METZNER, RALPH

Internationally known psychologist and one of the pioneers of LSD research at Harvard University in the 1960s before academic research on the subject was halted. Metzner coauthoredThe Psychedelic Experience(1964) withTimothy Learyand Richard Alpert, which used theTibetanBook of the Dead to guide LSD and otherentheogenicexperiences, including instructions for how to approach a psychedelic session. Metzner was academic dean (1979–88) and academic vice president (1988–89) of the California Institute of Integral Studies and teaches there onaltered states ofconsciousness, psychotherapy, and eco-psychology. His volumeTheWell of Remembrance(1994) exploredNorthern Europeanmythology and “shamanism” from a psychological perspective. He is also cofounder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, “an educational organization devoted to thehealingand harmonizing of the relations between humanity and the earth.” Most recently, Metzner authoredAyahuasca:Hallucinogens, Consciousness and theSpiritofNature(1999) andSacredMushroomofVisions:Teonanacatl(2005), and he has been on the Board of Advisers for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics since 2000.