Synergetic Press, Author at Synergetic Press

White Gold is Back in Stock

by Synergetic Press | September 19, 2022 | Books, Cultural Studies

A Historical Snapshot of the Brazilian Amazon at the Height of the Rubber Boom

We are pleased to announce that White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1896–1906 is finally back in print! The book presents the diary of an American man named John C. Yungjohann who went to seek his fortune cutting rubber in the Brazilian Amazon. However, instead of encountering riches, Yungjohann found himself struggling for survival in the toilsome ten years he spent working as a rubber cutter.

Although somewhat dated in its language and expression, the book is of relevance today in that it offers a historical snapshot of the Brazilian Amazon which is undergoing rapid change due to ongoing environmental decimation.

Within his diary, Yungjohann writes in detail about the flora and fauna particular to the Amazon at that time as well as his encounters with the various Indigenous groups of the region. In particular, Yungjohann had extended encounters with both the Tupí and Yanomami peoples of which he relates their customs and traditions in detail.

The Rainforest and Its Peoples Under Threat

With the days of the rubber boom long gone, new trajectories of economic exploit now threaten the health of the Amazon rainforest and its peoples. Since Brazilian president, Jaír Bolsonaro, was elected in 2019, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon has reached an all time high and is at its highest level since 2006.

This is largely because Bolsonaro’s government has taken action to expand Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector, clearing away, and even deliberately burning, large swathes of rainforest in order to allocate more land to the production of beef and soya for international export. Even before starting his term as president, Bolsonaro stated that he planned to dissolve the Environmental Ministry and merge it with the Agriculture industry, favoring the interests of those who have stakes in converting forest into farmland.

Recently the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information (RAISG) conducted a study in collaboration with the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) which suggested that the environmental destruction of certain parts of the rainforest “is so complete that swathes of the rainforest have reached tipping point and might never be able to recover.”

What’s more is that Bolsonaro’s policies are not only pro-business and anti-environmental, but they are racist and discriminatory against Indigenous peoples. In 2021, Indigenous groups filed a request with the International Criminal Court at the Hague to investigate Bolsonaro’s alleged crimes against humanity and Indigenous peoples, due to his failure to sufficiently protect Brazil’s Indigenous population from the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalating illegal invasions of their reserves.

The Preservation of Indigenous Peoples Knowledge

Due to ongoing economic exploitation and genocidal policies, the ways of life of Indigenous groups are on the verge of being lost, alongside many species, plants, and trees, having grave implications for the planet as a whole. It is important in today’s quickly changing world to make efforts to preserve and deepen our knowledge of the Amazon Basin and practice allyship with its peoples. Moreover, the Amazon is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions and is estimated to be home of 390 billion trees, among them 16,000 different species, let alone being the tribal home of 1.6 million Indigenous peoples.

Compared with the tragic fate of many other rubber cutters who met their deaths in the rainforest, Yungjohann was able to survive and even make his way back home only because of the help of the Yanomami peoples and their intimate wisdom and knowledge of the jungle.

In order to help protect Indigenous peoples and their territories, please consider donating to our friends at The Amazon Conservation Team or Amazon Watch.

White Gold: the Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1896-1906

White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1896 - 1906, is a tale of humanity and the natural order working together in the midst of greed and ignorance. The crisis of the Amazon rainforest began more than a century ago when prospectors discovered the region was a rich source of rubber. This brought commercial interests into collision with the Amazon’s complex ecology—its plants, animals, and people. At the height of the rubber boom in the beginning of the 20th century, a young American, John Yungjohann, went to seek his fortune as a rubber cutter in Brazil, only to find himself struggling for survival.

Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness

by Synergetic Press | August 17, 2022 | Author blogs, Books, Consciousness & Psychedelics, Cultural Studies

The following is an excerpt from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness by Marc B. Aixalà:

My interest in psychoactive substances and non-ordinary states of consciousness began in the basement of my mother’s pharmacy, among the custom medications she compounded in her laboratory. As a child, I spent hours helping her weigh her powders, mixing them with her mortar, preparing and carefully cleaning the capsules to rid them of their bitter taste. In that room, I did my homework, and when the homework got too boring, I would get up and walk among shelves lined with containers full of active ingredients with unpronounceable names, imagining what they could be for. One afternoon I came across a book called Plantas medicinales: el Dioscórides renovado, by the Catalonian writer Pius Font Quer. In the book’s introduction, I read the story of the meeting between Gordon Wasson and María Sabina and the first magic mushrooms experience as told by a white man. That story had a profound impact on me, and for the next several weeks I immersed myself in the Dioscórides, reading about plants that had amazing effects. It became my secret passion.

