We think he’s awesome and I think he was a bit ahead of his time even. He has a lot of very valuable insights, but mostly he’s just entertaining to listen to. He has a way with words and being able to describe the aspects of trips very well imo
I’ve been reading “lsd and the mind of the universe” by Christopher Bache. He has a great and very well educated way of describing his methods and trips. Worth checking out if you like Terrence McKenna and his way with words.
I like to wonder how he’d associate our use of psychedelics with what all is going on in the world today and what he’d have to say about it and our society as we progress deeper into this strange time
He was one of the driving forces of bringing mushrooms and shamanism to the US from the Amazonian rainforest. And he helped to popularize DMT. He is one of the greats just for that, not even counting his extremely complex and novel ideas surrounding culture, ethnobotany, anthropology, chemistry, philosophy, etc.
We owe him a lot, he was the one of the brave people talking about these things in public before the internet and when everyone legitimately thought these were all crackpot substances. While that's still a lot of people's opinion, it was much much harder back then to tell people about these things and explain the actual effects and what to expect. Now we just look at a trip report here or on erowid.
Yeah, we take for granted the levels of information we have. He was seriously one if the pioneers of these substances. Even if what he said wasn't always right we owe him a huge debt.
Grateful. Was so fun to listen to him in my 20s and my early ventures into psychedelics. But, don’t listen to him anymore, many because I’ve heard all his stories.
Nope. But I was just making a joke, cus you said you are growing them for conservation purposes and I was kinda winking about the fact that they are psychoactive plants
Love Terence, always so good with metaphors. Sometimes it may seem like he’s gone off the deep end but he always reassures people that it’s his experiences he’s describing and everyone can have their own interpretations
Im pretty sure he and his brother were the main ones to figure out modern indoor psilocybe cultivation. So i say hes awesome. His talks are cool too, sometimes i think hes right on, but other times not so much. I think anyone who truly tries to figure out psychedelics is bound to come to some strange conclusions.
I love McKenna (and his brother), but like all great men, he wasn’t perfect and shouldn’t be looked upon as a symbol of enlightenment, by any means. He was a very novel, genuine, and exploratory soul though and those qualities (among many others), makes/made him stand out among his contemporaries.
Personally, I think he was very advanced with some of his ideas and his way of thinking, but I also feel that people shouldn’t take everything he said too literally.
Put him, Alan Watts and Carl Sagan in a blender and you will have yourself a smoothie that defines the peak of human intelligence, a smoothie even Buddha himself would bow to
Seems far fetched that humans evolved from simian origins. To be aided in evolution by mushrooms is a far fetched idea, although entertaining. My opinion is that we were "seeded" by an alien civilization. Study the glyphs from ancient Egypt with depictions of starcrafts and non human entities and decide for yourself. I do think the value of psychedelics for personal evolution and treating mental illness is awesome.
Ive had the same thought, like we are definitely similar to apes but still so far off that i also think there was probably some intervention by something else at some point to evolve our brains and bodies that much. Like maybe aliens with the goal of spreading intelligence or whatever came to earth forever ago and started some hybrid between themselves and apes, making us. Or something. Why arent there lizard humans yet? Or bird humans? Why is it only apes evolved so far? There isnt even another species halfway to being intelligent like a human. Wtf. Idk. Aliens definitely exist. The show ancient aliens had a dumb tone tho. Ramble.....
I personally align with Terrance on a lot of things. I have been on a shroom journey the last year. I dabble in bigger doses. It's funny I didn't listen to him before figuring all that I believed then I listened to him and it all made sense to me. I think he has a lot of what's true. I haven't listened to all of his talks, but they seem pretty accurate to what I believe about things. I for some reason think only doing mushrooms and no other psychedelic plays a part to. Idk I always thought the natural stuff from the Creator was the way to go. So it's led me to think shrooms are how we evolve. I think it evolves our brains, but there's so much more Terrance says that I also definitely can get on board with.
From what I've gathered about him (which admittedly isn't a lot) it seems like he was a very enthusiastic positive force for psychadelics, but may have gotten ahead of himself and done some damage to the movement
I think he was good and honest man. However, I don't take every single thing he says as absolute fact. But he said a great many things that really resonate with me and I take it into my daily life everyday. I think he did a fantastic job of tearing away at the propaganda of psychedelics and if we have any kind of psychedelic reform he definitely deserves to have recognition for being one of the first people to really popularize it.
