Simeon Schnapper
Managing Partner of JLS Fund
Simeon Schnapper is the founding Partner of JLS, a plant medicine fund His introduction to psychedelics came 30+ years ago in Chicago where he studied with Dr. Robert E.L. Masters and Jean Huston Ph.D. who authored the seminal book The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience: The Classic Guide to the Effects of LSD on the Human Psyche – one of the most important books written on the effects of LSD on the human psyche. As a curious teenager entering the space, searching for greater meaning in life he quickly learned about all the mental health indications that could be alleviated by coupling these molecules with psychotherapy or protocols millennia old from indigenous cultures. Later, he immersed himself in the Amazon with various ayahuasqueros and syncretic churches which showed him the power and efficacy of plant medicines; now becoming mainstreamed and medicalized. As a life-long student of Psychedelics he a keen awareness of the cultural, regulatory and the nascent venture landscape of the mushrooming industry. As the president of the Hinman Foundation he formulated the vision and led all efforts on the ground in Tibet, Nepal, Myanmar, India, Mongolia and Bhutan. The foundation was able to support community-based organizations in several forest cultures where plant medicines are inseparable from everyday life and also oversaw grants which included a study on the Psychological and Cognitive Effects of Long-Term Peyote Use and the efficacy of hallucinogens for treating substance dependence. Simeon co-founded the High Art Collective in 2008 the world’s first Psychedelic Art Gallery and Marijuana Dispensary praised as a paradigm shift at the very beginning of the end of prohibition. Simeon advises several psychedelic and impact startups, is an Aspen Institute Fellow and a member of the New York Mycology Society. Born into a Peace Corps family, his early life was spent on assignment overseas where the ethos of exploration and helping others became deeply ingrained in his belief system.