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TechGnosis

The work of Erik Davis

Erik Davis is an American writer, scholar, journalist, and public speaker whose writings range from rock criticism to cultural analysis to esoteric explorations of California’s history.

I’ve been publishing stuff for over three decades, and most of it—with the exception of my books—resides on this site, which I have maintained through various iterations since the late 1990s. With Burning Shore now disseminating my fresher communiqués, Techgnosis.com acts more than ever as an archive of my work, including lectures, interviews, personal reflections, and almost a decade of the Expanding Mind podcast. Like Techgnosis itself, still in print and more relevant than ever, my stuff combines deep research with vivid writing and oracular aims that resonate through the years. For this revamped trans-temporal site, I and my team have introduced more robust searching and cross-linking of materials, as well as a roll-the-dice feature, which will hopefully allow for richer, more entertaining, and more synchronistic wanders through this wunderkammer.  — Erik

  • Books

    Blotter

    The Untold Story of an Acid Medium

    The Untold Story of an Acid Medium

    Blotter by Erik Davis is the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper, the iconic drug delivery device that will perhaps forever be linked to underground psychedelic culture and contemporary street art. Created in collaboration with Mark McCloud’s Institute of Illegal Images, the world’s largest archive of blotter art, Davis’s boldly illustrated exhibition treats his outsider subject with the serious, art-historical respect it deserves...
  • Featured, Music
    9 min

    Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMILE!: The Beach Boys

    The Apollonian Shimmer of the Beach Boys

    The Apollonian Shimmer of the Beach Boys

    When I was boogie-boarding the Del Mar waves in the mid-'70s, I remember hearing this surf tune that name-dropped my hometown and thinking, cool, we're on the map, right along with "Hollywood" and "Disneyland" and "Chico." But the Beach Boys sounded pretty dinky to my Led ears, and the images that crusted the band like barnacles—Sunkist soda, bearded burnouts, state fairs, longboards—were too lame to hook me much. And the canons of AOR, new wave, and indie rock didn't teach...

A Random Selection

Our Pandemic Psychedelic Trip
Media
Our Pandemic Psychedelic Trip
My latest Rebel Wisdom interview

Druid Heights
Subcultures
12 min
Druid Heights
Zen, Drugs, and Hot Tubs

Dub, Scratch, and the Black Star
Esoterica
19 min
Dub, Scratch, and the Black Star
Lee Perry on the Mix

Nerd Immunity
Media
Nerd Immunity
Boom Festival Liminal Podquest #3

Warrior Podcast Interview
Media
Warrior Podcast Interview
The Future of VR and other Techno Weirdnesses

You Are the Eyes of the World
Burning Shore
12 min
You Are the Eyes of the World
The Dzogchen and The Dead

Adventures through the Mind
Media
Adventures through the Mind
A podcast with James Jesso

Electromagnetic Voice Phenomena
Music
2 min
Electromagnetic Voice Phenomena
A review of The Ghost Orchid