About Me

I’ve been researching psychedelics for a decade at this point, since an initial experience with ketamine quite literally saved my life. That was an inflection point where I pivoted many of my research interests towards understanding these substances, how they work, why they work, and their uses throughout history. I worked as a research assistant at a ketamine clinic where I learned the ins and outs of how to think about these substances and how to utilize them to help patients just prior to the media explosion and public interest in the topic. 

While there I grappled with a lot of existential questions I had been dealing with most of my life, but in the context of understanding them in other people more fully and how they manifested in the psychedelic experience. Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees were in philosophy focusing on the philosophy of mind, psychology, religion, and continental philosophy. These themes pervade the majority of my work. My masters thesis was on the nature of healing in the psychedelic experience. 

 

A few years ago I was contracted to help write curriculum for clinicians training to become psychedelic-assisted therapists. That was an eye-opening look into the contemporary scramble to provide training for a burgeoning psychedelic market. As I was helping write and develop the curriculum I was give an insider’s view into the thought process behind some of the larger players in the psychedelic field and what they were concerned with teaching people and I found it severely lacking. Part of my recent course on philosophy and psychedelics was an attempt to remedy what I saw were some fundamental lack in understanding on the part of both bureaucrats and clinicians who were becoming interested in these substances.

As a result of my research, training, and experiences I’ve worked as a psychedelic integration guide and coach to help people understand their experiences, work through them, and integrate them into their physical, emotional, and spiritual lives.

 

I grew up Mormon and worked in Mormon studies for a little while contracting as a private researcher of Mormon history. I’ve got forthcoming articles in the Journal of Mormon History and other Mormon publications. My early interest in Mormon studies led me to a much broader interest in religious and mysticism and my beliefs and interests have become much more cosmopolitan than they used to be. I’m keenly interested in the broader history of Christianity, pagan religions, and indigenous American religious traditions (I grew up and live in the United States Southwest where I’m surrounded by ruins). In conjunction with these I’ve studied a fair amount of the history of occultism both Christian and otherwise.

 

Recently, many of my interests have collided in my co-production of the film, EntheoMagus, exploring the psychedelic origins of Mormonism and the role psychedelics played in occultism.

 

As I was doing research into that topic I began to get a sense for how these substances pervaded the early United States medical field, the occult and magic worldviews at that time and previously, and their use in a broader religious context throughout history. As of early 2024 these are topics I’m actively working on and will likely be writing about.

 

My other main interest and love is plants and gardening. One of my main hobbies is gardening, learning about permaculture, and trying to build sustainable relationships with the land. Much of this stems from my love of plants and readings of the latest developments in the science of plant intelligence and communication. Living in harmonious relationships with the plants and ecologies around me is a goal I am always striving towards.

 

 If you want to see what I’m thinking about currently check out my now page, Twitter, or Substack.

 

I’m a researcher, writer, psychedelic coach, and editor among other things. Contact me if you are interested in hiring me or for my previous experience!