Chief Scientist, BIOTA Institute and Associate Researcher, UC Santa Cruz Department of Biomolecular
Engineering

To achieve breakthroughs in his work in science and technology Dr. Bruce Damer has long practiced a
style of visionary thought experiment. After meeting and collaborating with Terence McKenna in the late 1990s he became intrigued with how an admixture of psychoactive compounds might supercharge the mind’s natural capacity to dream up extraordinary ideas. Two decades of testing this hypothesis has both reshaped his own mind and drawn out novel scientific and engineering ideas, including an end-to-end hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth and spacecraft design to give us (and life) a sustainable path out into the cosmos. He hopes to bring some of these discoveries and practices to the wider world to help humanity meet complex challenges in our near future.

In his spare time, he curates a large collection of the history of computing together with artifacts from
fifty years of psychedelia from Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna and others. Dr. Bruce enjoys a fine
home life with his wife Kathryn Lukas, three cats and one adorable chihuahua in their Gandalf-
inspired house high up in the Santa Cruz redwoods of Northern California.

Relevant Links:

Personal website: www.damer.com

BIOTA Institute: www.biota.org

Bonus:

Join Marc Caron and Stephen Gray as they speak with Dr. Bruce Damer before the 2020 conference., one of this years speakers at the Virtual Spirit Plant Medicine Conference.

“Waking up in the Field: Contacting the Metta-Intelligence”