On the Road

Upcoming Classes, Lectures, and Events

Let’s be clear: no LSD infuses the drug delivery devices so copiously and colorfully reproduced in my forthcoming book Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, which is illustrated with over one hundred images drawn from Mark McCloud’s epic blotter archive. That said, people are already turning on to the book. Paris Review is going to run an excerpt, Harvard asked me to lecture, and some big podcasters are knocking on the door.

This pleases me, because while I dig all my books, I am particularly proud of this one. As an author, it’s pretty tough these days to stake out some unmarked territory in the landscape of psychedelic discourse, and the history and analysis of LSD blotter as both a carrier medium and an artistic medium is some fresh and funky ground. Blotter also gave me a rare opportunity to develop a conceptual apparatus to think about an entire print culture that only a few serious heads — notably Carlo McCormick — have heretofore bent their minds to. To top it off, it also may be my most entertaining book (though Led Zeppelin IV might be tough to beat). Besides all the great images, the history and analysis are animated by McCloud’s own remarkable tale, as the San Francisco art-punk’s obsessive collecting opened the doors to the secretive local underground of LSD blotter production, an initiation that in turn set McCloud up for a massive bust whose trial proceedings inadvertently kick-started today’s thriving market in undipped art blotter. A long strange trip indeed.

The official publication date for the book is April 2, at the beginning of what one psychedelic journalist I know calls “Bicycle Month.” That said, I do encourage you to pre-order the book if you can, since I assume there is a reason that this activity so pleases the bean counters. I also will be touring the book throughout the spring. While I will provide more detailed information soon, I wanted to share the basic outline of the cruise now. Moreover, in addition to the spring tour, I will be co-teaching two courses this summer, a two-week intensive on global psychedelic history at the University of Amsterdam this June, and a five-day workshop on writing and spiritual practice at Esalen the following month. So if you don’t live in the Bay and have been hankering for an Erik Davis close encounter of the third kind, this may be your lucky season.

Blotter Tour

April 3: The Chalice, at the Alembic, Berkeley (with Mark McCloud)

April 15: Morbid Anatomy, online

April 16: UPEND at Zebulon, Los Angeles (with Mark McCloud)

April 19: Discovery Sessions conference, at the Midway, San Francisco (with Mark McCloud)

April 22: Powell’s Bookstore, Portland

April 28: Illuminated Brew Works Blotter Beer Bash, Chicago

April 30: Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA

May 2: The Atheneum, New York City (with Mark McCloud)

May 3: Blotter Bardo Bath, with Psychedelic Sangha, New York City

May 23: Berlin Psychedelic Society, Berlin

May 30: Camden Arts Centre, London

June 13: SPUI25, University of Amsterdam

Maybe acid is the fountain of youth

Courses

I have been giving public lectures since the early 1990s, and I love the form. But over the course of my career, I have had relatively few opportunities to teach a longer course. That’s the kind of thing you get in university, but outside a few quick raids on the ivory tower I haven’t had many academic opportunities. One of the things I like about the Alembic is that it allows me to build a lecture series — this coming week I will finish up a five-week course on PKD’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. But the following two gatherings will provide a rare opportunity to interact with me in an extended manner.

(•) The Psychedelic Universe: Global Perspectives on Higher Consciousness, with Christian Greer

June 16–28, in-person at the University of Amsterdam.

A specter is haunting psychedelic discourse, the specter of…religion.

For the last few years I have done a number of writing and speaking projects with my colleague Christian Greer, a scholar of religious studies and esotericism who currently lectures at Stanford University. (Christian also co-leads the Chalice, the monthly psychedelic salon at the Alembic.) Christian has been running a summer program on the history of the occult at the University of Amsterdam for a while, and this year he and I decided to team up for a two-week immersion in the psychedelic humanities at the end of June. Pushing back against the current dominance of pharmacology and clinical psychotherapy within psychedelic discourse, our course will focus instead on the history of global psychedelia from a humanities perspective that takes the phenomenology and conundrums of religion and “mysticism” very seriously (though not literally). We have already lined up a number of great guest lecturers, and I can pretty much guarantee that fun will be had. More information.

(•) Embodied Writing and Spiritual Practice, with Sravana Borkataky-Varma

July 15–19, in-person at the Esalen Institute

One of the features of most spiritual experiences is that they seem to exist in some important way “beyond language.” But my deep belief is that, even if you fall short of the Ultimate, you can craft great writing by passionately trying to f the f’ing ineffable. This July, I will once again be joining up with my friend and Rice colleague Sravana Borkataky-Varma for a five-day Esalen workshop on writing and spiritual practice. Sravana is a total treat, a delightful teacher who manages to blend real-deal scholarship in South Asian religions with her own experience growing up in a traditional Tantric lineage. Each day, Sravana will explore a variety of spiritual practices, while I will focus on resonant readings, writing prompts, and practical insights about the craft honed from decades of work. More information.

Sravana, surrounded by writing

Book Encounters

My previous post on Burning Shore discussed what I like to call “book encounters” — synchronicities where books or text provide the serendipity. Unsurprisingly, I received a number of texts and emails that cataloged further concatenations of the cosmic giggles I described in the piece. Another reader, who runs a YouTube channel devoted to “Magic Media,” was inspired to offer up a psychedelic Christian take on “How to Experience Synchronicity Using Books.”

I also received an email from a fellow Zennie who had not read the post, but had experienced some bookish high weirdness on the streets of London. The incident he refers to involved Terence and Dennis McKenna. During their epic psychedelic trip in the Colombian outback, Terence wanted the bemushroomed Dennis to demonstrate his magic powers and asked him to manifest a silver key from their childhood; incredibly, impossibly, Dennis seemingly pulled one out of thin air. I will let Basil tell the rest of the tale.

I’ve been listening to your book on Audible, and really enjoying it.  I’m learning a ton, and I gotta say, your impression of Terence McKenna’s voice is spot on. 

I wanted to share a little synchronicity with you.  Around noon today, I was walking down the street while listening to your chapter “Experiments.”  When I heard the part where Dennis puts an actual silver key in Terrence’s hand, I was naturally dazzled and wary at the same time:  “Wow! But, really? Could that have actually happened?”

No more than a few seconds after hearing that story’s punchline, I looked down at the street and saw this:

Good for opening the gates of the Silver Key

I hope you enjoyed this flicker of Burning Shore. I have started up paid subscriptions again, though for the moment will not be offering any subscriber-only content. You get what you get. You can also support the publication by forwarding Burning Shore to friends and colleagues, or by dropping an appreciation in my Tip Jar.