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Terence Mckenna and his ideas today

willow11 said:
Allegedly Dennis merged harmine to his DNA in La Chorrera- I cN'T remember the exact specirfics of the machine they used, but I know a living mushroom was kind of like the rocket fuel. He also went completely insane for two weeks. A brilliantly weird psychedelic tale, but.....??

*kyle's jewish moms voice* What what what ?

so your saying he fused a MAOI to his DNA with a machine. so your saying he managed to limit his body from metabolising serotonin, dopamine, melatonin and many hallucinogens for an extended period of time. No wonder he went insane.

have you got links or any more information on this willow ? amazing .........
 
^Read The Invisible Landscape or True Hallucinations by the brothers McKenna for more information. The idea went as follows- upon ingesting psilocybe shrooms in the Amazon, Dennis emmitted a strange, unearthly rasping tone. They 'ascertained' that it was the resonant frequency of psycilocybin. Further conjecture lead them to (somehow) believe that by using a living mushroom as a machine, and with harmine/ayahusca and mushrooms already present in the body, by emitting the same rasping buzz at the mushroom-machine, a standing wave would be created (resonant frequency feedback) which would by some arcane process, allow the harmine/b-carboline to fuse permanently with Dennis' DNA. The whole thing is more a fascinating adventure tale then anything; plausible if you are on mushrooms themselves, and scinetifically interesting- but whther its fact, who knows?

The end result was that Dennis was locked in a psychedelic/psychotic state for two weeks- he believed he was telepathic, and could 'phone' anyone in the world with his mind, he had ocntinuous prophetic visions, and basically raved on, slowly abating after a fortnight. Terence for some reason stayed awake for 9 nine days staright (they had stopped taking mushrooms by then) going through something like a complete defrag of his brain, whereby a "mushroom" spoke to him- this same voice remained with him for his whole life. He also saw a UFO :) So whetehr they did what they believed is imposible to say; but regardless, something VERY strange did happen to the McKenna's. They ended up being airlifted out, as their travelling companions were quite rightfully concerned for their sanity. Both returned to 'baseline'.

Read the two books; the experience I just mentioned is the formation of the beginning of all Terence's ideas- the Timewave Zero theory, mushroom cultivation (he cultivated mushrooms orignally from the spores of the same mushrooms they'd encountered in the amazon) etc. As always, the tales are told with much self-irony and wit, as well as that convincing, nerdy way Terence has of expressing really far out ideas as plausible. :)
 
I always thought Mckenna talks and ideas were delusional spaced out and boring I never could listen to more then a couple of minutes of his raps.

But I have been reading some stuff on how he was the first on to bring Psilocybe cubensis out of the wild and cultivate it, and also discover the grain casting technique for growing mushrooms in the process of doing it. That is an amazing discovery.
Is this true have other people heard of this?
 
swilow said:
His voice- I used to find it unbelievably annoying (too much shpongle :)) but after listening to heaps of his oratories and reading his books, it grew on me- he has a strange hypnotic ccadence to his voice.

listening to him speak on psychedelics is beautiful...

actually, the number of PDers who think he's a mere nut kind of surprises me. personally, i think terrence had many great ideas. also, i think he was inarguably a great orator with a dizzying vocabulary, which is always a plus. i have many of his speeches memorized, or damn near.

:]
 
squerll said:
I always thought Mckenna talks and ideas were delusional spaced out and boring I never could listen to more then a couple of minutes of his raps.

But I have been reading some stuff on how he was the first on to bring Psilocybe cubensis out of the wild and cultivate it, and also discover the grain casting technique for growing mushrooms in the process of doing it. That is an amazing discovery.
Is this true have other people heard of this?

Yup, him and his borther were the first people to develop a way to mass grow psilocybin mushrooms. I believe it had been achieved in the laboratory in the '60's but I don't think he was the first to use the grain substrate idea. AFAIK he heard of that and used/tried it before giving up....apparently, depressed, he gave up on his mushroom shed, to return, with the intent of cleaning it, to find that there were mushrooms everywhere. The first spores prints they used for cultivation were from the same mushrooms they had found in the Amazon jungle.
 