In the year 2000, I had my first personal contact with the worlds that I had read about in the Dioscórides, at a time when I was a student of Telecommunications Engineering.

My first experience was one of sublime beauty, and it marked a before and after in my life. I was able to start overcoming some difficult personal circumstances that I was going through and I felt that my true vocation was in the study of non-ordinary states and their therapeutic application.

Throughout my time as a Telecommunications Engineering student, I continued to seek these experiences in different contexts and I began to learn from people who were dedicated to this type of work. In 2006 I went to Boom Festival for the first time (a psytrance music and psychedelic culture festival). This was another crucial experience in my life. I have attended every edition ever since, mainly as a volunteer for the psychological emergency service called Kosmicare. In later years, I have been a team leader and the trainer/supervisor of the volunteer teams. Being a part of this service has been an enormously formative experience since I have been able to observe and support the sort of difficult psychedelic experiences that can be the source of later problems.

Over the course of those years, I read the work of Stanislav Grof. I was completely baffled to see my most intimate experiences described in astonishing detail in his expanded cartography of the psyche. This encouraged me to learn more about his work and in 2005 I participated for the first time in a Holotropic Breathwork workshop. Grof’s proposed format of working with our breath became the backbone that structured all my previous experiences. I was able to contextualize everything that I had experienced up to that point, which led me to develop the concept of process and, within it, the need for integration. From 2006 to 2012, I trained as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator, later giving myself to offering workshops and training, also as a member of the Grof Transpersonal Training team.

In 2007 I spent a year in Peru, completing my degree’s final project on telehealth in rural areas. For a little over a month, I was able to visit different communities along the Napo river basin, where I met Shipibo communities and had my first contact with ayahuasca and traditional medicine practices. Shamanism has never been my path, but from that moment on, I developed a deep respect for these Indigenous traditions and their ancestral knowledge.

After finishing my studies—and working as an engineer for a few years—I realized that I needed to pay attention to all the signs and experiences that I had come across in my path and follow my true vocation. I decided to completely change professions and dedicate myself to psychology, psychotherapy and non-ordinary states of consciousness. So I went back to college to study psychology. I graduated in 2012, opened my private practice, and continued my training in integrative therapy, strategic brief therapy, and other disciplines.

In 2012 I also started collaborating with ICEERS (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service). My job was to provide support for the people who contacted us by email and phone. We received all kinds of questions about the use of psychoactive substances, as well as stories and reports of difficulties after complex experiences with ayahuasca and other substances. We created a support service that was then called the “Help Center” and later became the “Integration and Support Service.” Over the years, I have served more than 700 people who needed some kind of support, whether in the preparation or the integration of their experiences, or both.

I was also fortunate when MAPS invited me to train as an MDMA-assisted psychotherapist in a seminar taught by Michael and Annie Mithoefer in 2015. And a few years later, I started working as a therapist at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona, in a study that used psilocybin to treat major depression. I was thus able to gain a methodical and scientific vision of what research in this discipline implies.

I share this with the intention of illustrating, through my own story as an example, the progressive integration of my experiences over more than fifteen years. Only with time have I been able to materialize some of the realizations that happened during those singular hours.

Over the last decade, the need to integrate psychedelic experiences has become a matter of increasing interest. Without much forethought or planning, I began to specialize in this, gaining experience through my private practice, my work as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator and my work in the ICEERS’ integration service.

The field of integration is very young and is still underdeveloped. Although we frequently use the concept of integration nowadays, each therapist has their own idea of what integration means and how it should be carried out. We use the same word for totally different concepts and practices. Furthermore, when I began writing this text, there were no books dealing specifically with integration, and no schools that addressed this part of psychedelic therapy. If one wants to learn about integration, where should one go? This is a question that I had often been asked in my talks. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to try to summarize and systematize my understanding of integration in a book that could serve as an inspiration for other people to continue developing this field. I thought I had a lot of knowledge to bring to this field, with a head full of new and interesting ideas.

