Ralph Metzner

Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner, a recognized pioneer of psychological, philosophical, and cross-cultural studies of consciousness, died March 14, 2019, at his home in Sonoma, California at age 82 of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). He was born on May 18, 1936, the second son of Wolfgang Metzner, owner of a successful publishing house in Berlin, Germany, and Jessie (known as "Jill") Laurie, a Scots woman from Stewarton, Ayrshire, in Scotland. His parents had met in 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland, when Wolfgang was a student at the University there and Jill was employed by the League of Nations. After their subsequent marriage, they lived in Berlin and had three sons. In 1944 they fled Berlin to Husum in Schleswig Holstein, northern Germany, in order to escape war-time bombing and destruction and the advance of the Russian armies. There they saw the war out in considerable penury. At the end of the war in 1945, in view of the breakdown of education in Germany, Ralph's parents (who were strong advocates of education) agreed that Jill should return to Scotland temporarily with the boys while Wolfgang rebuilt his business in Frankfurt. The separation of Ralph's parents caused their marriage eventually to break down. In 1948, Wolfgang's business and the education system in Germany were recovering, and they agreed that the younger boys should return to live and be educated in Germany, and the eldest to continue his education at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Scotland. Jill had meanwhile moved to Paris, France, where she was on the staff of UNESCO. So Ralph and his younger brother went to school at Germany's top boarding school, Salem. But in 1950 Ralph made clear his wish to return to Scotland. His parents agreed to this move and his father was able to arrange with Salem for his to move to Gordonstoun School in Scotland as an exchange student (the two schools were associated). Although Ralph was not happy there, he was a popular top scholar and in due course was admitted to The Queen's College in Oxford University. There he obtained a First Class Honours Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He subsequently attended Harvard University 1958 – 1962 where he obtained his PhD in Clinical Psychology & Personality and a post-doctoral NIMH Fellowship in Pharmacology at the Medical School. Ralph's experiences in his childhood and teens had a profound lasting influence on his personality and thinking. His life-long interest in the causes of war and how to end it was rooted in his personal history; he wrote about it in his book "The Roots of War and Domination" (2008).
While at Harvard he collaborated with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in classic studies of psychedelics in the 1960s, co-authored "The Psychedelic Experience" and was editor of :"The Psychedelic Review". His conversational memoir of the Harvard projects in the early 1960s, with Ram Dass and Gary Bravo, "Birth of a Psychedelic Culture", was published in 2010. In the 1970s, he became a student, and then a teacher of Actualism, a process of meditation using "light-fire" energy techniques to increase joy, to heal oneself and others, to solve problems, and to enhance creative inspiration and expression.
Ralph was a psychotherapist in private practice in the SF Bay Area and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, where he taught psychology and consciousness studies for 31 years, and served as Academic Dean and Academic Vice-President. Throughout his long working life Ralph was an indefatigable traveler in many parts of the world and a fascinating scholar, teacher and lecturer.
Author of over 100 scientific papers and scholarly essays, he is the editor of and contributor to two collections of essays on the pharmacology, anthropology and phenomenology of ayahuasca ("The Ayahuasca Experience", 1999, 2006, 2014) and of psilocybin mushrooms ("Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanacatl", 2004). He also compiled and edited a collection of essays and experiences with the empathogen MDMA, entitled "Through the Gateway of the Heart" (1985, 2012). His most recent writings on psychoactive/psychedelic drugs, both published by Green Earth Foundation, are "The Toad and the Jaguar – A Field Report of Underground Research on a Visionary Medicine" (2013). And "Allies for Awakening – Guidelines for productive and safe experiences with entheogens" (2015).
His books on the psychology and philosophy of transformation include "Maps of Consciousness" (1971), "Know Your Type: Maps of Identity" (1969), "The Well of Remembrance" (1994), "The Unfolding Self" (1998), and "Green Psychology" (1999). His most recent works are "Ecology of Consciousness – The Alchemy of Personal, Collective and Planetary Transformation" (2017); "Overtones and Undercurrents – Spirituality, Reincarnation, and Ancestor Influence in Entheogenic Psychotherapy" (2018); and "Searching for the Philosophers' Stone – Encounters with Mystics, Scientists and Healers" (2019).
In 1988 Ralph married Cathy Coleman, a colleague at the California Institute of Integral Studies. In 1989 he co-founded with his wife Cathy, the Green Earth Foundation, an educational and research organization dedicated to the healing and harmonizing of the relationships between humanity and the Earth, through a recognition of the energetic and spiritual interconnectedness of all life-forms in all worlds. His life was rich in friendships and collegial relationships.
In his 60s, Ralph ignited his musical and poetic talents. He began taking jazz piano lessons as an adjunct to his earlier classical piano training. He composed words and music for numerous songs, and recorded them on an album titled "Bardo Blues and Other Songs of Liberation". He published some of his poetry in "Diving for Treasures" (2015), and recorded some of the poems with musical accompaniment with collaborators in an album titled "Spirit Soundings". In 2018 he produced a narrative recording with musical accompaniment, "Volupsa", with Byron Metcalf.
Ralph's parents predeceased him. Ralph's son from a relationship in his late 20s, Ari, died in childhood at age eight in a bicycle accident in 1974– a tragedy which shook Ralph to the core. Ralph is survived by his second wife, Cathy Coleman, and by his daughter Sophia Metzner, and by his step-son Elias Jacobson and by Elias' wife Sabrina and son Gracian Jacobson. He is also survived by his brothers Ken Metzner, in CA, and Robin Metzner, in England, and by his half-brothers Guenther Metzner and Otto Metzner, and his half-sister Anna Metzner all in Germany; and by their respective families including 11 nieces and nephews.
A memorial celebration will be held in San Francisco on May 24 at 1:30 p.m. at Saint Ignatius Church on the campus of the University of San Francisco.
Ralph contributed to many causes that were important to him. Among them we suggest that memorial contributions be made to the Sebastiani Theater Foundation, Jack London Park Partners, ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), Union of Concerned Scientists, or CIIS-CPTR (California Institute of Integral Studies-Center for Psychedelic Therapy and Research). Designated checks may be sent to: Cathy Coleman, P.O. Box 1202, Glen Ellen, CA 95443-9321.