Christina Grof

I read today with surprise and sadness that the co-creator of Holotropic Breathwork, Stan Grof’s long term wife and friend–Lebesgefaehrtin–has unexpectedly passed away.  I overheard him talking to her on the phone at a retreat, and there is no doubt that even after so many years he loved her very much.  That is such a beautiful thing, and I cannot begin to imagine the pain he must be suffering, because I cannot imagine the amount of love he enjoyed.  It is foreign to me. But I was glad to see it shown to be possible.

According to my world view of how things work, Christina was greeted with light and love and joy, and shown all the lives she touched for the better, including my own.  What a blessing.

Some people live their lives fit for heaven–not as angels, not as perfect beings, but as striving, trying, caring, giving human beings, who try to do what they can with what they have–and I feel she was such a person.

So much human progress comes in fits and starts.  Not many people in the  United States have heard of HB, but that is no reason someone like me cannot take it, modify it, and generalize it, and be able to do so ONLY because she and Stan were attentive back in the 1970’s, and had the courage to experiment in processes that were wholly new.

All my current progress started with Holotropic Breathwork, and HB in turn started with her and Stan.

The Lebensgestalt they promoted in the idea of Spiritual Emergency has also been hugely useful.  I would frame it as: there is a back end to madness, a tunnel on the other side, an out, a way through.  That is hugely important.

I do wonder if the prevalence of depression in this and many other countries is not due in part to the ease of our lives.  Yesterday, I made myself move while in the thrall of gripping sadness.  Was this once common, such that many people experienced, albeit accidentally, what I did?

Oh, I know she will be missed, which meant she meant something.  The Holotropic Breathwork tribe is like a bunch of cats.  They hide somewhere, come down from the hills for retreats, then disappear again. I know well this thirst for solitude.

But her loss will leave a hole.  Those closest will mourn, and move on as best they can.

There are not enough good people in this world, and it hurts to lose them.  But as always let us use this as a reminder to do better, to be better, to carry on work which needs to be carried on.  Let us envision our best efforts ahead of us, and continue on, renewed in our inspiration by the beauty of the life that has fallen.