Burning Man Multiverse

James Fadiman, PhD, has been exploring the effect of psychedelics since 1961 and microdosing psychedelics since 2010. As well as holding consulting, training, counseling and editorial jobs, he has taught in psychology and design engineering at San Francisco State, Brandeis, and Stanford and for three decades, taught Sufism and other classes at Sophia University that he co-founded. He has published textbooks, professional books, a self-help book, a novel, a produced play and a series of videos, Drugs: The Children Are Choosing for National Public Television. He was featured in a National Geographic documentary and had three solo shows of his nature photography. His most recent books are The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys and Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are (with Jordan Gruber). He is currently consulting on several psychedelics-related research studies.

Kwasi is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York, out of which he developed a local psychedelic harm reduction organization. Kwasi is a trainee of the MAPS sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and was part of the first ever therapists of color cohort. He intends to bring this work into underserved communities. He has begun developing a grassroots harm reduction resource to support groups in creating these services in their local communities. In the global space, Kwasi launched a project to create a comprehensive guide on starting psychedelic societies. Additionally, he has led events that engage psychedelic societies across continents to synchronize around service events that have included the Global Psychedelic Month of Service and the Global Psychedelic Earth Day Cleanup.

Annie Oak is a journalist and event producer. After more than a decade working as a business reporter in New England, she moved to San Francisco in 1999 to cover the first dot com boom. Dismayed by the small number of women invited to speak at conferences about psychedelics, Annie produced the first annual Women’s Visionary Congress in 2007 to feature the work of women in the field. In 2008, she co-founded the nonprofit Women’s Visionary Council (WVC) to support the Women’s Congress and provide grants to women in psychedelic communities. Since 2016, Annie has been producing a series of risk reduction workshops  with the WVC and other organizations.

Annie created the Full Circle Tea House as a collaborative community art project at Burning Man in 2011. The tea house is now a collective based in Oakland, CA. In 2013, Annie co-founded Take 3 Presents, a for profit San Francisco-based event production company that produces private immersive art parties. Together with a group of fellow journalists, Annie co-founded Lucid News in 2020. A for profit news service, Lucid News covers psychedelics, consciousness technologies, and the future of wellness. Writing under her given name, Ann Harrison, Annie serves as the Lucid News business editor. She covers companies, research, and activism in the psychedelic space and trains emerging journalists.  This is her 25th consecutive Burn.

Charlotte has been a harm reductionist and psychedelic explorer for over 10 years, but her path through this work has certainly not been linear. After leaving harm reduction years ago because of rapid burn out, she is returning to this work with a new energy - thanks to the power of healing with plant medicines. Charlotte is fascinated by communication, has a love of language, and is captivated by the power of human connection. She has been in fearless pursuit of her passions since she can remember, always gifting herself new experiences and opportunities to expand her mind. Charlotte works to create a world in which everyone is able to live in fearless pursuit of their radical transformation. She uses her skills as a marketing strategist and content creator to build and engage a virtual community focused on pursuing equitable liberation.

Undrea has been working to heal himself with sacred medicines for over 11 years. He is a cannabis entrepreneur that was instrumental in the decriminalization and medical bill pass in Maryland. He has a focus on equity and inclusion in all healing work and communities. Dre practices in the Traditional Amazonian ways, informed by the South American Shipibo-Conibo and Quechua-Lamista lineages, having trained with various global indigenous masters. He focuses on ancient teachings as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.

Dennis McKenna has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca. He is the younger brother of Terence McKenna. From 2000 to 2017, he taught courses on Ethnopharmacology and Plants in Human affairs as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. In the spring of 2019, in collaboration with colleagues in Canada and the US, he founded a new Non-profit, the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. He emigrated to Canada in the spring of 2019 together with his wife Sheila, and now resides in Abbotsford B.C.

Ismail is Policy & Advocacy Counsel for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), where he advocates to eliminate barriers to psychedelic therapy and research, develops and implements legal and policy strategy, and coordinates support for clinical research in Latin America. Ismail is licensed to practice law in the state of California and also serves as Chair of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Board of Directors.

Ismail earned his J.D. at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2016, after receiving his Bachelor’s in Philosophy from California State University, Fresno, in 2012 where he also studied writing and Spanish-language literature. As a law student, Ismail served as co-lead of Berkeley Law’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and worked for the ACLU of Northern California’s Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Project, and the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law. To first support his work at MAPS, Ismail received Berkeley Law’s Public Interest Fellowship.

Ismail believes that psychedelic consciousness is a crucial piece of challenging oppression in all of its forms, and that legal access to psychedelics is an essential part of a progressive drug policy paradigm. He hopes to help develop and advocate for just, equitable, and creative alternatives to the failed war on drugs.

Together, the Grey’s co-founded the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, a spiritual creative retreat center outside of New York City. On the forefront of a movement in which painters join musicians on stage, the Grey’s have painted together live before tens of thousands of dancing young people at New York Broadway theaters, at sold-out festivals and arenas in dozens of international cities across five continents. As long-time advocates of “cognitive liberty,” a growing international “sacramental culture” has embraced the Grey’s as important mapmakers and spokespersons for the visionary realm. The Grey’s, with the CoSM team, are currently building Entheon, a Visionary Art sanctuary at CoSM.

Born 1978 in Denver, Colorado Amanda Sage is an artist using her painting as a tool for spiritual and planetary growth and transformation.
Her paintings represent multidimensional aspects of humanness in harmonious balance, inspiring a re-membering of an energetic inter-connectedness that is present and shared with all things.

In 1997 she apprenticed for 2 years in classical painting techniques with Michael Fuchs in Vienna Austria. This led to becoming a painting assistant to Ernst Fuchs, founder of Fantastic Realism, for 10 years while developing her own style and portfolio as a resident artist at the culture house WUK in Vienna.
Since 2009 she has been based in Los Angeles and influential in networking artists and initiatives while hosting workshops, lecturing and exhibiting world wide. Her work is mostly in private collections with some pieces also in the permanent collection of the Kirkland Museum in Denver, Colorado.

In 2014 together with designer Shabnam Q, the 'Amanda Sage Collection' was launched online. An independent fashion label leading the frontier of visionary art and fashion. "Wearable visionary art, made with love from threads of light".

She is a co-founder of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art and is on the board of directors of CoSM (Chapel of Sacred Mirrors) Alex & Allyson Grey’s art sanctuary in New York. She has also pioneered painting retreats in Eco-Villages such as Paradise One, Byron Bay Australia and PuntaMona, Costa Rica.

When not traveling she can be found in one of her studios in Los Angeles, Vienna Austria or Gunnison Colorado.