Ralph Metzner
Born
  in Germany
    
        May 18, 1936
    
  Died
  March 14, 2019
  Genre
  
  
      
        
           
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        Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca
       
          
                
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                published
               1999
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              11 editions
          
         
        
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        Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom
       
          
                
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                published
               2004
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              9 editions
          
         
        
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        The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience
       
          
                
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                published
               1998
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              5 editions
          
         
        
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        The Toad and the Jaguar
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                published
               2013
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              8 editions
          
         
        
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        The Well of Remembrance: Rediscovering the Earth Wisdom Myths of Northern Europe
       
          
                
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                published
               1994
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              7 editions
          
         
        
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        Green Psychology: Transforming our Relationship to the Earth
       
          
                
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                published
               1999
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              2 editions
          
         
        
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        Allies for Awakening: Guidelines for Productive and Safe Experiences with Entheogens
       
          
                
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                published
               2015
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              9 editions
          
         
        
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        Maps of Consciousness: I Ching, Tantra, Tarot, Alchemy, Astrology, Actualism
       
          
                
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                published
               1972
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              11 editions
          
         
        
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        Ecology of Consciousness: The Alchemy of Personal, Collective, and Planetary Transformation
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        Alchemical Divination: Accessing Your Spiritual Intelligence for Healing & Guidance
       
          
                
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                published
               2009
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              5 editions
          
         
        
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      “There’s a swirling, weaving gridwork of light-patterns everywhere and all around. I can hear someone making choking and retching noises. RD was experiencing the vomit of the world’s suffering, but was not suffering himself, as he later told us. At first I can’t do anything – there is no “I” and nobody else. Then I notice that I’m being moved towards the sound, to reach out with my hand, to touch, to help, to give comfort. “I” didn’t decide to do this, it just happened, sort of like an amoeba oozing over toward the source of apparent distress signals. My voice appeared to be making soothing sounds while my hands appeared to be making touching, stroking gestures. Awareness then arose of the other individual, this particular man, RD. Only after that awareness, came the realization that “I” was doing this gesture, this movement (RM).”
    
― The Toad and the Jaguar
  ― The Toad and the Jaguar
      “Stanislav Grof, in his account, related receiving a whole series of death-and-rebirth visions of his past incarnations and witnessing the struggles of these past dyings with calm, even ecstatic detachment. Like Grof, I also found myself rapidly reviewing a series of past lives especially the deaths of these lives: 
Images of decapitation, dismemberment, disembowelment flashed by, in rapid succession, including an image of being run through the chest with a sword – yet there was no fear or horror associated with these images. The following thoughts occurred: “Death comes to all, now it’s your turn. This is it, the termination. Resistance is impossible and pointless besides. It’s too late, the annihilation has already happened.” As I gradually came back into my body, after ten minutes in real time, I felt bathed in pure joy and completely at peace with myself, the world and my death (RM).”
― The Toad and the Jaguar
  Images of decapitation, dismemberment, disembowelment flashed by, in rapid succession, including an image of being run through the chest with a sword – yet there was no fear or horror associated with these images. The following thoughts occurred: “Death comes to all, now it’s your turn. This is it, the termination. Resistance is impossible and pointless besides. It’s too late, the annihilation has already happened.” As I gradually came back into my body, after ten minutes in real time, I felt bathed in pure joy and completely at peace with myself, the world and my death (RM).”
― The Toad and the Jaguar
      “Something like a mask or blind over the right side of my face appears to be coming loose. I can feel the cheek muscles rippling under the skin, and facial nerves twitching, a sense of energy currents inside my body being aligned and balanced.
When I let go within, feelings of great peacefulness, a soft breathing in the heart, gently approaching knots of contraction or pain. Out of a hard nugget of pain somewhere, a serenely exploding flare of light energy spreads throughout the body. The softly ascending light flare consists of sparkling jewels and precious stones, as if the pain had been a locked-up treasure chest that was suddenly unlocked.
I am shown that if I can make certain sounds, the vibrations can actually disintegrate crystallized nuggets of pain or tension. Continued perception of ascending and descending glissandos, as if on a harp, but soundless, kinaesthetic, synaesthetic, soothing, healing (RM).”
― The Toad and the Jaguar
  When I let go within, feelings of great peacefulness, a soft breathing in the heart, gently approaching knots of contraction or pain. Out of a hard nugget of pain somewhere, a serenely exploding flare of light energy spreads throughout the body. The softly ascending light flare consists of sparkling jewels and precious stones, as if the pain had been a locked-up treasure chest that was suddenly unlocked.
I am shown that if I can make certain sounds, the vibrations can actually disintegrate crystallized nuggets of pain or tension. Continued perception of ascending and descending glissandos, as if on a harp, but soundless, kinaesthetic, synaesthetic, soothing, healing (RM).”
― The Toad and the Jaguar




























