Independent publishers since 1984
A dream that became a press. A press that became a movement.
For over forty years, Synergetic Press has published the ideas the world needs — before the world knows it needs them.
Where it began
Synergia Ranch, 1969.
Outside the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, lies a patch of high desert: 640 acres of red earth, flat land, and pink-skied sunsets. It was here in 1969 that a collective of artists, ecologists, and dreamers decided to lay their roots. Learning from the land, they grew their own food, raised llamas, built their furniture by hand, fired pottery, and wove textiles from wool shorn on the land. This was a small utopia of dreamers, and it was amidst the living and making that Synergetic Press began to ask the bigger questions: What would a future shaped by nature's consciousness and a commitment to building a sustainable world really look like?
And from those long nights of conversation emerged a soulful plan — a collection of books that sought to answer exactly that.
Synergia Ranch is the home of Synergetic Press. It houses the congregation of voices that make up the soliloquy of conscious exploration, ecology, poetry, academia, and more. At the pinnacle of its time, Synergia Ranch was the home of the Biospherians — a place to call their own where ideas could be shared and visionary thoughts could flourish. It was a place of magical inspiration that would shape the collection of books we see in Synergetic Press today.
Synergia Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico — est. 1969
Deborah Parrish Snyder
Founder & Publisher, 1984–present
The founder
Deborah Parrish Snyder and the courage to publish.
In 1984, the emblematic founding publisher of Synergetic Press, Deborah Parrish Snyder, decided that the stories swirling around her were too important to go untold.
Deborah Snyder was an inspiration, driven by the surroundings of her experience. Having the unique perspective of being part of a movement that might otherwise go untold, she was a central force in the creation of the press, Synergia Ranch, The Institute of Ecotechnics, and more. Not only did she pioneer the first publishing contracts in the field of ecological development, she also built the bridges of connectivity between those looking to have their projects, voices, and creations on paper.
It started modestly: Caravan of Dreams, a cultural centre in Fort Worth, Texas, wanted their plays published. Deborah said yes. She would run the press. She would make it work. And from that single, generous act of commitment, Synergetic Press was born.
From the very first day, it was personal. Deborah didn't acquire books from a distance. She was present at the conferences, on the ranch, in the rooms where the ideas were alive. The authors she published were her colleagues, her community, her co-conspirators.
That closeness to the world of visionaries is what makes this publishing house special.
Deborah opened the door for the creators of their time. She created a visionary space for the visionaries to be seen, heard, and shared with the world.
Deborah was more than just a publisher. She became a builder of dreams, a collector of blueprints, a holder of wisdom, and a creator of community.
First English-language treatise on feng shui, 1879 — published by Synergetic Press, 1984.
The first book
The book that started it all.
The first title of Synergetic Press was the inspiration for what was possible in the creation of the press.
John Mitchell, an English author, esotericist and prominent figure in the development of the Earth mysteries movement, had come across a remarkable text. The book’s manuscript had been written in 1879 as the first treatise on feng shui written in the English language. It was possibly the last serious written account of the art in its traditional, untampered form.
Its rare categorization had caused the manuscript to be overlooked, leading Mitchell to lose confidence in considering publishing the text. Recognizing the rare find that it was, our publisher, Deborah, had no doubt that she would start her endeavor by taking a risk on publishing this strange gem.
Synergetic Press would take the risks no one else would dare to take. Sold a dream that became reality. Expanded the voices we needed to connect with.
The book arrived in the world with a hand-drawn cover, set in Alberti's typeface — quietly beautiful and entirely original exactly how its essence was meant to be. This inspiring action spearheaded the expansive collection of Synergetic Press today.
By the mid-1980s, the original group — the dreamers behind the Caravan of Dreams — found themselves crossing an incredible threshold between historical truth and visionary alignment. A group of scientists, designers, and thinkers were now conceiving Biosphere 2, the most challenging endeavor the visionaries of the Institute of Ecotechnics had yet faced. Project lead Johnny Dolphin envisioned a world where humanity's capacity was in touch with its own survival. It was during this time that the Caravan of Dreams surpassed its initial intention, becoming a social experiment that would go down in history as the "biggest lesson into human potential ever learned."
