Erik Davis (born June 12, 1967) is an American writer, scholar, journalist and public speaker whose writings have ranged from rock criticism to cultural analysis to creative explorations of esoteric mysticism. He is perhaps best known for his book ''Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information'', as well as his work on California counterculture, including

Burning Man Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...

, the

human potential movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...

, and the writings of Philip K. Dick. Davis played a critical part in the documentary ''

A Glitch in the Matrix ''A Glitch in the Matrix'' is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Rodney Ascher. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021, and was released theatrically and on digital platforms on February 5, 20 ...

''.

Biography

Early years

Born in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...

, in 1967, Davis grew up in Del Mar before attending

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he graduated ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' with a degree in English. He wrote a senior thesis on science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and has since written a number of articles in the popular press about Dick and his unusual religious experiences. Davis would go on to co-edit '' The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick'', which was published by

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...

in 2011. While at Yale, Davis began writing for ''Nadine'', an on-campus magazine that turned out a number of rock critics and pop culture writers in the 1980s and 1990s. Soon after graduation in 1988, Davis pitched his first story to the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

'', a review of the Swiss heavy metal band

Celtic Frost Celtic Frost () was a Swiss metal music, heavy metal band from Zürich. They are remembered for their strong influence on the development of several metal subgenres, particularly extreme metal,Bukszpan, Daniel. ''The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal' ...

1990s

Writing for the ''Village Voice'' throughout the early 1990s, Davis also contributed to ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'', '' Details'', ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', and ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' magazines, writing about music, art, film, pop culture and technology. In July 1995, Davis published a piece in ''Wired'' magazine called "Technopagans", which was one of the precursors for ''Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information'', a dense cultural history of the mystical, magical, and apocalyptic dreams and fantasies that haunt modern technoculture. Published by

Harmony Books Harmony Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, itself part of publisher Penguin Random House. It was founded by Bruce Harris, a Crown executive, in 1972. The imprint has been used for such books as: * Jill Freedman, ''Circus Days'' ...

, the book is a cult classic of media studies and was eventually translated into five languages. It was re-released in paperback by

Serpent's Tail Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Book ...

in 2004 with a new afterword. Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, Davis continued to write for both popular magazines and scholarly publications, and also expanded his speaking career, where his eclectic interests in subject ranging from music, art, popular culture and esoterica led to speaking engagements at such diverse venues as

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, Burning Man, the

Boom Festival BOOM Festival was a rock music festival held annually throughout SFR Yugoslavia between 1971 and 1978. The festival was held for the first time in 1971 in Maribor and for the last time in 1978 in Novi Sad. The festival featured numerous prominent ...

, the Houston Jung Center, the Ojai Foundation, and

Esalen The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American Retreat (spiritual), retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanism, humanistic alternative education. The institute played a ke ...

2000s

In 2000, Davis won a Maggie Award for his profile of

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

contactee and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

mogul Joe Firmage. In 2005, he released his second book, ''Led Zeppelin IV'', a monograph on the signature album from one of rock’s most celebrated bands, published by

33⅓ ' (''Thirty-Three and a Third'') is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, RPM. History Originally published by Continuum, the series was founded by editor David Ba ...

. In 2006, ''Blender'' magazine included it in their list of the 40 Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Books. In 2006, Davis cemented his reputation as a seminal writer of California counter-culture when he released ''The Visionary State: A Journey Through California’s Spiritual Landscape'', a

coffee table book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and which can serve to inspire conversation o ...

of pictures and rich essays about California’s alternative spiritual movements and architecture. With photographs by Michael Rauner, the book was published by

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...

. A prolific blogger for his site Techgnosis.com, Davis also released a fourth book in 2010, a collection of essays and journalism entitled ''Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica'', published by Yeti Publishing. In early 2006, Davis started working with composer Mark Nichols on the libretto for a rock opera inspired by Burning Man. The resulting production debuted in October of 2009 and was entitled ''How to Survive the Apocalypse: A Burning Opera'', in which Davis also performed as the bunny-suited, bullhorn-wielding narrator. Davis also wrote extensively about West Coast festival culture in photographer Kyer Wiltshire's 2009 book ''Tribal Revival''.

