Progoff, Ira (1921-1998)

Jungian psychologist who has investigated areas of parapsychology. Progoff was born on August 2, 1921, in New York City. He studied at the New School for Social Research in the city from which he received his Ph.D. in 1951. He was a Bollingen fellow from 1952-58, during which time he spent a year in Zü-rich as a lecturer at the Jung Institute (1953). In 1959 he became the director of Institute for Research in Depth Psychology at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. He was a member of the Parapsychology Association, a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Religion in an Age of Science, and a member of the board of editors of Journal of Humanistic Psychology.Progoff took a special interest in mediumship, psychedelics, religious and creative experience, personality growth and psychic sensitivity, and image-making at depth-psychological levels. He also developed a system of Process Meditation, characterized by the individuals' use of an "Intensive Journal" to record their progress. He organized Life Context Workshops and published the National Intensive Journal at Dialogue House, 80 E. 11th St., New York, N.Y. 10003. His meditation system was the subject of his book The Practice of Process Meditation (1980). Progoff died December 28, 1998.

Sources:

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.

Progroff, Ira, ed. The Cloud of Unknowing. N.p., 1957.

——. Death and Rebirth of Psychology. N.p., 1956.

——. Depth Psychology and Modern Man. N.p., 1959.

——. Jung's Psychology and Its Social Meaning. N.p., 1953.

——. "Parapsychology in Modern Thinking." International Journal of Parapsychology 1, 1 (Summer 1959).

——. The Practice of Process Meditation. N.p., 1980.

——. The Symbolic and the Real. N.p., 1963.

——. "Transformation of Jewish Mysticism." International Journal of Parapsychology 2, 2 (Autumn 1960).