PETER GORMAN'S Biography

Investigative journalist Peter Gorman has spent more than 20 years tracking down stories from the streets of Manhattan to the slums of Bombay to the jungles of Peru. Specializing in Drug War issues, he worked for High Times magazine for 14 years, during which time he was a Senior Editor, Executive Editor and Editor-in-Chief. He is credited as the primary journalist in the medical marijuana movement, the hemp movement and in property forfeiture reform, where his early 1992 series came to the attention of Senator Henry Hyde and was a catalyst in Sen. Hyde's fight for forfeiture reform. His groundbreaking story on a missionary plane shootdown in Peru in 2000 led Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to call for congressional hearings which led to a reform in way the US identifies suspected drug planes in Colombia and Peru.

But Peter Gorman's body of work is not restricted to the Drug War. He has also written about the Amazon jungle, ayahuasca, art, architecture, bars, camel fairs, crocodile farms, Dallas nightlife, day labor, education, environmental issues, Earth First!, floating slums, frogs, immigrant smuggling, indigenous peoples, Moroccan hashish harvesting, Plan Colombia, plant medicines, police work, poverty, prison sentencing, rat catchers, sculpture, sharks, snake charmers, sports and street artists, among a host of other topics.

Peter Gorman's love affair with the Amazon jungle is well known to people in the field. Since 1984, Mr. Gorman has spent a minimum of three months annually there--as well as all of 1998-2000--generally using Iquitos, Peru as his base of operations.

During that time he has studied ayahuasca, the legendary visionary and healing drink of the jungle, with his friend, the curandero Julio Jerena, as well as the San Pedro, the sacred cactus of the highlands, with the healer Victor Estrada.

He has also collected botanical specimens for Shaman Pharmaceuticals and herpetological specimens for the FIDIA Research Institute of the University of Rome. He was the first person to ever work with the medicinal knowledge of the remote Matses Indians of the Peruvian-Brazilian border, and his description of their use of the secretions of the phyllomedusa bicolor frog has opened an entire field devoted to the use of amphibian peptides as potential medicines in Western medicine. (His initial writing on the effects of the secretions is the first description of a human taking an animal substance directly into the bloodstream ever recorded.) His work with the phyllomedusa bicolor has been the subject of an article in Science magazine and several scientific journals; his work in Peru in general was the subject of a Newsweek feature and numerous other newspaper and magazine articles

He has also collected artifacts from the Matses for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, several of which are on permanent display in that museum's Hall of South American Peoples.

In 1997, Mr. Gorman and his wife Gilma discovered the only fossil bed ever found in the Iquitos area. Their preliminary dig exposed three identifiable animal fossils dating from 3-30 million years old when examined by the Department of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. They are currently working on funding to have it properly explored.

To do his work in Peru, over the years Peter Gorman has rebuilt several boats, traveled thousands of miles of jungle waterways, hiked across the Peruvian jungle on numerous occasions, suffered from malaria and a botfly infestation, been bitten by ants, rats, spiders, vampire bats and other scary things, and generally had a rollicking good time with it all. Penthouse magazine once referred to one of his expeditions as rivaling "a real Indiana Jones' adventure."

Mr. Gorman's feature writing has appeared in dozens of major national and international magazines, including Airone (Italy), Americas, the magazine of the Organization of American States, Buzzworm, Elle, GEO (Spain), Geographical (England), Geo Mundo (Mexico), Modern Maturity, Omni, Panorama (Holland), Penthouse, Playboy, Sette (Italy), Shaman's Drum, Spy, Suisse Familia (Switzerland), Trip (Brazil), VSD, Wildlife Conservation, World (England), Zeit Magazin (Germany) and ZOOM (France).

His newspaper features and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, The New York Daily News, the Times of India, the Fort Worth Weekly, the Earth First! Journal, the Orange County Register, the Santa Fe Reporter and elsewhere.

He has also written a number of video pieces, including work for the United Nations and the Salvation Army. He has consulted for both National Geographic's Explorer series and the BBC's Natural World.

As a speaker, Mr. Gorman has lectured at the Boston Museum of Science, the New York Open Center, at Axiom and Mind/Biz/Spirit conferences and elsewhere. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows, in several documentaries and on hundreds of radio shows, including an all-nighter with Art Bell.

Mr. Gorman is a former recipient of a Blue Mountain Fellowship in investigative journalism and a grant from Conservation International (then-headed by Mark Plotkin) to do a study of indigenous peoples on the Napo River.

Peter Gorman currently lives in Texas on a small ranch and when not there can be found investigating Drug War stories in Peru, running The Cold Beer Blues Bar in Iquitos, or out in the Amazon.