Marc B. Aixalà is a telecommunications engineer, psychologist, psychotherapist and certified Holotropic Breathwork facilitator specializing in supporting people who face challenging experiences with expanded states of consciousness. Since 2013, in collaboration with the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS), Aixalá has offered integration psychotherapy sessions for those seeking support after psychedelic experiences. At ICEERS, Aixalà also works to develop theoretical models of intervention and trains and supervises therapists.

Aixalà has served as a team leader and trainer in emergency psychological assistance at Boom Festival through the Kosmicare harm reduction program. He also worked on the first-ever medical trial on the use of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, a study chronicled in the 2018 documentary, “Magic Medicine.” He continues to work as a therapist in clinical trials researching psychedelic substances.

Aixalà is trained in the therapeutic use of Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness as well as in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Aixalà works as a psychologist in his private practice in Barcelona, Spain and offers trainings, lectures, and talks related to psychedelic psychotherapy and integration.

Book Launch Event, September 19th, 2022

Join Marc Aixalá and Benjamin De Loenen, founder and executive director of the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service (ICEERS) on September 19th, 2022, 9 am PDT, for an intimate discussion on these and related topics as we celebrate the publication of Aixalá’s book, Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness.⁠
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This event is co-sponsored by Synergetic Press and ICEERS and will be streamed live on ICEERS' and Synergetic Press’ social media pages.⁠

Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness

When psychologist and psychotherapist Marc B. Aixalá began fielding questions from people around the world seeking help integrating their own psychedelic experiences, he couldn’t find a singular source of collected research and support. What began as an attempt to help others became Psychedelic Integration, a work that traces the evolution of psychedelic-assisted therapy and integration research from the 1960s to the present moment, explains therapeutic techniques and outlines a clinician’s real-world observations on the deep work of healing.

Remembering Ann Shulgin, The Matriarch of the Psychedelic Movement

by Synergetic Press | July 14, 2022 | Consciousness & Psychedelics, Cultural Studies

We are grieved by the loss of Ann Shulgin, an elder and beloved friend, often referred to as the matriarch of the psychedelic movement. Ann passed away peacefully on July 9, at home in the company of loved ones, crossing into the great unknown. She was 91.

Ann was an artist, lay therapist, researcher of consciousness, prolific writer and speaker, and much more. She was a shining light in the psychedelic community who brought people together. Her advocacy for the use of psychedelics in therapy played a vital role in introducing these substances to the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

Widow of the renowned chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, Ann was his life-long collaborator and co-conspirator. Sasha famously pioneered new psychedelic compounds which Ann and he researched experimentally together. In her work as a lay therapist, Ann provided psychedelic-assisted therapy with MDMA and 2C-B, compounds that Sasha synthesized, before they were illegal, to many in the San Francisco Bay Area using her expertise in Jungian psychoanalysis. The Shulgin’s lifework and legacy was commemorated in the 2021 documentary, Better Living Through Chemistry, by filmmaker Connie Littlefield, which she worked closely with Ann to complete. Ann fortunately was able to see the film.

⁠At Synergetic Press, we feel honored to have established a copublishing relationship together with Transform Press, the independent publishing company Ann and Sasha founded in 1991 now owned and led by Ann’s daughter Wendy Tucker, in order to ensure their research would not be lost or destroyed. Thus came two groundbreaking classics in psychedelic literature, PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story and TIHKAL: The Continuation, that she co-wrote together with Sasha Shulgin. More recently, we worked closely with Wendy to publish The Nature of Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Social Impact, Vol. 1, the first Shulgin book publication since 2011.

Ann was guest of honor at the book launch for The Nature of Drugs—one of her last major speaking engagements—in which she participated in a panel reflecting on what a sane and healthy future for psychedelics could look like.

When asked about her vision for the future of psychedelics, Ann shared, “First of all, I agree that the War on Drugs has got to stop. The entire emphasis on law has got to end, the emphasis should be on medical use and spiritual growth. The laws must change and we have to work very hard on making them change. I’m very optimistic about the way things are going right now. I think there is a lot of hope.”

