Santa Fe, Bill Tate, and me: How an artist became a cult interventionist
first appeared in 2020. My memoir primarily concerns the years 1975 through 1993 when I first lived in Santa Fe. I moved to that major art center after graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to pursue a career. During my first day in town, I met Bill Tate in his art gallery. We became great friends, but that meeting inadvertently opened a door into a world of weird and esoteric teachings. I walked through that door expecting to find enlightenment and salvation. Five years later, I entered a different world—one of cult interventionists, aka exit-counselors and deprogrammers.
In 2016, the International Cultic Studies Association presented Joe Szimhart with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his efforts.
Relocated back to Santa Fe, NM in July of 2025.
For a discussion with the author and Jon Atack about this book, go here.
Mushroom Satori: The cult diary is my first novel published through Aperture Press, Reading PA. The story is not autobiographical.
Based on a composite of my cult cases, the story covers the journey of a college dropout whose curiosity about Buddhism in 1997 leads him to a small Zen commune in Northern New Mexico where he ends up spending ten years of his life.
Discouraged and broken after admitting his mistake, he returned home, only to find that recovering from his experience required far more than merely walking away.
Mushroom plays a role in a character’s name and the dramatic turn in the commune leader’s fate.
