Male

Some words that might describe me: writer, visionary, priest, spiritual facilitator, social engineer, community builder, lover, father, Earthling.

I think it's egotistical to say "I am a visionary". I try to think in visionary ways about my own life and my place in the world. I have a hard time not doing so. It feels like that is what I was made to do.

Ever since I was a boy I felt that there was a way to get a handle on what the human race IS, and what the species as a whole was doing, and that it was important to gain that sense or perspective. When I read Isaac Asimonv's _Foundation Trilogy_ I was inspired. That set of books more than anything motivated me later to get into the social sciences. Later, I became disillusioned by how completely NOT a science the social "sciences" were, and I dropped out. But now in the 21st century, and since the birth of the Internet, I finally feel that I am figuring things out . . . that the pieces are coming together, for both me and many other visionary thinkers.

I become an organizer and facilitator in the consciousness community around 2002 because I became aware of the shortcomings of neo-pagan spirituality. I was high priest, with Devorah as high priestess, of a Chicago coven since 1995. After seven years of frustration with the limitations of modern pagan spirituality, we began to move away from neo-paganism (though never completely rejecting it) toward other what I regard as more sophisticated approaches. The spiritual path offered by psychedelic means immediately became clear. We had been to Burning Man in 1998. That was a pivotal point in our life. Increasingly the message offered by Terence McKenna became inescapable.

(by psychedelic we mean *any* means of consciousness transformation, not just the paths offered by plants or chemicals. We by no means endorse breaking the law. There are many means of consciousness transformation including yoga, meditation, flotation tanks, and mind machines.)

So now we are on that path. Various organizations now exist in Chicago for those wishing to explore the mutability of the mind. One of the most wonderful things I have had a part in creating is The Chilluminati ( www.chilluminati.org ). Among the organizers, which we call CREW, I am called The Fixer. The phrase comes from the name of the mob dude in "Pulp Fiction" who cleans up other peoples' messes. That about sums up what I do in The Chilluminati.

I think of The Chilluminati as the Avante Garde of the psychedelic energy wave sweeping through the Midwest. There are other quieter events and networks but Chilluminati is the cosmic battering ram. I never expected it to be so powerful or so well received. I guess people were ready.

I am a father and have a teenage daughter. Devorah is my lifetime love and partner. Becoming a father is the most important thing I have ever done; meeting Devorah is the second most wonderful person to have come into my life. We now live in the suburbs (because unfortunately in our messed up educational system, how good an education you get depends on where you live). Our suburban life, as boring and bourgeoise as it may seem to many, has really helped to ground me and make me more aware of what it takes to succeed, survive and prosper in this world.

Until around the end of this decade we will continue to help build psychedelic community in Chicago and the Midwest, and I am writing a book about the transformation of our species and the new world that is birthing. Around the end of the decade, we intend to shed our cocoon as Chicago suburbanites and enter the Planet. We will become global nomads at that time, working wherever we can find work; hopefully more often in Asia and in Europe than in North America. I believe the expatriate culture is the Future.

I believe that in psychedelics may lie the future of human religion.

I believe that soon a much larger world than the human world is about to burst upon us.

I believe that bisexuality and open sexuality also have bright futures. Heterosexual monogamy seems so obviously forced on us by mainstream culture. I think when people are truly free to choose, and are aware of their possibilities without cultural bias, they will tend to choose something other than straight one-partner-for-life relationships. Legislation which protects and promotes straight marriage advances a Christian lifestyle, which seems, to me, to be a violation of my First Amendment rights.

Other fun facts: I used to be a South Asianist, when I was at the University of Chicago. When I was there I wrote "The Indian Foreign Policy Bureaucracy", published through Westview Press. You can still find copies of that book on the Internet. I lived in India for over a year. I speak some Hindi.