The Healing Journey

by Claudio Naranjo

From the Publisher: This book takes an in-depth look at the spiritual and psychotherapeutic potential of the amphetamine derivatives MDA and MMDA, harmaline (the active compound in ayahuasca), and ibogaine. To distinguish them from classical psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin, Naranjo coins the terms “emotion-enhancers” and “fantasy-enhancers” for these substances.

This book is a must-read for all serious students of consciousness and the human psyche, and for those with a personal or professional desire to explore revolutionary innovations in psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, experimental psychiatry, or the psychology of religion. The exceptional clarity of Naranjo’s book also makes it an important resource for any intelligent layperson seeking information to guide them in their own search for spiritual growth and self-exploration.” -Stanislav Grof, author of LSD Psychotherapy

About the Author: “Nothing is more hopeful in terms of social evolution than the collective furthering of individual wisdom, compassion, and freedom.” – Claudio Naranjo

“Claudio Naranjo is a Chilean psychiatrist and pioneer in the integration of psychotherapy, spirituality, and psychedelic experiences. He is a developer of the Enneagram of Personality, founder of the Seekers After Truth Institute (SAT), and author of numerous books on psychotherapy, consciousness, personality, and education. He has studied at Harvard and the University of Illinois on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1966, he was invited to the University of California, Berkeley on a Guggenheim Fellowship, later returning as a Research Associate at Berkeley’s Institute for Personality Assessment Research.

Naranjo was a major figure at the Esalen Institute where he became first an apprentice and later one of three successors to Fritz Perls (founder of Gestalt Therapy). In years prior, Naranjo received additional training and supervision from Jim Simkin in Los Angeles and attended sensory awareness workshops with Charlotte Selver. He became Carlos Castaneda’s close friend and became part of Leo Zeff’s pioneering psychedelic therapy group (1965–66). These meetings resulted in Naranjo’s contribution of the use of harmaline, MDMA, and ibogaine.

Naranjo developed the SAT Institute’s international program of psychotherapy workshops bringing together Gestalt therapy, applications of the Enneagram to personality, interpersonal meditation, music, and guided self-insight.

Since the late 1990s, Claudio Naranjo has participated in many educational conferences in his ongoing work to help create more socially and spiritually responsible educational systems around the world. His book Changing Education to Change the World (published in Spanish in 2004) stimulated the efforts of the SAT-in-Education project, helping spur Spain’s increasingly powerful education reform movement. Naranjo’s influence on the transformation of the educational system in various countries led the prestigious University of Udine (Italy) to award him an honorary Doctorate in Education (Honoris Causae).

In 2006, the Claudio Naranjo Foundation (Fundación Claudio Naranjo) was founded to implement Naranjo’s proposals for creating an educational system that integrates all aspects of human development—instinctual, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual—and encourages social evolution.

Naranjo’s Healing Civilization: Bringing Personal Transformation into the Societal Realm through Education and the Integration of the Intra-Psychic Family (2010) explores the sources of civilization’s current crisis—violence, misogyny, racism, economic injustice, religious intolerance, and corporate greed—and identifies patriarchy as a root cause. Offering a hopeful plan for change, Naranjo proposes a transformative plan that starts with the re-education of the new generation and that seeks to build a meaningful and harmonious world.

Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine named Claudio Naranjo as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of 2012.

ISBN-10: 0-9798622-8-0    –    ISBN-13: 978-0-9798622-8-1