With gratitude, I acknowledge the primary mentors in my professional life: Huston Smith, Walter Houston Clark, Hanscarl Leuner, and Abraham Maslow, plus two whom I never had the honor to meet in person, Paul Tillich and Karl Jaspers.
Many colleagues have provided support over the years, sharing their own visions and dedication to fostering the responsible use of psychedelic substances. I especially acknowledge Charles Savage, Walter Pahnke, Stanislav Grof, Helen Bonny, Richard Yensen, and John Rhead from the days of research at the Spring Grove Hospital and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, and my current colleagues, Roland Griffiths, Mary Cosimano, Matthew Johnson, Margaret Kleindinst, Albert Garcia-Romeu, Frederick Barrett, Theresa Carbonaro, and Annie Umbricht from the States of Consciousness Research team at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Robert Jesse, convener of the Council on Spiritual Practices, merits special recognition for his many skillfully orchestrated contributions to the rebirth of scientific investigations with these sacred substances.
On a personal level, I am thankful for the steady support of my primary companion in this phase of my life, the artist Edna Kurtz Emmet, and her two adult children, Nadav and Danielle. I honor my own two sons, Daniel and Brian, and their mother, Ilse, who for two decades prior to her death not only was my wife, but often also served as the psychiatric nurse who worked beside me in the implementation of various projects of psychedelic research. I am grateful for my parents, Ruth and Robert Richards, and my two brothers, Robert and John, who, even when they were rather bewildered by what I found of importance in my academic pursuits, continued to trust me as I followed my unique life trajectory.
The brilliant new generation of psychedelic researchers inspires me, including Stephen Ross, Anthony Bossis, Jeffrey Guss, Michael Bogenschutz, Paul Hutson, Karen Cooper, Randall Brown, Peter Hendricks, Michael and Annie Mithoefer, James Grigsby, Franz Vollenweider, Torsten Passie, Jordi Riba, José Carlos Bouso, Peter Gasser, Peter Oehen, Robin Carhart-Harris, David Nutt, David Erritzoe, and many others. Also, I express my gratitude and indebtedness to those who have provided private funding in support of ongoing research through the Heffter Research Institute and the Council on Spiritual Practices, and also the Fetzer Institute, and the Betsy Gordon Foundation, Beckley Foundation, and Riverstyx Foundation.
With profound appreciation, I recognize the hundreds of research volunteers and psychotherapy clients who have invited me into the depths of their lives and shared their unique struggles and transformative experiences. Each of them has influenced my life and thought.
There are many inspiring and innovative friends and companions in the steadily expanding psychedelic research community who contribute in their own ways. Luis Eduardo Luna, James Fadiman, Thomas Roberts, Charles Grob, Alicia Danforth, Rick Doblin, Neal Goldsmith, Iker Puente, Ben Sessa, David Nichols, George Greer, Dennis McKenna, Julie Holland, Amanda Feilding, Gabor Maté, Joshua Wickerham, and my son, Brian Richards, immediately come to mind. Authors who have combined scholarship and courageous creativity, such as Jeremy Narby, Michael Pollan, and Simon Powell, deserve explicit appreciation. Bimonthly lunches with my friend Allan Gold, complete with sushi or Nepalese cuisine, also have been enriching. My late friend Wayne Teasdale, who loved to meditate more than anyone I have ever met, merits special acknowledgment. And to Wendy Lochner, my editor from Columbia University Press, who intuited that I had a book within me that needed birthing and who has provided skilled guidance in its formation and composition, I offer profound appreciation. With her encouragement I have endeavored to write in a style that will be comprehensible to a wide readership, rather than to address the book in a traditional academic format to professional colleagues in either the mental health or religious communities.
Finally, since this book is about encountering the sacred and the discovery of eternal realms in consciousness, it also is appropriate to acknowledge that creative source that brought all of us into being, sustains our lives, and perhaps takes delight in the adventures of our ideas and our continuing evolution, here and now.