Bruce Jay Ehrlich (February 26, 1948 – January 1, 2013), better known by his pen name Bruce Eisner, was an American writer,

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, and

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

spokesman mostly known for his book ''Ecstasy: The MDMA Story''.

Biography

Eisner was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. At age 2, he moved with his family to the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

near Los Angeles. His first publication was at age of sixteen, when he won an LA County-wide essay contest. The essay, "Democracy and What It Means to Me" was published in the Congressional Record by Congressman Ed Reinecke. Eisner attended San Fernando Valley State College (now known as

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

) where he was on the Deans List for his first two years of attendance. During his third year, he became an anti-Vietnam War activist and joined the Students for a Democratic Society. At the end of his third year, in 1969, he dropped out of college and moved to

Laguna Beach Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

which was then home base for Timothy Leary and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. In the fall of 1969, Eisner first went to Europe where he lived in the Netherlands and then traveled overland to India. In January 1970, Eisner returned to Los Angeles where he became a freelance journalist writing feature articles on topics focusing on LSD and the psychedelic consciousness movement for the

underground press The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

. He wrote articles for the ''

Los Angeles Free Press The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher unti ...

'' edited by

Art Kunkin Arthur Glick Kunkin (March 28, 1928 – April 30, 2019) was an American journalist, community organizer, machinist, and New Age esotericist best known as the founding publisher and editor of the ''Los Angeles Free Press''. Early life and educatio ...

, the '' L.A. Star'', and a variety of other small publications. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for ''

High Times ''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States, legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by ...

'' magazine and wrote a series of articles including "LSD Purity" and "Who Turned on Whom" with

Peter Stafford Peter Stafford (1941 – July 20, 2007) was an American writer and author of the ''Psychedelics Encyclopedia''. Stafford is also co-author with Bonnie Golightly of ''LSD: The Problem-solving Psychedelic,'' as well as other books on psychede ...

. Also in 1976, Eisner traveled to Europe where he met author

Michael Hollingshead Michael Hollingshead (?–1984?) was a British researcher who studied psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and LSD, at Harvard University in the mid-20th century. He was the father of comedian Vanessa Hollingshead. He evangelized the use of LS ...

in England and LSD-discoverer

Albert Hofmann Albert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) 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 synthesiz ...

in Basel, Switzerland. In 1977, Eisner moved from Los Angeles to

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

. There he became one of the leaders of a group of psychedelic movement activists. That group known as Linkage brought Albert Hofmann to UC Santa Cruz in 1977 for his first public lecture in the US at a conference called "LSD: A Generation Later." The conference was attended by both counterculture figures such as

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) 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. He was "a her ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

Ram Dass Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author. His best-selling 1971 book '' Be Here Now'', which has been d ...

Stephen Gaskin Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 – July 1, 2014) was an American counterculture Hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding " The Farm", a spiritual commune in 1970. H ...

, and

Ralph Metzner Ralph Metzner (May 18, 1936 – March 14, 2019) was a German-born American psychologist, writer and researcher, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later named ...

, as well as early psychedelic researchers including

Oscar Janiger Oscar Janiger (February 8, 1918 – August 14, 2001) was an experimental psychiatrist and a University of California Irvine psychiatrist and psychotherapist, best known for his LSD research, which lasted from 1954 to 1962. Early life Janiger was ...

, William McGlothlin,

Stanley Krippner Stanley Krippner (born October 4, 1932) is an American psychologist and parapsychologist. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1954 and M.A. (1957) and Ph.D. (1961) degrees from Northwestern University. From 1 ...

Claudio Naranjo Claudio Benjamín Naranjo Cohen (24 November 1932 – 12 July 2019) was a Chilean-born psychiatrist who is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He was one of the three successors named by Fritz Perls ( ...

and

Willis Harman Willis W. Harman (August 16, 1918 – January 30, 1997) was an American engineer, futurist, and author associated with the human potential movement. He was convinced that late industrial civilization faced a period of major cultural crisis which ...

. Eisner received his BA in psychology from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

in 1979. He moved to Goleta, California for two years and received his MA in psychology from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

. Eisner worked as a Teaching Assistant at U.C. Santa Barbara. In 1980, he became a contributing writer for '' Omni'' magazine. Eisner returned to Santa Cruz in 1981, and in 1982, moved into a home near Natural Bridges State Beach. He began working on his PhD in Psychology from

Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center Saybrook University is a private university in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1971 by Eleanor Camp Criswell and others. It offers postgraduate education with a focus on humanistic psychology. It features low residency, master's, and d ...

in 1982, but withdrew before completing a dissertation in 1988. In 1989, Eisner started a self-improvement software company called Mindware, which published a catalog of mind tool and personal development software programs called the Mindware Catalog until 1995. In 1990, Eisner started the Island Group, which produced salons that encouraged discussions surrounding the creation of a "psychedelic culture". The group was named after the 1962 ''

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

'' by

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

. The Island Group conceived and co-organized the 1992 "The Bridge: Linking the Past, Present and Future of Psychedelics" a two-day conference held at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Island also conceived and co-organized "Bicycle Day: Celebrating 50 Years of LSD" at the University of California Santa Cruz, in April 1993. Eisner created the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network in 1996, one of the first websites that provided a portal to other self-improvement and personal development websites. In 1998, Eisner transformed the Island Group into the Island Foundation—a

501 (c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit organization; however, the Foundation's exempt status was automatically revoked by the IRS after Eisner failed to file taxes for three consecutive years. In 2003, Eisner moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to be close to his mother, Irene, who died in 2009 at age 82.

Death

Bruce died on New Year's Day 2013 at his home in Las Vegas from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. He was working on his online book, ''Future Culture: How to Make New Memes to Change the World'', when he died.

References

Bibliography

Books

*''Ecstasy: The MDMA Story'' 1989. 1994 revised ed,

Ronin Publishing Ronin Publishing, Inc. is a small press in Berkeley, California, founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1985, which publishes books as tools for personal development, visionary alternatives, and expanded consciousness. The company's tagline is "Life ...

Articles

LSD Purity
By Bruce Eisner, publication: ''High Times'', 1977.

By Bruce Eisner, Original publication: ''Island Views'' Newsletter, 1995–1996.

By Bruce Eisner, Original publication: ''Island Views'' Newsletter, 2001.

By Bruce Eisner.

By Bruce Eisner published in ''Gaia News'' No. 14.

Fiction

By Bruce Eisner and Timothy Leary, 1996, published on New World Disorder, 2004.

Interviews conducted

By Bruce Eisner; Original Publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1997.

By Bruce Eisner with Peter Stafford, original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1997.

By Bruce Eisner original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1998.

By Bruce Eisner original publication: Psychedelic Island Views, 1996.

Interviews given

Original Publication: Cruzio.Com's Hawk Magazine; May 1996.

Lecture videos

LSD and Aldous Huxley’s Island: Setting Sail for a Better Country
International Symposium on LSD, Basel, Switzerland. January 2006
The History and Future of LSD
International Conference on Altered States, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 2001

External links

Island Web: Island Foundations website

Bruce Eisner's Profile on Amazon Author Connect

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisner, Bruce 1948 births 2013 deaths American psychology writers American male writers American male bloggers American bloggers Writers from California 21st-century American non-fiction writers