2025 Garden States Contributors
More to be announced soon!
Featured
Kathleen Harrison, MA, is an independent scholar and teacher of ethnobotany. She focuses particularly on the way that various native cultures perceive nature, and how they exhibit that in story, ritual and healing. Psychedelic plant and mushroom rituals are part of that relationship to nature.Since the 1970s, she has done recurrent fieldwork in Mesoamerica, the Amazon Basin, the West Coast subcultures, and Pacific islands, and is a published author and photographer. She is the president of Botanical Dimensions, a non-profit organization, which she founded with her former husband, Terence McKenna.
Mike Jay is an author and historian who has written widely on the history of science and medicine, particularly on the mind, consciousness and psychoactive drugs. His books include High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture (2010), Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic (2019), and Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind (2023).
Alison is an ecologist and professional environmental photographer who has worked with fungi for three decades. She is actively involved in teaching, research and conservation, but is mostly in the undergrowth among fungi.
Neil Logan is a researcher, educator, and land steward specialising in medicinal and entheogenic plants, with a focus on taxonomic enigmas and ethnobotanical mysteries. Drawing inspiration from the cultural and ecological wisdom shared with him through decades of research and travel,
Graham St John, PhD, is a vibeologist specialising in the anthropology of transformational events, movements, and figures. Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press) is the latest among his books, which include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT, Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance, and FreeNRG: Notes from the Edge of the Dancefloor (Commonground, 2001).
Scott is an author, academic, teacher, student of the “Ageless Wisdom”, storyteller, scientist, founding director of the Cetacean Studies Institute, expert on Dolphin-Assisted Therapy, Permaculture designer and teacher, alternative architecture builder, lightshow artist, workshop leader, lifelong animal lover and activist, father, ex-pat American now proudly Australian citizen, and psychonaut.
Mark Pesce co-invented the technology for 3D on the Web - laying the foundations for the metaverse - has written ten books, including "Getting Started with ChatGPT and AI Chatbots", was for seven years a judge on the ABC's hit series The New Inventors, founded postgraduate programs at the University of Southern California and the Australian Film Television and Radio School, holds an honorary appointment at Sydney University, is a multiple-award-winning columnist for The Register, writes features for COSMOS Magazine, and is professional futurist and public speaker. Pesce hosts the award-winning 'The Next Billion Seconds' podcast, and recently released the highly-praised, award-nominated series “A Brief History of the Metaverse”.
Harry Pack is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores altered states of consciousness, expanded perception, and the subtle architecture of the mind. Through a dynamic practice encompassing painting, illustration, and digital media, he investigates the intersection between psychedelic experience and the inner psychological landscape, using art as a vehicle to explore reality.
Uncle Mark Brown is a proud Gunditjmara man through his mother's lineage and a Bunurong man through his father's side. Artistry has been an integral part of Uncle Mark's life since childhood, having wielded a pencil as soon as he could grasp one.
Artistry has been an integral part of Uncle Mark's life since childhood, having wielded a pencil as soon as he could grasp one.
Associate Professor Monica Barratt is a drug policy scholar at RMIT University. Her work aims to make unregulated drugs safer through policy reforms and on-ground responses. Monica has published over 130 academic research papers and attracted over $6M competitive funding, including from the National Health and Medical Research Council, most recent being awarded a competitive Investigator Grant fellowship. She is the National Research Lead for The Loop Australia, a charity that delivers drug checking services in Queensland and Victoria.
Nen has inadvertently become one of, if not the, longest active and most experienced acacia researchers in entheogen and cross-cultural fields, having first found tryptamines in a previously unknown species in 1992, as a Psychology graduate. The avatar name Nen was launched in 2011 to promote internet harm reduction in plant medicines and to encourage the sustainable cultivation of the trees.
Martin Williams, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University. Martin’s research background is in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology, and he is Executive Director of Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine (PRISM) and Vice-President of Entheogenesis Australis (EGA). Martin has been a co-investigator on a number of Australian clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, including the St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne study of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in palliative care; the Monash PsiConnect neuroimaging study of psilocybin with mindfulness meditation; the Swinburne PsiloDep pilot study; and several other studies of psilocybin, MDMA and other psychedelics for the treatment of a range of mental health conditions.
Alex K. Gearin (PhD) is a cultural anthropologist specialising in the intersections of mental health, neo-shamanism, and psychedelics. Much of his research has focused on ayahuasca, including for his recent book Global Ayahuasca: Wondrous Visions and Modern Worlds (Stanford University Press, 2024). The book explores how the emotional and sensory dimensions of ayahuasca practices intersect with modernity and globalisation, based on ethnographic research on the ground in Australia, Peru, and China.
Kayla Greenstien is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney, researching the use of touch and theoretical underpinnings of psychedelic-assisted therapies.
Caine Barlow is a Fungi Educator and Mycologist based in Melbourne, Australia. He gives regular talks on mycology, fungi conservation, and teaches gourmet mushroom cultivation. He works closely with the Australian organisation Entheogenesis Australis, and is a co-founder of US-based organisation The Entheome Foundation. Caine is also a mentor for Milkwood Permaculture for their online Mushroom Cultivation course.
