Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16 1946 – April 3 2000) was a
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
, public speaker, philosopher,
psychonautA psychonaut is a person who experiences intentionally induced altered states of consciousness in an attempt to investigate their mind, and possibly address spiritual questions through direct experience...
, ethnobotanist, and self described anarchist and skeptic.. He was noted for his knowledge, and the ability to articulate his knowledge, of the use of psychedelics,
metaphysicsMetaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world...
, plant-based entheogens, and subjects ranging from
shamanismShamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. It is a prominent term in anthropological research. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, , noun...
, historical and civilizational timelines, the theoretical origins of human consciousness, and his concept of
novelty theoryThe 2012 phenomenon is a present-day cultural meme proposing that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur in the year 2012. The forecast is based primarily on what is claimed to be the end-date of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which is presented as lasting 5,125 years and as...
.
Early life
Terence McKenna grew up in
Paonia, ColoradoThe Town of Paonia is a Statutory Town in Delta County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,497 at the 2000 census.-History:The area was first explored in 1853 by Captain John W. Gunnison of the United States Army...
. He was introduced to
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the
arroyosAn arroyo , also called a wash or draw, is a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally. As such, the term is similar to the word wadi. Arroyos can be natural or man-made. The term usually applies to a mountainous desert environment...
near his home. From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.
At age 16, McKenna moved to, and attended
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
in,
Los Altos, CaliforniaLos Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 27,693 according to the 2000 census. It is one of the wealthiest places in the United States.Most of the city's...
. He lived with family friends because his parents in Colorado wished him to have the benefit of highly rated California public schools. He was introduced to psychedelics through
The Doors of PerceptionThe Doors of Perception is a 1954 book by Aldous Huxley detailing his experiences when taking mescaline.The title comes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:- Quotations from "Doors" :...
by
Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963...
and the
Village Voice.
One of his early experiences with them came through
morning gloryMorning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics is in flux...
seeds (containing
LSALSA, also known as d-lysergic acid amide, d-lysergamide, ergine, and LA-111, is an alkaloid of the ergoline family that occurs in various species of vines of the Convolvulaceae and some species of fungi...
), which he claimed showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing."
In 1964, circumstances required McKenna to move to Lancaster, California, to live with a different set of family friends. In 1965, he graduated from
Antelope Valley High SchoolAntelope Valley High School is located in Lancaster, California and is part of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, in northernmost Los Angeles County, California. It was founded in 1912. It is located near the western edge of the Mojave Desert...
.
McKenna then enrolled in
U.C. BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
. He moved to
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
during the summer of 1965 before his classes began, was introduced that year to
cannabisCannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa L., Cannabis indica Lam., and Cannabis ruderalis Janisch. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for medicinal purposes, and as a...
by
Barry MeltonBarry "The Fish" Melton was the co-founder and original lead guitarist of Country Joe and The Fish. Barry appears on all the Country Joe and The Fish recordings and he also wrote some of the songs that the band recorded...
and tried
LSDLysergic acid diethylamide, LSD-25, LSD, formerly lysergide, commonly known as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family...
soon after.
As a freshman at
U.C. BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
McKenna participated in the
Tussman Experimental CollegeThe Tussman Experimental College was an American educational project at the University of California, Berkeley that lasted from 1965 to 1969.Founded by philosophy professor Joseph Tussman, about 300 students were chosen at random to participate....
, a short-lived two-year program on the Berkeley campus. He graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Conservation.
Adult life
He spent the years after his graduation teaching English in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, traveling through
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
collecting
butterfliesA butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. Most species are day-flying so...
for biological supply companies.
Following the death of his mother in 1971, Terence, his brother
DennisDennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist and author. His research led to the development of natural products for Aveda Corporation as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored numerous scientific articles and books, including co-authoring the book...
, and three friends traveled to the Colombian Amazon in search of oo-koo-hé, a plant preparation containing
DMTDimethyltryptamine is a naturally-occurring tryptamine and potent psychedelic drug, found not only in many plants, but also in trace amounts in the human body where its natural function is undetermined. Structurally, it is analogous to the neurotransmitter serotonin and other psychedelic...
