Lama Tsultrim Allione is the bestselling author of Women of Wisdom; Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict; and Wisdom Rising: Journey Into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine. She was the first American to become a Buddhist nun in 1970 and lived in India and Nepal. After returning to the USA, she traveled with Allen Ginsberg and Ram Dass. She later disrobed and became a widely known Buddhist teacher. Lama Tsultrim is the founder of Tara Mandala, a 700-acre retreat center near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. In 2007 she was recognized in Tibet as the emanation of the renowned 11th-century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön. She received the “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” award in 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr. Martina Bengert is Junior Professor for Literature and Religion at the Institute for Romance Languages and Literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where she also teaches and researches at HU’s Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies. She has written widely on mysticism and contemporary French literature; recent books include Nachtdenken: Maurice Blanchot’s Thomas l’Obscur (Orbis Romanicus, 2018), and the collected volume of essays Santa Teresa: Critical Insights, Filiations, Responses (2019), co-edited with Iris Roebling-Grau.
Alex Criddle is an independent researcher of Mormonism, psychedelics, and consciousness as well as a psychedelic integration guide. He has a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy where his thesis was on the nature of healing in the psychedelic experience. He's one of the founding members of the forthcoming Psychedelic Mormonism group at Harvard Divinity School. Alex has been a research assistant at a ketamine clinic, created curriculum for clinical psychedelic certifications, and written for multiple psychedelic outlets. He's worked as a researcher in Mormon history and theology, in neuroscience studying the origins of consciousness, and in philosophy of mind.
Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, podcaster, and scholar based in San Francisco. He is the author, most recently, of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies, co-published by MIT Press and Strange Attractor. He also wrote Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010), The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape (2006), a critical volume on Led Zeppelin (2005), and the cult classic TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (1998). Davis graduated from Yale University in 1988, and earned his PhD in religious studies at Rice University in 2015. His forthcoming MIT Press book is about the history and aesthetics of LSD blotter.
Tracy DeLuca and Elysa Fenenbock are two of the world’s foremost leaders in organizational transformation, healthcare design, and new venture building. We uniquely bridge design thinking, health and wellness, systems design and insight practices to the burgeoning psychedelic space to help make the critical changes necessary for a healthier, thriving world. We’ve both had our lives changed ー even saved ー by psychedelic medicine, and are teaching Stanford University d.school's first Psychedelic Medicine x Design course in Spring 2023.
Lenny Duncan (they/them) is a writer, speaker, scholar, and media producer working at the forefront of racial justice in America. Lenny is the author of Dear Church, United States of Grace, and Dear Revolutionaries, and co-creator of the podcast BlackBerryJams with PRX. A PhD student in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion, Lenny's current research is what they call "a people's history of magic. " Lenny is originally from West Philadelphia, has hitchhiked thousands of miles on American byways, and makes home up and down the I-5 to see found family, and in the Ebay for research.
Eve Ekman, PhD, MSW, is a contemplative social scientist, teacher, and scholar focusing on emotional awareness, empathy, meditation and interventions to alleviate burnout and promote wellbeing. Eve draws from interdisciplinary skills and first-person experiential knowledge from clinical social work, integrative medicine, contemplative science, and meditation; she did her MSW and PhD at UC Berkeley and post doctoral training at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative medicine. Eve is the wellbeing Lead at Apple , a senior fellow at UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, and an instructor with the Berkeley Center for Psychedelic Science.
Michael Goos and Manual Padua are MDiv students at the Pacific School of Religion who are passionate about sustainable community. Since September 2022 they have been involved in a project to form a community garden on the campus of PSR in order to bring together the multiple communities that use the campus space and dormitories.
Leslie Grasa is a performance artist and scholar who creates original performance work inspired by dreams and fairy tales and grounded in deep inquiry. She is currently a PhD student in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). As part of her studies, she is receiving mentorship from playwright and director, Erik Ehn. She holds both a Masters in Divinity and a Masters of Fine Art in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University, as well as a Masters of Art in Theatre from Florida State University. Leslie has been supporting people in altered states for over seventeen years. She is initiated and teaches in the Hungarian Basca Shamanic tradition and is also certified in MDMA Assisted Therapy through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). She has supported people in ketamine therapy and psychedelic integration as a chaplain and spiritual coach and is currently assistant teaching classes in psychedelic assisted therapy for Divinity and Counseling students at Naropa.