	A few events and projects Peter Gorman was part of:   1985 First trip to the Peruvian Amazon and Gorman's introduction to the ancient healing vine ayahuasca. 1986 Gorman makes the first of several collections of Matses Indian artifacts for American Museum of Natural History, department of Ethnology. A number of those items, as well as others from subsequent trips, are on permanent display in that museum’s Hall of South American Peoples. During the same year, Peter Gorman became the first known person to ever utilize an animal product directly into the blood stream when he received “sapo” the secretions of the phyllomedusa bicolor tree frog subcutaneously from the Matses. His report of the ‘sapo’ experience was later published internationally in Omni, Spain’s Geo, England’s World Magazine and elsewhere. 1986 Began writing for High Times magazine. First story was a cover piece on ayahuasca. Shortly thereafter Peter Gorman began reporting on the Drug War in earnest, something he continues to this day. 1990 With his friend Larry LaValle and teacher Moises Torres Vienna, Peter Gorman hiked across a dense area of Peruvian jungle from the Ucayali river to the Brazilian border. Returned with two live phyllomedusa bicolor tree frogs as well as dried sapo, some of which was delivered to the American Museum of Natural History, Herpetology Department, and some to the FIDIA Research Institute of the University of Rome for investigation. Those samples and Gorman's reports on both its indigenous medical use and personal experience have opened up the entire field of amphibian peptides as possible medicines to Western Science. 1990 Received Blue Mountain Fellowship for Investigative Journalism 1991 Lectured at Boston Museum of Science and New York's Open Center on his experiences in the Amazon. 1992 Science Magazine covers Gorman's work with 'sapo' and Newsweek covers Gorman's work in Peru in general. Jay Leno even cracked jokes during a monologue on The Tonight Show about Gorman’s experiences. 1993 First of two medicinal-plant collecting trips for Shaman Pharmaceuticals. The expedition involved rebuilding a fishing boat and taking it out for over a month, a trip that covered over 1,200 river miles. 1994 Second medicinal-plant collecting trip for Shaman Pharmaceuticals, this one including the noted MD and botanist Tom Carlson. Of the 54 plants collected from indigenous healers along the Peru-Brazil border, one was a new species and a dozen others were new varieties. 1995 Consults for both National Geographic’s Explorer television series and the BBC’s Natural World on programs related to the Peruvian Amazon. 1996 Received grant from Conservation International, then headed by biologist Mark Plotkin, to do a survey of surviving plant-medicine practitioners on the Rio Napo. 1997 Gorman is promoted to Editor-in-Chief of High Times Magazine. 1997 Peter Gorman and his wife Gilma discover the first fossil bed ever found in the region around Iquitos, Peru. The American Museum of Natural History's Department of Paleontology identifies three animals among the fossilized bone shards, dating from three-to-30 million years old. 1998 Took a sabbatical from High Times and moved to Peru where he and his wife opened The Cold Beer Blues Bar across the street from the oldest port in Iquitos, Peru. The Rough Guide travel book on Peru (2000 edition) listed the bar as having the coldest beer and best food in Iquitos. 2000 Took a sabbatical from High Times and moved to Peru where he and his wife opened The Cold Beer Blues Bar across the street from the oldest port in Iquitos, Peru. The Rough Guide travel book on Peru (2000 edition) listed the bar as having the coldest beer and best food in Iquitos. 2001 Returned to New York and High Times. 2002 Moved his family to Texas, where he currently resides. 2006 Consults with the BBC on the politics and tragedy of the US-funded Plan Colombia. 2006 Puts plans in place for an investigation of the Pyramids of Paratoari, in the Madre De Dios region of Peru. The pyramids, discovered by a Landsat ll satellite in 1975, figure into the lore of several indigenous groups in the area but have yet to be researched. It has not even known at this time whether the 12 structures in two parallel lines of six, are man-made or a geological formation.

What's a White Boy from Queens Doing in the Amazon Anyway?

It would probably surprise a lot of people to know that much of Queens, New York was swamp and farmland well into the early 1960s; that growing up in Whitestone, Queens meant having rabbits, pheasants, black snakes, tortoises and even an occasional possum show up in the backyard. Digging up arrowheads at nearby Dupey's field was not unheard of. My kids call it the old days and laugh when I tell them that St. Lukes grammer school had classes that ranged from 79-106 kids each. No wonder the nuns used the stick.

Growing up there an affinity for nature came easily. I fought it, of course, wanting to be a city boy and a tough guy, but the early lure had sunk deeply into me and by age 20 I found myself hitchhiking all over the country, mostly in the wide open spaces. I logged over 50,000 hitching miles, a good number.

From there it was trips into Mexico's jungles in the south, and when I once got caught in quicksand near the coast I was hooked forever. It didn't take long to find myself in the Amazon where by luck I ran into the great naturalist and guide Moises Torres Vienna. He took me under his wing and taught me as much about that strange, exotic and wonderful world as I could stand to learn. He walked me hundreds of miles all told, introduced me to remote indigenous communities and brought me to an old curandero, Julio Jerena, who has been teaching me about ayahuasca, the legendary curative of the Amazon, for nearly 20 years.
It's been a good trip.

© by Peter Gorman, 1983-2007
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