Hello.

I've wanted to make those of you who are not aware of Island Foundation aware of its existence. So I'm sending our statement of purpose and projects.

Remember, entheogens/psychedelics are just a starting point. The experiences and visions that they bring forth give us a new aesthetics and ethics. In order to maintain the "high" we need to bring our communities and our culture into harmony with our experiences.

I began using psychedelics sacramentally in 1967 and for the past 30 years I have been active both as a journalist, researcher and organizer of groups, publications, events and now web sites. Island Foundation provides a structure and a strategy for the entheogenic/psychedelic community. Island Foundation supports all the other organizations and strategies which have evolved in the past few years for bringing our vision into the world as well as for pure exploration of the catalysts and experiences. So here is our statement of purpose. I ask that those who resonate with these ideas join and become active.

The Island Foundation is an organization of individuals dedicated to the creation of a psychedelic culture. The group is named for English novelist Aldous Huxley's last novel, Island, about a utopian island called "Pala" -- an imaginary place that nurtured and supported the psychedelic vision. Island Foundation's mission is to foster the creation of a new culture based on the visions and ideals catalyzed by the psychedelic experience. Island Foundation seeks as its members those who have gained a vision of a more sensible and peaceful way of living together through the use of psychedelic and other mind-altering substances; as well as other methods of radically altering consciousness which lead to a deeper experience of consciousness, spirit and soul.

In carrying forth Aldous Huxley's torch into the new Millennium, Island Foundation encourages education and exploration with a variety of new ideas and technologies as well as an openness to the understanding and revisioning of what humanity has learned throughout its history.

Island Foundation encourages both wider research with psychedelic and other mind-altering compounds, which have been the catalyst for the core mystical experience and its creative manifestations. Our mission begins with the psychedelic compounds but then goes on to explore, how once we have had these experiences, we can create and begin to live in a culture that has this vision woven into its very fabric.

Aldous Huxley was a connoisseur of new ideas and technologies. In the more than three decades since Island was published, we have seen a steady stream of new ideas and technologies. In order to achieve its purpose, Island Foundation proposes that we gather together locally and link together globally to begin to explore these ideas in the following ways:

Island Groups

We meet in salons and other gatherings in Santa Cruz, California.

Island Foundation encourages the formation of Island Groups in communities around the country to learn, teach, experience and experiment. Based on our experience with psychedelically inspired organizations in Santa Cruz California for the past two decades we offer to charter and provide ways of linking people together. These groups can provide both community and education to those who share Island Foundation's goals.

Our group and its members have discussed and learned about a variety of topics and ideas including:

• The convergence of computers with media and virtual reality to create a new way of linking the people of our planet.
• The new scientific paradigms in mathematics and physics which have begun to merge with what was once considered mystical and spiritual.
• New technologies such as brain machines, intelligence increase, life-extension, multimedia nanotechnology, the world wide web, virtual reality and many others.
• The psychedelic youth culture, which honors the psychedelic music, art and alternative cultures of the past and whose rave rituals grow out of the concept of the techno-shaman -- the fusing of the ancient with the future.
• The wise and intelligent use of mind-changing compounds has fostered the growth of a new humanistic philosophy and psychology which has emerged as a result of their widespread use during the last part of our century.
• We have examined intentional communities and communes past and present with the intention to create our own experiments in alternative community -- to serve as a model for a new way of living together that we believe will spread throughout the planet once achieved.

  Island Views

  We publish and distribute Island Views, a newsletter which keeps our members informed about cutting edge ideas as well as the latest Island Foundation sponsored activities.

  Psychedelic Island Views

  We publish a quarterly magazine, Psychedelic Island Views, a magazine distributed through subscriptions and through retails sales, to carry our vision to the global psychedelic community. Its content includes articles, essays, poetry, art and fiction from some of the top psychedelic idea makers on the planet.

  Island Web

  Our pioneer Island Web at http://www.island.org -- one of the first sites on the web -- provides everyone who has access to the internet with information about our group, a library of articles from our publications, a psychedelic multimedia art show, a place to gather to "chat", an Island Village where members can contact one another or view each other's web sites, a marketplace to offer a select variety of books, videos, cd-roms, clothing, posters and other items that promote psychedelic education and support our activities, and links to all of those sites on the web which we consider to be consistent with Island Foundations goals of exploring new and alternative ideas.

  Island Events, Gatherings and Conferences

  Santa Cruz Island Group participated in the organization of the Bridge Conference at Stanford University in 1991 and Bicycle Day, celebrated on April 16, 1993 as well at public talks by noted psychedelic idea makers.

  You can look forward to our Psychedelics and Consciousness in the New Millennium Conference planned for 1999.

  Founded by Bruce Eisner in 1990, the Island Foundation has applied for 501(c)3 status nationally and is a non-profit corporation in the State of California. We are supported by memberships fees, donations by sponsorship and advertisements from friendly commercial enterprises, by production and distribution of Psychedelic Island Views as well as sales from its Island Marketplace. We welcome participation by like-minded individuals anywhere who share our goals!

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  Bruce Eisner
  Island Foundation
  1803 Mission St. Suite 175
  Santa Cruz, CA 95060
  Tel. (408) 427-1942
  Fax: (408) 426-8519
  E-Mail: Bruce@Mindmedia.com
  World Wide Web: http://www.island.org