James Fadiman | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York | May 27, 1939
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Researcher, author, lecturer |
Spouse | Dorothy Fadiman |
Relatives | William Fadiman (father) Vera Racolin (mother) Anne Fadiman (first cousin) Clifton Fadiman (uncle) William James Sidis (first cousin once removed) |
James Fadiman (born May 27, 1939) is an American writer known for his research on microdosing psychedelics. He co-founded the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which later became Sofia University.
Fadiman was born in New York City to a Jewish family and grew up in Bel Air. His father, William Fadiman, was a producer, story editor, [1] [2] and book reviewer in Hollywood, [3] one of his credits being The Last Frontier . [1] [3] [2] His mother, Vera Racolin, was a socialite, former model, and philanthropist known for her charitable support of numerous causes, including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Rescue League, and the Boys & Girls Club. [4] [5] [6] Both his paternal grandparents, Isadore and Grace Fadiman, and his maternal grandparents, Mandel and Natalie (Natasha) Racolin, were Russian Jewish immigrants who settled in New York City near the turn of the 20th century. [7] [8] [9] [10]
Fadiman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a Master's degree and a doctorate (both in psychology) from Stanford University, the PhD in 1965. [11] While in Paris in 1961, his friend and former Harvard undergraduate adviser Ram Dass (then known as Richard Alpert) introduced him to psilocybin. [12] [13] [14]
As a graduate student at Stanford, Fadiman was Stewart Brand's LSD guide on Brand's first LSD trip in 1962, at Myron Stolaroff's International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park, California. [12] [15] [16] [17] While living in Menlo Park, Fadiman and his wife were Ken Kesey's Perry Lane neighbors and friends. [16] [18] [19]
In 1963, Fadiman worked at Stanford's Augmentation Research Center, a division that did research on networked computing. [17] He was also part of the team in the psychedelics in problem-solving experiment at the International Foundation for Advanced Study, which was abruptly halted in 1966. [12] [20]
Fadiman is a proponent of microdosing [21] and collects anecdotal reports from those who practice it.
Fadiman and Robert Frager cofounded the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now known as Sofia University) in 1975. [22] [23] He was a lecturer in psychedelic studies there. [24] [23]
Fadiman was a president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. [25] He was also a director at the Institute of Noetic Sciences from 1975 to 1977. [23]
In 1976, Fadiman and Frager published a textbook on personality theory, Personality and Personal Growth, which was one of the first to incorporate Eastern theories of personality alongside Western approaches and the first of its kind to include chapters on women. [23] [26] Personality and Personal Growth has been republished in seven editions as of 2012. [26]
Fadiman is married to documentary filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman [19] [22] and is the father of arts educator Renee Fadiman [27] and Florida Atlantic University professor Maria Fadiman. His uncle was Clifton Fadiman, [3] [19] and he is a cousin of Anne Fadiman. [3] His brother, Jeffrey A. Fadiman, is a professor of international marketing at San José State University and a language and area specialist of Eastern and Southern Africa, with published work on the Meru tribe of Mount Kenya. [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
Fadiman is the first cousin once removed of child prodigy William James Sidis. Sidis was the son of Sarah Sidis (née Mandelbaum), who was the sister of Fadiman's paternal grandmother, Grace Fadiman (née Mandelbaum). [33]
He was also featured in the first episode of the 2022 Netflix documentary series How to Change Your Mind .
Ken Elton Kesey was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. According to poet Allen Ginsberg, he was "a hero of American consciousness", and writer Tom Robbins called him a "brave neuronaut". During the 1960s and 1970s, Leary was arrested 36 times. President Richard Nixon described him as "the most dangerous man in America".
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states and an apparent expansion of consciousness. Also referred to as classic hallucinogens or serotonergic hallucinogens, the term psychedelic is sometimes used more broadly to include various types of hallucinogens, such as those which are atypical or adjacent to psychedelia like salvia and MDMA, respectively. This article makes use of the narrower classical definition of psychedelics. Classic psychedelics generally cause specific psychological, visual, and auditory changes, and oftentimes a substantially altered state of consciousness. They have had the largest influence on science and culture, and include mescaline, LSD, psilocybin, and DMT.
Ram Dass, also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and writer. His best-selling 1971 book Be Here Now, which has been described by multiple reviewers as "seminal", helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West. He authored or co-authored twelve more books on spirituality over the next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013).
An altered state of consciousness (ASC), also called an altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. By 1892, the expression was in use in relation to hypnosis, though there is an ongoing debate as to whether hypnosis is to be identified as an ASC according to its modern definition. The next retrievable instance, by Max Mailhouse from his 1904 presentation to conference, however, is unequivocally identified as such, as it was in relation to epilepsy, and is still used today. In academia, the expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart. It describes induced changes in one's mental state, almost always temporary. A synonymous phrase is "altered state of awareness".