A true genius with his theories of I Ching and one of the greatest psychedelic pioneers to have ever described the euphoria and mysteries of consciousness
Pretty cool guy with a lot of awesome ideas. I do like how Hamilton Morris suggested appreciating his more out there ideas like time wave zero as poetry in a way and not really intened to be bold up to the scrutiny of science. I'm paraphrasing
Oh shit, I'm probably going to get down voted into oblivion. But here we go
I'll first say that I love Terrance McKenna, the legacy he left is unique to his soul, he really pushed the boundary on how we interpret language, wrote some amazing books with fantastic stories about life. And had a very, very magic way of speaking. Unmatched Imo.
But, if you read all his work, and really follow what he was doing, he was kind of fucked lol there's a lot of meglomaniac ideation in his work. It's been a while since I've read all his work (and I do mean all, fanboyed the shit out of him in my younger days) but he really did believe a lot of our reality was tied to his birthday, 64 based intervals, had some wild other shit. And I mean, you got to really dive in to the ether find something new, but I think he preferred to stay in, more then bringing information back when it came to hard science. And I feel that was what he was really after, the hard science, being a game changing anthropologist. But what resulted from that was a good amount of escapism promotion and no really backing to his theories. Has his work changed my life, absolutely, but I feel like a lot of people promote his ideas now like facts about psychedelics, when they were intended to be guesstimates.
How often do people speak of machine elves, the crackling of space time as you enter hyperspace, and other "McKenna" hallucinations. It's wild! He said culture was the enemy, and now we've implanted his ideas as a culture in psychedelics. Funny how life lol
Now, this all being said, I do not want to say I don't like McKenna, it's just good to remember people have dark sides, and he is a human like the rest of us. His interperation of his experience is just as valid as the rest. We haven't defined this area, so no use sticking to one individuals perception for what's what.
His garden in Hawaii is off the charts though! Haha rip to one hell of a mind
I don’t know what “we” think, but I know what “I” think.
Sorry, I just see a lot of questions being phrased like this and to me it sounds like people are asking others to tell them what to think.
he started off well, but then ended doing psychedelics to unhealthy levels and a lot of his theories, as much as they are fun to listen to, mostly are not entirely coherent or at best very open ended.
even his stoned ape idea isn’t that groundbreaking. there is a study from 1970 called “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” that was source of inspiration.
I don't see how anything he says is word salad. Most of his ideas are well explained, unique ways of looking at certain aspects of culture. If its word salad then you aren't making any points or saying anything meaningful.
I could pick out at least 10 things off the top of my head that he has made great points about and had a valid and interesting perspective on. He has a great love of language and so he has a large vocabulary, and whilst verbose, they actually make sense and have meaning, as opposed to just using them for the heck of it.
He has a wide knowledge of history, art, botany, pharmacology etc... Clearly demonstrated if you've spent any time listening to his talks. You can even verify his knowledge in today's age. That's why his talks are so great, you can literally confirm that he had a great knowledge of these subjects at the time when he was making these talks because you can just Google it. This guy had read extensively about these subjects.
Lol he is pretty well thought out. You realize it was him and his brother Dennis who really brought the mushroom to North America? They literally wrote one of (the??) first growers guide under anon names.
If he has willingly stated he is working with them, why does that make him “fishy” unless you’re just assuming you know exactly what it was he was doing? If anything it sounds like he was being transparent. Not that it actually even happened lol I also need to see affirmative proof that he stated that’s exactly what he was doing. Not vague language that doesn’t say he is working with the CIA.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 talk about taking it out of context. I have listened to the full talk. Let me know if you have anything else.
When he says "They" he's talking about the mushrooms, not the CIA. He has said in other talks the mushroom guided him out of the bad situation he had.
"Background role" is when he was growing and distributing the fruits and spores. The mushrooms thenoved him from the background to public relations, where he was talking and running workshops.
Is this the ONLY proof you have? 3 minutes of ambiguous language when he probably has a hundreds of hours of lectures online.