J Christian Greer is a scholar of Religious Studies with a special focus on the global history of psychedelics. His latest book, Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots focuses on pilgrimage folklore in Japan, and his forthcoming book, Angelheaded Hipsters: Psychedelic Militancy in Nineteen Eighties North America (Oxford University Press), analyzes the expansion of psychedelic culture in the late Cold War era.
Allison Elizabeth Elisheva Alden Hauser (they/she) is a consultant, counselor-in-training, and acclaimed artist. In their first ceremony with San Pedro medicine, Allison was told by her ancestors that she would either “go into psychology or become a rabbi.” Years later, Allison decided to pursue her MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Northwestern University. Allison practices nature-based healing and psychedelic integration at Life Adventures Counseling and leads Jewish Jungian processing groups at the CG Jung Center of Evanston, IL. They currently consult for Beckley Retreats towards their virtual psilocybin integration program. Her Counseling Today article “Behind-the-Scenes with a Counselor-in-Training” made #9 most-read CT article of 2022. Otherwise, Allison sings with the Alice Millar Chapel Choir and loves their family, scuba, trees, cycling, and Lake Michigan bunnies.
Dr. Gene Hightower is a cultural consultant to the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, and a research associate at UC Berkeley’s Social Interaction Laboratory. He is an occasional lecturer in the UC Berkeley Psychology Department. He has also taught in the Native American Studies programs at UC Berkeley and Stanford. He is author of Counseling Native American Indians and editor of Native American Psychosocial Identity (in press). Gene is a member of the Society of Indian Psychologists and past spokesperson for their Good Relatives Initiative. He is a descendant of Choctaw, Cherokee and Muscogee Creek peoples. His undergraduate work was in Social Relations at Harvard University, graduate work at UC Berkeley in Community Mental Health and the Wright Institute in Social Clinical Psychology. His Internship was at UC San Francisco in Ethnic Minority Mental Health. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley in Personality Development. He is a licensed psychologist who was past director of the Native American Health Center. Dr. Hightower's abstract and bibliography is available here.
Ayize Jama-Everett holds three Master’s degrees: Divinity, Psychology, and in Fine Arts, Writing. He blends these degrees in all his work, often identifying as a guerilla theologian, a community-based therapist, and an afro-futurist in the same breath. He’s taught at Starr King School for the Ministry, California College of the Arts, The University of California, Riverside, Western Colorado College, and several private High schools for over twenty years. His expertise includes working with adolescents, the history of substance use in the United States, the history of Sacred Plant medicines in the Maghreb, the religious roots of political violence from Ireland to the Middle East, educational arts pedagogy, and Afrofuturism. He’s published four novels (The Liminal series )and two graphic novels(Box of Bones and The last Count of Monte Cristo). As an associate professor at Starr King, he teaches The Sacred and the Substance, a course that examines the role of conscious altering plants in religions around the world. He also coordinates the Psychedelics and the Seminary lecture series for Starr King, which invites luminaries from the Psychedelic world to discuss their orientations to faith and religion. He is the producer of a documentary about Black people and psychedelics entitled A Table of our own. His shorter works can be found in the LA Review of Books, The Believer, and Racebaitr. He is a Board member of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, leading their initiative to look at the role of psychedelics in the mental health of People of color and poor people. Ayize also serves as a board member to Access to Doorways, a non-profit committed to increasing the number of Queer and BIPOC people involved in psychedelics at every stage. In addition, he serves as a board-level advisor to Psychedelics Today, focusing on their VITAL psychedelics training program. He’s also served in an advising capacity at UC Berkeley Center for psychedelic science, been a guest lecturer at the California Institute of Integral Studies Psychedelic therapies and research center, and was a featured speaker at Stanford’s first Psychedelics and design symposium.
Kayla Krut is a poet and PhD candidate in the Literature Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned a BA in Comparative Literature (Latin, German, English) at UC Berkeley and an MFA in Poetry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Born in San Diego, Kayla lives in Oakland.
