Coordinates: 43°18′41″N 0°09′15″W / 43.3114°N 0.1542°W / 43.3114; -0.1542

Arrien (Occitan: Arrien) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

Dr. Angeles Arrien (born 1940) is a teacher, author and cultural anthropologist whose teachings bridge the disciplines of anthropology, psychology and comparative religion, while focusing on universal beliefs shared by humanity. She lectures and leads workshops internationally on cultural anthropology and transpersonal psychology at universities, in corporate settings, and at personal growth and retreat centers. Arrien has taught in the University of California system at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine, Davis, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco; and the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and John F. Kennedy Jr. University. She is the founder and president of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research.

Angeles Arrien's books have been translated into twelve languages and won three awards: Signs of Life: the Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them won the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Publisher's Marketing Association.The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom won the 2007 Nautilus Award for best book in the category of Aging; and Arrien's recently released book, Living in Gratitude: A Journey that will Change your Life" was recognized by Spirituality and Practice: Resources for Spiritual Journeys, as One of the Best Spiritual Books of 2011.

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and end of the universe, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings.

Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado. He was introduced to geology through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the arroyos near his home. From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.

At age 16, McKenna moved to Los Altos, California to live with family friends for a year. He finished high school in Lancaster, CA. In 1963, McKenna was introduced to the literary world of psychedelics through The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley and certain issues of The Village Voice that talked about psychedelics.

McKenna claimed that one of his early psychedelic experiences with morning glory seeds showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing." In an audio interview Terence Mckenna claims to have started smoking cannabis regularly during the summer following his 17th birthday.

Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) was a Californio and twice Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, and 1838 to 1842.

Alvarado was born in Monterey, Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and María Josefa Vallejo. His grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents, the Vallejo family. He and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together in the Vallejo household. They were both taught by William Edward Petty Hartnell, an English merchant living in Monterey.

In 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In 1829 he was briefly arrested along with Vallejo and another friend, José Castro, by soldiers involved in the military revolt led by Joaquín Solis. In 1831 he built a house in Monterey for his mistress, Juliana Francisca Ramona y Castillo, whom he called “Raymunda”, to live in. Over the years, the pair had a total of five illegitimate daughters, all of whom he recognized, but he never married their mother. During this period Alvarado began drinking heavily. One of his daughters claimed that Raymunda had refused to marry Alvarado because of his excessive drinking.