. Instead of oo-koo-hé they found various forms of
ayahuascaAyahuasca is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine-containing species of shrubs from the Psychotria genus...
and gigantic
psilocybe cubensisPsilocybe cubensis is a species of psychedelic mushroom whose principal active compounds are psilocybin and psilocin. Commonly called "Roomeyes", "Gold Caps" Psilocybe cubensis is a species of psychedelic mushroom whose principal active compounds are psilocybin and psilocin. Commonly called...
which became the new focus of the expedition. In
La ChorreraLa Chorrera is a town and municipality in the southern Colombian Department of Amazonas.The population is largely engaged in agricultural production, hunting, fishing, and banana and cassava growing....
, at the urging of his brother, he allowed himself to be the subject of a psychedelic experiment which he claimed put him in contact with
Logos' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
: an informative, divine voice he believed was universal to visionary religious experience. The revelations of this voice, and his brother's peculiar experience during the experiment, prompted him to explore the structure of an
early formThe King Wen sequence of the I Ching or Yi Jing is a series of sixty-four binary figures , each composed of 6 lines, either solid or broken ....
of the
I ChingThe I Ching , “Yì Jīng” , Classic of Changes or Book of Changes; also called Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book contains a divination system comparable to Western geomancy or the West African Ifá system...
, which led to his "Novelty Theory". These ideas were explored extensively by Terence and Dennis in their 1975 book
The Invisible Landscape - Mind Hallucinogens and The I Ching.
In the early 1980s, McKenna began to speak publicly on the topic of psychedelic drugs, lecturing extensively and conducting weekend workshops. Though somewhat associated with the
New AgeThe New Age is a decentralized Western social and spiritual movement that seeks "Universal Truth" and the attainment of the highest individual human potential. It includes aspects of cosmology, astrology, esotericism, alternative medicine, music, collectivism, sustainability, and nature...
or
human potential movementThe Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in most people...
, McKenna himself had little patience for New Age sensibilities, repeatedly stressing the importance of the primacy of felt experience as opposed to dogmatic ideologies.
Timothy LearyDr. Timothy Francis Leary was an American writer, psychologist, futurist, advocate of psychedelic drug research, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. An icon of 1960s counterculture, Leary is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic, spiritual and emotional...
once introduced him as "one of the five or six most important people on the planet". He soon became a fixture of popular counterculture, and his popularity continued to grow, culminating in the early to mid 1990's with the publication of several books such as
True Hallucinations (which relates the tale of his 1971 experience at
La ChorreraLa Chorrera is a town and municipality in the southern Colombian Department of Amazonas.The population is largely engaged in agricultural production, hunting, fishing, and banana and cassava growing....
),
Food of the Gods and
The Archaic Revival. He became a popular personality in the psychedelic rave/dance scene of the early 1990s, with frequent spoken word performances at
raveRave or rave party is a term first used in the 1980s and 90s to describe dance parties with fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties DJs and other performers play Electronic Dance Music...
s and contributions to psychedelic and
goa tranceGoa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of the Goa state in India in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of...
albums by
The ShamenThe Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, by Colin Angus , Derek McKenzie , Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act...
,
Spacetime Continuum'Jonah Sharp' alias Spacetime Continuum is a producer of electronic music. After starting his musical career as a jazz drummer in London, UK, he moved to San Francisco, USA. During the 1990s Sharp released a series of albums on the Astralwerks record label...
,
Alien ProjectAlien Project is the psychedelic trance artist Ari Linker from Tel Aviv, Israel. He has been DJing and producing music since 1994, and his sound has evolved into a recognizably upbeat psytrance sound....
,
CapsulaCapsula are an indie rock/garage rock band from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their name is the Spanish word for capsule and derives from the David Bowie song "Space Oddity"....
,
EntheogenicEntheogenic is a musical project consisting of Piers Oak-Rhind and Helmut Glavar that crosses musical style boundaries. It mixes coloristic electrophonics with impressionistic orchestra-like sound....
, Zuvuya,
ShpongleShpongle is a psychedelic downtempo or Psybient music project from the United Kingdom. The core members are Simon Posford and Raja Ram , but they often collaborate with other artists. Their sound has sampled eastern ethnic instruments and western contemporary synthesizer-based psychedelic music...
