As a lecturer in Stanford University’s American Studies department, my expertise is in the history of psychedelic spirituality. My published scholarship interrogates the influential yet understudied traditions shaped by the use of psychedelic substances, and particularly lysergic acid diethylamide (“LSD”). My first book, Angel-Headed Hipsters: Psychedelic Militancy in Cold War America (Oxford University Press) overturns the predominant view that enthusiasm for psychedelic experimentation was confined to the hippies of the 1960s, demonstrating how psychedelic culture has exerted a profound influence on new religious movements, popular culture, and progressive activism throughout and beyond the Cold War era.

My research interest in psychedelic culture speaks to my larger expertise in esotericism, which is a general category that encompasses Gnosticism, mystery religions, paganism, witchcraft, astrology, secret societies, conspiracy theory, and magick.