This gives me a new respect for Mckenna.
The guy went to Columbia went out in the jungle and tripped his face of for weeks or months comes out with the fist Amazonian cubensis spore print for private use and was the fist to privately grow it.

That is bad ass..!! A true pioneer.
 
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Proper credit really goes to R.G. Wasson, an amateur ethnobotanist who is considered the person to "re-discover" ritual use of mushrooms in Mexico. Roger Heim, a mycologist, collected specimens with Wasson, cultivated them, and then Albert Hofmann identified psilocin and psilocybin as the active component.

Google it.
 
squerll said:
A true pioneer.

Indeed he was. I'm glad you have a new found respect for the guy. What an extraordinary human being he was. :)

He brought back quite a bit.
 
I am impressed with the Amazonian cubensis even if it wasn’t the first psilocin mushrooms grown and discoverd it is the most popular today for every day average Joe production and the first one on a decent scale the average person could produce.

Yes, Wasson was the first guy to record the shrooms and make the famous. Wasson is cool but I don’t go along with his fly agric and the root of all religion theories they seem very amaturistic and far fetched. And the “re-discover” ritual use of mushrooms I guess you could call Maria Sabina uses ritualistic but not ancient or native.
Wasson got the shrooms made them famous but most of the rest of his research is a little lacking a little more professional then McKenna but as far as facts go about in the same category.

To start the home growth of Amazonian cubensis is a big deal that is by far one of the most grown and eaten shrooms. I have hard of a lot other types of cubensis over the past few years but the Amazonian one have been around and going for a while.
 
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^He seemed to have a 'problem' or at least dislike phenthylamines, I believe as he felt the euphoria often associated is perhaps too simple to achieve. Also he was a total shroomhead so....:)

retired_chemist said:
Proper credit really goes to R.G. Wasson, an amateur ethnobotanist who is considered the person to "re-discover" ritual use of mushrooms in Mexico. Roger Heim, a mycologist, collected specimens with Wasson, cultivated them, and then Albert Hofmann identified psilocin and psilocybin as the active component.

Google it.

Yeah, and in effectively telling the entire world about the secret 'magic mushroom cult' in "Mexico" really helped the people of Oaxaca. Maria Sabina was attacked several times, and her house was burned down. She didn't like the newcomers. Wasson severely manipulated her; those inimitable photos of Sabina conducting the ceremony were actually colour, but Wasson thought that the black-and-white added more 'intrigue' to the tale. Make no mistakes, this was a Wall Street banker who, whilst discovering the mushroom 'cult', effectively destroyed it. I really have very little respect for R. Gordon Wasson. Hofmann, I respect immensely, but I don't feel much for a rich guy plundering a possibly very old belief system just to get the respect of academia.
 
As I understand it Maria Sabina had a vision that Wasson would come and introduce mushrooms to the rest of the world. She participated voluntarily. Wasson also did not reveal her real identity, and later greatly regretted his role in the whole affair. It was really the pilgrimages of the likes of Timothy Leary and many hippies that caused most of the problems.

But in any event, animosity for bankers as opposed to hippies aside, I was merely pointing out the first people to bring mushrooms out of the wild and cultivate and study them.
 
Terence was a great guy. It doesn't matter if some of his ideas were "wrong" or a little out-there, I just love listening to the guy speak. If you haven't, you should check out "Light of 3rd Millenium" (recorded in Chicago), it's probably my favorite of his spoken-word mp3s. "Culture and Ideology are not your friends"... what great and smart words, truer stuff has never been said.
 
retired_chemist said:
As I understand it Maria Sabina had a vision that Wasson would come and introduce mushrooms to the rest of the world. She participated voluntarily. Wasson also did not reveal her real identity, and later greatly regretted his role in the whole affair. It was really the pilgrimages of the likes of Timothy Leary and many hippies that caused most of the problems.