, and Shakti Twins. His speeches were (and continue to be) sampled by many others. In 1994 he appeared as a speaker at the
Starwood FestivalThe Starwood Festival is a six-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in mid- to late July, currently in Sherman, New York. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops...
, which was documented in the book
Tripping by Charles Hayes (his lectures were produced on both cassette tape and CD).
McKenna was a contemporary and colleague of
chaos mathematicianChaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of...
Ralph AbrahamRalph H. Abraham is an American mathematician. He has been a member of the mathematics department at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 1968.- Life and work :...
and
biologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
Rupert SheldrakeRupert Sheldrake is a British former biochemist and plant physiologist who proposed a nonstandard account of morphogenesis and now researches in areas ranging from crystal melting points to parapsychology...
(creator of the theory of "morphogenetic fields", not to be confused with the
mainstream usage of the same termIn developmental biology, a morphogenetic field is a group of cells able to respond to discrete, localized biochemical signals leading to the development of specific morphological structures or organs. The spatial and temporal extent of the embryonic fields are dynamic, and within the field is a...
), and conducted several public debates known as
trialogues with them, from the late 1980s up until his death. Books which contained transcriptions of some of these events were published. He was also a friend and associate of
Ralph MetznerRalph Metzner Ph.D. , is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert . Dr...
, Nicole Maxwell, and
Riane EislerRiane Tennenhaus Eisler is an Austrian born American scholar, writer, and social activist. Born in Vienna ca. 1937, her familyfled from the Nazis to Cuba when she was a child; she later emigrated to the United States. She has degrees in...
, participating in joint workshops and symposia with them. He was a personal friend of
Tom RobbinsThomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins is an American author. His novels are abstract, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details...
, and influenced the thought of numerous
scientistA scientist, in the broadest sense, is any person who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the...
s,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
s,
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
s, and entertainers, including comedian
Bill HicksWilliam Melvin "Bill" Hicks was a seminal American stand-up comedian and social critic. His humor challenged mainstream beliefs, aiming to "enlighten people to think for themselves." Hicks used a ribald approach to express his material, describing himself as "Chomsky with dick jokes." His jokes...
, whose routines concerning psychedelic drugs drew heavily from McKenna's works. He is also the inspiration for the
Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
character Dr. Jacoby.
In addition to psychedelic drugs, McKenna spoke on the subjects of
virtual realityVirtual reality is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world...
(which he saw as a way to artistically communicate the experience of psychedelics), techno-paganism,
artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
,
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
, extraterrestrials, and aesthetic theory (art/visual experience as
information-- representing the significance of hallucinatory visions experienced under the influence of psychedelics).
McKenna also co-founded Botanical Dimensions with Kathleen Harrison (ethnobotanist) (his colleague and wife of 17 years), a non-profit ethnobotanical preserve on the island of
HawaiiThe Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the U.S. State of Hawaii in the North Pacific Ocean...
, where he lived for many years before he died. Before moving to Hawaii permanently, McKenna split his time between Hawaii and a town called
OccidentalOccidental is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,272 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Occidental is located at...
, located in the
redwood-Trees:Conifers* Family Cupressaceae ** Sequoia sempervirens - Coast Redwood** Sequoiadendron giganteum - Giant Sequoia** Metasequoia glyptostroboides - Dawn Redwood** Cryptomeria japonica - Sugi* Family Pinaceae...
-studded hills of
Sonoma County, CaliforniaSonoma County, located on the northern coast of California, is one of the northernmost counties of the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Its population as of July 2008 is estimated at 466,741 by the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Its population at the 2000...
, a town unique for its high concentration of artistic notables, including
Tom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
and
Mickey HartMickey Hart is a percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
.
Last interview
Erik DavisErik Davis is a North American social historian, cultural critic, essayist and lecturer.He is noted for his study of the history of technology and society and his essays about the fate of the individual in the dawning posthuman era...
