Samuel Widmer is part of a group of psychotherapists in Switzerland, who in the late eighties, were granted permission by the Swiss government to use certain consciousness expanding substances in their therapeutic work.
The group sessions which Samuel conducted during this time showed that such substances, used in the right setting were of invaluable help to clients struggling with their personal issues and especially those who were not able to get further with the traditional forms of therapy. Substances like MDMA and LSD, opened the floodgates of the mind which allowed a range of insights through, insights which could help the person concerned to make necessary changes in his or her life. These experiences are documented in his book "Listening into the heart of things" in which the reader gets a good idea of the way substances can be used in psychotherapy.
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Among psychiatrists who used substances to enhance awareness in their patients was Stanislav Grof who conducted over four thousand sessions using LSD in the fifties, and till the time that this drug was banned in the U.S. where he worked.
In 1967, Grof was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Unfortunately the panic reaction to the use of substances, set off by ill researched articles in the press and the dogmatic thinking of most governments has largely resulted in their being banned under pressure, in many parts of the world. This has deprived people everywhere, of a method of self enquiry which has been shown to be effective in terms of healing.
Links for those interested in this subject:
Book review of "Listening into the heart of things" by Samuel Widmer
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v08n3/08342wid.html
Interview with Stanislav Grof:
http://www.healthy.net/scr/interview.asp?Id=200
The Swiss research in consciousness expanding substances:
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v05n3/05303psy.html
Early research in psychedelic and psycholytic psychotherapy:
http://www.maps.org/docs/psyche.html#earlyresearchlsd
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