Ralph Metzner's Life and Legacy of Consciousness Exploration

City Lights, The Alembic, CIIS’ Center for Psychedelic-assisted Therapy, and the Green Earth Foundation present a tribute to the life and work of pioneering visionary, psychologist, writer and psychedelics researcher Ralph Metzner. Join us for an afternoon of personal recollections and deep dive explorations of the ideas and philosophy of a trailblazer in the study of human consciousness.

This event will be in-person and streamed online. City Lights will have all of Ralph’s books for sale onsite.

Cathy Coleman, author of Ralph Metzner, Explorer of Consciousness: The Life and Legacy of a Psychedelic Pioneer

Introduction by Peter Maravelis (City Lights)

Alan Levin, MFT: 50 Years with Ralph as Teacher, Guide, and Friend

Gail Colombo: Ralph as Reverend, Therapist, and Mentor

Uwe Doerken: A Man to Remember

Charles Grob: Travels with Ralph

Cathy Coleman, PhD: The Sacred Hoop of Partnership

Roger Marsden, PhD: East-West Psychology

Alan Levin, MFT: Ralph’s ideas on (Agni) Yoga, Shamanism, and Alchemy

Michael Ziegler: Ralph's Bardo: The Skillful Means of Sacralizing Psychedelics in Sessions

Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT: The Ideas at the Core

Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD: Tribute to Ralph's Legacy

Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT: Ralph's Legacy of Psychedelic Mysticism

Gary Bravo, MD: Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties

Jamy Faust: The Cave of the Heart

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Ralph Metzner, PhD was a recognized pioneer in psychological, philosophical and cross-cultural studies of consciousness and its transformations. He attended The Queen’s College, Oxford, where he obtained a BA in philosophy and psychology. Subsequently, he obtained his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Harvard University and held a post-doctoral NIMH fellowship in pharmacology at the Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard he collaborated with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in classic studies of psychedelics in the 1960s, co-authored The Psychedelic Experience and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. He was a psychotherapist in private practice in the SF Bay Area and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he taught for 30 years. Author of over 100 scientific papers and scholarly essays, he was the editor of and contributor to two collections of essays on the pharmacology, anthropology and phenomenology of ayahuasca (The Ayahuasca Experience, 2006) and of psilocybe mushrooms (Sacred Mushroom of Visions, 2004). His conversational memoir of the Harvard projects in the early 1960s, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture with Ram Dass and Gary Bravo, was published in 2010. He compiled and edited a collection of essays and experiences with the empathogen MDMA, entitled Through the Gateway of the Heart (1985, 2012).

His books on the psychology and philosophy of transformation include Maps of Consciousness (1971), The Unfolding Self (1998), The Well of Remembrance (1994) and Green Psychology (1999). He was president and co-founder of the Green Earth Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to healing and harmonizing the relations between humanity and the Earth (www.greenearthfound.org). The Green Earth Foundation has published his writings devoted to psychoactive/psychedelic drugs: The Toad and the Jaguar – A Field Report of Underground Research on a Visionary Medicine (2013), and Allies for Awakening – Guidelines for productive and safe experiences with entheogens (2015). His most recent books, published in 2017 are Ecology of Consciousness – The Alchemy of Personal, Collective and Planetary Transformation (Reveal Press, 2017), and Overtones and Undercurrents – Spirituality, Reincarnation and Ancestor Influence in Entheogenic Psychotherapy (Park Street Press, 2017). Alchemical Musings was published posthumously in 2020.

Gary Bravo, MD, is a psychiatrist in Sonoma County with a long-standing interest in psychedelics, meditation, and altered states. He is co-author, along with Ralph Metzner and Ram Dass, of Birth of a Psychedelic Culture.

Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, is a British-born psychopharmacologist who is Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously, he founded and was Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College, London. Noted for brain imaging studies of psychedelic and psychoactive drugs and their therapeutic use, in 2020 The Times named him one of the world's top 31 medical scientists.

Cathy Coleman, PhD, was Ralph Metzner's wife of 31 years. She is a certified consulting astrologer, and works for the CIIS psychedelic certificate program. She served as former dean of students at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), president of Kepler College, and director IONS' EarthRise Retreat Center.

Gail Colombo is a practitioner of Metzner Alchemical Divination, produces Flower Essences, and works with frequencies.

Uwe Doerken is a business executive, management consultant, and entrepreneur, who lives part-time mostly in Germany and Greece. He served as chairman and CEO of DHL Worldwide Express and on the board of Green Earth Foundation.

Jamy Faust, MA, is a practitioner and teacher of Metzner Alchemical Divination methods, psychotherapist, family constellation facilitator, energy healer, and author located in Boston. She is currently completing Becoming Shamanka: Walking the Path of Psychedelic Medicine, a book co-authored with her husband, Peter Faust, on Ralph’s alchemical divination methods and processes.

Charles Grob, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He has conducted clinical research over the last three decades with psilocybin, ayahuasca and MDMA and has published widely in the professional literature on psychedelics and edited three books, Hallucinogens: A Reader (2002, Tarcher/Putnam), Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics (2005, with Roger Walsh Suny Press), and Medical Hallucinogens (2021, with Jim Grigsby, Guilford Press).

Alan Levin, LMFT, is a psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and author in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York. Alan joined Ralph in the study and practice of Agni Yoga with the School of Actualism, and assisted in many of Ralph's ceremonial retreats.

Peter Maravelis is the Event Director at City Lights Booksellers and Publishers. For over two decades he has curated events bringing about the intersection of the literary world with that of the arts, philosophy, and the sciences. He has produced special programming that explores the cutting edge of ideas, opening discussion between leaders in different fields and the public. He is editor of both San Francisco Noir and San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics.

Roger Marsden, PHD, earned his doctorate at CIIS, with Ralph being a major professor and mentor. He is a retired mental health clinician.

Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT, is a psychedelic educator, writer, and speaker. Formally trained as a guide in expanded states of consciousness, she teaches critical courses on psychedelic humanities to students at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Valeria’s background includes licensure as a marriage and family therapist, a doctorate in psychology, a certificate in psychedelic therapies and research, as well as thousands of hours of study and practice in a variety of therapeutic and spiritual traditions. She has a forthcoming book (title tbd) on the seat of the psychedelic guide. Her interests lie at the intersection of nondual wisdom traditions, somatics, psychedelics, and social and transformative justice. She lives in Northern California.

Silvia Nakkach Knapp, MA, MMT, is a Grammy-nominated composer, interdisciplinary vocal artist, educator, and founding director of the International Vox Mundi School of Sound and originator of the Yoga of the Voice training certificate. With a background as a clinical psychologist, she integrates her expertise as an author, Hindustani raga musician, and immersive soundscape designer. She serves on the faculty of CIIS, contributing to East West Psychology, Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies (ACTS), and mentors trainees at the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research. For many years, Silvia worked at Claudio Naranjo’s Sat Institute and collaborated with Ralph, combining teaching and innovative musical projects. www.voxmundiproject.com.

Michael Ziegler was ordained in the Jewish Neo-Chasidic lineage by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi. He has been a pioneer in the development of spiritual and somatic programs. Michael has worked with the Green Earth Foundation in support of Ralph Metzner’s legacy. He created a master class for psychedelic guides at theguidingpresence.com, which includes many recordings of Ralph in sessions discussing psychedelic use.

Event Venue

The Berkeley Alembic, 2820 Seventh Street, Berkeley, United States