'The Cosmic Game' is perhaps Grof’s best book. It is written in fluent style, summarizes the most important of his LSD research and his research with holotropic states, and is not grappling with conceptual issues.
It is a book that every intelligent person can read, written in normal and descriptive language; it is clearly the book of an expert, a man who also has a clear literary talent and an incredible knowledge of mythology, besides his sharp scientific perception and reasoning that is always empirical first and conceptual second.
The book is clearly structured and an overview of the contents shows that it’s not a ‘research report’ of experiments but a sublimation of any such research, a retrospective that is contemplative and basically spiritual. I would even use the word ‘religious’ in the sense that the book talks about our true ‘religio’, the link with our source, our inner divinity.
1. Introduction
2. Cosmos, Consciousness, and Spirit
3. The Cosmic Creative Principle
4. The Process of Creation
5. The Ways to Reunion with the Cosmic Source
6. The Problem of Good and Evil
7. Birth, Sex and Death: The Cosmic Connection
8. The Mystery of Karma and Reincarnation
9. The Taboo against Knowing Who You Are
10. Playing the Cosmic Game
11. The Sacred and the Profane
Space allows me to only review parts of the book and sprinkle in some quotations. In the Introduction, Grof explains that holotropic states are not ‘delirant conditions’ (which are those in which perception is grossly impaired), but an interference with a realm that is outside of ordinary consciousness, a parallel reality.
Grof also writes that the content of holotropic states of consciousness is often philosophical and mystical, often focused on the ‘ground states’ of becoming and unbecoming, death, rebirth and feelings of oneness with all-that-is. In the 2nd Chapter, Grof makes some interesting remarks regarding Carl Jung’s theory of the Universal Archetypes. He writes that these images do not have to be limited to our own racial and cultural heritage but are rather of a universal nature.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
All 22 available for you in this series
See full series
More like The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness (SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Loading...
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2014
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
thoroughly enjoyable read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2016