Social context of anomalous experiences in a spiritual support-seeking population

This study, by Charlie Heriot-Maitland, aims to explore relationships between social factors and anomalous experiences, like changes in perception, spiritual-type experiences, hearing voices, or extrasensory communications.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY?

Many people describe having anomalous experiences. For some these experiences have a negative impact on their life and result in input from mental health services. For others, these experiences have a positive impact and can be life-enriching. This research aims to explore the protective social factors that might enable people to integrate their experiences in a helpful way. We would like to recruit people who have recently accessed a support network for spiritual crisis/emergence. For this study, it is not important how you describe or explain your own experiences, but if you have look for support through a spiritual network, then we would love to hear from you.

WHAT IS INVOLVED?

Taking part will involve meeting with the researcher, either in person or via Skype, to discuss your experiences. This will last about 1 hour, including a short interview about your experiences and some questionnaires about, e.g., how you see yourself in relation to others. We are able to offer you £15 remuneration for your time. If you are eligible to also participate in the online follow-up part of the study, we will be able to offer you a further £10 for each assessment point, so a maximum of £35 for all three assessment points (0, 3, and 6 months).

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

Please contact charles.heriot-maitland@kcl.ac.uk or visit
http://research.anomalousexperiences.com/study3

An update from the Stanislav & Christina Grof Foundation:

'Many people have dreamed for years of bringing Stan Grof’s ideas and stories to life … using film, video, and animation.

The idea was to capture Stan’s stories of psychedelic experience, his radical theories about consciousness, and his anecdotes about the birth of transpersonal psychology -- preserving these, and even illustrating them, for future generations.

Filmmaker Susan Hess Logeais has been doing preparatory work for two years to create a documentary, Journey of Consciousness, about Stan’s work.

But Journey of Consciousness is much more than a documentary.

This project will also generate short, high quality videos of Stan speaking directly about his ideas and experiences. Creatively animated and illustrated, these will be the perfect resources to publicize his ideas in many media for years to come.

To give you an immediate sense of what’s possible, here is a link to a rough cut version of Stan describing his first psychedelic experience.

At 85, Stan is still active and vital. As many members of the original transpersonal and psychedelic communities are no longer with us, now is the time to move forward with this project to benefit from Stan's personal involvement.

Remember that Journey of Consciousness is much more than just a film honoring Stan.

Journey of Consciousness will make archival footage available and also generate new, quality videos that will help people get life-changing information, support, and inspiration.

We hope that you will join us in taking this huge step to bring Stan’s work to a much wider world, and to see his unique insights reach the greater public -- in this dynamic, creative way -- at long last.

Yours sincerely,

THE GROF FOUNDATION'

You can find out more and make a donation to the project at https://groffoundation.org/journey-of-consciousness-letter/