Talbot was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Berkeley, California. He received his MD from the University of California, San Francisco in 1973 and his PhD in medical anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980. He went on to complete his residency in psychiatry at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute and a fellowship in psychosomatic medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a Fellow of American Academy of Family Physicians, a Diplomat of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, a Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a member of the Society for the Study of Native American Religions and a Fellow of the Explorers Club.
He has written several books, including:
- *Mysticism and the New Physics* (1980),
- *Beyond the Quantum* (1986),
- *The Holographic Universe* (1991),
- *The Sacred Chants* (1995),
- *The Universe and the Teacup: The Quantum Physics of Everyday Life* (1999),
- *The Heart's Code* (2003),
- *The Symphony of the Soul* (2007),
- *The Divine Life* (2010), and
- *Living the Divine* (2013).
