After teaching writing for several years at colleges and universities in Washington and Oregon, Eric Swenson, became a writer. He has (co)authored six books and written more than 200 articles on subjects as diverse as international relations, commercial fishing, forensic DNA, child development, legal education, baseball, and drug use in America.

Eric has worn many hats professionally, but now focuses exclusively on psychedelic-assisted healing and the religious use of psychedelic sacraments. He has edited for the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS), including all their iboga/ibogaine publications; for psychedelic researchers; for an ayahuasca information site; and for an effort to help end the opioid and overdose epidemic with ibogaine.

A co-founder of Decriminalize Nature Seattle, Eric is also a member of the Sacred Garden Community (SGC), a psychedelic church in Oakland, and hopes to help open the first affiliate SGC church in Seattle. In 2021, Eric founded Holly House, an effort to educate the public and media about psychedelic healing, train therapists and others in using psychedelics, and promote relieving the distress of end-of-life patients with psilocybin. In 2022 he was part of a protest at DEA headquarters for its refusal to follow the law and allow access to psilocybin and was arrested with 16 other activists. See https://www.lucid.news/protests-at-dea-for-medical-psilocybin-lead-to-arrests.