, author of the book
TechGnosis, conducted what would be the last interview with McKenna in October and early November 1999. This interview was held in preparation for a profile featured in
Wired Magazine in 2000, entitled "Terence McKenna's Last Trip." Erik Davis later published larger excerpts from this interview at his site,
techgnosis.com, and the recorded interview has also been released on CD. Commenting on the reality of his own death, McKenna said during the interview:
Death
A longtime sufferer of
migraineMigraine is a neurological syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, severe headaches, and nausea. Physiologically, the migraine headache is a neurological condition more common to women than to men. The word migraine was borrowed from Old French migraigne...
s, in mid-1999 McKenna returned to his home on the big island of Hawaii after a long lecturing tour. He began to suffer from increasingly painful headaches. This culminated in three brain seizures in one night, which he claimed were the most powerful psychedelic experiences he had ever known. Upon his emergency trip to the hospital on Oahu, Terence was diagnosed with
glioblastoma multiformeGlioblastoma multiforme is the most common and most aggressive type of primary brain tumor in humans, involving glial cells and accounting for 52% of all parenchymal brain tumor cases and 20% of all intracranial tumors. Despite being the most prevalent form of primary brain tumor, GBMs occur in...
, a highly aggressive form of
brain cancerA brain tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within the brain or inside the skull, which can be cancerous or non-cancerous .It is defined as any intracranial tumor created by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division, normally either in the brain itself , in the cranial nerves...
. For the next several months he underwent various treatments, including experimental
gamma knifeA gamma knife is a device used to treat brain tumors with a high dose of radiation therapy in one day. The device was invented at the Karolinska Institute in 1967 by Lars Leksell, a Swedish neurosurgeon....
radiation treatment. He died on April 3, 2000, at the age of 53, with his loved ones at his bedside. He was survived by his brother
DennisDennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist and author. His research led to the development of natural products for Aveda Corporation as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored numerous scientific articles and books, including co-authoring the book...
, his son Finn, and his daughter Klea.
The library fire
On February 7, 2007, McKenna's library of rare books and personal notes was destroyed in a fire which burned offices belonging to Big Sur's
Esalen InstituteEsalen Institute is a retreat center in Big Sur, California, United States, for humanistic alternative education and a nonprofit organization devoted to multidisciplinary studies ordinarily neglected or unfavored by traditional academia "in subjects ranging from meditation to massage, yoga,...
storing the collection. An
indexIn museums and archives, the collection of objects or material is normally catalogued in a collection catalog . Traditionally this was done using a card index, but nowadays it is normally implemented using a computerized database and may even be made available online.- External links :* from the...
maintained by his brother
DennisDennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist and author. His research led to the development of natural products for Aveda Corporation as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored numerous scientific articles and books, including co-authoring the book...
survives, though little else.
Ideas
Terence McKenna advocated the exploration of altered states of mind via the ingestion of naturally occurring psychedelic substances. For example, and in particular, as facilitated by the ingestion of high doses of psychedelic mushrooms, and
DMTDimethyltryptamine is a naturally-occurring tryptamine and potent psychedelic drug, found not only in many plants, but also in trace amounts in the human body where its natural function is undetermined. Structurally, it is analogous to the neurotransmitter serotonin and other psychedelic...
, which he believed was the apotheosis of the psychedelic experience. He spoke of the "jeweled, self-dribbling basketballs" or "self-transforming machine elves" that one encounters in that state.
Although he avoided giving his allegiance to any one interpretation (part of his rejection of
monotheismIn theology, monotheism is the belief that only one god exists. The concept of "monotheism" tends to be dominated by the concept of God in the Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the Platonic concept of God as put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite...
), he was open to the idea of psychedelics as being "trans-dimensional travel"; literally, enabling an individual to encounter what could be
aliensExtraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from planet Earth. The existence of life outside the planet is theoretical and all assertions of such life remain disputed....
,
ancestorAn ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....
s, or
spiritThe English word "spirit" has many differing meanings and connotations, but commonly refers to a supernatural being or essence — transcendent and therefore metaphysical in its nature: the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as "the non-physical part of a person"...
s of earth. He remained opposed to most forms of organized religion or
guruA guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . As a principle for the development of consciousness it leads the creation from unreality to reality, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge...
-based forms of spiritual awakening.
Philosophically and religiously, he expressed admiration for
Marshall McLuhanHerbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory.McLuhan is known for the...
,
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man...
, Gnostic Christianity,
Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead, OM was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education. He co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell.-Life:Whitehead was born in...
,
AlchemyAlchemy is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties...
, and
James JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish expatriate author, playwright and poet of the 20th century. He is known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of...
