“Drops & Buds” is a multimedia, open access e-journal dedicated to furthering the work and legacy of transpersonal psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, MD. It concerns modern psychology generally, and process philosophy as characterized by Alfred North Whitehead, including considering historical contributions to our current understanding of human experience.

Welcoming academic, personal, and other contributions, we aim to deepen our understanding of exceptional experience, including how to most readily support its creative expression in practical ways. Inspired by Dr. Grof’s synthesis of ancient wisdom, humanities, philosophy, and psychology, we invite consideration of exceptional experience from multiple disciplines that constructively speak to the issues of our time from a holistic perspective.

We intend this journal to support the exploration of Dr. Grof’s scholarship in both universities and living rooms, amplifying his momentous contribution to understanding and supporting personal as well as communal, global, and even universal well-being. In this way we build on his pioneering work, by which he co-founded the fourth wave of psychology with Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich known as Transpersonal Psychology.

Dr. Grof’s emphasis on the community’s role in exceptional experience is well documented, and his generosity of spirit pervades his extensive body of research over several decades. Two of his major contributions are especially relevant today: his brilliant insight that psyche precedes birth and his trusting emphasis on each of us as the experts of our own experience. These understandings have gifted the field of psychology with a unique opportunity to revise limitations inherent in the materialistic worldview. Such limitations not only continue to plague the Psychedelic Renaissance but can also compromise insight and application of exceptional wisdom in lay and psychotherapeutic contexts.

Dreamshadow® Group offers this freely accessible forum as a collective opportunity to combine theory and practice in ways that may build on Dr. Grof’s work and legacy. This project was initially inspired by Dreamshadow’s® co-founder Lenny Gibson, Ph.D., during a gathering of Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork facilitators and community members committed to exploring practical ways to advance Dreamshadow Group’s mission.

We invite all who visit here to explore how the study and practice of exceptional experience can strengthen ecological and spiritual connections throughout the cosmos. Global health–and thus universal health–has been in crisis for some time now. Together we can address these urgent crises with the creative and focused efforts that are so desperately needed.

Thank you, Dr. Grof, for how you have so generously shared your own research findings and personal insights, which have inspired us to continue in your spirit of curiosity, creativity, and collaboration. We are profoundly grateful to be offering this resource to our global family. And, thank you, friends, for stopping here and considering how you may contribute to deepening our collective understanding of the adventures of discovery beyond the brain.

With care and gratitude,