About The Psychonaut Files
Welcome to the untold story of Gordon Todd Skinner, a scientific prodigy turned psychedelic explorer whose life reads like a twist-laden thriller.
For over ten years, I’ve been working on a book about Skinner, and now I’m ready to share much of that research. What you’ll learn will cause you to question everything you thought you knew about Skinner, the infamous LSD bust, and all those who surrounded him. The Psychonaut Files represents unprecedented access to the deepest secrets of America’s psychedelic society.
Who is Gordon Todd Skinner?
• An Oklahoma-born genius with "Diracian intuition" for mathematics and chemistry
• The informant involved in the world's largest LSD bust
• A complex figure: government operative, drug kingpin, and visionary
• Among the most experienced psychonauts in human history
What you'll discover:
The Missile Base Laboratory: Journey into the Atlas-E Missile Complex in Wamego, Kansas, converted from a Cold War relic into a cutting-edge psychedelic research facility.
The Mozart of Psychedelic Chemistry? Photoisomerization and quantum wells are just part of Skinner’s claims for scaling up LSD production.
Rewriting Psychedelic History: Find out the real origin behind certain substances as well as the the cheeky inside story on the shamanic colonic, the craze that blew through psychedelic circles.
Time Dilation and Reality Manipulation: Explore Skinner's ideas involving the use of psychedelics to alter perception of time and space.
The Dark Side: Delve into the kidnapping case that led to Skinner's life sentence and the complex web of relationships that surrounded him.
Psychedelic Celebs: Find out how Sting, Sasha & Ann Shulgin, Nick Sand, R. Gordon Wasson, Paul Stamets, Terrence McKenna, Jonathan Ott, Rick Doblin, and many others figure into this bizarre landscape.
Why subscribe?
• Bi-weekly dispatches filled with mind-bending stories and revelations
• A nuanced look at the intersection of brilliance, madness, and the quest for expanded consciousness
• Exclusive content for paid subscribers, including rare audio files and legal documents
The Psychonaut Files offers an inside look into the life of a man who shaped, and was ultimately undone by, the American psychedelic community.
Join me on this journey into the heart of the psychedelic underground, where science meets mysticism and reality itself becomes questionable. Subscribe now to The Psychonaut Files and prepare to have your perception altered.
Bonus for Founding Members
Immediately upon subscribing as a founding member, you’ll receive an email with a private link to download nearly 500 pages of Skinner’s informant files. It’s the greatest documentation release related to Skinner so far.
About Me
I'm an independent journalist and author who has been investigating psychedelic culture for over a decade. My first book Head Cases (FSG) explored brain injury and consciousness, which led me to speak before Congress about wounded veterans. While founding and editing This Land magazine, I developed a reputation for uncovering hidden stories and helping writers find their voice. The deep dive into Gordon Todd Skinner's world is supported in part by a Tim Ferris/UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship. For me, The Psychonaut Files has challenged everything I thought I knew about consciousness, power, and human potential. Through unprecedented access and years of research, I've assembled a story that I believe will reshape our understanding of American psychedelic history.
Send questions or comments to me at michaelpmason@gmail.com
