“The human imagination, in conjunction with technology, has become a force so potent that it really can no longer be unleashed on the surface of the planet with safety.” HumansForceImaginationTechnologyPlanetsSafetySurfaceUnleashedConjunctionsHuman Imagination Book:True Hallucinations: And, the Archaic Revival Source: True Hallucinations: And, the Archaic Revival
“We are creatures of information and the imagination. The monkey we are already beginning to transform and shed. We don't look like the other monkeys, and we look less like them all the time.” LooksImaginationInformationCreaturesShedMonkeys Author:Terence McKenna
“The western mind, because of it's unique history, is the most sensitive mind to the impact of psychedelics.” MindUniqueImpactWesternSensitive Author:Terence McKenna
“The psychedelic mind is a higher dimensional mind, it is not fit for three dimensional space time.” MindThreeSpaceHigherFitPsychedelicSpace Time Author:Terence McKenna
“Cultures are virtual realities made of language.” MadeRealityCultureLanguageVirtual Reality Author:Terence McKenna
“What is the psychedelic experience? What promise does it hold for a sane future for our planet and our children? And what is it about it that kindles the kind of loyalty that I feel coming from the people in this room this evening? And I submit to you that it is nothing less than the rebirth of a voice that has been silent for at least a thousand years, the still small voice of the Logos of the planet.” PeopleFeelsYearsKindChildrenDoeHas BeensStillsVoiceRoomsPlanetsPromiseThousandOur ChildrenSilentLoyaltyEveningSaneSubmitThousand YearsRebirthOur PlanetPsychedelicKindlesLogosPsychedelic ExperienceSmall Voice Author:Terence McKenna
“So I submit to you that what we represent is a Fifth Column, a Fifth Column that represents the best aspirations that human community is capable of, a Fifth Column that is willing to look at the structure of the psyche in contrast to the mess of society, and willing to dream.” HumansLooksDreamCommunityWillingCapableStructureMessAspirationContrastSubmitFifthColumns Author:Terence McKenna
“We have the tools, the intellect, the will to create a caring global culture. It isn't going to come without a recognition of the power of the psychedelic experience. The psychedelic experience is the birth right of every human being on the planet. It is as much a basic part of each and every one of us as our sexuality, our national identity, our consciousness of self. And any society which attempts to hold back or impede this dimension of self-expression, when the history of that society is written, it will be called barbarous.” HumansSelfCultureHuman BeingsConsciousnessWrittenIdentityPlanetsExpressionBirthToolsCaringIntellectSexualityRecognitionDimensionsPsychedelicSelf ExpressionPsychedelic ExperienceNational Identity Author:Terence McKenna
“We're not going to save the monkey unless we can shed the monkey. And the greatest impetus, the greatest inspiration to the expression of our higher selves comes in the confrontation with psyche that occurs in the psychedelic experience.” SelfInspirationExpressionHigherShedMonkeysConfrontationPsychedelicHigher SelfPsychedelic ExperienceImpetus Author:Terence McKenna
“One has, you know, a window of opportunity somewhere between zip and a hundred to solve, or understand, or penetrate, or appreciate, or come to terms with the conundrum of being, this amazing circumstance in which we find ourselves, both individually and collectively.” KnowsOpportunityTermCircumstancesHundredAppreciateWindowSolvePenetrateZipsWindow Of OpportunityConundrums Author:Terence McKenna
“The intellectual tension that seems to work its way through this society almost like fat through meat is the tension between scientific reductionism and the deeply felt intuition of most people that there is a spiritual dimension, or a hidden dimension, or a transcendental dimension.” PeopleWaySeemsSpiritualFeltIntellectualIntuitionFatsMeatTensionDimensionsTranscendentalThis SocietyReductionismSpiritual Dimensions Author:Terence McKenna
“So the conclusion that I reach, visa vie the individual and civilization, is this: Culture is not our friend. Culture is not your friend. It's not my friend. It's a very uncomfortable set of accommodations that have been hammered out over time for the convenience of institutions.” Has BeensCultureIndividualCivilizationMy FriendsInstitutionsConclusionUncomfortableConvenienceVisaAccommodationsHammered Author:Terence McKenna
“And so, these are the things, the exploration of which, the singing about of which, makes us human beings. The exploration of the universe of the unseen is the business of human beings.” HumansUniverseHuman BeingsSingingExplorationUnseen Author:Terence McKenna
“And what is shamanism but philosophy with a hands-on attitude. Philosophy not made around the camp fire, but philosophy based on the acquisition of extreme experience. That's how you figure out what the world is, not by bicycling around in the burbs, but by forcing extreme experience.” WorldMadePhilosophyHandsAttitudeFireFiguresExtremesCampsAcquisitionShamanism Author:Terence McKenna
“What they [psychedelics] cause is what I'm advocating, a fundamental revaluation of cultural values, because culture as we're practicing it currently is causing a lot of pain to a lot of people, and animals, and ecosystems, none of whom were ever allowed to vote on whether they wanted this process to go in this direction.” PeopleWantedPainValuesCultureCausesProcessAnimalVoteFundamentalsEcosystemsAdvocating Author:Terence McKenna
“What is happening, I think, it's really bigger than psychedelics, it's bigger than human evolution. We are not making the waves in this ocean. We are corks, riding the waves of the ocean. But we are privileged, by perhaps chance alone, to occupy a unique moment in the history of the universe. A moment when the universe goes through some kind of self-transforming, evolutionary, inflationary expansion. That's what's happening.” ThinkingHumansKindSelfMomentsUniverseChanceEvolutionOceanUniqueHappeningsBiggerWaveRidingExpansionPrivilegedTransformingHuman EvolutionCork Author:Terence McKenna
“This is what I believe: That we are not pushed from behind by the casual unfolding of historical necessity, but that we are in the grip of an attractor of some sort, which lies ahead of us in time.” BelieveLyingI BelieveBehindsHistoricalCasualUnfolding Author:Terence McKenna
“There is a morphological enfoldment occurring on this planet. It is bringing forth some entirely new order of being. We are a privileged part of this.” OrderPlanetsPrivileged Author:Terence McKenna
“The plants are the pipeline into the Gaian intention. It's just not a coincidence that these plants carry this immense spiritual message. They are the pipeline of Gaian intentionality.” SpiritualMessagesPlantIntentionImmenseCoincidencePipelineIntentionality Author:Terence McKenna
“The shaman is a very peculiar figure. He is critical to the functioning of the psychological and social life of his community, but in a way he is always peripheral to it. He lives at the edge of the village. He is only called upon in matters of great social crisis. He is feared and respected. And this might be a description of these hallucinogenic substances.” WayMatterMightSocialCommunityFiguresCrisisEdgesCriticalPsychologicalSubstanceDescriptionVillagePeculiarSocial Life Author:Terence McKenna
“Marcel Eliade took the position that hallucinogenic shamanism was decadent, and Gordon Wasson, very rightly I believe, contravened this view and held that actually it was very probably the presence of the hallucinogenic drug experience in the life of early man that lay the very basis for the idea of the spirit.” MenBelieveIdeasSpiritI BelieveViewsPositionDrugBasesLaysShamanismHallucinogenic Drugs Author:Terence McKenna
“The traditional manner of taking psilocybin is to take a very healthy dose, in the vicinity of 15 mg. on an empty stomach in total darkness.” DarknessHealthyEmptyTraditionalStomachDoseVicinityEmpty StomachPsilocybin Author:Terence McKenna
“The Logos is a voice heard, in the head. And the Logos was the hand on the rudder of human civilization for centuries, up until, in fact, the collapse of the ancient mystery religions and the ascendancy of Christianity to the status of a world religion.” WorldHumansFactsHandsVoiceChristianityHeardMysteryCenturyCivilizationAncientCollapseLogosHuman CivilizationRuddersWorld ReligionsAscendancy Author:Terence McKenna
“It's my belief that one of the unconscious reasons which underlies the odd attitude of the establishment toward hallucinogens is the fact that they bring the mystery to the surface as an individual experience. In other words, you do not understand the psychedelic experience by getting a report from Time magazine or even the Economist. You only understand the psychedelic experience by having it.” ReasonFactsIndividualBeliefAttitudeMysterySurfaceMagazinesOddUnconsciousReportsEstablishmentEconomistPsychedelicPsychedelic ExperienceTime MagazineHallucinogens Author:Terence McKenna
“Spaceflight is nothing less than the exterior metaphor for the shamanic voyage. In other words, in our terms, the hallucinogenic experience. This is the way engineers get high. They go to the moon!” WayTermMoonMetaphorEngineersVoyagesExteriorGetting HighSpaceflight Author:Terence McKenna
“And that we cannot go to space with our feet in the mud. Nor can we in fact turn ourselves into an eco-sensitive hallucinogenic-based culture on Earth unless we fuse these dichotomous opposites. It is only in a coincidencia oppositorum, a union of opposites, that does not strive for closure, that we are going to find cultural sanity. And this is the thing that the entheogens, the hallucinogens, deliver with such clarity and regularity. They raise paradox to a level of intensity that no one can evade.” DoeFactsEarthTurnsCultureSpaceLevelsFeetOppositesRaisesUnionsStriveClaritySensitiveParadoxIntensitySanityMudClosureEcoRegularityFuseHallucinogens Author:Terence McKenna
“If I can paraphrase Teilhard de Chardin for a moment, he said, or I will paraphrase in this way, 'When the human race understands the potential of the hallucinogenic drug experience, it will have discovered fire for the second time.'” IfsWayHumansSaidI CanMomentsRaceFireDrugHuman RaceParaphraseHallucinogenic Drugs Author:Terence McKenna
“Since the very beginning of culture, what we seem to be are animals which take in raw material and excrete it imprinted with ideas.” IdeasSeemsCultureAnimalMaterialsRaw Materials Author:Terence McKenna
“The idea of psychedelic societies is something new. And it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone takes the drug. It merely means that the complexity and the mysteriousness of mind are centered in the consciousness of the civilization as the mystery which it comes from and which it must relate to in order to be relevant.” MindMeanIdeasOrderConsciousnessMysteryCivilizationDrugRelateComplexitySomething NewRelevantPsychedelic Author:Terence McKenna
“What I've observed, and I think it's fair to give credit to the psychedelic experience for this, what I've observed is that nature builds on previously established levels of complexity.” ThinkingGivingLevelsFairsCreditComplexityPsychedelicPsychedelic Experience Author:Terence McKenna
“This is a general law of the universe, overlooked by science, that out of complexity emerges greater complexity. We could almost say that the universe, nature, is a novelty-conserving, or complexity-conserving engine.” LawUniverseGreaterComplexityEnginesNoveltyOverlookedConserving Author:Terence McKenna
“If in fact the conservation and complexification of novelty is what the universe is striving for, then suddenly our own human enterprise, previously marginalized, takes on an immense new importance.” IfsHumansFactsUniverseImportanceStriveEnterpriseImmenseConservationNoveltyMarginalized Author:Terence McKenna
“No one is in charge of this process, this is what makes history so interesting, it's a runaway freight train on a dark and stormy night.” NightProcessDarkInterestingTrainStormyRunawayStormy Nights Author:Terence McKenna
“Science is the exploration of the experience of nature without psychedelics. And I propose, therefore, to expand that enterprise and say that we need a science beyond science. We need a science which plays with a full deck.” NeedsPlayEnterpriseExplorationProposeDeck Author:Terence McKenna
“What is revealed through the psychedelic experience, I think, is a higher dimensional perspective on reality. And I use 'higher dimensional' in the mathematical sense.” ThinkingUseRealityPerspectiveHigherMathematicalPsychedelicPsychedelic Experience Author:Terence McKenna
“Eschaton comes from the Greek word 'echatos', which just means the end.” MeanEndsGreek Author:Terence McKenna
“The 'hard swallow' built into science is this business about the Big Bang. ... This is the notion that the universe, for no reason, sprang from nothing in a single instant. ... Notice that this is the limit test for credulity. . . . It's the limit case for likelihood.” HardReasonBigsUniverseCasesLimitsBuiltTestsNotionInstantNo ReasonBangsLikelihoodCredulity Author:Terence McKenna
“We're not mere spectators, or a cosmic accident, or some sideshow, or the Greek chorus to the main event. The human experience IS the main event.” HumansEventsMereAccidentsGreekCosmicHuman ExperienceSpectatorsChorusSideshowsGreek Chorus Author:Terence McKenna
“Our culture takes us out of the body and sells our loyalty into political systems, into religions, into inanimate objects and machines, collections, so forth and so on. The felt experience of the body is what the psychedelics are handing back to us.” BodyPoliticalCultureFeltObjectsMachinesSellsLoyaltyCollectionsPolitical SystemsInanimate Objects Author:Terence McKenna
“The psychedelic experience is not a journey into the human unconscious, or into the ghost bards of our human civilization. It's a journey into the presence of the Gaian mind.” MindHumansJourneyCivilizationGhostUnconsciousPsychedelicPsychedelic ExperienceHuman CivilizationBards Author:Terence McKenna
“The world is not an unsolved problem for scientists or sociologists. The world is a living mystery.” WorldProblemMysteryScientistSociologistsUnsolved Problems Author:Terence McKenna
“The thing is that it is incredibly frustrating to anyone who would control it, because you can't predict the impact of any technology before you put it in place.” TechnologyImpactFrustrating Author:Terence McKenna
“You can stand back and look at this planet and see that we have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love, and the community to produce a kind of human paradise.” KnowsHumansLooksKindUnderstandingCommunityKnow HowProducePlanetsMedicalParadiseMind Blowing Author:Terence McKenna
“It [culture] invites people to diminish themselves, and dehumanize themselves by behaving like machines, meme processors of memes passed down from Madison Avenue, and Hollywood, and what have you.” PeopleCultureHollywoodMachinesInvitesDiminishAvenuesMadisonMemesProcessorsMadison Avenue Author:Terence McKenna
“Man was not put on this planet to toil in the mud. Or the god who put us on this planet to toil in the mud is no god I want to have any part of. It's some kind of gnostic demon. It's some kind of cannibalistic demiurge that should be thoroughly renounced and rejected.” MenWantShouldKindPlanetsDemonRejectedToilMud Author:Terence McKenna
“It was the fall into history that enslaved us to the labor cycle, to the agricultural cycle. And notice how fiendish it is.” FallLaborCycles Author:Terence McKenna
“To me it begins and ends with these psychedelic substances. The synergy of the psilocybin in the hominid diet brought us out of the animal mind and into the world of articulated speech and imagination.” WorldMindEndsImaginationAnimalSpeechSubstanceDietsPsychedelicSynergyPsilocybinHominids Author:Terence McKenna
“Having lived long enough to go at least once or twice around the block, I'm noticing that the strangeness is not receding The strangeness seems to be accelerating.” LongEnoughSeemsBlockNoticingStrangeness Author:Terence McKenna
“I started out in psychedelic drugs, and people said it was a flight from reality. It still is a flight from reality, but I think reality is now a bit more scary than the drugs we used to fly from it, so long ago.” PeopleThinkingLongSaidStillsRealityUsedBitsDrugScaryFlightLong AgoPsychedelicPsychedelic Drugs Author:Terence McKenna
