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Terence McKenna - Didn't use mushrooms from '88 until he died

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That's according to his brother Dennis and other close friends who've known all this time. Terence suffered a devestating trip in 1988 and never really recovered by the sounds of it; the details are not really known except by his partner at the time, but basically the mushroom that had been his teacher turned on him, forcing Terence to confront his self and this plunged Terence into panic. He used DMT and Ayahuasca only on occassion after that too. This is significant because from 1988 until his death he continued to lecture and put on his Terence persona of '5 dried grams in silent darkness' whilst actually internally struggling with the experience he'd had.

These revelations will be in Dennis McKenna's book coming out soon, and long time friend Bruce Damer gave a reading of some of these snippets, as well as his own thoughts on Terence, in a podcast in the Psychedelic Salon. This has since been removed at the request of Dennis (something about the book), but the podcast is available here on youtube.

I highly recommend listening.. it might shock you to know that Terence was actually just a human being like everyone else :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO3LlYzQU4g
 
Thanks, will checkout the link when I have time. I do find this interesting as he is still quite langley revered within the psychedelic community.

I was just recently in Portugal at the boom festival and there was a lot of dialogue by terrence mckenna been used in presentation videos on DMT and other psychedelics

Edit:

That first paragraph quoted from the book and the reaction from McKenna to the experience is very similar to an experience I had with DMT back in 2009 that I feel I'm still recovering from in some way..
 
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I find it hilariously misguided what a pedestal certain corners of the psychedelic community put TM on. And that seems to be missing a portion of his whole point. He was a lunatic, albeit a charismatic one adept at public speaking. He wouldn't deny such, and would hopefully find laughable the seriousness which with people take him. I have heard from several reliable sources that he found his schtick, the persona he was paid to play, quite tiresome at times. But hey, it's a job. . .
 
Woah, intense
Thanks for the info...

I am a fan of his philosophical ramblings...but I was just telling someone that I very much do not agree with the suggestion he laid forth of : when in doubt, double the dose
believe he was referring to psilocybin too...Jesus that's not something anyone should take lightly...haphazardly doubling a dose of any psychedelic isn't a good suggestion imo, certainly not with psilocybin!
 
malakaix said:
That first paragraph quoted from the book and the reaction from McKenna to the experience is very similar to an experience I had with DMT back in 2009 that I feel I'm still recovering from in some way..
Click to expand...

As was said in the podcast sooner or later psychedelics will hold a mirror up to yourself.. and what you see behind you in the reflection can be absolutely terrifying. It's all fun and games until things get serious. The truth might not be what you expect it to be and I think Terence finally was confronted with that realization.

amanitadine said:
He was a lunatic, albeit a charismatic one adept at public speaking
Click to expand...

Agreed. Very much like Leary too. I always remind people you have got to be careful of someone who can hypnotize you with words. Unfortunately I think the public wants fairy tales and poetic stories, and McKenna knew this too. No one wants to hear the stark truth.. people want to be entertained! Which is fine but you got to be careful of what you say and the impact it's going to have on people.
 
I still think that even if he was a lunatic he was one of the most intelligent articulate, entertaining and stimulating lunatics ever to have graced a lecture hall. His social commentary on the state of western capitalism, environmental destruction and deforestation were and still are valid today and cut right to the heart of the problem.

His knowledge of art and religious history were deep, accurate and illuminating and his quirky humour was hilarious.

Many times during talks he pointed out that he had no guarantee that he wasn't completely off his rocker and advised us never to take him too seriously, he remains for me one of life's great influences and still inspires me to put primary experiential knowledge before anyone elses ideas, doctrines, theory's and ideology.

That is interesting about him having the big bad trip and being scared to go that deep with the mushroom again, I have had that same experience and am still grappling with things I was forced to confront on 8 grams in silent darkness, truly terrifying and the reason my knees knock before any psychedelic experience, but I am still glad i had that bad trip all those years ago and I'm still learning from it.

For a slice of classic Terrence in full flow just raving and pontificating at his very best watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXATbTd5rig&feature=plcp

God bless the old scallywag, may he rest in hyperspace peace.
 