We will continue to work closely with Wendy and the Transform Press family to share and celebrate Ann’s wisdom, teachings, and insights for years to come. May you travel safely onwards, Ann. You will forever be in our hearts.

Reflections from the Synergetic Press Team

“Throughout the last year, I’ve had the privilege of developing Synthesis, a forthcoming collection of Ann and Sasha Shulgin’s writings and a companion to PIHKAL and TIHKAL. It has been an awe-inspiring ride to live inside of Ann’s words: her thoughts about experimentation, psychedelic revelation, the work of therapy, the pleasure of the arts, building community, and extending oneself into the world with bravery and curiosity. What has struck me most, however, is Ann’s abiding love—for her beloved Sasha, for her children, for her friends, and for humankind itself. She nourished her own hope and, through this practice, the hope of those around her. Ann lived an extraordinary life—one for the books, and there are several. Her steadfast commitment to writing and collaborating with Sasha has ensured that her legacy will continue far beyond today’s living generations. This was her gift to us all.” — Noelle Armstrong, Senior Project Editor

“I had the honor of meeting Ann Shulgin in 2018, when my dear friend, author of the book The Secret Drugs of Buddhism for which Ann wrote the foreword, invited me to the Shulgin’s legendary Easter barbeque. At the time, I was still relatively young and new to psychedelics, finding myself overwhelmed to meet a foundational figure in psychedelic history. However, Ann’s kind, gentle, and loving essence quickly allayed any fears I might have had around meeting her.

Little did I know that years later, I would come to work for Synergetic Press and that we would sign a co-publishing deal with Transform Press. More than that, I now find myself pursuing a path in psychedelic-assisted therapy, and feel indebted to Ann, her wisdom, and the way in which she has laid the groundwork for the field.” — Jasmine Virdi, Marketing & Communications Associate

“When I started working at Synergetic Press, I had never heard of Ann and Sasha Shulgin. However, over the past two years I have had the incredible honor of spending time with Ann at her beautiful farm several times. We published the amazing The Nature of Drugs last year and Ann gladly signed hundreds of copies so that readers could enjoy a signed copy. How lucky they all are!

I was able to chat with Ann during my visits and I always left feeling happier than when I arrived. I was even able to bring my son Jake (who is a huge fan of the Shulgin’s and their amazing legacy) to meet her. The fact that I could introduce him to Ann and allow him the pleasure of meeting her is such a blessing. I am honored to be a small part of the Transform Press family and we will continue to share their legacy and amazing contributions as we continue publishing their work.” — Sandy Balin, Sales & Publishing Operations Director

“When I was first fortunate enough to attend one of the Easter gatherings at the Shulgin “Farm”, I only briefly met Ann Shulgin. What immediately struck me about the gathering was the strength and depth of the community. It was clear this group of people had connections built over time and a deep commitment to shared work that was cultivated at the home of Ann and Sasha Shulgin. So, it was a great thrill to visit the ranch again, this time while working with Ann’s daughter, Wendy Tucker, to explore a publishing partnership between Synergetic Press and Transform Press, the press Ann and Sasha Shulgin created to publish their much-celebrated classic, PIHKAL. Sitting with Ann and hearing her ideas and keen insights about the possibilities for new Shulgin book projects, it was clear that for her, the work was very much present and ongoing, a through-line from the work she’d engaged with for decades. It has been an inspiring experience to work with her and it is an honor to help amplify her lasting legacy.” — Douglas Reil, Associate Publisher/ Managing Director

“I first heard from Ann and Sasha Shulgin back in 1990 when they wrote to inquire if Synergetic Press would be interested in publishing this book they had been working on, PIHKAL. I was 32 at the time, and unfortunately, not in a position to publish the book with them. As such, they went on to start Transform Press. 40 years later, we began a copublishing relationship with Ann’s daughter, Wendy, now the owner of Transform Press. We all feel blessed to be working closely with the Shulgin family and associates to help publish their groundbreaking work in the fields of chemistry and the study of mind. I stand in awe at the life Ann led and the family she and Sasha cultivated around them. Ann glowed a way of life that was full of dedication, mastery, passion and persistence. Rest in peace, and know your glow persists in the eyes of many.” — Deborah Parrish Snyder, Publisher

Reflections on the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (ESPD) 55 conference

by Synergetic Press | June 24, 2022 | Consciousness & Psychedelics, Cultural Studies, Present & Past Events, Sustainability & Ecology

Last month, Synergetic Press was excited to attend the McKenna Academy’s Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (ESPD55) Conference in St. Giles House, Dorset, UK.