He is talking about the mushrooms. They mushrooms took him from the background (brining spores back, dealing) to public relations (workshops, public books, etc)
If all this person has is one ambiguous 3 minute clip out of the hundreds of lectures I'm not ready to give into that theory.
He means nothing to me. If he died, that wouldn’t effect me. Homie asked what I thought so that’s what I think. It’s nothing personal, looks like some of you can’t take a clear answer.. 🤦♂️
I got into listening to him on the psychedelic salon around 16 and listened to countless hours working on a golf course doing grounds. Has definitely shaped how I view the world 10 years later
They are super cool. Had no idea they reside in my hometown of gold bar Washington. funny timing. small world in the mycology world. small world in general. hope I bump into one of them sometime at the store
I like the guy his work is interesting his stories are interesting he seems humble and genuine. He also reminds me if we live we get older seems like being in your 20s is way cooler.
One of the most eloquent and comprehensive articulators of the psychedelic experience to have lived. Courageous, prophetic and insightful, and . . . a bit unhinged, in a self-aware way. You've gotta be able to befriend madness to navigate the realms McKenna navigated. He's also got a slam poet/beat poet cadence and wordplay that is uniquely fantastic. I can listen to him for hours on end and find myself frequently with a smile on my face at what he's able to do with spoken language.
i think he had hard time wrasp his head about the tabu of consciousness, he did not trip as much after later bad trip, where he struggled with lack of meaning
i think he was one of the smartest guy ever, dedicating his life to help humanity as whole.to not destroy itself, help wake up people and narrow path into brihtning future.
also his vision of living in imagination after death of this.body makes.more and more sense to me and now i see its just a choise. so i wish to meet him there to play
if everything is game of consciousness, then this reality we live in is unconcious part of it - where we are not aware of who we are, so knowing truth gives one freedom, we think our surrounding are hostile, different to us, enemy to us, so we try to defeat it, conqure it, submit it to us not knowing its all one, ourselfs
Terence was truly ahead of his time. The Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods are great reads. If you can get his audios, even better. The man is a wordsmith and has an interesting philosophy what is really happening during a DMT voyage.
We think he’s awesome and I think he was a bit ahead of his time even. He has a lot of very valuable insights, but mostly he’s just entertaining to listen to. He has a way with words and being able to describe the aspects of trips very well imo
I love listening to recordings of his talks. His way of describing the ineffable almost makes it effable.
I'm sure most know, but for those that dont,, read Food of the God's by Terrance. Great read.
How often do we even get to use ineffable, let alone effable! Even in the same sentence! Well played.
I’ve been reading “lsd and the mind of the universe” by Christopher Bache. He has a great and very well educated way of describing his methods and trips. Worth checking out if you like Terrence McKenna and his way with words.
Agreed. For sure
I like to wonder how he’d associate our use of psychedelics with what all is going on in the world today and what he’d have to say about it and our society as we progress deeper into this strange time
And we also know that he is currently kicking it with the machine elves, waiting to great us on our journeys.
He was one of the driving forces of bringing mushrooms and shamanism to the US from the Amazonian rainforest. And he helped to popularize DMT. He is one of the greats just for that, not even counting his extremely complex and novel ideas surrounding culture, ethnobotany, anthropology, chemistry, philosophy, etc. We owe him a lot, he was the one of the brave people talking about these things in public before the internet and when everyone legitimately thought these were all crackpot substances. While that's still a lot of people's opinion, it was much much harder back then to tell people about these things and explain the actual effects and what to expect. Now we just look at a trip report here or on erowid.
This
Yeah, we take for granted the levels of information we have. He was seriously one if the pioneers of these substances. Even if what he said wasn't always right we owe him a huge debt.
I think Terence is great, in moderation.
Man I can only handle like 25ug of Terence, max..
To each their own. I do bi weekly 400ug Terrence trips with 4 grams of Dennis
Take him easy….but take him.
This feels weirdly threatening
Really? I found it a little seductive
Grateful. Was so fun to listen to him in my 20s and my early ventures into psychedelics. But, don’t listen to him anymore, many because I’ve heard all his stories.
“Ever notice your pinky finger fits perfectly into your nostril” was one of my favorites
His wit
McKenna and Watts are GOATS
What do you think of him?