Maria Mangini, PhD, FNP has written extensively on the impact of psychedelic experiences in shaping the lives of her contemporaries, and has worked closely with many of the most distinguished investigators in this field. She is one of the founders of the Women’s Visionary Council, a nonprofit organization that supports investigations into non-ordinary forms of consciousness and organizes gatherings of researchers, healers, artists, and activists whose work explores these states. She is Professor Emerita in the School of Science, Allied Health, and Nursing at Holy Names University and a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. For the last 50 years, she has been a part of the Hog Farm, a well-known communal family based in Berkeley and in Laytonville, California.
Madison Margolin is a journalist covering psychedelics, cannabis, spirituality, and Jewish life. She is also the author of a forthcoming book with Hay House Publishing about the intersection of Jewish and psychedelic consciousness, from the perspective of growing up in both the Ram Dass community and reporting in the Hasidic underground. Co-founder of DoubleBlind Magazine, she has written for publications like Rolling Stone, Playboy, VICE, and Jewish media studio Ayin Press, where, as contributing editor, she curates a column—"Speaking from Experience"—featuring in-depth conversations with artists, scientists, mystics, healers, activists, and fringe thought leaders engaging with a range of paradigm-shifting encounters. Also a co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and host of the Be Here Now Network's Set & Setting podcast, Madison has taught classes on Judaism and psychedelics for Tzfat's Live Kabbalah and has presented on the topic of psychedelic Judaism at SXSW, among various other national conferences around the US and Israel. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Judaism Unbound, Taschen Books, and other platforms. Passionate about the potential of treating trauma through spiritual and somatic means, she has traveled all over the world—from cannabis farms in Northern California to underground ceremonies in Brooklyn to the shores of the Ganges River and all over Israel | Palestine—reporting on the role of entheogens in religion, culture, and healing.
Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT, is a guide and teacher. Immersed in the field of psychedelic work for over a decade, her interests lie at the intersection of nondual wisdom traditions, somatics, psychedelics, and social and transformative justice. Valeria teaches on psychedelics and somatic psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She stewards a body of offerings called Somadelics℠. Valeria lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter. When not synthesizing and refining liberative systems for deconstructing the patriarchy, she enjoys playing outdoors and creating beauty. You can find Valeria at www.valeriamccarroll.com and www.somadelics.com.
Sadhana Naithani is Professor of literature and folklore at the Centre of German Studies, JNU and Coordinator of Folklore Unit, SLL&CS, JNU. She is the current president of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research and Fellow of the American Folklore Society. Her research interests cover European and Indian folklore and Folkloristics. She has written on the colonial and postcolonial Folkloristics and on the international history of the discipline of Folkloristics. She is the author of In Quest of Indian Folktales (2006), The Story Time of the British Empire (2010), Folklore Theory in Postwar Germany (2014), and Folklore in Baltic History: Resistance and Resurgence (2019). She has also authored a novella, Elephantine (2016), made three ethnographic films on narratives in contemporary German villages and been a consultant on several documentary films on Indian folklore. Dancing Pandavs, directed by Sudheer Gupta is a documentary film with which Sadhana Naithani was associated from the beginning.
Larry Norris, PhD, studied biopsychology and cognitive science as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, and defended his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). His dissertation research reviewed archived ayahuasca experience reports to identify transformational archetypes and insights that could help inform developing models of integration (meaning-making). Larry is the co-founder and executive director of Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE), located in Oakland, CA. ERIE is dedicated to the development of community education, research, and integration models related to entheogens and is currently offering workshops to cities across the US who are working to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. Larry is also a co-founder and board member of Decriminalize Nature (DN), which sprouted from Oakland in 2019. He advocates for the unalienable right to develop one’s own relationship with Nature and aims to support efforts to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi (e.g., ayahuasca, iboga, cacti, mushrooms).
Emily Pothast is a visual artist, musician, and historian whose research-based practice considers intertwined dynamics of embodied experience, material culture, temporality, politics, and belief. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is currently a PhD student in Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where she is a member of the Psychedelics, Neuroscience and Religion Working Group. She is the co-founder of the musical projects Hair and Space Museum and Midday Veil, a regular contributor to the experimental music magazine The Wire, and the assistant editor of the journal Teaching Theology and Religion.