Great find.

My intuition told me that Terrence was too intelligent to honestly buy a lot of his own shtick...still sad to hear that he felt trapped in the public persona.
 
Ha not to surprising for me, i've always found mushrooms fair to rough to ever enjoy and i've been known to push the bounds with everything and then some...

A man who knows he may well be insane and fully warns other beforehand? Sounds like a man after my own heart.... ;)
 
webbykevin said:
His social commentary on the state of western capitalism, environmental destruction and deforestation were and still are valid today and cut right to the heart of the problem.
Click to expand...

Yeh I'll agree with that definitely. I love his rants on those topic areas.. it's where his skill as an orator was most certainly shining brightly.
 
Like In 05 I ate like 4 grams of mushrooms the very first time I had ever taken them. I was smoking meth pot painkillerts cigs XTC drugs like that but when I did the mushrooms. I could see veins in the toilot and I was never the same after that. I'm sacred to hell to do any acid or any other potent psych drug. Maybe there's a connection there where it wasn't the ICE that made me flip out but the mushrooms did. I lost everything when that happened. Was locked in jail for three months and I didn't even know how to use the phone. And ever since then I have never really been the same.
 
amanitadine said:
He was a lunatic, albeit a charismatic one adept at public speaking. He wouldn't deny such, and would hopefully find laughable the seriousness which with people take him.
Click to expand...

Exactly! He himself knew there were a lot of ideas, and ideas only, that he was throwing out to be enjoyed but not clung too. Sort of just to stir up the mind, not claiming truth. I have like TM since 1992. Found his books very entertaining and left it at that. I loved the speculations and the humor. Good enough for me and I am glad he did what he did. But here in 2012 some things I read (like this post title) can get to be too much. I have an interview from a '99 version of an Entheogen Review where he said although he wasn't taking mushrooms he was taking psilocybin. This is when he already had a brain tumor. So he was tripping till the end. I have seen this post on a couple of boards, but this is the only one I am a member of and can comment on.

And Dennis, who use to also laugh at the ideas (or so it seemed) is bringing the stuff up again because A) it is good stuff and B) there is still a living to be had from it. I support Dennis though and will gladly read anything put out.
 
Maybe he recognized in '88 that he instead of summoning the logos and splicing DMT into his DNA at La Chorerra or whatever the hell he was actually just "tripping balls"? ;)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed his schtick, I saw him speak several times in the 90's, and even went to the now historic Palenque entheobotany seminars with him, Dennis, the shulgins, ott, etc, and had a blast, but it was still an act and a job. He and Dennis were an odd pairing, but strangely complimentary, both in approaches and little brother big brother dynamics. I saw TM once hold an audience rapt for 5 hours straight, myself included, and no tripping balls necessary.

Edit - great post Jack, posted at the same time
 
I'm pretty sure mushrooms grow right out of the grown for most of the world, it's very strange to imagine that nobody would have ever noticed their activity.
 
^ says the guy on the Oregon coast heheh. "native" psilocybes are a comparative rarity, and thus the have exploded with human's movements and activities. Even still, they are comparatively rare save for the PNW and Central America, and aren't exactly an appetizing food source. . .growing out of decomposing debris and manure, bitter taste, small, slimy, and insignificant. I don't doubt that humans had contact with them over the years preceding the anecdotes relayed by Cortez and crew, but I'm also not sure what you are saying. . .
 
Wow, I didn't know that D n T's book was the first one! I thought it was just highly influential; I retract my statement :)
 
Yup, Oss and Oeric was the shot heard round the world, at least as far as cultivation of cubensis went ;) and terrence parading around in his DMT shirt, making what was then a very rare substance achieve forbidden fruit status, much coveted. I would very occasionally encounter the old waxy orange indole-reeking stuff but it was exceedingly rare. I think I actually smoked 5-MeO first, in like 1992, ordered from Acros Organics, via Fisher Scientific, along with a few grams of ketamine HCl. Easy back then. . .they had a minimum order and so I threw in a seperatory funnel and nobody batted an eye. It took several more orders before they requested more information from me hahahaha
 
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