A beautiful and inspiring gathering that came as joyous relief for many after months of being confined to communing through Zoom space, it was the coming together of old friends and the making of new ones. Not your ordinary psychedelic gathering, this conference’s focus was on ethnopharmacology: the pharmacology and biology of how people collaborate with plants and fungi in their respective contexts.

A Brief History of ESPD

The history of the conference harks back to 1967, when the first ESPD conference was held in San Francisco, California. A first of its kind, the symposium, brought together a diverse array of interdisciplinary specialists including notable figures some of whose careers would include them becoming Synergetic Press authors including Alexander Shulgin, Richard Evans Schultes, and Gordon Wasson.

At the time of the first symposium, Dennis McKenna was 16 years old. Sharing a burning fascination in psychedelics with his older brother, Terence, Dennis yearned to find a way to shape his career around the substances which sparked his curiosity and fed his inquiry. The 1967 conference proceedings were published in book form a few months after the event took place, and perchance, Dennis happened upon a copy in 1968. That book had a major impact on Dennis, serving to change his life that very day when he realized he could also pursue a path in this field.

The US Department of Mental Health who sponsored the first conference intended to have follow-up gatherings every ten years, but sadly, though not surprisingly, the War on Drugs slowly forced all such public conversations to a grinding halt. Fast forward 50 years to 2017, Dennis had long dreamed of having a second ESPD symposium in order to explore how the field had developed and evolved throughout the last half a century of psychedelic prohibition. The proceedings of the papers presented at that symposium held Tyrigham Hall, UK in were carefully curated into what has become a cornerstone addition to the Synergetic Press library, in this two volume box set, Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs: 50 Years of Research.

Synergetic Press at ESPD55
This year, the second ESPD conference hosted by Dennis together with the McKenna Academy marked 55 years since the original conference, once again bringing specialists from far and wide to discuss their research and findings in a setting that encouraged the free and frank exchange of information and ideas on the last 55 years of research, and assess the current and possible futures for research in ethnopharmacology.

We were delighted to be a sponsor of the conference and have the opportunity to showcase our books at the to the assembly of about 100 people. Synergetic Press Publisher, Deborah Parrish Snyder and Community Outreach Manager, Jasmine Virdi both attended the gathering. Several of our presented talks included keynote address by Monica Gagliano (The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence), Luis Eduardo Luna (Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine), and Wade Davis, Mark Plotkin, Glenn Shepard, Manolo Torres (all ESPD50 contributors), and of course, Dennis McKenna. We are getting the work underway to publish the ESPD55 conference proceedings with the McKenna Academy in the year ahead.

Looking to the future of the field, there was a strong sentiment among conference organizers and researchers regarding the importance of keeping the fields of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology alive, inviting young, emerging researchers to participate in and shape the dialogue, while acknowledging many ethnobotany programs at universities have, over the years, been discontinued for reasons that are not totally clear, as there are students looking for the training in these disciplines.

In addition to the ethnopharmacology studies, there were talks that branched from the pharmacology of kratom to the use of psychedelics as tools for scientific discovery to the history of psychoactive plants in Chinese culture. We explored different spheres of the ethnosphere, the hydrosphere, the mycosphere.

Monica Gagliano, co-editor of The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence gave the opening keynote, a wonder-inspiring talk entitled Medicine for the future: if we listen, plants will teach us, gently inviting the audience to sense into the ways in which we conceive of and interact with plants and their intelligence, setting the pace for the rest of the conference.

Through her studies investigating plant intelligence, Gagliano invites us to reconceptualize the ways in which we understand plants, shifting away from language that frames them as inactive objects, moving towards perspectives that honor their agency and influences upon the human world.

