Rest In Peace, Ralph Metzner
March 19, 2019
The psychedelic community grieves the loss of one of its giants with the passing of Ralph Metzner.
Metzner, who passed on March 14, 2019 at the age of 82, was one of a trio of famous Harvard professors who in the early '60s, along with colleagues Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), gained notoriety for investigating the effects of the psychedelic drugs psilocybin and LSD.Â
The three co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, an interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for use as "guide" for psychedelic initiation. The book was a seminal early psychedelic primer.Â
After LSD was outlawed, Metzner continued to lecture and write on yoga, meditation and shamanism. He was also co-founder and President of the Green Earth Foundation, "a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth."
Both Mind States and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies regularly had Metzner in attendance at their conferences and over the years I was able to get two different blotter art prints signed by him. He was always gracious but didn't really connect with blotter art as a medium.Â
Metzner, who passed on March 14, 2019 at the age of 82, was one of a trio of famous Harvard professors who in the early '60s, along with colleagues Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), gained notoriety for investigating the effects of the psychedelic drugs psilocybin and LSD.Â
The three co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, an interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for use as "guide" for psychedelic initiation. The book was a seminal early psychedelic primer.Â
After LSD was outlawed, Metzner continued to lecture and write on yoga, meditation and shamanism. He was also co-founder and President of the Green Earth Foundation, "a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth."
Both Mind States and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies regularly had Metzner in attendance at their conferences and over the years I was able to get two different blotter art prints signed by him. He was always gracious but didn't really connect with blotter art as a medium.Â
Pictured above is one of two rare prints I had him sign: a Fly In The Ointment blotter print that he signed in a vivid silver pen. The other print I had him sign was a vintage Red "Alice Through The Looking Glass" blotter from the early printing of that edition. The Fly In The OIntment, along with books I purchased from Metzner, are not for sale and will remain a treasured part of my personal collection.
Thanks, Ralph! The psychedelic world owes you a debt of gratitude! So does the larger world, but it hasn't quite figured that out yet! Â
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