The Biosphere cannot go unmentioned when looking at the historical accounts of Synergetic Press and Synergia Ranch. Although the press prided itself on being a standalone entity, its collaboration and proximity to the visionaries of the project — such as Johnny Dolphin, Mark Nelson, and Margaret Augustine — helped shape the inspiration of the joint voices that drove the storyline of Synergetic Press.
Its projects and world-building postulations brought about the consideration of a potential blueprint for survival. What do we really need to know in order to thrive in our current, dwindling Biosphere? What does humanity look like in the next 50 years, and will our interplanetary expansion allow us to live in a healthy communion with the Earth? Synergetic Press not only wanted to find answers to these questions, it wanted to illuminate why it was so important to ask them.
In 1986, a man named Michael Rubenstein heard a conversation about the Biosphere project and mentioned, almost in passing, that he had a manuscript written by Vladimir Vernadsky — the Russian scientist who had coined the very term Biosphere. To the group's surprise, it had never been published in English. Synergetic Press published it. Printed in Russia in collaboration with Mir Publishers, Geochemistry and The Biosphere became the first co-publication between a Russian and an American publishing house in its field. Synergetic Press was there, ready to bring this threshold to light, connecting Russian theory with American entrepreneurship at a new ecological level.
The Press has also been a hub for the Biospherians, supporting their creations throughout the years and learning from the expansion of visionary projects together. Life Under Glass was one of these creations, written by Mark Nelson, founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics, and one of the eight original crew members of Biosphere 2 in 1991. Their experience within that pioneering structure was a story that needed to be told. It was the Synergetic Press that refused to let these stories be erased.
Synergetic Press signs the contract to publish the Biosphere Catalogue. Mark Nelson makes the first trip to Russia.
Vladimir Vernadsky's foundational Biosphere manuscript is published — the first Russian-American co-publication of its kind, printed in Russia with Mir Publishers.
Life Under Glass — the personal account of the Biosphere 2 crew — is ordered removed from bookstores. Synergetic buys out the stock to keep the story alive.
The psychedelic reemergence
When Psychedelics entered the Scene
Ralph Metzner, Dennis McKenna, Rick Doblin and collaborators at Synergia Ranch.
Synergetic Press’ collaboration with Ralph Metzner marked the beginning of a long and meaningful journey into the exploration of consciousness, human potential, and expanded ways of understanding the world.
The beginning of a wonderful relationship between psychedelics and the expansion of consciousness.
Although psychedelics were always part of the conversation, it was not until 2009 — through the collaboration with German-born American psychologist, writer, and researcher Ralph Metzner — that Synergetic Press began to incorporate deeper texts exploring the depths of consciousness and human potential. His collaboration with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert during the psychedelic research at Harvard University in the 1960s had made him an emblematic figure in the world of psychedelia.
This path soon led to the publication of the life of Albert Hofmann, chronicled in Mystic Chemist by Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, a storyline following one of the greatest scientists in the discovery of LSD. Its inclusion in the Synergetic Press catalogue created space for cornerstone texts that would come to define the catalog. It opened the door for deeper relationships with Transform Press, working to expand the Shulgin Foundation's manuscripts of Sasha and Ann Shulgin; MAPS as publishing partners; The McKenna Academy as collaborators in the interdisciplinary conjunction of conference voices; and the Chacruna Institute as a leading pillar in our rooted connection with psychedelia and spirituality. All these new horizons helped shape the growing conversation around consciousness, culture, and the ever-changing future of humanity.
More than a publisher
A living thing, rooted in ideas.
As you can tell, Synergetic Press is much more than just a publisher. Through its humble beginnings as the far-away dream of a group of contemporary artists, visionaries, and creators, a world was born. A world that not only signifies the collective mind of a navigating system, but proof that vision and a dedicated team can shift paradigms.
Synergetic Press is a living organism. Rooted in the same soil as the Institute of Ecotechnics, it has been the place that nourishes a community of poets, scientists, farmers, philosophers, and activists who have gathered at Synergia Ranch for more than fifty years.
What does the world need to hear? And who has the courage to say it?
Its ecosystem has expanded, hosting symposiums and events, building bridges between disciplines and an ever-evolving network all around the world. As we continue to grow, Synergetic Press continues to search for emblematic voices, ones that could dream a better dream for us all.
Independent publishers since 1984
Forty years of books that changed minds.
From that first feng shui treatise to the psychedelic renaissance — every book an act of belief in the power of ideas.
Synergetic Press. Independent publishers since 1984.
