John W. Allen is an amateur ethnomycologist living in North America and author of ten books,including the oldest selling identification guide on entheogenic mushroom identification, and more than two dozen articles on the subject of visionary mushrooms. Allen is editor and author of the series Ethnomycological Journals Sacred Mushroom Studies. He has photographed mushrooms in America, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, Great Britain and Europe. Allen discovered a new entheogenic mushroom species from Thailand, named Psilocybe samuiensis Guzmn, Bandala and Allen. He has lectured at conferences and symposia, given many slide-show presentations on the history and identification of entheogenic mushrooms and mushroom art throughout the ages at universities world-wide.
In Sex, Mushrooms and Rock and Roll, the fascinating life and times of John W. Allen, who greatly contributed to the science of magic mushrooms, shows us that what at first hand looks an unlikely combination was really a recipe for living a full rich life. In this narrative about his psychedelic experience, you do not only make acquaintance with John Allen's intelligent and complex personality, but you also meet such distinguished authors like Weston LaBarre, Albert Hofmann, R. Gordon Wasson, Sasha Shulgin, Timothy Leary, Terrence McKenna, and many others.  Tjakko Stijve, Ph.D., Dutch Mycologist