Gregory Sams (born 1948 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) is a UK-based, American-born,

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...

artist, author and publisher.

Life and works

Greg has been a wheelchair user since falling from a tree whilst a freshman at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, Berkeley. Greg moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and, aged 19, then subsequently opened SEED, a macrobiotic restaurant in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

with his brother Craig Sams in 1968. SEED Restaurant soon became popular with the 1960s London psychedelic scene, and was frequented by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

among others, who drew a cartoon about his experiences at SEED. The Sams brothers opened a specialised macrobiotic foodshop, Ceres Grain, the following year. To spread the word about Ceres and SEED, Greg published three editions of a specialised magazine called 'Harmony'. During the 1970s, Greg, his brother Craig and their father Ken edited and published a magazine called 'Seed, the Journal of Organic Living' over a seven-year period. In 1970 Greg and Craig set up Harmony Foods, which eventually became known as Whole Earth Foods. In 1982, Greg invented the first commercially produced

veggie burger A veggie burger or meatless burger is a hamburger made with a patty that does not contain meat, or the patty of such a hamburger. The patty may be made from ingredients like beans (especially soybeans and tofu), nut (fruit), nuts, grains, seeds ...

, which he christened VegeBurger and went on to become a worldwide success after the word “veggie” started entering the

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

in the late 1970s. In 1982, Greg left Whole Earth Foods with his brother who went on to become chairperson of the

Soil Association The Soil Association is a British registered charity focused on the effect of agriculture on the environment. It was established in 1946. Their activities include campaigning for local purchasing, public education on nutrition and certificat ...

, and develop Green & Blacks organic chocolate with his partner. In 1990, Sams opened Strange Attractions in London, the only shop in the world dedicated to

chaos theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of Scientific method, scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and Deterministic system, deterministic Scientific law, laws of dynamical systems that are highly sens ...

. He became known for his

fractal art Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still digital images, animations, and Algorithmic composition, media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards. ...

, his designs adorning postcards, t-shirts and textiles all over the world. \\ An enthusiast of the

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''. Ho ...

movement, such as the

non-violent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

direct action Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...

street reclaiming events in the UK and elsewhere such as Reclaim the Streets, Sams began writing books that were promoted at these events, as well as during various

trance music Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from Electronic body music, EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe. Trance music is typically characterized by a tempo between ...

, psytrance and

acid techno Acid techno, sometimes known generally as "acid", is a genre of techno that was derived from acid house and developed in Europe in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It saw younger artists apply the "squelching" synthesizer sound of Chicago acid hou ...

raves and

free parties A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the Free festival, free festival movement. It typically involves a Sound system (DJ)#Free party, sound system playing electronic dance music from late at ...

around the UK. ''Uncommon Sense - the State is Out of Date'' was published in 1998 in which he put forward his views on the importance of

in the way we live - and should live - our lives. In 2006 he completed a new book, ''Sun of gOd - Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness That Underlies Everything''. Sams has been a regular on the world music festival scene since he provided the macrobiotic catering at the first

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

, known as Glastonbury Fair in 1971. A regular of events such as Pendragon at the now defunct Tyssen Street Theatre Factory, he still travels to music festivals, solar eclipses, and festivals such as The Glade. He was interviewed on the ''Liquid Crystal Vision'' film which has been viewed at many festivals.

Books

*''The State is Out of Date, We Can do it Better'', 4th edition 2014, *''Sun of gOd - Discover the Self-Organizing Consciousness That Underlies Everything'' Spring 2009,

Weiser Books Red Wheel/Weiser, also known in different periods in its history as RedWheel/Weiser/Conari and Samuel Weiser, Inc., is a book publisher with three imprint (trade name), imprints: Red Wheel, Weiser Books and Conari Books. It is America's second-l ...

Graham Hancock Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British journalist and author who promotes pseudoscientific ideas about ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock proposes that an advanced civilization with spiritual technology ...

(Foreword),

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sams, Greg 1948 births University of California, Berkeley alumni Living people Writers from Los Angeles People educated at St Mary's Town and Country School American male writers Mathematical artists Psychedelic artists