Kathleen Harrison (aka Kat Harrison) is an independent scholar and ethnobotany teacher who was once married to Terence McKenna. Kat focuses primarily on the way that various native cultures perceive nature, and how that perception translates into their stories, rituals, and healing practices. She sees psychedelic plant and mushroom rituals as a critical part of that relationship to nature. Kat and her late husband Terence founded Botanical Dimensions, a non-profit organization that collects medicinal and shamanic plants and documents their history and uses.
Kat is a published author and photographer who has been doing fieldwork in Mesoamerica, the Amazon Basin, the West Coast subcultures, and Pacific islands since the 1970s.
Currently, Kat is teaching ethnobotany workshops in Sonoma County, California and intensive field courses on the Big Island of Hawaii. Along with this, she continues to give presentations around the world. In her workshops, Kat helps her students understand the nature-based worldviews of traditional cultures. They also learn to identify plants and fungi and how they are used in healing rituals. Other key concepts Kat teaches in her workshops include the role of plants and fungi in human history and the responsibilities of humans as stewards of nature.
Barbara E. Bauer, MS
Barb is the former Editor and one of the founders of Psychedelic Science Review. She is currently a contributing writer. Her goal is making accurate and concise psychedelic science research assessable so that researchers and private citizens can make informed decisions.