Grofians Unauthorized
Discussion Group
Dark Night, Early Dawn - Excerpts
Christopher Bache - "Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of Mind." SUNY Press, ISBN: 0-7914-4606-9
[excerpts from the foreword by Stanislav Grof]
"Bache's search for our deeper identity takes him to psychedelic research. . . . Here Bache focuses on a problem that has intrigued me from the very beginning of my psychedelic research. When the transformational process reaches beyond postnatal biography, one's experiences typically make a quantum leap and become distinctly transpersonal. Instead of identifying with our body and ego in different stages of personal development, we can become the consciousness of entire human groups or even humanity as a whole.
As Bach graphically demonstrates, using examples from his own experience, in many instances this involves re-experienceing unimaginable suffering from various periods of human history. The question arises: is it conceivable that suffering of this scope and depth can be seen as being merely part of the healing process of just one individual? Bache convincingly argues that it is not, that at this point, the therapeutic process transcends the boundaries of the individual and begins to affect the healing of the field of human consciousness as a whole..."
"Even more far-reaching are Bache's reflections on the current global crisis. Many authors have suggested that humanity is approaching an evolutionary crossroads, but Bache goes further to explore the role that the impending eco-crisis may play in this transition and outlines specific dynamics operating in the collective unconscious that he believes might be responsible for changing the baseline of human consciousness in an unexpectedly short period of time.
Furthermore, if he is right that the transformational work of an individual can generate a therapeutic effect in the field of species consciousness, then each of us has the potential to contribute to a more harmonious future fpr the planet by complementing our social activism with deep inner work. Considering the consistent failure of all economic, military, political, and diplomatic interventions, such a mass inner transformation might be humanity's only real hope for survival.
Dark Night, Early Dawn is a unique contribution to transpersonal psychology. It is a product of creative imagination inspired by inner journeys to the farthest frontiers of the psyche and yet a work forged by a rigorous intellect and impeccable scholarship. A fine example of a courageous pioneering venture into rarely traveled territories of the human psyche, it will remain a classic in the transpersonal field." [Christopher Bache's "Dark Night, Early Dawn," foreword by S. Grof]
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