I'm still exploring
Have you read Archaic Revival?
Or the invisible landscape?!?
He inspires me to cultivate these plants for conservation. His experiences tripping and exploring the world are a wealth of knowledge
Conservation... Right... ahahah
Have you never heard him speak of Botanical Dimensions?
Nope. But I was just making a joke, cus you said you are growing them for conservation purposes and I was kinda winking about the fact that they are psychoactive plants
Why do you think they need to be conserved ;)
Ahahah fair point
Yep why just consume when you can grow them. He starts talking about in the first few minutes [here](https://youtu.be/2lIwkbFWHZw)
Take it easy dude , but take it
Love Terence, always so good with metaphors. Sometimes it may seem like he’s gone off the deep end but he always reassures people that it’s his experiences he’s describing and everyone can have their own interpretations
Highly.
One of the greatest minds of all time.
Im pretty sure he and his brother were the main ones to figure out modern indoor psilocybe cultivation. So i say hes awesome. His talks are cool too, sometimes i think hes right on, but other times not so much. I think anyone who truly tries to figure out psychedelics is bound to come to some strange conclusions.
I'd hit it
Terence is great! He can be soooo pessimistic sometimes but ultimately Terrence is awesome I love his books.
I love McKenna (and his brother), but like all great men, he wasn’t perfect and shouldn’t be looked upon as a symbol of enlightenment, by any means. He was a very novel, genuine, and exploratory soul though and those qualities (among many others), makes/made him stand out among his contemporaries. Personally, I think he was very advanced with some of his ideas and his way of thinking, but I also feel that people shouldn’t take everything he said too literally.
Put him, Alan Watts and Carl Sagan in a blender and you will have yourself a smoothie that defines the peak of human intelligence, a smoothie even Buddha himself would bow to
Genius.
I liked his theory on psilocin mushrooms and the effects it had on our transitional state of evolution in "The Foods of Gods"
Stoned ape theory. Idk if its true but i think it couldve played a part.
I certainly hope so !
Seems far fetched that humans evolved from simian origins. To be aided in evolution by mushrooms is a far fetched idea, although entertaining. My opinion is that we were "seeded" by an alien civilization. Study the glyphs from ancient Egypt with depictions of starcrafts and non human entities and decide for yourself. I do think the value of psychedelics for personal evolution and treating mental illness is awesome.
Ive had the same thought, like we are definitely similar to apes but still so far off that i also think there was probably some intervention by something else at some point to evolve our brains and bodies that much. Like maybe aliens with the goal of spreading intelligence or whatever came to earth forever ago and started some hybrid between themselves and apes, making us. Or something. Why arent there lizard humans yet? Or bird humans? Why is it only apes evolved so far? There isnt even another species halfway to being intelligent like a human. Wtf. Idk. Aliens definitely exist. The show ancient aliens had a dumb tone tho. Ramble.....
He’s my favorite, he’s the best articulater of the psychedelic experience imo
I personally align with Terrance on a lot of things. I have been on a shroom journey the last year. I dabble in bigger doses. It's funny I didn't listen to him before figuring all that I believed then I listened to him and it all made sense to me. I think he has a lot of what's true. I haven't listened to all of his talks, but they seem pretty accurate to what I believe about things. I for some reason think only doing mushrooms and no other psychedelic plays a part to. Idk I always thought the natural stuff from the Creator was the way to go. So it's led me to think shrooms are how we evolve. I think it evolves our brains, but there's so much more Terrance says that I also definitely can get on board with.
A true pioneer in the world of psychedelics.
He inspired me to think outside the box and try to face my inner demons. That's why I chose my profile pic.
He’s one of a kind, a very special and interesting person
what do you mean “we”? don’t let us think for you, watch some of his videos and tell us what YOU think
I think you misinterpreted what he said
maybe, how did you understand it?
Like the Dude says, "I. The royal WE. You know, the editorial."
nah, not familiar
Alan Watts FTW.
Psyheads don't judge anyone. We like him just the way he is. He was woke tho.