(calling
Finnegans WakeFinnegans Wake is a work of comic fiction by Irish author James Joyce, significant for an experimental style, and its resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of 17 years, and published in 1939, two years before the...
"the quintessential work of art, or at least work of literature of the 20th century").
The "Stoned Ape" hypothesis of human evolution
McKenna hypothesized that as the North African jungles receded and gave way to savannas and grasslands near the end of the most recent ice age, a branch of our tree-dwelling primate ancestors left the forest canopy and began to live in the open areas outside of the forest. There they experimented with new varieties of foods as they adapted, physically and mentally, to their new environment.
Among the new food items found in this new environment were psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing near the dung of ungulate herds that occupied the savannas and grasslands at that time. McKenna, referencing the research of Roland L. Fisher, claimed that enhancement of visual acuity was an effect of psilocybin at low doses, and supposed that this would have conferred an adaptive advantage. He also argued that the effects of slightly larger doses, including sexual arousal, and in still larger doses, ecstatic hallucinations and
glossolalia-Etymology:'Glossolalia' is constructed from the Greek word γλωσσολαλιά, itself is a compound of the words γλῶσσα and λαλεῖν . The term 'speaking in tongues' is a translation of these two components of the same word...
— gave selective evolutionary advantages to members of those tribes who partook of it. There were many changes caused by the introduction of this psychoactive mushroom to the primate diet. McKenna hypothesizes, for instance, that
synesthesiaSynesthesia —from the Ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation"—is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
(the blurring of boundaries between the senses) caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language: the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the use of vocal sounds.
About 12,000 years ago, further climate changes removed psilocybin-containing mushrooms from the human diet. McKenna argued that this event resulted in a new set of profound changes in our species as we reverted to the previous brutal primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed by frequent consumption of psilocybin.
Novelty theory and "Time Wave: Zero Point"
One of McKenna's ideas is known as novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the
AmazonThe Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The basin is located mainly in Brazil, but also stretches into Peru and several other countries. The South American rain forest of the Amazon is the largest in the world, covering about...
at
La ChorreraLa Chorrera is a town and municipality in the southern Colombian Department of Amazonas.The population is largely engaged in agricultural production, hunting, fishing, and banana and cassava growing....
led him to closely study the
King Wen sequenceThe King Wen sequence of the I Ching or Yi Jing is a series of sixty-four binary figures , each composed of 6 lines, either solid or broken ....
of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves
ontologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations...
,
extropyThe term extropy, coined by Tom Bell and defined by Max More in January 1988, as "the extent of a living or organizational system's intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy, life, experience, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." Extropy expresses a metaphor, rather than...
, and
eschatologyEschatology is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what are believed to be the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world...
.
The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by
Max MoreMax More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies....
meaning the opposite of
entropyEntropy is a concept of information maintaining great importance in physics, chemistry, and information theory...
). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a
fractalA fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases and is supposed to represent a model of history's most important events.
The algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or
extropyThe term extropy, coined by Tom Bell and defined by Max More in January 1988, as "the extent of a living or organizational system's intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy, life, experience, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." Extropy expresses a metaphor, rather than...
) could occur.
MillenariansMillenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed...
give more credence to Novelty theory as a way to predict the future (especially regarding 2012) than McKenna himself. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but it hits an
asymptoteIn geometry, an asymptote of a curve is a way of describing its behavior far away from the origin by comparing it to another curve. Specifically, the second curve is an asymptote of the first if distance between the two approaches 0 as the points being considered tend to infinity. Informally, this...
in the middle of November, 2012. After his discovery of other doomsday theories that would take place on exactly December 21, 2012, he simply bumped up the date of "doomsday". This statement is contested, however, by McKenna's own mouth when during a lecture he said,
In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. This is also the date on which the Mayan long calendar ends one cycle through the zodiac signs, then it begins a new 26,000 year cycle through the next era, or the Age of Peace. The
technological singularityTechnological singularity is a term used with varying meanings related to self-improving artificial intelligence, superintelligence, breakdowns in the predictability of the future, accelerating change of the exponential or superexponential/catastrophic sort, and more generic "big events" in...
concept parallels this, only at a date roughly three decades later.
