The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Tom Riedlinger on Maria Sabina’s encounter with Gordon Wasson

Tom Riedlinger is an author, occasional artist, researcher, and licensed mental health counselor. He has written and lectured extensively on psychedelic plants and the psychology of religion, with an emphasis on mystical experience. A Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and former Associate in Ethnomycology at Harvard Botanical Museum, Tom holds a degree in psychology from Northwestern University and in theological studies with a major in world religions from Harvard Divinity School. His published works include The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson, and chapters in Hallucinogens: A Reader (edited by Charles S. Grob), Entheogens and the Future of Religion and Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In (both edited by Robert Forte), Psychedelics and Spirituality (edited by Thomas B. Roberts), Sacred Mushroom of Visions (edited by Ralph Metzner), Fly Agaric: A Compendium (edited by Kevin Feeney), and Psyche Unbound, a Festschrift for Stanislav Grof compiled and edited by Rick Tarnas and Sean Kelly. Tom also has published articles in The Entheogen Review, Gnosis, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, the MAPS Bulletin (with Timothy Leary), Medical Hypotheses, Psychedelic Monographs & Essays, Shaman’s Drum, and other periodicals. His current writing projects include an autobiographical account of his own psychedelic faith journey, Finding God in a Godless Universe, and Sacred Mushroom Stems & Pieces, a companion volume to The Sacred Mushroom Seeker. Tom and his wife Beverly Jean Jenden-Riedlinger, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and fellow graduate of HDS, share an interest in the psychology of religion, including entheogenic spirituality, mystical experience, and a branch of religious studies called theodicy. They live with their cats Sazarac and Theo in Olympia, Washington. Peg Peters is the host and can be found at www.gatheringgroups.ca