Well, AFAIK, Leary never actually visited Sabina, but yes, he did takes mushrooms in Mexico. Really, if you read the article about Sabina that he first published, I would think it wouldn't be too hard to find her. Of course he couldn't be aware how many people would seek out the mushrooms, but the fact he wanted to patent psilocybin suggests that he saw a fair degree of possibility in it as a substance. Also the fact that the artcile was even published suggest to me that he wanted notoriety in any case. He also used mushrooms before meeting Sabina to little psychic effect, and ate them with Valentina Wasson during an evening of boredome in Mexico. He also did the typical thing whereby he would 'turn people onto' the mushrooms when he returned with a nice collection. Any differences between 'hippies' and Wasson was pretty much in his head I think.

But in any event, animosity for bankers as opposed to hippies aside, I was merely pointing out the first people to bring mushrooms out of the wild and cultivate and study them.

Not to be picky, but I think that Maria Sabina was a person who was defintely bringing the mushrooms 'out of the wild' and studying them, and I am sure that many other people were doing so before her and possibly continue to do so. Really, what you mean is that Wasson was the first westerner to 'discover' the mushrooms. Other 'people' certainly had already. Also, the cultivation that Wasson and co. achieved was very painstaking and required a pretty sophisticated laborarotroy.
 
Hi, Terrence ad Dennis are friends of mine. for many years.

And yes it is true that Their book on psilocybian cultivation eventually led to the mass popular widespread cultivation which occurs today.

However, their methods were derived from the works of others who came before them. Roger Heim, Albert Hofmann, San Antoine, Steven Pollock and others.

The photographic images in Oss and Oeric book are by Jeremy Bigwood, and the illustrations by Terence Mckenna's ex-wife Kat Harrison and even ethnopharmologist and biologist, Jonathan Ott help contribute to the book.

If yo have patience and time then I suggest yo read my book on the History of Psilocybian Cultivation, a great learning tool about the history with unbelievable rare never before seen photographs of numerous collections of cultivated mushrooms.

http://www.mushroomjohn.org/cult.htm

Posted below are two pictures. One of me and Terence from Aerospace in Seattle in 2001 and a picture of me and Dennis and other ethnomycologists at the Gathering of the minds sympoisum in Orange County, California, in 1994.

This first image is of me, Jochen Gartz, Dennis McKenna and Jonathan Ott from 1994.
johngartzmckennaott1abc.jpg


And here is one of Me and Terence McKenna from Aero Space in 2001.
teranceandjohn111.jpg


mjshroomer
 
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I just spent about 15 minutes or more writing a response to this thread only to have the page tell me that I needed to sign in, after I already had signed in and then when I went to resign in and save the post, it disappeared form the page.

So I really am not going to rewrite it all over. I still have a lot of problems typing because of my broken arms and wrists.

I may try to respond later when I am in a better mood.


In the meantime, my photos of me and Terence and Dennis are pending approval, and if you want to learn about Maria Sabina and R. Gordon Wasson and Timothy Leary and others then read my book, Mushroom Pioneers at:

http://www.mushroomjohn.org/mpcover.html

And about the Mckenna's in the History of Psilocybian Mushroom Cultivation book,

http://www.mushroomjohn.org/cult1.html


I will also respond about Terence's wild alien spore theory which I debunked years ago in sharing my thoughts with Dennis McKenna.

mjshroomer
 
Hi Swilow

swilow said:
MJShroomer- click remember me when signing in, you shouldn't be logged out then.



I leave the sign in permanently on my computer so when I go to the page I am already signed in.

I do this because I have typed responses which took a while to think and go through my papers to make sure my response correct and I have had the resign in page come back on when I take a long time and have lost the text. I am very computer stupid although I have large website.

mjshroomer

Have a shroomy day. I am sorry, my sister just passed away and I am also suffering a house fall and have just last Friday sprained both my wrists at about the same time my sister died.

later
 
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