Historian of witchcraft, magic and psychedelic culture, Portland, Oregon
Thomas Hatsis, who writes and speaks as Tom Hatsis, is a historian of witchcraft, magic and psychedelic practice, based in Portland, Oregon.[1][2] In 2023 he was entrusted with the last thirty-four boxes of Timothy Leary's papers still in private hands, to catalogue, digitise and preserve.[1][4]
He has written four books. The Witches' Ointment (Inner Traditions, 2015) goes back to inquisitorial and medical trial records to find the pharmacology behind the witch stereotype.[5] Psychedelic Mystery Traditions (Inner Traditions, 2018) traces entheogen use from prehistory through Renaissance magic.[6] Microdosing Magic (2018) is a short practical primer.[7] LSD: The Wonderchild (Park Street Press, 2021), written with the journalist Martin A. Lee, tells the story of LSD research in the 1950s, before Leary took it public.[8] A fifth, Psychedelic Injustice, is forthcoming.[1][11]
Since 2018 he has run Psanctum, a psychedelic education and harm reduction nonprofit in Portland, with his co-founder Eden Woodruff.[1][4] He has also worked in historical research at Queens College and taught history at Pioneer Pacific College.[2][3]
The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic came out from Inner Traditions in 2015 and runs to around 300 pages.[5] Tom translated medical, inquisitorial and demonological sources from Latin and archaic romance languages to show how the psychoactive ointments of folk healers and cunning women were recast by the Church into the witch stereotype.[5]
Psychedelic Mystery Traditions: Spirit Plants, Magical Practices, and Ecstatic States followed from the same publisher in 2018. It reads the historical record for entheogen use across the Eleusinian mysteries, the cult of Isis and Dionysian ritual, through to Renaissance witchcraft and magic.[6]
Microdosing Magic: A Psychedelic Spellbook, also from 2018, is a much shorter book of around 140 pages, published independently.[7] LSD: The Wonderchild: The Golden Age of Psychedelic Research in the 1950s, written with Martin A. Lee and published by Park Street Press in 2021, covers the decade of serious clinical and academic LSD research that came before Leary's public advocacy.[8]
His fifth book, Psychedelic Injustice: How Identity Politics Poisons the Psychedelic Renaissance, argues that critical social justice rhetoric is holding back the promise of the psychedelic movement.[1] It is open for preorder, and he talked through its argument at length on James W. Jesso's ATTMind podcast in February 2026.[1][11]
Tom and Eden Woodruff founded Psanctum in Portland in 2018 as a psychedelic education and harm reduction nonprofit.[4] It hosts a weekly open mic, a monthly integration circle, a monthly speaker series and a bimonthly history series, and has organised two Gaian Mind psychedelic conferences.[1] In 2023 the pair opened Psanctum Thrift, a thrift store whose proceeds help pay for psilocybin and ketamine-assisted therapy for people who could not otherwise afford it.[4]
The same year Tom was given the last thirty-four boxes of Timothy Leary's personal archive still in private hands, to catalogue, digitise and preserve.[1] The material is on display and being archived at Psanctum. Woodruff described it to Willamette Week in 2024 as "boxes and boxes" of Leary's belongings, down to his wallet, a parking ticket, books he owned and letters people wrote to him.[4]
Tom runs a YouTube channel as Psychedelic Historian. He now posts culture war commentary as @TomHatsisTalk and psychedelic history as @EntheoHistorian, and writes a Substack at tomhatsis.substack.com.[11] He has appeared on three GaiamTV shows.[1]
He turns up on podcasts a lot, talking about the history behind the books. Psychedelics Today interviewed him about Microdosing Magic in October 2018, Jason Grechanik's The Universe Within covered The Witches' Ointment and Psychedelic Mystery Traditions in December 2025, and ATTMind covered Psychedelic Injustice in February 2026.[9][10][11] He writes elsewhere too, including a December 2022 piece for Lucid News on the claims linking psilocybin mushrooms to the Santa Claus myth.[12]
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Entry 300107