Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin is a pharmacologist and chemist who has synthesized and bioassayed hundreds of psychoactive compounds. He wrote the book Controlled Substances: A Chemical & Legal Guide to Federal Drug Laws, and along with his wife Ann, he co-authored the books PIHKAL and TIHKAL. His most recent tome is the reference book The Simple Plant Isoquinolines, co-authored with Wendy E. Perry. He is currently working on his next book, The Psychedelic Index, similar in format to The Merck Index. This work will catalog compounds that are psychedelic, that may be psychedelic, or that are interesting to study, and will contain the chemical structure, an outline of the synthesis, and the physical, biological, and chemical properties, and the legal status for each chemical and its analogues, homologues, and isomers..

For a time, while they were still legal, Ann worked with empathogens such as MDMA and 2C-B as a lay therapist. Her unique insight into the beneficial effects that these and similar compounds can have is invaluable. With her husband Sasha, she has co-authored the books Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story (PIHKAL) and the sequel, Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved: The Continuation (TIHKAL).

Alex Grey's visionary art focuses on the multiple layers of reality, revealing the complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. His paintings have been featured on the cover of albums by the Beastie Boys and Tool, in Newsweek magazine, on the Discovery Channel, rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid, and have been exhibited throughout the world. His books include "Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey", his philosophical text, "The Mission of Art", and "Transfigurations".

Allyson is a visionary artist who combines the elements of chaos, order, and a secret writing into her abstract sacred geometry. She has BA and MA degrees in Fine Arts, and has exhibited solo shows at Stux Gallery and O.K. Harris Gallery in NYC, among others. Commissions of permanent public works include a 24-foor mural at the First Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts, and her paintings are collected by corporations and individuals. Along with her husband Alex, Allyson co-founded the New York-based Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, which acts as a cultural hub for the entheogenic community. See http://www.cosm.org.

Clinical Toxicologist, M.D., PhD, works at Harvard's Children's Hospital in the emergency department and trains toxicologists to work in Poison Control centers around the U.S.

Erik Davis is a cultural critic, independent scholar, and the author of "The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape" and "Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information".

Ann Harrison is a freelance journalist specializing in drug war and women's issues and the founder of the Women's Entheogen Fund and Women's Visionary Congress.

Ramez Naam is the author of the book "More Than Human", a look at the future interaction between humans and technology, life extension, brain and sensory enhancement and the like.

Matt has worked in psychoactive research for over a decade and is part of a NIDA-funded center in San Francisco. He is nearing completion in a neuroscience PhD from Berkeley and has been working on textual analysis of Erowid's Experience Vaults.

Clinical psychologist and senior lecturer of neurobiology at UC Berkeley, teaches a popular course on drugs and the brain to undergraduate students. In addition to his 17 years teaching at U.C. Berkeley, Presti worked for many years in the clinical treatment of drug addiction. He has also taught neuroscience to Tibetan monks in India.

Dale Pendell is a linguistic alchemist, longtime student of ethnobotany, and author of the "Pharmako" trilogy, "Living with Barbarians", and the Burning Man exposé "Inspired Madness". He has spoken at events produced by Naropa Institute, the Botanical Preservation Corps, Mind States, Palenque Norte, and in numerous literary nooks. He is also a tree gardener and proponent of horizon anarchy.

Born in Canada and classically trained from the age of eight, Zoë later took lessons at the Eastman School of Music in New York and then obtained a liberal arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College. She developed her signature style improvising for late night crowds in her San Francisco warehouse space. Her album "One Cello x 16: Natoma", which rose to #2 on the iTunes Classical and Electronica charts, is the direct result of that experimentation. Comfortably inhabiting her own territory somewhere between classical minimalism, experimental electronica and steam-punk, Keating's works have been called luminous, haunting and "the perfect music for apocalyptic landscapes".

Vibrata's paintings and digital art includes elements of symmetry and rhythmic patterning, geometry, and the use of beguiling perceptual distortions. Born in Canada, Vibrata graduated from Lakehead University's Fine Arts program in Ontario in 1992 and has been living in San Francisco since 1999, exhibiting her art in numerous venues, participating in multimedia events, and working on commission. She is a member of YLEM: Artists Using Science and Technology, a longtime member of the Rhythm Society (an intentional community focused on spiritual experience through dance), and a veteran of the Burning Man Festival, where she produced the Wind Oracle installation in 2003, and a centerpiece stained glass window for the Conexus Cathedral in 2006.

Mark McCloud is an artist and ex-art professor who for nearly three decades has been collecting the perforated blotter art used to distribute LSD. He has acted as a curator for numerous exhibits, showing parts of his collection (likely the world's largest), and has won two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Due to his collection of unique American Folk Art, McCloud has been arrested and acquitted twice--once in 1992 and once in 2001.

Katherine Rochlin-Fenster and Edward Fenster have sponsored several successful Erowid matching donation campaigns. Edward is on the Erowid Board of Directors and works in clean-energy technology; Katherine works in historic restoration. Katherine is the reason this event is happening; she wanted to put a party together to meet other people who might be interested in supporting Erowid Center as it begins its life as a non-profit.

Jon Hanna is an editor, author, and conference organizer, best known for his work on the Mind States conference series. Jon has recently started working with Erowid Center and is, along with Katherine, the reason this event is able to occur.