Event	Explore the “Great Cycle” of Birth, Death, and Everything in Between
Presenters	Stanislav Grof, Brigitte Grof, Paul Grof, Jay Dufrechou
Date	Thursday, October 15, 2026
Time	5:30 pm Pacific
Replay	Sunday, October 18, 11:00 am Pacific
Cost	Free
Recording	Sent to everyone who registers

When the floor drops out, is something ending or being born?

Most of us have a quiet plan for big change. Stay steady, think it through, come out fine. Then a marriage ends, a career collapses, a parent begins to decline, or a diagnosis lands. The plan dissolves along with everything else.

What if that dissolving is not the problem? What if it is a stage?

Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, has spent more than 60 years studying non-ordinary states of consciousness. Across thousands of sessions, he kept seeing the same pattern. Birth, deep inner change, and dying seem to move through similar stages. He calls it the Great Cycle.

The stages are easy to name: wholeness, dissolution, struggle, surrender, and emergence. Living through them is another story. This free event helps you see where you are in the cycle, and why the hardest part may be the doorway, not the dead end.

Why does this matter now?

First, change is not slowing down. Many people are handling layoffs, divorce, grief, or aging parents all at once. The usual advice to “stay positive” runs out fast.

Second, our culture offers almost no guidance on how to prepare for death spiritually. We plan the estate and skip the inner work. Stan’s research offers a grounded way to explore the spiritual meaning of death without asking you to adopt any belief system.

Third, this is a chance to learn from Stan Grof in his 95th year, alongside the people closest to his work. That kind of opportunity is rare.

What you’ll explore

• How the Great Cycle maps the stages of death and rebirth across birth, inner change, and dying
• The perinatal stages Stan observed, and how they shed light on your own turning points
• Why loss or breakdown may be one stage in a larger movement toward renewal
• The parallels between passing through birth and the journey of dying
• How to meet uncertainty with spiritual surrender instead of resistance
• Why this work can change how you live now, not just how you face the end

Who is this good for?

• Anyone in a major life transition who wants context, not platitudes
• People facing their own mortality, or walking with a loved one who is
• Caregivers, hospice volunteers, chaplains, and death doulas
• Therapists, coaches, and breathwork facilitators curious about Grof’s maps
• Readers of Stanislav Grof books who want to hear the ideas from the source
• Seekers who suspect their breakdown might be a breakthrough

Meet your presenters

Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist and one of the founders of transpersonal psychology. He led early psychedelic research in Prague, then served as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. As Scholar-in-Residence at Esalen, he and his late wife Christina developed the breathwork method now taught as Grof® Breathwork. He founded the International Transpersonal Association and has written more than 150 articles and many books, including Beyond the Brain, The Ultimate Journey, and The Way of the Psychonaut. Learn more at stanislavgrof.com.

Brigitte Grof has partnered with Stan in life and teaching since 2016. In 2020, they launched the international Grof® Legacy Training, and they lead seminars and breathwork workshops worldwide. Visit brigittegrof.com.

Paul Grof, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist and researcher who brings a clinical lens to profound psychological change.

Jay Dufrechou, JD, PhD, directs Grof Legacy Training USA and has taught at Sofia University since 2002. He has been a certified breathwork facilitator in the Grof lineage since 2015. He wrote Moving through Grief: Reconnecting with Nature and co-wrote The Psychedelics Integration Handbook. Read Jay’s bio.

What others say about Grof’s work

Mythologist Joseph Campbell saw Grof’s discoveries as the basis for a whole new direction in consciousness research. Religion scholar Huston Smith credited him with more psychedelic research experience than anyone else, and with the most useful framework for making sense of it.

Past students say his teaching gave them a new awareness of supportive forces at work in their lives, and a fresh way to choose how they live.

Want to go deeper after the event?

During the event, you’ll hear about a new online program with Stan. It explores consciousness after death, what more than 50 years of research suggests about who we really are, and how facing mortality can change the way we live today. The event itself is free, and the course is entirely optional.

A friendly note from the stargazers: some links here are affiliate links. If you register for a paid program through them, TMBSN may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you toward the stars that genuinely dazzle us.

This event is educational and is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or end-of-life care.