversial Harvard Psilocybin Project, including the Concord Prison study and the Good Friday study. It describes how the use of the psilocybe mushroom spread from the mountains of Mexico into North America, Asia, and Europe by seekers of consciousness-expanding experiences. It also details how psilocybin has been used since the 1960s in psychotherapy, prisoner rehabilitation, the enhancement of creativity, and the induction of mystical experiences and is being studied as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

• Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca (2006)
  A compilation of writings on the chemical, biological, psychological, and experiential dimensions of Ayahuasca

  • Includes 24 firsthand accounts of Ayahuasca experiences and resulting life changes, including contributions from J. C. Callaway, Charles S. Grob, and Dennis J. McKenna

  • Discusses the medical and psychological applications of Ayahuasca

  Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic Amazonian plant mixture that has been used for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years by native Indian and mestizo shamans in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador for healing and divination. Many Western-trained physicians and psychologists have acknowledged that this substance can allow access to spiritual dimensions of consciousness, even mystical experiences indistinguishable from classic religious mysticism.
  
  In Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca Ralph Metzner, a pioneer in the study of consciousness, has assembled a group of authoritative contributors who provide an exploration of the chemical, biological, psychological, and experiential dimensions of ayahuasca. He begins with more than 20 firsthand accounts from Westerners who have used ayahuasca and then presents the history, psychology, and chemistry of ayahuasca from leading scholars in the field of psychoactive research. He concludes with his own findings on ayahuasca, including its applications in medicine and psychology, and compares the worldview revealed by ayahuasca visions to that of Western cultures.

• Bardo Blues and Other Songs of Liberation (2006)  (2006).
  Original songs and prayers, inspired in divinations from the Well of Memory and the Tree of Visions.

See also:

• Hallucinogens: A Reader (2002) by Charles Grob
  It's been forty years since Timothy Leary sat beside a swimming pool in Cuernavaca, Mexico, ingested several grams of the genus Stropharia cubensis, and experienced a dazzling display of visions that led him to herald the dawning of a New Age. And yet, from the counterculture movement of the 1960s, through the War on Drugs, to this very day, the world at large has viewed hallucinogens not as a gift but as a threat to society.
  
  In Hallucinogens, Charles Grob surveys recent writings from Donald M. Topping, Gary Fisher, Glenn H. Shepard, Huston Smith, Jeremy Narby, Lawrence Bush, Myron J. Stolaroff, Ralph Metzner, Rick J. Strassman, Roger Walsh, Terence McKenna, and Thomas Riedlinger -- illustrating that a reevaluation of the social worth of hallucinogens-used intelligently-is greatly in order.