Interview with Larry Norris

Larry Norris is the co-founder and executive director of ERIE (Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education), a group dedicated to the development of entheogenic research and integration models ERIE brings diverse entheogenic speakers, practitioners, and researchers to share their wisdom with the San Francisco/Bay Area community. He is also a PhD student in the East-West Psychology department at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. His dissertation will review archived ayahuasca experiences from a research center in Florianopolis, Brazil to identify transformational archetypes that induce the insights hidden within the experiences. This summer at CIIS, Larry will be teaching a graduate course called Entheogenic Education: Contemporary Perspectives on Ancient Plant Wisdom in order to discuss the concept of entheogens as educational teachers and cognitive tools. As a dedicated activist and a proponent of cognitive liberty, his efforts are a contribution to not only change the Western legal status of these powerful entheogenic tools and teachers, but also to emphasize the potential sacred nature of entheogens given the right set and setting.