The Merry Pranksters were followers of American author Ken Kesey. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called Furthur, organizing parties, and giving out LSD. During this time they met many of the guiding lights of the 1960s cultural movement and presaged what are commonly thought of as hippies with odd behavior, tie-dyed and red, white, and blue clothing, and renunciation of normal society, which they dubbed The Establishment. Tom Wolfe chronicled their early escapades in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and documents a 1966 trip on Furthur from Mexico through Houston, stopping to visit Kesey's friend the novelist Larry McMurtry. Kesey was in flight from a drug charge at the time.
Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is an area of psychology that seeks to integrate the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience within the framework of modern psychology.
Stanislav "Stan" Grof is a Czech-born psychiatrist who has been living in the United States since the 1960s. Grof is one of the principal developers of transpersonal psychology and research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of psychological healing, deep self-exploration, and obtaining growth and insights into the human psyche. In 1993, Grof received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology, given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held in Asilomar, California. He also received the VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Václav Havel in Prague on October 5, 2007. In 2010, he received the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH). On the other hand, Grof has been criticized by the skeptic group Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos in the Czech Republic for furthering what they view as nonscientific psychology too far outside the bounds of the materialistic philosophical underpinnings of modern science. He is the only person to have been awarded the anti-prize Erratic Boulder Award twice in that country. Grof was married to psychologist Brigitte Grof in 2016.
The psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. It was not until five years later on April 19, 1943, that the psychedelic properties were found.
A psychedelic experience is a temporary altered state of consciousness induced by the consumption of a psychedelic substance. For example, an acid trip is a psychedelic experience brought on by the use of LSD, while a mushroom trip is a psychedelic experience brought on by the use of psilocybin. Psychedelic experiences feature alterations in normal perception such as visual distortions and a subjective loss of self-identity, sometimes interpreted as mystical experiences. Psychedelic experiences lack predictability, as they can range from being highly pleasurable to frightening. The outcome of a psychedelic experience is heavily influenced by the person's mood, personality, expectations, and environment.
Myron J. Stolaroff was an author and researcher who is best known for his studies involving psychedelic psychotherapy. He also conducted clinical studies that attempted to measure the effects of LSD, mescaline, and other drugs on creativity.
The transpersonal is a term used by different schools of philosophy and psychology in order to describe experiences and worldviews that extend beyond the personal level of the psyche, and beyond mundane worldly events.
Boris Sidis was a Ukrainian-American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of child prodigy William James Sidis. Boris Sidis eventually opposed mainstream psychology and Sigmund Freud, and thereby died ostracized. He was married to a maternal aunt of Clifton Fadiman, the American intellectual.
Sofia University is a private for-profit university with two campuses in California, one in Costa Mesa and the other in Palo Alto. It was originally founded as the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology by Robert Frager and James Fadiman in 1975.
Ken Babbs is a famous Merry Prankster who became one of the psychedelic leaders of the 1960s. He along with best friend and Prankster leader, Ken Kesey, wrote the book Last Go Round. Babbs is best known for his participation in the Acid Tests and on the bus Furthur.
Richard Theodore Tarnas is a cultural historian and astrologer known for his books The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View and Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. Tarnas is professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is the founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness.
The Beckley Foundation is a UK-based think tank and UN-accredited NGO, dedicated to activating global drug policy reform and initiating scientific research into psychoactive substances. The foundation is a charitable trust which collaborates with leading scientific and political institutions worldwide to design and develop research and global policy initiatives. It also investigates consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective, working in collaboration with scientists. The foundation is based at Beckley Park near Oxford, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1998, and is directed by Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss.
Robert Frager is an American social psychologist responsible for establishing America's first educational institution dedicated to transpersonal psychology. Frager is known for founding the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, now called Sofia University, in Palo Alto, California, where he currently holds the position of director of the low residency Master of Arts in Spiritual Guidance program and professor of psychology. Frager has previously acted as president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology as well as a consultant, educator and a spiritual teacher in the Sufi tradition.
Albert Hofmann was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesized the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including LSD: Mein Sorgenkind. In 2007, he shared first place with Tim Berners-Lee on a list of the 100 greatest living geniuses published by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (JTP) is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed academic journal which is published by the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP). The journal is a seminal publication in the field of transpersonal psychology. According to sources the journal is addressing the interface between psychology and spirituality, and the area of spirituality as a legitimate topic for academic studies.