Dr Stephen Bright is a clinically trained psychologist who has worked in the field for more than 20 years. He has been the chief principal investigator of multisite clinical trials and has published research on psychedelics, microdosing, psychometrics and drug policy. Currently, Stephen is the principal investigator on a trial investigating MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an associate investigator of a trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression, for which he is also the lead therapist. Stephen supervises PhD and Master’s students’ research at Edith Cowan University, where he teaches counselling skills and psychopharmacology. Dr Bright has given expert testimony to parliamentary inquests and court hearings. He was awarded Edith Cowan University’s Most Prolific Conversation Author in 2018 and 2019.
As the President of the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, Nimbin Mardigrass and the Legalise Cannabis Party, Michael Balderstone has been a dedicated advocate for cannabis law reform for decades. He is a highly prominent and long-standing figure in the Australian cannabis law reform movement. Through his activism and leadership, he has tirelessly championed harm reduction, education and sustainable cannabis policy reform. He’s also been a strong supporter of community initiatives and local events, bringing people together to share knowledge and challenge stigma.
Determined to find a way back to full health, driven by her love of her children, Vanessa Kelly began her journey. She began researching and experimenting with psychedelic medicines. Her enquiries led her to a Bwiti Tribe, in the deepest jungle of Gabon in Central Western Africa. After many years of trying, she made her way into the Jungle, where she experienced healing, on an impossible level.
Whilst in the village, Vanessa healed with Iboga and adopted a series of principles from the Bwiti teachings, that have given her a toolkit for managing her life.
Mohammed Reza Mirzadeh has come from a horticulture background. He spent almost all his working life (over thirty years) in the mushroom industry, mainly in Iran and Australia, holding positions in production, QA, and farm management. In the last twenty years, parallel to his positions within the industry, he has been conducting workshops and mushroom courses discussing compost/substrate production and growing methods for Agaricus and various Oyster mushrooms.
Torsten Wiedemann is a consultant on legal issues relating to plant drugs and new psychoactive substances in Australia. His background in ethnopharmacology and decades of work in drug law reform provide a comprehensive insight into the Australian legal landscape on plant medicines.
Simon Beck is a medical doctor, harm reduction educator and drug policy reform advocate. He is the secretary of the Australian Psychedelic Society. He has had an interest in mushroom identification for over a decade. He is interested in the clinical use of psychedelics and is also passionate about decriminalisation.
Adrienne was raised in Ipswich, Queensland, where she grew up on a single-parent family farm alongside her mother and Filipino grandparents. From a young age, she learned about tropical and sub-tropical plants through everyday experience, helping to care for fruit trees, orchids, and a range of other sub/tropical species. This early exposure fostered a quiet but steady interest in horticulture, particularly in plants valued within her family’s heritage.
Samuel Douglas is a philosopher, writer, and former non-profit leader whose work sits at the crossroads of psychedelic ethics, political disillusionment, and attempted satire. He holds a PhD in philosophy and spent 15 years teaching critical thinking and professional ethics at the University of Newcastle before mostly stepping away from academia. Since then, he’s worked as a freelance writer and editor for a range of psychedelic organisations and publications, including Third Wave, Psychedelics Today, and Wakeful Travel.
Jessica Moulynox from Backyard Botany Australia is a qualified Ethnobotanist with over 20 years of experience identifying and utilising Australian native edible plants. During this workshop, she will explain the importance of connecting people to these plants and the importance in using native edible and medicinal plants in your garden.
Nick Sun is the current individuated ego expression of 5th dimensional consciousness incarnating within a 3rd dimensional flesh suit in order to navigate this simulation often mistaken as life on Earth. After emerging from his mother’s womb amidst loud protests sometime in the late 20th century, he was cast upon this Earth in the prerequisite state of spiritual amnesia. In this state, he began performing standup comedy around the world, winning many prestigious competitions (Triple J Raw Comedy, UK's So You Think You're Funny, Director's Choice Award) and appearing on various television programs.
Snu Voogelbreinder is an independent ethnobotanical researcher and writer with a deep love of nature. His work brings together academic scholarship and esoteric knowledge, exploring the intersection of consciousness, culture, and psychoactive species.
He is the author of Garden of Eden: The Shamanic Use of Psychoactive Flora and Fauna, and the Study of Consciousness (2009), a comprehensive 500-page reference covering thousands of plant and animal species used in traditional and shamanic practices.
Lee Miles, PhD, is a biologist and geneticist, who has an inquisitive nature that drives a passion for understanding the inner workings of various biological processes and sharing this knowledge with others. He is passionate about decriminalisation and has had an interest in education around roadside saliva testing.
Sianna-Rose ‘Pixie’ Miller is the founder of Psychedelically Aware, a harm minimisation group, and The PATCH – The Psychedelically Aware Talking Circle Hub. Having studied psychology and health science with a focus on neuroscience, she possesses a comprehensive understanding of how entheogens impact both the body and mind. Pixie is passionate about research and the potential therapeutic applications of entheogens. Currently, her pursuit of harm minimisation through Psychedelically Aware and The PATCH has led to ongoing community discussions and education.
Jef Baker is a committee member of The Australian Psychedelic Society (APS) and the Sydney Chapter Lead. With a long-standing interest in psychoactive plants and compounds, Jef completed an Honours thesis examining the philosophy of Deep Ecology within Ayahuasca discourse at SCU in 2015.
Associate Professor Petra Skeffington is a Clinical Psychologist in Private Practice, and an academic at Murdoch University in Perth. Her research and clinical expertise centres on psychological trauma and recovery, including resilience to trauma, prevention of post-trauma pathologies, and innovative approaches to treating psychological trauma.