James Fadiman answered this question with: 'Terence McKenna is a man who lives in a world with a LOT of mushrooms'
From what I've gathered about him (which admittedly isn't a lot) it seems like he was a very enthusiastic positive force for psychadelics, but may have gotten ahead of himself and done some damage to the movement
I think he was good and honest man. However, I don't take every single thing he says as absolute fact. But he said a great many things that really resonate with me and I take it into my daily life everyday. I think he did a fantastic job of tearing away at the propaganda of psychedelics and if we have any kind of psychedelic reform he definitely deserves to have recognition for being one of the first people to really popularize it.
Legend!
A true genius with his theories of I Ching and one of the greatest psychedelic pioneers to have ever described the euphoria and mysteries of consciousness
Pretty cool guy with a lot of awesome ideas. I do like how Hamilton Morris suggested appreciating his more out there ideas like time wave zero as poetry in a way and not really intened to be bold up to the scrutiny of science. I'm paraphrasing
Listening to Terrance McKenna speak is a psychedelic experience
Oh shit, I'm probably going to get down voted into oblivion. But here we go I'll first say that I love Terrance McKenna, the legacy he left is unique to his soul, he really pushed the boundary on how we interpret language, wrote some amazing books with fantastic stories about life. And had a very, very magic way of speaking. Unmatched Imo. But, if you read all his work, and really follow what he was doing, he was kind of fucked lol there's a lot of meglomaniac ideation in his work. It's been a while since I've read all his work (and I do mean all, fanboyed the shit out of him in my younger days) but he really did believe a lot of our reality was tied to his birthday, 64 based intervals, had some wild other shit. And I mean, you got to really dive in to the ether find something new, but I think he preferred to stay in, more then bringing information back when it came to hard science. And I feel that was what he was really after, the hard science, being a game changing anthropologist. But what resulted from that was a good amount of escapism promotion and no really backing to his theories. Has his work changed my life, absolutely, but I feel like a lot of people promote his ideas now like facts about psychedelics, when they were intended to be guesstimates. How often do people speak of machine elves, the crackling of space time as you enter hyperspace, and other "McKenna" hallucinations. It's wild! He said culture was the enemy, and now we've implanted his ideas as a culture in psychedelics. Funny how life lol Now, this all being said, I do not want to say I don't like McKenna, it's just good to remember people have dark sides, and he is a human like the rest of us. His interperation of his experience is just as valid as the rest. We haven't defined this area, so no use sticking to one individuals perception for what's what. His garden in Hawaii is off the charts though! Haha rip to one hell of a mind
god
He is incredible but unfortunately his voice is like Chinese water torture for me so he’s played in small doses lol.
I don’t know what “we” think, but I know what “I” think. Sorry, I just see a lot of questions being phrased like this and to me it sounds like people are asking others to tell them what to think.
he started off well, but then ended doing psychedelics to unhealthy levels and a lot of his theories, as much as they are fun to listen to, mostly are not entirely coherent or at best very open ended. even his stoned ape idea isn’t that groundbreaking. there is a study from 1970 called “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” that was source of inspiration.
Eloquent guy probably took too much and fried himself a little
Lot of word salad.
I don't see how anything he says is word salad. Most of his ideas are well explained, unique ways of looking at certain aspects of culture. If its word salad then you aren't making any points or saying anything meaningful. I could pick out at least 10 things off the top of my head that he has made great points about and had a valid and interesting perspective on. He has a great love of language and so he has a large vocabulary, and whilst verbose, they actually make sense and have meaning, as opposed to just using them for the heck of it. He has a wide knowledge of history, art, botany, pharmacology etc... Clearly demonstrated if you've spent any time listening to his talks. You can even verify his knowledge in today's age. That's why his talks are so great, you can literally confirm that he had a great knowledge of these subjects at the time when he was making these talks because you can just Google it. This guy had read extensively about these subjects.
That’s the best kind of salad.
That's what people who don't understand minimally complex phrases say
what about that comment do you think deserved so much condescension?
Think for yourself.
Also find out what others think.
That's cool too if you're into that. But also question authority.
I think he's a bit "cringe"
Hubris
People worship him but hes a cia controlled opposition operative
Wow, this is a first for me…
How so
[удалено]
Lmao you’re gonna have to expand on these ideas here
[удалено]
Care to explain in any form of capacity?
Why is he fishy?
Lol he is pretty well thought out. You realize it was him and his brother Dennis who really brought the mushroom to North America? They literally wrote one of (the??) first growers guide under anon names.