Author Steve Wilson has stated that his reluctance to accept this technological endpoint was shattered when reading of the
Adam (robot)Adam is a laboratory robot created and developed by the Computational Biology research group at Aberystwyth University. As a prototype for a "robot scientist", Adam is able to perform independent experiments to test hypotheses and interpret findings without human guidance...
experiment's success. Since endpoint theory needs the creation of machines that can design and program other machines for the final stages to be possible (otherwise the slowness of human beings will make it impossible for such technological novelty to be achieved), this experiment is a major step towards practical artificial intelligence.
Spoken word
- TechnoPagans at the End of History (transcription of rap with Mark Pesce
Mark Pesce, one of the early pioneers in Virtual Reality is a writer, researcher and teacher. The co-inventor of VRML, he is the author of five books and numerous papers on the future of technology....
from 1998)
- Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines (1999)
- Alien Dreamtime with Spacetime Continuum
'Jonah Sharp' alias Spacetime Continuum is a producer of electronic music. After starting his musical career as a jazz drummer in London, UK, he moved to San Francisco, USA. During the 1990s Sharp released a series of albums on the Astralwerks record label...
& Stephen KentStephen Kent, Steven Kent, or Steve Kent may refer to:* Stephen Kent , didgeridoo/ambient musician* Stephen A. Kent, Canadian religious scholar* Stephen Kent , University of Chicago chemist...
(Magic Carpet Media) (CD)
- Conversations on the Edge of Magic (1994) (CD & Cassette) ACE
The Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC is an American organization based in Northeastern Ohio which produces events, books, and recorded media in the fields of "magic, mind-sciences, alternative lifestyles, comparative religion/spirituality, entertainment, holistic healing, and related...
- Rap-Dancing Into the Third Millennium (1994) (Cassette) (Re-issued on CD as The Quintessential Hallucinogen) ACE
The Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC is an American organization based in Northeastern Ohio which produces events, books, and recorded media in the fields of "magic, mind-sciences, alternative lifestyles, comparative religion/spirituality, entertainment, holistic healing, and related...
- Packing For the Long Strange Trip (1994) (Cassette) ACE
The Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC is an American organization based in Northeastern Ohio which produces events, books, and recorded media in the fields of "magic, mind-sciences, alternative lifestyles, comparative religion/spirituality, entertainment, holistic healing, and related...
- Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show which deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate either to the paranormal, or to alleged conspiracies. It was created by Art Bell, airs seven nights a week 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m...
with Art BellArthur W. "Art" Bell, III is an American broadcaster and author, known primarily as one of the founders and original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. He also created and formerly hosted its companion show, Dreamland. Semi-retired from Coast to Coast AM since 2003, he...
, broadcast on May 22, 1997, Five hour interview covering various topics
Discography
- Re : Evolution with The Shamen
The Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, by Colin Angus , Derek McKenzie , Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act...
(1992)
- Alien Dreamtime with Spacetime Continuum
'Jonah Sharp' alias Spacetime Continuum is a producer of electronic music. After starting his musical career as a jazz drummer in London, UK, he moved to San Francisco, USA. During the 1990s Sharp released a series of albums on the Astralwerks record label...
& Stephen KentStephen Kent, Steven Kent, or Steve Kent may refer to:* Stephen Kent , didgeridoo/ambient musician* Stephen A. Kent, Canadian religious scholar* Stephen Kent , University of Chicago chemist...
(Magic Carpet Media) (DVD)
- 2009 - Cognition Factor (2009)
See also
- Machine Elf
Machine elves is a term coined by the late ethnobotanist, writer and philosopher Terence McKenna to describe the apparent entities that some people claimed to become aware of after having taken tryptamine based psychedelic drugs, especially DMT...
- Dominator culture
Dominator culture is a term coined by futurist and writer Riane Eisler. This term first appears in her book The Chalice and the Blade . This book outlines in detail her theory of hierarchical dominator cultures vs...
- List of notable brain tumor patients
- Ethnomycology
Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi , and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology...
- Exopheromone
Exopheromone is a term coined by Terence McKenna, proposed in his book Food of the Gods for the controversial idea of chemical signals between members of different species, as opposed to among conspecifics...
- Wade Davis
Edmund Wade Davis is a noted Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants...
External links
Writings online
Audio and video resources