Birth of a Psychedelic Culture

Ralph Metzner

Ralph passed away peacefully in sleep March 14, 2019. He will be greatly missed. Ralph Metzner’s work stretches the boundaries of traditional psychology by incorporating shamanic methods that transform consciousness and expand our understanding of the human psyche. Ralph Metzner, PhD who has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and psychology from Oxford University and a PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard University, has been involved in the study of transformations of consciousness ever since, as a graduate student, he worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) on the Harvard Psilocybin Projects. He co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. During the 1970s, Ralph spent 10 years in the intensive study and practice of Agni Yoga, a meditative system of working with light-fire life-energies. He wrote Maps of Consciousness, one of the earliest attempts at a comparative cartography of consciousness; and Know Your Type, a comparative survey of personality typologies, ancient and modern. He was the Academic Dean for ten years, during the 1980s, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he taught courses there on “Altered States of Consciousness” and “Developing Ecological Consciousness.” He is now Professor Emeritus. His books include The Well of Remembrance, The Unfolding Self, Green Psychology, and two edited collections on the science and the phenomenology of Ayahuasca and Teonanácatl. He maintained a part-time psychotherapy practice, and conducted numerous workshops on consciousness transformation, both nationally and internationally.