Marlena Robbins is Diné from Crystal, NM. She is a doctoral student at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health – Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on the advancement of entheogenic medicines in tribal nations. She is an Indigenous science student fellow of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). Her qualitative research title, Multigenerational Perspectives of Psilocybin Mushrooms in Urban Indigenous Communities of the North and Southwest United States, will help inform the protocols of psychedelic-assisted therapy and educate the public on psychedelics. She is a graduate student researcher for the BCSP’s Certificate Program in Psychedelic Facilitation. She has served as Indigenous and Community Affairs Officer at the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.
As a scientist, author, and teacher, Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D., wears many hats. In all her roles she seeks to help people understand themselves and one another better, connect with one another, find peace and joy in life, and suffer less. Erika is a co-creator of the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) program at Stanford University, and currently serves as Founding Faculty at the non-profit, The Compassion Institute, and faculty at The Nyingma Institute, Berkeley. Erika has taught at places as diverse as Google, Inc., Lerab Ling Monastery, LucasFilm, Upaya Zen Center, and Burning Man. She has published numerous books, scientific articles and chapters on facial expression, emotion, and meditation. Erika volunteers in psychedelic harm reduction through the Zendo Project and the Psychedelic Survivors Group. At the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, Erika Rosenberg is a member of the Saron Lab, which conducts multi-disciplinary, pathbreaking research in contemplative science. Dr. Rosenberg is also an expert in human facial expressions, with clients in academia, industry, and the arts, worldwide.
John Semley is a writer, critic and researcher. He received his B.A. in 2008 from McGill University, with a major in English. He completed an M.A. in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto in 2009. His writing on cinema has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, The Baffler, The New Republic, and elsewhere. His research on psychedelic drugs has been published in Wired, The Guardian, Reader’s Digest Canada, and other publications. He is interested in conflicts between the official, institutional culture and the forces that oppose it. He was led to psychedelic research by following a curiosity about the conflicts between ideological and epistemological systems, particularly the dismantling of so-called “enlightenment rationality.” He is currently researching a book about LSD.
Sam Shonkoff is the Taube Family Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His scholarship focuses on modern Jewish spirituality, particularly in the German-Jewish, Hasidic, and neo-Hasidic realms. His articles have appeared recently in the Journal of Religion, the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, and the Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body. He is co-editor with Ariel Mayse of Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press, 2020), and his current book project examines themes of embodiment in Martin Buber's interpretations of Hasidic sources. He holds a PhD in History of Judaism from the University of Chicago Divinity School and collaborates with the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Sunflower Sutras Media Collective is an organization dedicated to nurturing the exploration of consciousness by weaving ancient spiritual practices with modern scientific knowledge. Through documentary filmmaking, interviews and articles, Sunflower Sutras seeks to amplify the voices of researchers, healers and experts from all traditions and backgrounds who work to preserve sacred knowledge, illuminate the complexities of human consciousness and decolonize misconceptions around indigenous ways of knowing. Our vision and our dream is that people from all societies may openly and respectfully engage in dialogue around the spiritual traditions and practices that have composed the fabric of human experience throughout its history. We want to help bring forth a world in which an integrative exploration of consciousness and contemplative practices is accessible to all through their incorporation into education, health and media institutions, enshrining their practice as our most fundamental and inalienable human right. Speakers: Solei Sarmiento and Francisco Lopez Rivarola.
Brandon Wilson is a PhD student of Religious Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He is currently participating in their Mormon Studies program where he studies the "superhuman" in Mormonism; powers such as healings, visions, and other miracles that are cultivated and perpetuated through esoteric ritual practice, or "ordinances" as it is called by the Church. He received his Masters degree at Rice University where he studied comparative esotericism and wrote his thesis on Manly P. Hall--a popular esoteric writer and lecturer in Los Angeles, CA during the early twentieth century. He is also the co-host of the podcast The Analyst & The Fool where he and his co-host Christian Van Dyke give simplified analyses of great philosophical texts, explore the diversity of Mormonism's intellectual traditions, and engage in other shenanigans.
Dr. Devin Zuber is Associate Professor of American Studies, Religion, & Literature at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, and the George F. Dole Professor of Swedenborgian Studies at the GTU’s Center for Swedenborgian Studies. At the GTU he also co- directs Sustainability 360, an incubator for religious studies and the environmental humanities. His last book, A Language of Things (2020) was awarded the 2020 Borsch-Rast Book Prize. He is completing a new book on religion and literature in mid-century American countercultures and co-editing a book of essays about the performance artist Marina Abramović.