Kishkumen's Sunstone [Presentation]
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2023 3:34 pm
I briefly went to Sunstone and presented a short paper with a really awesome panel on Mormonism and Psychedelics. Don Bradley presented with me for the first time in our long friendship. Rob Beckstead, who has been a key figure in this area of research, was in attendance. It all went over really well. When it comes out in audio you all should check it out. My fellow panelists were really impressive in every way, and I learned a whole lot from them.
I also attended a very touching panel memorializing Eugene England, which featured his wife, one of his grown sons, and Maxine Hanks. I got to shake hands with Taylor Petrey and Benjamin Park. I had a friendly chuckle with the latter over his Interpreter reviews. He took his treatment over there in stride. I mentioned to Taylor Lou Midgley's review of John Gee's book. Taylor said, "I'll have to read that." I said, "No, you really don't." We laughed. On this latter point, let me just say that the Black and Midgley reviews are, unfortunately, not among the worthwhile pieces at Interpreter, but I do enjoy reading a lot of other things published over there, just as I have enjoyed reading other things Black and Midgley have written. Too bad about these reviews.
In any case, man, what a lot of fun! I recommend Sunstone heartily. It is not a perfect conference, but you get to meet and talk with so many of the cool people that we see come up in our discussions here. I saw John Hamer around quite a bit, but I never got a chance to introduce myself and shake his hand. H. Michael Marquardt was walking around selling a nice printout of his book Inventing Mormonism with footnotes instead of endnotes. I bought a copy and chatted him up for a minute.
I also attended a very touching panel memorializing Eugene England, which featured his wife, one of his grown sons, and Maxine Hanks. I got to shake hands with Taylor Petrey and Benjamin Park. I had a friendly chuckle with the latter over his Interpreter reviews. He took his treatment over there in stride. I mentioned to Taylor Lou Midgley's review of John Gee's book. Taylor said, "I'll have to read that." I said, "No, you really don't." We laughed. On this latter point, let me just say that the Black and Midgley reviews are, unfortunately, not among the worthwhile pieces at Interpreter, but I do enjoy reading a lot of other things published over there, just as I have enjoyed reading other things Black and Midgley have written. Too bad about these reviews.
In any case, man, what a lot of fun! I recommend Sunstone heartily. It is not a perfect conference, but you get to meet and talk with so many of the cool people that we see come up in our discussions here. I saw John Hamer around quite a bit, but I never got a chance to introduce myself and shake his hand. H. Michael Marquardt was walking around selling a nice printout of his book Inventing Mormonism with footnotes instead of endnotes. I bought a copy and chatted him up for a minute.