Brainforest Café

Isaac Abrams was born and raised in New York City. He is a self-taught artist who started painting in 1965. Based in Upstate New York, he continues to paint every day. He first discovered psychedelics in 1962. He then discovered psychedelics again and again. He decided there had to be such a thing as psychedelic art and founded the Coda Gallery - the first gallery of Psychedelic Art in NYC in 1965. He had his first one man show in 1968 at Galerie Bischofberger in Zurich. Other memorable moments include climbing a tree with Timothy Leary to discuss business, meeting Salvador Dali, shooting a film at Mickey Hart's Ranch in 1971 featuring Jerry Garcia and The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Reality One Group and David Crosby. MEDIUMS He’s worked across several mediums from oil to acrylic, sculpture to animation. From brushes to airbrushes, canvas to board, glass to bronze.

Howard Sprouse, CEO of the Remediators, Inc. and developer of bioremediation technologies since the mid 1990s.  Howard previously worked as a consultant to Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim, Washington assisting with the development of mycoremediation technology. His work assisted projects aimed towards remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons, biological agents, pathogen degradation, and biofiltration of agricultural runoff. Howard also worked for the Department of Botany, University of Washington and with US Forest Service, as a research assistant conducting fungal ecology research in Olympic National Park. Howard Sprouse is recognized in the bioremediation industry for commercializing mycoremediation and is a well known lecturer on the subject at universities across the United States. The Remediators have mentored student interns at Peninsula College in Washington State since 2005.

Jill Wagner has been a forester in Hawaii for 30 years.  She started at the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden as a horticulturalist for the garden, where she grew native Hawaiian species.  She received a Bachelors Degree from the University of Hawaii in Ethnobotany.  She has been conducting forest restoration projects for the State of Hawaii, Department of Hawaiian Homelands, The Nature Conservancy, The National Park Service, Kamehameha Schools and other private land owners.  She has trained people in ecosystems restoration and nursery management for decades. She started the Hawaii Island Seed Bank in 2008, which banks seeds for large landowners on Hawaii Island.  It also serves as a model for small, regional seed banks, called Seed Arks. She conducts training to people from all over the world so they can save their native seeds, and their food crop seeds.  Seed Arks are off-grid solar powered seed banks that are built to keep seeds in the hands of the people.

Wade Davis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013, he is currently Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Author of 23 books, including One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top nonfiction prize in the English language, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series written and produced for the NGS. Davis, one of 20 Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, is the recipient of 12 honorary degrees, as well as the 2009 Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the 2011 Explorers Medal, the 2012 David Fairchild Medal for botanical exploration, the 2015 Centennial Medal of Harvard University, the 2017 Roy Chapman Andrews Society’s Distinguished Explorer Award, the 2017 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration, and the 2018 Mungo Park Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018 he became an Honorary Citizen of Colombia. His 2020 book, is Magdalena: River of Dreams, Knopf, 2020, is a tribute to his love for Colombia, of which he is an honorary citizen. His latest book, Beneath the Surface of Things: New and Selected Essays (Greystone, 2024) has been termed ‘A timely and eclectic collection from one of the foremost thinkers of our time, “a powerful, penetrating and immensely knowledgeable writer” (The Guardian). Andrew Weil, M.D., is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. Combining a Harvard education and a lifetime of practicing natural and preventive medicine, he is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he is a clinical professor of medicine and professor of public health. A New York Times best-selling author, Dr. Weil is the author of 15 books on health and wellbeing, including Mind Over Meds: Know When Drugs Are Necessary, When Alternatives Are Better, and When to Let Your Body Heal on Its Own; Fast Food, Good Food; True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure; Spontaneous Happiness; Healthy Aging; and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. Dr. Weil is a frequent guest on talk shows and the lecture circuit. He is the editorial director of DrWeil.com, the leading online resource for healthy living based on the philosophy of integrative medicine. He is also a founder and partner in the growing family of True Food Kitchen restaurants. In partnership with Seabourn and The Onboard Spa by Steiner, his “Spa and Wellness with Dr. Andrew Weil” mindful-living program is offered on all of the Seabourn cruise ships.

Mariya Garnet is a Ukrainian-born artist, traditionally trained psychedelic facilitator, and student psychotherapist with over 15 years of experience in indigenous healing practices. Since 2008, she has been in apprenticeship with mestizo curanderos in the Peruvian Amazon. During her eight years living full-time in Peru, Mariya co-founded Canto Luz Centre for Research and Cultural Preservation, a treehouse retreat dedicated to healing and environmentalism. Mariya integrates her expertise in psychedelic therapy within the Amazonian Vegetalismo tradition with modern therapeutic approaches. Currently, she leads retreats in Peru and maintains a private one-on-one practice, focusing on healing complex trauma and restoring holistic health. As a postgraduate student at the CREATE Institute in Toronto, Mariya is deepening her knowledge in Expressive Arts Therapy. She views creative expression as a powerful pathway to an integrated Self, believing that artistic practices, similarly to plant medicines, can help individuals access deeper layers of consciousness and embodied cognition, facilitating personal transformation. Mariya is also an active member of the sound healing duo Project Mariri, organizing community events that leverage music and creativity as tools for healing and self-discovery. Through her work, she invites clients to explore their inner landscapes, guiding them towards embodying their true selves and authentically expressing their essence in the world.