Bruce Eisner - Biography

Biography

Eisner was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age 2, he moved with his family to the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California where he lived for the next 25 years. His first publication was at age 16, when he won an LA County-wide essay contest. The essay, "Democracy and What It Means to Me" was published in the Congressional Record by Congressman Ed Reinecke.

Eisner attended San Fernando Valley State College (now known as California State University, Northridge) where he was on the Deans List for his first two years of attendance. In his third year, he became an anti-Vietnam War activist and joined the Students for a Democratic Society. At the end of his third year, in 1969, he dropped out of college and moved to Laguna Beach which was then home base for Timothy Leary and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love In the fall of 1969, Eisner first went to Europe where he lived in the Netherlands and then traveled overland to India.

In January 1970, Eisner returned to Los Angeles where he became a freelance journalist writing feature articles on topics focusing on LSD and the psychedelic consciousness movement for the "Underground Press." He wrote articles for the Los Angeles Free Press edited by Art Kunkin, the Los Angeles Star and a variety of other small publications. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for High Times magazine and wrote a series of article including "LSD Purity" and "Who Turned on Whom" with Peter Stafford. Also, in 1976, Eisner traveled to Europe where he met author Michael Hollingshed in England and LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann in Basel, Switzerland.

In 1977, Eisner moved from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, California. He became one of the leaders of a group of psychedelic movement activists. That group known as Linkage brought Albert Hofmann to UC Santa Cruz in 1977 for his first public lecture in the US at a conference called "LSD: A Generation Later." The conference was attended by both counterculture figures such as Timothy Leary Ph.D, Alan Ginsberg, Ram Dass, Stephen Gaskin and Ralph Metzner Ph.D as well as early psychedelic researchers including Oscar Janiger, MD, William McGlothlin, Ph.D, Stanley Krippner, Ph.D, Claudio Naranjo, MD and Willis Harman Ph.D

Eisner received his B.A.in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1979. He moved to Goleta California for two years and received his M.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Eisner worked as a Teaching Assistant at U.C. Santa Barbara. In 1980, he became a contributing writer for Omni magazine.

Eisner returned to Santa Cruz in 1981 and in 1982 moved into a home near Natural Bridges State Beach where he lived for the next 21 years. He began working on his Ph.D in Psychology from Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in 1982 but withdrew before completing a dissertation in 1988. In 1989, Eisner started a self-improvement software company called Mindware which published a catalog of mind tool and personal development software program called the Mindware Catalog until 1995.

In 1990, Eisner started the Island Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization named for the 1962 Island by Aldous Huxley. The non-profit group's aim is the creation of a "psychedelic culture" .

Island Foundation conceived and co-organized the 1992 "The Bridge: Linking the Past, Present and Future of Psychedelics" a two day conference held at Stanford University. Island also conceived and co-organized "Bicycle Day: Celebrating 50 Years of LSD" at the University of California Santa Cruz, in April, 1993.

In 1996, Eisner created the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, one of the first self-improvement sites on the web. The website provides a portal for self-improvement and personal development websites.

In 2003, Eisner moved to Las Vegas Nevada where he currently resides, He is currently completing his dissertation as a Ph.D Candidate at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He is owner and webmaster of the Mind Media Life Enhancement Network, a self-improvement web portal and writes a blog called Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing.