terence mckenna

I had an earth-shattering experience that ultimately led me to discover the work of this luminary... any thoughts?

 

food of the gods

 

I read his books years ago yet my friend read them and for a wile he thought he was Don whoever and I had to get friends to babyi sit him when I went to work. That was a long two months. Some people just get lost!!

 

At any time any one can use anything to either Grow , or stagnate or backslide - What one does with what they are presented is up to the individual - not the circumstances or information they are given.

Terrence was a visionary mystic and Saw through the medium he embraced - not all he saw was what others may See.
Each and every person makes their own way - no matter what excuses are proferred to explain what they may see as their lacks.
The Upanishads are great stuff too.

 

i agree with oldwolf. leary was blamed for all the lazy and lost people who read his stuff, too. i've only read The Archaic Revival by McKenna, which i thought was fantastic, but im putting off reading his other material because people say it's too complicated and he gets lost in his own ideas so much that the books are almost indecipherable. The I Ching, for instance, i've heard is meant for people who've studied mathematics extensively, and that The Food of the Gods is meant for people who have a vast background in anthropology. I'll probably get around to reading them sometime or another, though.

 

http://deoxy.org/mckenna.htm

i suggest this website if you haven't already found it. it's got some great written and spoken word. terence has been one of my biggest inspirations in exploring the universe of my mind. he has taught me a lot of the things i believe.

 

terence is the man

 

yeah man

 

After spending a few years in a university library reading and researching through nearly every book in the drug section, one day Terrence McKenna's book "Food of the Gods" appeared. I read it and liked it, struck by how different it was. Then, a week later, it dissapeared off the shelves again, never to return. I think I've read all of his books, now. I also like his lectures better but mainly just because they usually cover a much wider range of subjects then his books. Very interesting ideas. To understand some of the things he talks about, it is a good idea to read the other books he mentions and referneces.

I don't understand how pepole blame people for stuff because they wrote books that some people didn't understand. Many great books have been mis- or not understood when they are first released.

 

I think some of TM's ideas in 'Food of the Gods' are speculative to say the very least. Myself I wonder if he just did too much DMT? It seems he might have been trying to make the facts fit in with his own pre-concieved agenda of seeking to show that all religions etc began with drug experiences.

 

terrence's book, i ching, he fudged the numbers to get it work when pressed by someone who crunched his numbers and said they didn't work and then he said he fudged his numbers... his books are still a good read and i have well seen and heard some of his tapes and videos which are cool ... but he is a fudger... fudge packing is cool if you're gay but fudging numbers when you claim to be presenting some type of scientific process isn't... major faux pau terrence, don't do dat shit no more... rip

 

the i ching is a classic of asian philosophy; Terence McKenna didn't write it. He wrote a book called "The Invisible Landscape," which talked about his timewave novelty theory, which concerned the I Ching. the software for his theory is available for free download online, but it's difficult to understand.

 

its difficult to understand cuz its bhogus

 

I'm reading "Food Of The Gods" at the moment. I'm wondering if a neo-archaic society is really a possibility in this day and age, and if yes, what steps should we take to achieve it? Or is Eden-refound just an impossible dream?

 

I believe it went more that. Someone noticed the math was wrong in his original formulations. This person then actually revised the formulas and the most recent software you can get actually uses these revised formulas.

Besides who is to say the original I Ching was perfected in anyway? Nothing is wrong with adding your own intuitional twist to it. Thats actually all the original I Ching is, just a highly intuitionally pieced together system.



--With that though, I will say I'm a big fan of McKenna. The best thing about McKenna though is not any of his theories, or prophetic aspects. Those are actually what least interests me about McKenna. Where McKenna really shines is in his wisdoms for tripping and his direct transcriptions of what the experience of psychedellics present. And how he came to terms with and integrated psychedellically presented truths into his life.

But even the Timewave theory to me seems to be very important. Basically the thing is, metaphysically, what the Timewave theory postulates about the nature of time is exactly what the Mayans believed 'time' to literally be. The Timewave theory to me seems to be a metaphysical transition from the western understanding of time, the false understanding of it, to the true understanding of what the essence of 'time' is. And this is a transition that everyone will have to come to terms with eventually. Most people will not be able to figure this out off of purely ancient philosophies. Timewave zero presents a very modern worded notion of it.

I also agree with McKenna in his notion that psychedellics are the only real way of spirituality. This is not to dismiss Hinduism, meditation, yoga etc. I am a strong believer in these things and employ them regularly. But a user of purely sober spiritual methods is doing something different than the psychedellically spiritual person. There exploring different sects of human existence, different areas of astral layers. And to be a pioneer of the astral, you must use psychedellics. Sober practice may get you to the highest level of the astral, but you do it by climbing up a ladder constructed by someone else, you climb through a Hindu/Vedic stacking of astral layers if you do it by purely meditative and yogic means. But psychedellics allow you to carve a new ladder through the astral, in uncharted territory. And to me this is what 'spirituality' is. Spirituality is not a method of maintaining bliss. Spirituality is a method of pioneering bliss, finding your own style your own method through the astral. Then documenting it by art. How good, how original, how enjoyable the art is that a spiritual culture produces is what I use to evidence the effectiveness of their method. And the simple fact is, Buddhist art themes have not really changed for 2000 years. The only people, the only cultures that are producing radically new styles of art, metaphysical themes, modes of communication and styles are those who are psychedellically inspired.

I also agree with the person who said that he sort of 'stretched' Food of the Gods to fit his viewpoint. In fact in a lecture he quite literally said that 'Food of the Gods is a book that I sort of designed to feed the intellectually rooted mind in order to plant the seed of potential psychedellic use' and that it has 'many scientific and intellectual looking citations to books you will probably never find'. Hmmm. But I still cannot agree with him enough in even this notion. As the simple truth of the matter is. Anything that can be done to get someone to try strong dosages of psychedellics, should be done. The simple ultimate goal of anything is basically getting people to do psychedellics, they are the central hinge point of all human existence. If your work is effective at doing this, then it is good. We need more astral pioneers to piece together something new, the old ladders and systems through the astral have failed humanity as a whole.

If anyone is interested, I have a bunch of terence mckenna audio lectures PM me if you want them.

 

I read True Hallucinations a couple months ago. It's my first book I'v read by him. I'll probably want to pick up some others when I'm done with The Island.