Bruce Hanson was born in 1952 in the Northern lake country of Minnesota, where he spent his first ten years. In 1970, Hanson enrolled at San Diego State University, where he met his mentor, Dr. Allan W. Anderson. Hanson received a dual degree in Economics and Philosophy in 1976 before finally committing to the study of philosophy and religion and enrolling at Claremont Graduate University in 1985. He completed his Doctorate in 1991 and has been teaching at Fullerton College since 1990.

Hanson's major area of academic interest has been in the area of mystical experience and comparative religion. He has written several reviews for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the biographical entry for Huston Smith in the Dictionary of American Philosophy, and presented several papers on teaching religion. He is currently the editor of Dr. Anderson’s papers, and has published two volumes of his on the Chinese classic, the I Ching.

Hanson lives with his wife and daughter in Fallbrook, California. He wrote an enlightening foreword to Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism .