An Evolution: The Professor Gets Truly Psychedelic

When I started using the term "psychedelic professor" related to my work, it caused quite a bit of confusion amongst my colleagues and friends. Knowing that I was interested in psychedelic substances, they assumed that I was delving deeper into altered states. But no, I insisted on sticking with what I knew: higher education.

Well, over the past year it has become clear to me that I've been kidding myself. While I'll still continue to champion faculty wellbeing and believe in the transformative power of excellent teaching, I'm shifting my research focus from higher education to attend to my first loves: altered states of consciousness, the ineffable mysteries of the human experience, and leadership.

I'm ready to let my freak flag TRULY fly.

My interest in transpersonal psychology and psychedelics isn't really "new" though: as a child, I would haunt the local library, looking for books to fulfill something I knew was missing from my education and family life. In addition to A LOT of mysteries (Agatha Christie, looking at you, girl), the books I checked out were usually related to self-help (ya, a 12-year old reading self-help, bless her), world religions, and writing. After school, I'd make my friends play school with me (I was the teacher, obviously) or "office" (guess who was "the boss"...not Tony Danza).

In university, I studied English Literature, but if you look at my transcripts, you'll see a certificate in writing and may notice that all of my electives were in Psychology. It's possible that I experimented with altering my consciousness at little, as well.

It feels to me like it's time to let the "Psychedelic Researcher and Leader" part of me bloom, alongside the "Teacher and Faculty Developer" part. The seeds for both were planted long ago.

Life has a funny way of unfolding, don't you think? If you told me I'd be living in California, studying psychedelics for a living, teaching students how to think and write, my 15-year old self would be pretty thrilled. My 48-year old Self is pretty happy about it too.

So, the blog will evolve, as we all must. From now on, I'll share thoughts about my research journey, current topics in psychedelics, leadership, and education. I'm currently studying Psychedelics, Altered States, and Transpersonal Psychology at the Alef Trust, with a plan to complete a PhD in the next few years.

The Psychedelic Professor is here to serve, to love, to grow, to connect.

Thanks for walking home with me.