“Denying non-human intelligence is bound up with colonial agendas,” she shared, in her presentation at ESPD55.

Another captivating talk was that of astrobiologist, Bruce Damer, who spoke about the use of psychedelics for creative problem solving, particularly as tools for scientific discovery and for accessing genius.

Making a case for the necessity of genius and innovative thinking, he pointed to the compounded crises of our times.

“I would suggest to you that if we don’t have more of it, or if we don’t use it, we won’t make it through the coming challenges,” Damer said. “And my tribe, the tribe of neurodivergent scientists and engineers, their close cousins, all nerdy peoples on the earth — we play hide and seek with genius. It is our job to come up with solutions to gnarly scientific problems, crack the code of some AI optimization, or look through a massive climate data set and find a solution.”

Paul Stamets raised our attention levels as he spoke of his latest insights and discoveries in the mycelium universe he works in, sharing eye-opening statistics on the performance of the “Stamets Stack” in treatment for depression and other ailments.

Wade Davis, author, cultural anthropologist, co-editor of the ESPD box set and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, gave a powerful closing keynote address, sharing his insights from traveling around the world and spending time with different traditions and cultures as well as delving deeper into his decade-long research on the history of the coca plant.

Davis re-emphasized the critical need to abandon the colonial, and furthermore unscientific, Victorian construct of the evolution of humanity from the savage to the barbarian to the civilized.

“If we’re cut from the same genetic cloth, it means all cultures share the same genius,” Davis said. “And critically whether this genius is invested in technological wizardry or unraveling the complex threads of memory inherent in myth is still a matter of choice and cultural orientation.There is no hierarchy in the affairs of culture.”

All the conference talks are available to purchase and stream here.

Michael “Goz” Gosney, Collaborator & Friend

by Synergetic Press | May 24, 2022 | Consciousness & Psychedelics, Cultural Studies, Sustainability & Ecology

Michael “Goz” Gosney, Collaborator & Friend

(July 11, 1954 – April 28, 2022)

Beloved friend and Special Projects Associate at Synergetic Press, Michael “Goz” Gosney peacefully departed this world on April 28, 2022. Goz, as we called him, was a culture creator, a DJ, thinker, writer, publisher, event maestro, and super-connector whose vision pulsed at the heart of many communities. Based in San Francisco, Goz was an innovator in digital, ecological, and psychedelic communities alike. His words and actions inspired many to think creatively to find solutions to big problems. He would jump right in to help mount any event that promised good fun to build community and restore ecological balance. He was deeply loved by many and we are shaken by his loss.

We are grateful to Michael’s close friend and collaborator, Steven Wagner, for writing this history for us of Goz’s unique time on this planet:

Michael was a writer, editor, and publisher of books, music, and multimedia. He was a thought leader in the fields of technology, consciousness, and environmentalism who created and produced events in San Francisco and worldwide. In a 1995 interview, Timothy Leary described Michael as “one of the few great pioneer humanists in the digital world.”

Michael was born in Pittsburg, PA and graduated from Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, KS in 1972. He attended Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ in 1972-73 and University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS in 1975-76.

After relocating to San Diego in 1976, Michael co-founded the literary agency The Word Shop, published the Journal of Holistic Health from 1978 to 1980, and founded the independent publishing house Avant Books in 1980. His notable publications include The Life and Adventures of John Muir (1979) a biography of the early conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club: the English version of the play Buddha (1983) by Nikos Kazantzakis; and Deep Ecology (1985) a collection of essays proposing a progressive, post-modern environmental sensibility.

From 1986 to 1991, Michael published and edited Verbum, an early personal computer and computer art magazine widely recognized as one of the first periodicals to be entirely produced with desktop publishing techniques. In 1991, he published Verbum Interactive, which showcased digital articles with video, hyperlinks, audio files, and CD-Audio. It was hailed as a groundbreaking product and attracted the attention of Apple, Kodak, Adobe Systems, Toshiba, and Microsoft, leading to many collaborations in computer-related art and publishing realms, including the Imagine Exhibit of Personal Computer Art, a touring exhibition that the Los Angeles Times described as marking “the distinction between an earlier era of computer graphics and newer computer art.”

