Zoe7

April 5, 1966 – July 15, 2013

Ecuadorean author, neuronaut, mind machine enthusiast

Along with D.M. Turner, Zoe7 was a well-known figure in the early Internet psychedelic world. His experiments with dramamine – to the point where he could not speak coherently or remember his name – were legendary. Zoe7 and D.M. Turner were both wild, radical enthusiasts who met an early demise.

Joseph Marti was born in New York City. From age 5 through 10 he lived in Ecuador, after which he moved to Florida. Prone to fantasy and fighting in his youth, he spent the ninth grade in military school, before returning to public school. A poor student, he graduated high school with a “D” average.

In 1989, according to Marti, he was contacted via a ouija board by an entity called Zem, which made short-and long-term predictions regarding his future. Initially, Zem predicted a lightning strike and brief power outage, astonishing Marti and four friends when it occurred within minutes of the prediction.

Perhaps even more surprising–considering Marti’s lifelong struggles in school–Zem claimed to be in possession of several books that Marti would write in the future. According to Zem, Marti’s books were the reason he had come to the physical dimension: You will be a pioneer, Zem related. Zem encouraged Marti to look into Eckankar, a spiritual path that taught out-of-body traveling techniques and how to interact with intelligent discarnate entities while dreaming. Marti studied Eckankar for five years.

In 1997, Marti enrolled at The Farsight Institute to learn Remote Viewing. Critical of some approaches taught at Farsight, he adopted Stephen LaBerge’s techniques for lucid dreaming and started to investigate various electronic “mind machines”, experimenting with brainwave synchronizers, neuroelectrical stimulators, electroencephalograph analyzers, and biofeedback devices.

“…you are not well, man! You are just as insane as the guy in that movie [A Beautiful Mind]. You think all these supernatural occurrences that supposedly happen to you are real. But they are not! And those voices you hear inside your head—the weird messages you think you get from the plant spirits—are all in your imagination too. Your mind is playing tricks on you, man. You’re not well!”
—Agitated phone caller to Zoe Seven, as quoted in Back From The Void

As a voracious reader, Marti’s early studies of new age philosophies and his later research of technologically altered mental states led him to discover authors who held psychedelics in high regard. Although he’d believed the anti-drug propaganda he was exposed to in his youth, eventually–late in his 30th year–Marti smoked cannabis for the first time. Marti rapidly made up for lost time, initially focusing on over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and non-scheduled plants (such as cyclizine, dextromethorphan, dimenhydrinate, diphenhydramine, and Salvia divinorum), which he consumed in combination with his brainwave-altering technological devices.

During a techno/mushroom trip in 1999, he had the experience of being contacted by an other-dimensional version of himself from the future, who explained that he was actually part of a group of six distinct personalities. Although they’d existed as unique individuals from separate space-time continuums up until that point, according to his future self, they would all soon begin to exist as a multi-dimensional synergy personality cluster.

Shortly thereafter, Marti adopted the name Zoe7, to represent the new collective he now believed was his true self: a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts.

While continuing his investigations, he wrote the autobiography: Into The Void, published in 2001. His later experiments focused on the use of mind machines combined with Salvia divinorum consumption during his ayahuasca trips. Still fascinated with spiritual and psychological applications for altered mental states, he also became obsessed with researching conspiracy theories and the paranormal. These experiments and topics were the focus of Zoe7’s second book, Back From The Void: A Modern-day Shaman’s Odyssey Continues. Zoe7 lectured internationally on the material discussed in his books, and in 2002 he began working with partner Silvia Polivoy, facilitating legal ayahuasca sessions at TheVine Center, her transdenominational/interfaith retreat center located in Bahia, Brazil.

In late 2012, Zoe7 published Spirit of Comedy by Max McCullan, the first of a planned five-part e-book series. He had been working on the second of that series, They Call Him: Mr. Triple-X, along with the final volume of his Void trilogy, Beyond The Void, when he passed away in July 2013.

Source: Erowid

From a mutual acquaintance:

He was working at an ayahuasca retreat somewhere in South America and there were some rumors that he was getting into some kind of weird magical rivalry with local shamans. He got really paranoid and believed that people were out to kill him. He eventually had to give up taking ayahuasca because of a heart condition. He reportedly died under mysterious conditions, violently – see comments.

The problem with being a neuronaut/psychonaut is that everyone will second guess your cause of death if it happens too soon.

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