David Jay Brown
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David Jay Brown (born 1961) is a California-based writer and scientific researcher.
Brown is well-known for his many in-depth interviews with leading-edge thinkers about the evolution of consciousness and the future. He is the author of four interview collections with controversial scientists and artists, and two science fiction novels. Brown's scientific research has been in the areas of behavioral neuroscience[citation needed] and psychic phenomena. He has written dozens of popular essays, magazine articles, and scientific papers, and has made contributions to numerous books.
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[edit] Life
Brown was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1961, and he grew up in the nearby town of Somerville. He moved to Tampa, Florida in 1980 to study psychology at the University of South Florida, but ended up attending five other universities in California, New York, and France as part of his formal education. He currently lives in the Santa Cruz mountains of California.
[edit] Career
Brown holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in psychobiology from New York University. He conducted research in electrical brain stimulation at NYU from 1985-1986, and in learning and memory at the Hedco Neuroscience lab at USC from 1989-1990.
Brown's first book, Brainchild — one of the very first science fiction novels about nanotechnology — was published in 1988 by New Falcon Publications. Mavericks of the Mind, his second book and first collection of interviews, was published in 1993 by Crossing Press. Voices from the Edge, his second collection of interviews, was published in 1995 by the Crossing Press.
From 1996-1999 Brown researched the unexplained powers of animals with British biologist Rupert Sheldrake. This work culminated in three scientific papers and was summarized in Dr. Sheldrake's books Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (Crown, 1999) and The Sense of Being Stared At (Crown, 2003).
In 2005 Palgrave Macmillan published Brown's third collection of interviews, Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse. His fourth collection of interviews, Mavericks of Medicine, was published in 2006 by Smart Publications.
In 1993, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Brown was moderator for "Mavericks of the Mind Live!", a panel debate with Robert Anton Wilson, Stephen LaBerge, Nick Herbert, and others. In 1994, Brown was moderator for "Techno & Psyche", a panel debate with Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Laura Huxley, and others at UCLA. Brown has appeared as a lecturer and workshop leader at events and institutions that explore mind sciences and unusual world views. He frequently lectures on the psychology of maverick thinkers and taught a series of workshops in "The Science of Sex and Drugs" with his colleague Annie Sprinkle at the Harvey Milk Institute in San Francisco in 2002 and 2003.
Some of the people that Brown has interviewed over the course of his career include: Noam Chomsky, George Carlin, Andrew Weil, Jack Kevorkian, Jerry Garcia, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Terence McKenna, Alex Grey, Annie Sprinkle, Ram Dass, Robert Anton Wilson, Candace Pert, Edgar Mitchell, Kary Mullis, Marija Gimbutas, Alexander Shulgin, Bernie Siegel, Albert Hofmann, Rupert Sheldrake, Julia Butterfly Hill, Matthew Fox, Riane Eisler, Laura Huxley, Jean Houston, Larry Dossey, John Mack, Jaron Lanier, Peter McWilliams, Hans Moravec, Ray Kurzweil, Colin Wilson, Penny Slinger, Deepak Chopra, Dean Radin, Jeff McBride, and Paul Krassner.
Brown has also written for many popular magazines and scientific journals, including Scientific American Mind, Wired, Tricycle, Mondo 2000, High Times, Fate, Neuroscience Abstracts, Nature Medicine, the Journal of Parapsychology, The Sun, Hustler, the International Synergy Journal, the Journal of Psychical Research, and Magical Blend. He is sometimes Guest Editor of the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) Bulletin.
[edit] Books
- Brainchild. (1988) New Falcon Publications ISBN 0-941404-92-7
- Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse. (2005) Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-6532-3
- Mavericks of Medicine. (2006) Smart Publications ISBN 1890572195, ISBN 978-1890572198
- Mavericks of the Mind: Conversations for the New Millennium. (1993) Crossing Press ISBN 0-89594-602-5
- Virus: The Alien Strain. (1999) New Falcon Publications ISBN 1-56184-144-7
- Voices from the Edge: Conversations With Jerry Garcia, Ram Dass, Annie Sprinkle, Matthew Fox, Jaron Lanier, & Others. (1995) Crossing Press ISBN 0-89594-732-3
[edit] Foreign Translations
- Riflessioni sull'Orlo dell'Apocalisse, in Italian, published by Mondadori, 2006.
- Ram Dass Rozhovory, in Czechoslovakian, published by East Hauz, 1999.
- I protagonisti della New Age, in Italian, published by Gruppo Futura, 1997.
- Mavericks of the Mind, in Japanese, published by Hachiman Publishing, 1995.