2010s and 2020s

In 2010, Davis began pursuing a PhD in Religious Studies at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in their Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism program. He has taught courses at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, Pacifica, and CIIS. Until 2019 he hosted the weekly podcast ''Expanding Mind'' along with Maja D’Aoust, devoted to the “cultures of consciousness” and part of the Progressive Radio Network. Davis has appeared in a number of documentaries about technology and countercultural topics, including ''DMT: The Spirit Molecule'', '' Electronic Awakening'',, ''

The Source Family ''The Source Family'' is a 2012 feature documentary film directed by Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos which recounts the story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family. Much material was gleaned from the group's official documentarian an ...

'', and ''

Hacking at Leaves Hacking at Leaves is a 2024 Austrian documentary film directed and written by Johannes Grenzfurthner. It explores various themes including the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker culture, hacker movement, through th ...

''.

Books

* ''TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information'', Harmony Books, 1998; republished Serpents Tail, 2004. * ''Led Zeppelin IV'', Continuum Books, 2005. * ''The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape'', with photographs by Michael Rauner, Chronicle Books, 2006. * ''Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica'', Yeti Books, 2010. * ''High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies'', Strange Attractor/MIT Press, 2019. * ''Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium'', The MIT Press, 2024.

Selected articles

* "TechGnosis: Magic, Memory, and the Angels of Information," in ''Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture'', ed. Mark Dery, Duke University Press, 1994. * "Here is Postmodern Space," Burning Man, ed. Brad Wieners, ''Hardwired'', 1997. * �
Technomancer: Philip K. Dick’s Signal Achievements
” ''War of the Words: The VLS Anthology on Contemporary Literature'', ed. Joy Press, Three Rivers Press, 2001. * �
Synthetic Meditations: Descartes in the Matrix
” in ''Prefiguring Cyberculture'', eds. A. Cavallaro, A. Johnson, D. Tofts, MIT Press, 2002. * �
The Paisley Gate
” ''Zig Zag Zen'', ed. Alan Hunt-Badiner, Chronicle Books, 2002. * �
Hedonic Tantra: Golden Goa’s Trance Transmission
” in ''Rave Ascension'', ed. Graham St. John, Routledge, 2003. * �

�� ''Book of Lies'', ed. Richard Metzger, Disinformation, 2003. * �
Beyond Belief: The Cults of Burning Man
” in AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man, ed. Lee Gilmore and Mark Van Proyen, University of New Mexico Press, 2005. * �
Joanna Newsom: Always Coming Home
” ''Best Music Writing 2007'', ed. Robert Christgau, Da Capo, 2007. * Introduction, ''Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide'', Arik Roper, Abrams, 2008. * �
Roots and Wires: Polyrhythmic Tricks and the Black Electronic
” in ''Sound Unbound: Writings on Contemporary Multimedia and Music Culture'', ed. Paul Miller, MIT Press, 2008.
Introduction,' ''Tribal Revival''
with photographs by Kyer Wiltshire, 2009. * �
Kosmiche
” in ''Krautrock'', ed. Nikolaos Kotsopoulos, Black Dog, 2009. * "Babalon Launching:

Jack Parsons John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite, Thelemite occultist. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both th ...

, Rocketry, and the 'Method of Science' ", in ''Magic in the Modern World: Strategies of Repression and Legitimization'', ed. Edward Bever and Randal Styers, Penn State University Press, 2017.

References

External links

Erik Davis' Techgnosis

''The Visionary State'' official site

Expanding Mind archive

''How to Survive the Apocalypse: a Burning Opera''

"Follow your Weird: a ''Reality Sandwich'' Interview with Erik Davis"
* BLDGBLO

* C-Real
Interviews with Erik Davis

Erowid's Erik Davis Vault
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Erik 1967 births Living people American essayists 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Rice University alumni American technology writers American spiritual writers Writers from California 21st-century mystics 21st-century American male writers Pacifica Graduate Institute people Yale University alumni Philip K. Dick scholars People from Redwood City, California