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TechGnosis

The work of Erik Davis

Erik Davis is an American writer, scholar, journalist, and public speaker whose writings range from rock criticism to cultural analysis to esoteric explorations of California’s history.

I’ve been publishing stuff for over three decades, and most of it—with the exception of my books—resides on this site, which I have maintained through various iterations since the late 1990s. With Burning Shore now disseminating my fresher communiqués, Techgnosis.com acts more than ever as an archive of my work, including lectures, interviews, personal reflections, and almost a decade of the Expanding Mind podcast. Like Techgnosis itself, still in print and more relevant than ever, my stuff combines deep research with vivid writing and oracular aims that resonate through the years. For this revamped trans-temporal site, I and my team have introduced more robust searching and cross-linking of materials, as well as a roll-the-dice feature, which will hopefully allow for richer, more entertaining, and more synchronistic wanders through this wunderkammer.  — Erik

  • Books

    Blotter

    The Untold Story of an Acid Medium

    The Untold Story of an Acid Medium

    Blotter by Erik Davis is the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper, the iconic drug delivery device that will perhaps forever be linked to underground psychedelic culture and contemporary street art. Created in collaboration with Mark McCloud’s Institute of Illegal Images, the world’s largest archive of blotter art, Davis’s boldly illustrated exhibition treats his outsider subject with the serious, art-historical respect it deserves...

Future Design Science
Expanding Mind Podcast
Future Design Science
Expanding Mind

Shots of Awe Interview
Media
Shots of Awe Interview

Techgnosis in the Age of Experience Design

Gnosis Now! talk 1
Media
Gnosis Now! talk 1
The Gospels of Thomas and Philip

Cognitive Liberty
Expanding Mind Podcast
Cognitive Liberty
Expanding Mind

The Wandering Sufi
Religions and Spirits
The Wandering Sufi
Into the Mystic with Peter Lamborn Wilson

Visionary Art
Art and Design
Visionary Art
The Vanguard of Tradition

Prestigious Demons I
Esoterica, Scholarship
Prestigious Demons I
The Disappearing Member

Klingon Like Me
Subcultures
Klingon Like Me
Travels into the Dark Side of Trekkerdom

The Next Billion Seconds
Media
The Next Billion Seconds
The Next Billion Seconds podcast

Cosmic Domes
Expanding Mind Podcast
Cosmic Domes
Expanding Mind

Lucifer Revising
Expanding Mind Podcast
Lucifer Revising
Expanding Mind

Tracking the Wild
Expanding Mind Podcast
Tracking the Wild
Expanding Mind

The Notebooks of Lance Daybreak
Religions and Spirits, Technoculture
The Notebooks of Lance Daybreak
Shards of the Diamond Matrix

Psychedelics and Dying
Expanding Mind Podcast
Psychedelics and Dying
Expanding Mind

Cocksucker Blues
Moving Pictures
Cocksucker Blues
Robert Frank's Rolling Stones slop-doc

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Moving Pictures
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
The hottest media meme/kiddie-toy infection of the mid-1990s