MUDr. Stanislav Grof

"Young people who were using LSD ostentatively were part of the hippie movement distinct from mainstream America. They had long hair, goatees, painted their cars in psychedelic colors. Many of them also organized demostrations against the Vietnam War. Make love, not war. This way, they self-identified as troublemakers. This also contributed to psychedelics being outlawed." - "When did that take place?" - "It all started in 1965 with the Harvard scandal. Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner were doing research with students which was heavily criticized for an irresponsible way of handling these substances. This was an incentive for a change in legal regulation."

"They began bothering me. One of them, who introduced himself as Captain, even visited me during my night shift. He also came to my place or approached me in the street. Essentially, they claimed I was not a communist and that I had to prove my loyalty to the regime. They wanted me to inform on party members. There were plenty of people in the Research Institute who entered the party for career reasons. They probably hadn't trusted them and wanted to use me to inform on them. I came to my colleagues and told them that I was being bothered by the secret police who asked me to rat on them. I decided to say this out loud at the local Party meeting. To tell them who was effectively in charge in Czechoslovakia. That I thought the Communist Party was in power and that the secret police wanted me to rat on the commies. However, my friends from the Institute said: 'Don't be stupid, that would mean big trouble. Talk to them, find out what they want to know about us. We want to know what happens inside the secret police.'"

"In 1965, I was offered a stipend. I could have stayed there. I could have then legally returned to the US. If I had been staying legally, I would have had better connection with my family. So, I decided to come back and give it a try. However, they rejected my application to return to the US. Then they changed their mind, saying they'd let me know if I informed them on my stay. The first year, I was staying legally. I even invited by brother and parents for a visit. The communists were not interested in retired people. They wanted to get rid of them, keep their apartments and not pay their pensions. There was an opportunity for the whole family to stay in the US. However, my parents refused to stay. They didn't want to be dependent on us. My brother then settled in Canada. After the 1968 invasion, communists ordered me to return without delay. However, by then, I had declined to come back to Czechoslovakia."

"They were looking for that flyer but I managed to get rid of it in the meantime. They brought me to the police in Bartolomějská street where they kept me for two weeks. There was a large cell where they held some seventeen of us; I was there amongst thieves and pimps. During the interrogations, they used very strong lights shining into my eyes. They asked about various things from my life. Then, they let me go. But we hadn't known whether they'd return in half an hour or let us sleep for once. It was great suspense and adrenalin. There were also a father with a son who were found in possession of a rifle. Those had been returning to the cell badly beaten. So, I was under a lot of stress. During the interrogation, when they asked me about my childhood, I began hallucinating. I had visions. I realized there was something about it that I liked. I experienced altered state of consciousness with which I then worked for the rest of my professional life. It was the first time I experienced them; in such a difficult situation."

"Were you still able to work with LSD in your research institute?" - "It was the last place in America where that research had still taken place. Initially, there were 72 research projects but all of them were halted. This was the last one surviving." - "When was it terminated?" - "When I arrived in 1967, there were already laws in place and it was just us who had an exception to do research. We were able to work with LSD up until my departure from the institute in 1973. I had an increasing amount of material and several publishers offered me to write a book on this."