Bruce Eisner
Encyclopedia
Bruce Jay Ehrlich better known by his pen name Bruce Eisner, is an American writer, psychologist
, and counterculture
spokesman best known for his book Ecstasy: The MDMA Story.
Eisner attended San Fernando Valley State College (now known as California State University, Northridge
) where he was on the Deans List for his first two years of attendance. In his third year, he became an anti-Vietnam War activist and joined the Students for a Democratic Society. At the end of his third year, in 1969, he dropped out of college and moved to Laguna Beach which was then home base for Timothy Leary and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love In the fall of 1969, Eisner first went to Europe where he lived in the Netherlands and then traveled overland to India.
In January 1970, Eisner returned to Los Angeles where he became a freelance journalist writing feature articles on topics focusing on LSD and the psychedelic consciousness movement for the "Underground Press." He wrote articles for the Los Angeles Free Press
edited by Art Kunkin
, the Los Angeles Star and a variety of other small publications. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for High Times magazine and wrote a series of article including "LSD Purity" and "Who Turned on Whom" with Peter Stafford. Also, in 1976, Eisner traveled to Europe where he met author Michael Hollingshed in England and LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann
in Basel, Switzerland.
In 1977, Eisner moved from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, California. He became one of the leaders of a group of psychedelic movement activists. That group known as Linkage brought Albert Hofmann to UC Santa Cruz in 1977 for his first public lecture in the US at a conference called "LSD: A Generation Later." The conference was attended by both counterculture figures such as Timothy Leary
Ph.D, Alan Ginsberg, Ram Dass
, Stephen Gaskin
and Ralph Metzner
Ph.D as well as early psychedelic researchers including Oscar Janiger
, MD, William McGlothlin, Ph.D, Stanley Krippner
, Ph.D, Claudio Naranjo
, MD and Willis Harman
Ph.D
Eisner received his B.A.in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz
in 1979. He moved to Goleta California for two years and received his M.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara
. Eisner worked as a Teaching Assistant at U.C. Santa Barbara. In 1980, he became a contributing writer for Omni
magazine.
Eisner returned to Santa Cruz in 1981 and in 1982 moved into a home near Natural Bridges State Beach where he lived for the next 21 years. He began working on his Ph.D in Psychology from Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
in 1982 but withdrew before completing a dissertation in 1988. In 1989, Eisner started a self-improvement software company called Mindware which published a catalog of mind tool and personal development software program called the Mindware Catalog until 1995.
In 1990, Eisner started the Island Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization named for the 1962 Island
by Aldous Huxley
. The non-profit group's aim is the creation of a "psychedelic culture" .
Island Foundation conceived and co-organized the 1992 "The Bridge: Linking the Past, Present and Future of Psychedelics" a two day conference held at Stanford University
. Island also conceived and co-organized "Bicycle Day: Celebrating 50 Years of LSD" at the University of California Santa Cruz, in April, 1993.
In 1996, Eisner created the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, one of the first self improvement site on the web. The website provides a portal for self improvement and personal development websites.
In 2003, Eisner moved to Las Vegas Nevada where he currently resides, He is currently completing his dissertation as a Ph.D Candidate at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He is owner and webmaster of the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, a self-improvement web portal and writes a blog called Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing.
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
, and counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
spokesman best known for his book Ecstasy: The MDMA Story.
Biography
Eisner was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age 2, he moved with his family to the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California where he lived for the next 25 years. His first publication was at age 16, when he won an LA County-wide essay contest. The essay, "Democracy and What It Means to Me" was published in the Congressional Record by Congressman Ed Reinecke.Eisner attended San Fernando Valley State College (now known as California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....
) where he was on the Deans List for his first two years of attendance. In his third year, he became an anti-Vietnam War activist and joined the Students for a Democratic Society. At the end of his third year, in 1969, he dropped out of college and moved to Laguna Beach which was then home base for Timothy Leary and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love In the fall of 1969, Eisner first went to Europe where he lived in the Netherlands and then traveled overland to India.
In January 1970, Eisner returned to Los Angeles where he became a freelance journalist writing feature articles on topics focusing on LSD and the psychedelic consciousness movement for the "Underground Press." He wrote articles for the Los Angeles Free Press
Los Angeles Free Press
The Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
edited by Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin is an American journalist, political organizer, machinist and New Age esotericist best known as the founding publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Free Press...
, the Los Angeles Star and a variety of other small publications. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for High Times magazine and wrote a series of article including "LSD Purity" and "Who Turned on Whom" with Peter Stafford. Also, in 1976, Eisner traveled to Europe where he met author Michael Hollingshed in England and LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...
in Basel, Switzerland.
