Tag Archives: Agni Yoga

Tribute to Ralph Metzner

(Painting by Susan Wright)

“The introduction of LSD and psychedelics into the culture
produced a transformation of the entire culture,
the consciousness of the culture.”
                 –Ralph Metzner

“For years I’ve followed a principle:
Read anything Ralph Metzner writes.”
                 –Larry Dossey

“You have pulled the whole thing together
in a truly illuminated and illuminating way.”

                               –Joseph Campbell (about The Unfolding Self)

“…….When I asked him how to experience this teaching, he closed his eyes and his body seemed to de-materialize. Part of him went up and up in stages and then slowly came back down. …When he came back down, he told me to follow him to his cabin and he led me through an experience in which I felt all the negativity, doubt, fear, shame and pain that I’d been carrying for my whole life cleansed from my body, cell by cell, cleansed by a stream of white light. I felt clearer than I’d ever felt, confident and certain that this was the path for me to follow. Ralph (Metzner) had initiated me into the spiritual lineage of Agni Yoga and what would be a 45 year relationship with him as well as a meditation practice I use to this day.”


Ralph Metzner died two years ago and his birthday was last week, May 18th. The experience I recount above is part of an article for a Festschrift (tribute book) for Ralph that is being lovingly edited by his wife, Cathy Coleman. The piece above is about my first encounter with him in 1969 where he led a retreat on “Maps of Consciousness” and introduced me to the Western esoteric practices of Agni Yoga. I can honestly say that two years after his death I think of him every day. No one has been as important in my spiritual journey.


Ralph was a scholar, a prolific writer of books and articles, lecturer, teacher and ceremonial leader of inner experiences which were participated in by perhaps thousands. His influence in the fields of transpersonal and eco-psychology was profound. But to many of those of us who worked with him, nothing compared to his unique and innovative approach to guiding altered-state experiences with sacred medicines. Ralph was the teacher of teachers, the guide for guides, the shaman for shamans in the underground movement of entheogenic (psychedelic) experiences.


Ralph was the third, much lesser known of the three men from Harvard renowned for blowing the lid off the secret study of psychedelics. Tim Leary went on to be an icon of the wild side of the counter-culture while Richard Alpert became Ram Dass and brought Eastern spirituality to millions. Ralph took a quieter road and became deeply involved in disciplines of esoteric practices and finally integrated those with psychedelics bringing about his unique form of teachings and guidance. His legacy includes books which are filled with both scientific information and instructions for the use of: MDMA (Through the Gateway of the Heart), Ayahuasca (Ayuhasca-Sacred Vine of Spirit), Mushrooms (Teonanacatl-Sacred Mushroom of Visions), DMT and 5-Meo-DMT (The Toad and the Jaguar) as well as an all-inclusive manual (Allies for Awakening – Guidelines for productive and safe experiences with entheogen).


A master of shape-shifting and consciousness, he could also maintain his work as a psychologist, a teacher and dean at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and beloved husband and father. His books and articles took in-depth looks at consciousness studies, the roots of war and violence and the meanings of many of the world’s mythologies, metaphors and symbols.


The depth of his insights makes for more dense reading than most popular spiritual books. But my guess is that many of them will become classics for those seeking to penetrate beyond the superficial understandings of consciousness and spirit. For Ralph, the alchemical work was not an intellectual exercise. He practiced what he preached and transformed himself decade by decade. I miss him and yet know and feel he is still here.


For more information about Ralph and for many of his books, visit the website he developed for Green Earth Foundation: https://www.greenearthfound.org/.


As celebration of his birthday, Green Earth Foundation announced that what I think is his most comprehensive work, The Unfolding Self, has been made into an audio book. You can see more and order it here: https://www.pipewellstudios.uk/.

Welcome to Crossing the Boundary

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This is to welcome and introduce you to Crossing the Boundary blog and website. The site is designed to focus on the book, Crossing the Boundary – Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths. Here, you can learn more about the background of the book and read short passages from the chapters on each of the fourteen teachers interviewed for it. I’ve added some descriptive information about each of these men and women and links to their websites, books, and schedules for their teaching activities and workshops. You can find all this under the People of the Book menu.

This project began from an experience I had on a vision quest in the desert of Southern California in 1983. Wandering and fasting in the desert, I realized that after many years of denying it to myself, I was a Jewish man. It opened up for me a quest to understand what that meant and deepened my spiritual explorations into the nature of identity and reality itself. If it is true that I am a Jewish man, what does that mean for how I live my life? Do I need to begin observing and practicing Jewish rituals and ceremonies? Further, where do the notions of who I am and what is real come from? How much choice do I have in the matter of what I think or believe, what I feel and experience, of who I am?

As I explain in my autobiographical chapter in the book, I tried for a number of years following that vision quest to incorporate Jewish religious practices in my life. But it never felt comfortable, it didn’t fit. I continue to honor Jewish spiritual teachings, especially the mystical aspects such as Kabbalah, and I open to what they bring to me and the world. But as a daily practice, I have for over 45 years been meditating with methods drawn from Agni (light-fire) Yoga and Buddhism, and exploring the many realms of consciousness through shamanism. Jewish spirituality is one of a number of streams of wisdom from which I drink.

However, Jewish identity is more than observing religious practices. A large number of Jews, if not a majority, are non-observant (of Jewish religious rituals) yet see themselves as spiritual, or consider themselves atheists. How does the sense of Jewish identity inform their lives? Is there something in the  DNA of Jews that unfolds as a way of being in the world, as a set of inherent values? How does the connection to a common ancestry and mythical story influence the way Jews see the world? How do these issues operate in the other tribal peoples that inhabit this planet? These questions and others are themes in my interviews with the fourteen spiritual teachers of the book, Crossing the Boundary, and I continue to explore them here in a form that invites your participation.

For some folks, being on a spiritual path that is dramatically different from that of one’s family is an act of heresy. But, as I say in the description of the book, “We are walking on the precipice of a massive catastrophe coming about due to human ignorance and greed and masked by the ethnocentric blinders that pit us against each other. It is my hope that the stories and wisdom of the “heretics” gathered in this book provide keys for our collective awakening, and lead us towards not only tolerance for others, but eagerness to encounter and learn from the ways of all peoples.” My vision is that through this awakening, we will find the wisdom, courage and strength to live through these times with grace and do what needs to be done.

~Alan Levin