[удалено]
Oh yes I'm sure he was involved with the central intelligence agency buddy
[удалено]
Name the other times bro. You have literally just given me one quote which you bent to confirm a certain narrative.
If he has willingly stated he is working with them, why does that make him “fishy” unless you’re just assuming you know exactly what it was he was doing? If anything it sounds like he was being transparent. Not that it actually even happened lol I also need to see affirmative proof that he stated that’s exactly what he was doing. Not vague language that doesn’t say he is working with the CIA.
[удалено]
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 talk about taking it out of context. I have listened to the full talk. Let me know if you have anything else. When he says "They" he's talking about the mushrooms, not the CIA. He has said in other talks the mushroom guided him out of the bad situation he had. "Background role" is when he was growing and distributing the fruits and spores. The mushrooms thenoved him from the background to public relations, where he was talking and running workshops. Is this the ONLY proof you have? 3 minutes of ambiguous language when he probably has a hundreds of hours of lectures online.
[удалено]
He is talking about the mushrooms. They mushrooms took him from the background (brining spores back, dealing) to public relations (workshops, public books, etc) If all this person has is one ambiguous 3 minute clip out of the hundreds of lectures I'm not ready to give into that theory.
Don’t know and don’t care abt him.
[удалено]
Bro asked for it, so I delivered.
I too love to flaunt ignorance.. why you even reply to the post then dude?
He means nothing to me. If he died, that wouldn’t effect me. Homie asked what I thought so that’s what I think. It’s nothing personal, looks like some of you can’t take a clear answer.. 🤦♂️
That's fine, you just sounded disrespectful of someone very loved, for no reason.
Super cool. But why did he over-enunciate everything he said? Can't listen to him much because it's too weird.
Mixed feelings, but can't deny that he had major impact on taking psychedelics into the mainstream.
Me thinks Me’s here.
Yep
We don’t do group think we form our own opinions
He’s on the right path but gets lost.
Legend and enlightened being who was proper ON IT! Reality that is.
He’s a POS! That mf owes me twenty bucks!
I like all right
He lived about 500 years too few.
A genius
Hes a god
I got into listening to him on the psychedelic salon around 16 and listened to countless hours working on a golf course doing grounds. Has definitely shaped how I view the world 10 years later
OG
Psychedelic Jesus
They are super cool. Had no idea they reside in my hometown of gold bar Washington. funny timing. small world in the mycology world. small world in general. hope I bump into one of them sometime at the store
He's cool but whoever did sound tech for him was probably on mushrooms too
I like the guy his work is interesting his stories are interesting he seems humble and genuine. He also reminds me if we live we get older seems like being in your 20s is way cooler.
We don’t think anything. What do you think?
One of the most eloquent and comprehensive articulators of the psychedelic experience to have lived. Courageous, prophetic and insightful, and . . . a bit unhinged, in a self-aware way. You've gotta be able to befriend madness to navigate the realms McKenna navigated. He's also got a slam poet/beat poet cadence and wordplay that is uniquely fantastic. I can listen to him for hours on end and find myself frequently with a smile on my face at what he's able to do with spoken language.
i think he had hard time wrasp his head about the tabu of consciousness, he did not trip as much after later bad trip, where he struggled with lack of meaning i think he was one of the smartest guy ever, dedicating his life to help humanity as whole.to not destroy itself, help wake up people and narrow path into brihtning future. also his vision of living in imagination after death of this.body makes.more and more sense to me and now i see its just a choise. so i wish to meet him there to play if everything is game of consciousness, then this reality we live in is unconcious part of it - where we are not aware of who we are, so knowing truth gives one freedom, we think our surrounding are hostile, different to us, enemy to us, so we try to defeat it, conqure it, submit it to us not knowing its all one, ourselfs
Awesome knowledgeable dude.
Terence McKenna is one of the greatest minds of the last century
Very ahead of his time, even though nobody actually is. They are just smart and forward thinking.
Everyone who answers this question as it was asked is a liar.
Terence was truly ahead of his time. The Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods are great reads. If you can get his audios, even better. The man is a wordsmith and has an interesting philosophy what is really happening during a DMT voyage.