Ralph Metzner – författare

Transformational experiences are as unique as they are profound, yet each portrays universal truths of human nature. In The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience,  Ralph 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.

Domination behavior, using force to control others, is destabilizing and disruptive in families, groups and communities. At the international level, aggressive domination is war - the breakdown of the civilized order. Dr. Metzner tracks the roots of war and domination: in the psychological consequences of violent child abuse; in historical and prehistorical patterns of resource competition; and in mammalian predator behavior gone awry. One can see these ancient predatory patterns operating in the capitalist and imperialist policies of nation states. Seeking still deeper roots, he explores lesser known mythological and esoteric teachings: the Buddhist myths of power-addicted demons; the legend of the corruption of the Atlantean civilization; the Nordic myths of wars among the gods; and the Sumerian myths of dominating extra-terrestrial war-lord colonizers who genetically engineered our human ancestors. Finally, he examines the complex and profound teachings of the mysterious 20th century sage G.I. Gurdjieff, who located the ultimate causes of war in the extra-planetary environment and cosmic history. It is the author''s intention and hope that these explorations of this most intractable of humanity''s problems may lead others to further discoveries and possible solutions. 

These poems were written over a period of about 30 years, in the course of my travels in America and Europe, teaching courses and workshops in consciousness expansion, meditation, psychedelics, shamanism, alchemy and emerging new worldviews.

Some of these poems were recorded on a spoken voice CD called Spirit Soundings with sonic and musical accompaniment by Kit Walker and friends.

The Song of the Pearl is my adaptation of a 5th century Gnostic hymn describing the soul''s journey from incarnation, through birth and growth, and to ultimate return to the origin.

Epilog I: Gnostic Themes in The Song of the Pearl

Epilog II: The Road to Language 

Epilog III: A Riddle with Six Answers

Ralph Metzner first wrote about alchemy when he was in his early 30s. He included a chapter on alchemy in his book Maps of Consciousness, which was published in 1971. In the last few years of his life Ralph recorded his thoughts on some 36 alchemical terms. Over an arc of some 50 years, Ralph worked on the practice of using alchemical processes for inner transformation. This volume of musings combines his earliest writing on alchemy with his last writings on alchemical terms, bookends of an arc of exploration.

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. 

Eye of the Seeress - Voice of the Poet" is a bilingual collection in English and German. Both languages are native tongues for author Ralph Metzner. In German the title is Auge der Seherin - Stimme des Dichters. 

In this monograph, I relate findings from more than 30 years of experiences and observations with this substance, in various user groups and individuals, both in the US and in Europe. I use the term underground in referring to the explorations with these substances, in the sense that they were hidden - out of respect for the restrictions and prohibitions of mainstream culture.

These are ethnographic field reports: first-hand observations from an underground sub-culture, accompanied by the experiences of a selected number of participant-observers. It is important to recognize that in research with these and other so-called psychedelic or entheogenic substances, one cannot limit the observations and reflections solely to their physical and psychological effects. As most of the people cited here emphasize, the experiences with these substances at times can go far beyond their physical and psychological effects into the deepest and highest dimensions of our existence, both the cosmic and the spiritual.