Richard Doyle is Professor of English and of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. His books include On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences, Wetwares: Experiments In Postvital Living, Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noosphere, The Genesis of Now: Self Experiments with the Bible & the End of Religion, Into the Stillness: Dialogues on Awakening Beyond Thought. His work integrates a wide range of subjects, incorporating non-ordinary states of consciousness, ecology, technology and rhetoric, all of which we discuss today.