In 1995, Michael relocated to San Francisco and established the Verbum office in the heart of the booming SoMa district. He loved The City and proudly made it his home for the rest of his life. He always honored it in his work, and many would say that he personally exemplified its unique spirit. There was no more natural representative and genuine emissary for San Francisco than Michael.

He was a prominent and highly innovative producer of festivals, conferences, and exhibits. His semi-annual Digital Be-In, a San Francisco-based celebration and technology showcase was described by Soledad O’Brien on MSNBC as, “where 60s counterculture meets 90s cyberculture.” The many counterculture icons instrumental in the event included Timothy Leary, Chet Helms, Allen Cohen, Ken Kesey, John Perry Barlow, and Ram Dass. Michael produced eighteen Digital Be-In events over a 25-year span, including special editions in Tokyo in 1995 and London in 2005.

An early proponent of deep ecology and green cities, Michael shared a long collaboration with the ecological architecture model community Arcosanti, near Phoenix, AZ, where he produced the Paradox Conferences in 1997, 1999, and 2001, bringing together leaders in cyberculture and sustainable development. In 2011 and 2012, he produced the San Francisco Bay Area Deep Green Conference, which featured panels on ecology and cannabis legislation and exhibitions of green cultivation techniques.

In 2002, Michael co-founded the Green Century Institute, an information clearinghouse for sustainable community solutions. The non-profit provided consulting and advisory public services and produced a range of events and workshops, including the San Francisco Green Cities Expo at UNEP World Environment Day event in June 2005. From 2013 to 2015, he produced and hosted the talk radio podcast Eco-Evolution, featuring in-depth interviews with innovators on technological solutions to ecological sustainability issues.

From 1998 to 2001, in collaboration with eMusic, Michael produced Radio-V.com, a weekly radio program on U.S. public and college stations and electronic music sites. In 2001, he co-founded Cyberset, a San Francisco-based record label showcasing world, ambient, dance, vocal, and urban music.

Since 1999, he co-managed Earthdance International, a non-profit that coordinates the annual Earthdance multi-location global peace party. At the time of his passing, Michael was Managing Director of the Techné Verde ICT research project with the Buckminster Fuller Institute developing social and collaboration networks for transformative culture; and Director of Strategic Planning for Synergetic Press, a publisher of books and journals on psychedelic research, biospheric science, and regenerative design.

Michael was a lifelong creator and tireless supporter of music and the arts. He championed the legacy and work of the Beat poets. He produced music and dance events for Earthdance, Green Festival, and the How Weird Street Faire. He organized the official Burning Man Community Dance on the playa, entertaining ecstatic revelers on myriad occasions as a beloved trance deejay. Michael enriched our culture with art, music, and poetry of the highest vibration.

The breadth of Michael’s accomplishments is only eclipsed by his inspirational and lasting influence on countless family members, friends, and colleagues. A man of impeccable character, endless optimism, clear vision, and heartwarming presence, he had a singular ability to bring people together in ways that sparked profound, enduring relationships and vital creative endeavors.

He was a deeply spiritual man, a true seeker of wisdom and higher consciousness who stayed the path until his final breath. He loved his family with all his soul and was immensely proud of his daughters Kate and Rachel and grandchildren Harrison, age four, Ophelia, age two, and Clara, age one. He loved being a granddad—nothing made him happier than his three “little ones.” His eyes lit up at the sound of their names.

His vast community of friends, colleagues, and collaborators reaches around the globe, and his spirit will emanate within so many who felt blessed to be in his orbit, who revered him as a trusted friend. If it is true that a man’s heart is not judged by how much he loves, but by how much he is loved by others, then Michael’s life was an exemplary one that will continue to inspire far beyond his time on this earth.

Celebrating Michael Gosney

Friday, May 27, 2022| | 3-8 PM PDT
Join us virtually or in-person for an afternoon of art, ceremony, remembrance, music and celebration, honoring “Goz” who left us for new adventures on April 28. There is no charge to attend the memorial; please click here to RSVP and/or make a donation.

Anything raised above event costs will be applied towards maintaining Michael’s archives and/or future symposia and events in his honor (the next Digital Be-In, anyone?).