Mike Jay

Mike Jay is a UK based cultural historian, writer and curator. He has recently authored Mindcraft, a digital journey through the discovery of the unconscious, for Wellcome Collection. He also recently worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew on their Intoxication Season. His most recent book, The Influencing Machine, is out in paperback and on Kindle and is published in the US under a new title, A Visionary Madness. Recent articles can be found at Aeon Magazine and at Public Domain Review, on the discovery of nitrous oxide and the origins of the Illuminati. He reviews regularly for the London Review of Books and for the Wall Street Journal. He can be seen around the web talking about drugs and creativity, flying potions, influencing machines, brainwashing and opium pipes. Emperors of Dreams (originally published in 2000) is back in print in a new, fully revised and updated edition. Also out in paperback is High Society, an illustrated global history of drugs. It originally accompanied the High Society exhibition, which he curated for Wellcome Collection in London (2010-11).