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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...

Into the Myst
Technoculture
Into the Myst
Myst: The Miller Brothers' Virtual Tale

Frisbee. The Man
Moving Pictures
Frisbee. The Man
The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher

The Astral Hustle
Media
The Astral Hustle
With Cory Allen

Monsters of Techno
Burning Shore
13 min
Monsters of Techno

From the Archives

Nina Nastasia and Jim White
Music
Nina Nastasia and Jim White
Listening to musicians listening

On the Buddha Trail
Religions and Spirits
On the Buddha Trail
Spiritual tourism in India

Explore the Expanding Mind archive
Expanding Mind Podcast
Explore the Expanding Mind archive
A Decade's Worth of Weirdness

Au revoir La Contessa
Subcultures
Au revoir La Contessa
Burning Man's Spanish Galleon on a Bus

Documenting Divinorum
Expanding Mind Podcast
Documenting Divinorum
Expanding Mind

Chaos Magic Flashbacks
Expanding Mind Podcast
Chaos Magic Flashbacks
Expanding Mind

Vegas Baby
Diary
Vegas Baby
Broken Dream Machines

The Imagination is What We Are
Media
The Imagination is What We Are
Beneath the Teaching Tree

Sampling Paradise
Music
23 min
Sampling Paradise
The Technofreak Legacy of Golden Goa

On the Road 2
Diary
On the Road 2
Rome's great pagan building

Convivial Chaos
Expanding Mind Podcast
Convivial Chaos
Expanding Mind

Shots of Awe Interview
Media
Shots of Awe Interview

Techgnosis in the Age of Experience Design