In 1977, Eisner moved from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, California. He became one of the leaders of a group of psychedelic movement activists. That group known as Linkage brought Albert Hofmann to UC Santa Cruz in 1977 for his first public lecture in the US at a conference called "LSD: A Generation Later." The conference was attended by both counterculture figures such as Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
Ph.D, Alan Ginsberg, Ram Dass
Ram Dass
Ram Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
, Stephen Gaskin
Stephen Gaskin
Stephen Gaskin is a counterculture hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual intentional community in Summertown, Tennessee...
and Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner Ph.D. , is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert . Dr...
Ph.D as well as early psychedelic researchers including Oscar Janiger
Oscar Janiger
Oscar Janiger was a University of California Irvine Psychiatrist who was best known for his LSD research, which lasted from 1954 to 1962....
, MD, William McGlothlin, Ph.D, Stanley Krippner
Stanley Krippner
Stanley Krippner is an American psychologist, and an executive faculty member and Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco...
, Ph.D, Claudio Naranjo
Claudio Naranjo
Claudio Naranjo is a Chilean psychiatrist who is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He is one of the three successors named by Fritz Perls , and a developer of the Enneagram of Personality and founder of the Seekers After Truth Institute...
, MD and Willis Harman
Willis Harman
Willis Harman was an American engineer, social scientist, academic, futurist, writer, and visionary. He is best remembered for his work with SRI International, for being president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, and for his work in raising consciousness within the...
Ph.D
Eisner received his B.A.in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
in 1979. He moved to Goleta California for two years and received his M.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. Eisner worked as a Teaching Assistant at U.C. Santa Barbara. In 1980, he became a contributing writer for Omni
Omni (magazine)
OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...
magazine.
Eisner returned to Santa Cruz in 1981 and in 1982 moved into a home near Natural Bridges State Beach where he lived for the next 21 years. He began working on his Ph.D in Psychology from Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
Saybrook University, a San Francisco, California based 'distance learning' institution , is geared to providing a personalized, mentored educational experience for graduate students...
in 1982 but withdrew before completing a dissertation in 1988. In 1989, Eisner started a self-improvement software company called Mindware which published a catalog of mind tool and personal development software program called the Mindware Catalog until 1995.
In 1990, Eisner started the Island Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization named for the 1962 Island
Island (novel)
Island is the final book by English writer Aldous Huxley, published in 1962. It is the account of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who is shipwrecked on the fictional island of Pala. Island is Huxley's utopian counterpart to his most famous work, the 1932 novel Brave New World, itself often...
by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
. The non-profit group's aim is the creation of a "psychedelic culture" .
Island Foundation conceived and co-organized the 1992 "The Bridge: Linking the Past, Present and Future of Psychedelics" a two day conference held at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Island also conceived and co-organized "Bicycle Day: Celebrating 50 Years of LSD" at the University of California Santa Cruz, in April, 1993.
In 1996, Eisner created the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, one of the first self improvement site on the web. The website provides a portal for self improvement and personal development websites.
In 2003, Eisner moved to Las Vegas Nevada where he currently resides, He is currently completing his dissertation as a Ph.D Candidate at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He is owner and webmaster of the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, a self-improvement web portal and writes a blog called Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing.
Articles
- LSD Purity. By Bruce Eisner, publication: High Times, 1977.
- Why We Get High. By Bruce Eisner, Original publication: Island Views Newsletter, 1995-1996.
- A Call for a Psychedelic Sanctuary. By Bruce Eisner, Original publication: Island Views Newsletter, 2001.
- MDMA, Personality and Human Nature: The Power to Transform People. By Bruce Eisner.
- LSD and Aldous Huxley’s Island: Setting Sail for a Better Country. By Bruce Eisner published in Gaia News No. 14.
Fiction
- Lovelights@LearyEisner.com. By Bruce Eisner and Timothy Leary, 1996, published on New World Disorder, 2004.
Interviews conducted
- Interview with an Alchemist: Bear Owlsey.By Bruce Eisner; Original Publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1997.
- Modern Alchemy: Modern Alchemy: Interview with Ann and Sasha Shulgin. By Bruce Eisner with Peter Stafford, original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1997.
- Psychedelic Culture An Interview with Terence Mckenna. By Bruce Eisner original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1998.
- Timothy Leary's Ultimate Trip. By Bruce Eisner original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1996.
Interviews given
- Interview with Bruce Eisner. Original Publication: Cruzio.Com's Hawk Magazine; May, 1996.
Lecture videos
- LSD and Aldous Huxley’s Island: Setting Sail for a Better Country. International Symposium on LSD,, Basel, Switzerland. January 2006
- The History and Future of LSD. International Conference on Altered States, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 2001
External links
- Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing, Eisner's personal blog
- Island Web: Island Foundations website
- The Mindware Forum Weblog
- Bruce Eisner's Profile on Amazon Author Connect
- Extasis (Ecstasy: the MDMA Story in Spanish)
- Better living through technology/ The impact of Leary's Exo-Psychology theory
- The Mind Media Life-Enhancement Network