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Terence Mckenna and his ideas today

I'm not so sure he was insane at all, although I also think he made some definite msitakes in his presentation towards the end, which caused people to scoff at him. I do believe that we are approaching the point at which our technological and scientific acceleration is nearing the breaking point. It seems to me that we will HAVE to make some evolutionary jump, very soon, if we are to survive as a race. The obvious reason is that our environment is in the red zone, and will not be able to support us much longer, especially considering India and China, who are at the point now where their massive populations are becoming consumers of the world, but they're still at the point where they're going to go the cheapest route, which unfortunately is far from the most environmentally sound way of doing things. That combined with the increasing awareness of the collective mind that I seem to keep noticing within the general population, suggest to me that we need to change drastically in order to not die out cataclysmically.

The problem is that this sort of idea is, as far as I can tell, impossible to prove scientifically. So most people will reject it, and I can't say that I blame them at all.
 
McKenna, like Leary before him, took advantage of the pathetically eager acid freaks in order to wax lyrical about his delusional fantasies. Both of them poor academics and intolerable ego-maniacs.

He can fuck off back to Elf Land for all I care. And his voice is pure, unadulterated evil.

The Shpongle song with him in it, though, is pure, unadulterated bliss.

Funny, that.
 
Why does everybody love Terrance McKenna. He is a bit nuts. He is responsible for many of the crazy rumors people all too often throw around like fact. I'm always skeptical when some psychedelic info or guide has references to him.

I'm not a huge fan of Timothy O'Leary either. He turned LSD from a revered psychoanalytical tool, into a recreational drug (I'm speaking in extremes to make a point). I read Albert Hoffman's book LSD My Problem Child, and I agree with everything he says about Timothy O'Leary. Apparently a nice guy though.
 
I would have to say that McKenna was definitely not insane. He was just a very progressive thinker with a lot of crackpot ideas. The only thing that turns me off about him is that he always relates everything to drugs. No matter what he talks about, he works drugs into it somehow.

I really feel bad for him after hearing him talk about how he thinks that the 'elves' are at least somewhat real. I don't understand how a person with his intellectual capacity didn't realize that these hallucinations are just entirely fabrications of the mind. At some point you have to realize, "wow, I am really just tripping a lot!"
 
^^^^The boundaries between real and fake are blurred when you delve into the depths of it. He always insisted that these images were archetypatl, yet autonomous. Mitochondria lives in you- why not elves? They are hard to believe until you see and interact with them- after that you have no choice really.

Whose Tim O'Leary anhway?
 
Personally, I think that the majority of what I've read from Mckenna is just fun and fantastic drug inspired speculation. Psychedelics seem to inspire that sorta thing. However I think he had some good points , even if he was off in developement of the concepts.

Like his timewave idea, it's undeniable that we use technology to develope better technology. That's a feedback loop that could easily be described as Mckenna did in his timewave concept. Process IS time or at least defines it and "process" has undeniably increased in complexity oweing to the technology feedback. I think the problem with Mckennas idea is his attempt to attribute the develpement of our reality to the intrinsic nature of time instead of the nature of dynamical selfreferencing processes.
 
Wouldn't LSD and the psychedelic not have even been nearly as popular if it weren't for leary?
 
Heyoka said:
Personally, I think that the majority of what I've read from Mckenna is just fun and fantastic drug inspired speculation.
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I would have to agree that Mckenna isn't hurting anyone. He has one of the most powerful imaginations I have encountered in my lifetime. Folks who get all huffy and puffy about Mckenna must lack the basic ability to separate fact from fiction, on their own that is.

Owsely did more damage to LSD than Leary did also. Imagine how upset everyone here would be if some asshole synthed a very new and very powerful chemical and went around giving it away in pill form by the thousands (orange barrels). 30,000 are reported to have had the option of dosing this in one day at the human be in in '68. That is absolutely more dangerous than some asshole talking about dope to a bunch of dopes.

We all have the same inabilityt o keep our mouths shut. We post our experiences on the public internet. Leary has nothing on the Erowid super ubereilite drug aristocrates.

Juses Christ, Mckenna was more like Rene Descarte than the asshole he's made out to be. Mckenna had some really interesting ideas, and when you learn to not fear thinking for yourself, maybe you'll appreciate him and his ideas for what he is and they are.

Use you imagination. He (Mckenna and Descarte) did.:X
 
BreakingSet said:
Owsely did more damage to LSD than Leary did also. Imagine how upset everyone here would be if some asshole synthed a very new and very powerful chemical and went around giving it away in pill form by the thousands (orange barrels). 30,000 are reported to have had the option of dosing this in one day at the human be in in '68.
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Leary was a dumb ass but. That sounds awesome…!
 
I dunno actually how smart it is to read much of other peoples musings on matters psychedelic, particularly early on in your psychedelic career (if you will).
Would seem to me to potentially have an aspect which would set some kind of expectations which may or may not be met. Cannot see any value in that really.


Oh I never read anything by McKenna, what has he to say on how to be happier, which is pretty much everyones aim ?

From the impressions I get he simply goes on about what he's 'seen' and knows to be true.

But what is truth?


I shall return to collect the answers or lack of at some point in the future , hopefully !:D
 
TM was a true human being and one of the best writers/orators of the world of psychadelics and I think his theories and ideas have substantial credibility and meaning.
 
FreedomOfTheMind said:
TM was a true human being and one of the best writers/orators of the world of psychadelics and I think his theories and ideas have substantial credibility and meaning.
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Even I cannot agree that his theories are substantially credible. Like Descarte, I think Mckenna will prove to be a prolific dreamer in the schemes of tomorrow. Like Descarte, who was incorrect in many of his assuptions, Mckenna will one day be appreciated for being one of the first to apply thought to areas previously unexplored.

I just find it upsetting in all kinds of real ways that people who claim that they 'experiement' with substances to 'facilitate the opening and open-ness of mind' are so prone to being so closed up inside their opinions, cantankerous and mean opinions.

The guy is a little wacky, but so are a lot of visionary and artistic folks. And anyone with the inability to separate the literal from fiction have built some pretty nasty jail cells around themselves. That kind of rigidity kills.
 
Even I cannot agree that his theories are substantially credible. Like Descarte, I think Mckenna will prove to be a prolific dreamer in the schemes of tomorrow. Like Descarte, who was incorrect in many of his assuptions, Mckenna will one day be appreciated for being one of the first to apply thought to areas previously unexplored.
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Now that's a much better description (didn't know where he was going, but at least he took a step in a direction and reported his observations & musings in detail).

Best comparison I can think of is a scientist that moves into science fiction like Carl Sagan and his novel that spawned the film 'Contact'
 
I just mean that he was an explorer in a field that many people are scared to even dabble in. I mean we are still living in the Dark Ages when society tells us what we can and cannot put in our bodies. I may have overexaggerated before when i said all this theories have substantial credibility since obviously some of them are a little wrong (like the time wave theory) but the thought of using psychedelics for spiritual purposes, to expand the mind, to explore the inner vaults of the human psyche, to have beautiful, life enriching experiences, is just a very pure cause.

McKenna never sold out like Leary did, he always stayed true to his campaign of spreading the love and powers of psychedelics. Even though i love leary's 8 circuit model of conciousness and he was a great pioneer for LSD, he still was a media whore and ratted on several people in the anti-war movement to better his own position after they bailed him out of jail. McKenna, even though some of his ideas may be wacky, is a visionary in my eyes.
 
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