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Apple's Bill Atkinson, creator of MacPaint, spent his final years developing an open-source vape pen for safer psychedelic experiences [1]
['Ellsworth Toohey']
Date: 2025-07-10
The engineer who helped create Apple's iconic Macintosh interface spent his final years developing a vape pen for administering psychedelics.
Bill Atkinson, who died on June 5, 2025 at age 74, was famous for being the creator of MacPaint and QuickDraw. But within a private psychedelic community called OneLight, he was "Grace Within" — a mentor who refined and openly shared designs for the LightWand, a device for administering controlled doses of 5-MeO-DMT (known as Jaguar).
As reported in The Pattern Project, Atkinson's involvement began in 2018 when he encountered the original LightWand at a ceremony. Though initially concerned about making such a powerful substance too accessible, he came to see the device's potential for safer, more controlled experiences. In 2021, he published detailed open-source instructions on Erowid.org, democratizing access to what had been limited to expensive retreats. He wrote, "My intention with this article is to assist people in having safe, beautiful, and healing experiences with this amazing medicine."
"Of all the things I've accomplished, nothing surpasses the need to carefully and thoroughly share Jaguar with the world," Atkinson said, as quoted in the article.
He went on to gift over 1,000 LightWand sets and meticulously documented the technology's effects.
Previously:
• Legendary Apple engineer Bill Atkinson dead at 74
• Apple's HyperCard was inspired by an acid trip
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https://boingboing.net/2025/07/10/apples-bill-atkinson-creator-of-macpaint-spent-his-final-years-developing-an-open-source-vape-pen-for-safer-psychedelic-experiences.html
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