Terence McKenna

For the Canadian documentary lmmaker, see Terence psychedelics.[3][16]

McKenna (lm producer).
McKenna said that one of his early psychedelic experiences with morning glory seeds showed him that there
Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 was something there worth pursuing,[16] and in interApril 3, 2000) was an American ethnobotanist, mystic, views he claimed to have smoked cannabis daily since his
psychonaut, lecturer, author, and an advocate for the re- teens.[19]
sponsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants.
He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including
psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, 1.2 Studying and traveling
metaphysics, alchemy, language, philosophy, culture,
technology, environmentalism, and the theoretical origins In 1965, McKenna enrolled in the University of Califorof human consciousness. He was called the "Timothy nia, Berkeley and was accepted into the Tussman ExperLeary of the '90s,[1][2] one of the leading authorities imental College.[19] In 1967, while in college, he discovon the ontological foundations of shamanism,[3] and the ered and began studying shamanism through the study
intellectual voice of rave culture".[4]
of Tibetan folk religion.[3][20] That same year, which he
McKenna put forward a hypothesis contending that the
ingestion of the psychedelic mushroom Psilocybe cubensis was one of the main transformative factors, and
catalytic, in the early evolution of consciousness in Homo
sapiens.[1][3][5][6][7][8] He also formulated a concept about
the nature of time based on fractal patterns he claimed to
have discovered in the I Ching, which he called novelty
theory,[3][9] proposing this predicted the end of time in
the year 2012.[9][10][11][12] His promotion of novelty theory and its connection to the Maya calendar is credited
as one of the factors leading to the widespread beliefs
about 2012 eschatology.[13] Novelty theory is considered
pseudoscience.[14][15]

called his opium and kabbala phase[21][10] he traveled to

Jerusalem, where he met Kathleen Harrison, who would
later become his wife.[10][19][21]

After the partial completion of his studies, and his

mothers death[25] from cancer in 1971,[26] McKenna,
his brother Dennis, and three friends traveled to the
Colombian Amazon in search of oo-koo-h, a plant
preparation containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT).[9][6]
[25]
Instead of oo-koo-h they found elds full of gigantic Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, which became the new
focus of the expedition.[9][10][5][27][25] In La Chorrera,
at the urging of his brother, McKenna was the subject
of a psychedelic experiment[9] in which the brothers attempted to bond harmine (harmine is another psychedelic
compound they used synergistically with the mushrooms)
with their own neural DNA, through the use of a set
specic vocal techniques. They hypothesised this would
give them access to the collective memory of the human
species, and would manifest the alchemists Philosophers
Stone which they viewed as a hyperdimensional union
of spirit and matter.[28] McKenna claimed the experiment put him in contact with "Logos": an informative,
divine voice he believed was universal to visionary reli-

1.1

In 1969, McKenna traveled to Nepal led by his interest in Tibetan painting and hallucinogenic shamanism.[22]
He sought out shaman of the Bon tradition, which predated Tibetan Buddhism, trying to learn more about the
shamanic use of visionary plants.[5] During his time there,
he also studied the Tibetan language[22] and worked as a
hashish smuggler,[10] until one of his Bombay-to-Aspen
shipments fell into the hands of U. S. Customs.[23] He
then wandered through southeast Asia viewing ruins,[23]
and spent time as a professional buttery collector in
Indonesia.[10][8][24]

Biography
Early life

Terence McKenna was born and raised in Paonia, Colorado,[9][5][16] with Irish ancestry on his fathers side of
the family.[17]
McKenna developed a hobby of fossil-hunting in his
youth and from this he acquired a deep scientic appreciation of nature.[18] He also became interested in psychology at a young age, reading Carl Jung's book Psychology
and Alchemy at the age of 10.[10]
At age 16 McKenna moved to Los Altos, California to
live with family friends for a year. He nished high school
in Lancaster, California.[16] In 1963, he was introduced
to the literary world of psychedelics through The Doors
of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
and certain issues of The Village Voice that talked about
1

2
gious experience.[29] The voices reputed revelations and
his brothers simultaneous peculiar experience prompted
him to explore the structure of an early form of the I
Ching, which led to his Novelty Theory.[9][12] During
their stay in the Amazon, McKenna also became romantically involved with his interpreter, Ev.[30]
In 1972, McKenna returned to U.C. Berkeley to nish
his studies[19] and in 1975, he graduated with a degree
in ecology, shamanism, and conservation of natural resources.[3][8][24] In the autumn of 1975, after parting with
his girlfriend Ev earlier in the year,[31] McKenna began
a relationship with his future wife and the mother of his
two children, Kathleen Harrison.[12][19][6][21]

1 BIOGRAPHY

1.3 Psilocybin mushroom cultivation

During McKennas studies, he developed a technique for
cultivating psilocybin mushrooms with Dennis[31][6][27]
and in 1976, the brothers published what they had
learned in a book entitled Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Growers Guide, under the pseudonyms O.T.
Oss and O.N. Oeric.[5][33] McKenna and his brother
were the rst to come up with a reliable method for
cultivating psilocybin mushrooms at home.[5][19][6][27]
As ethnobiologist Jonathan Ott explains, "[the] authors
adapted San Antonios technique (for producing edible
mushrooms by casing mycelial cultures on a rye grain
substrate; San Antonio 1971) to the production of Psilocybe [Stropharia] cubensis. The new technique involved the use of ordinary kitchen implements, and for
the rst time the layperson was able to produce a potent entheogen in his [or her] own home, without access to sophisticated technology, equipment, or chemical supplies.[34] When the 1986 revised edition was published, the Magic Mushroom Growers Guide had sold
over 100,000 copies.[35][5][33]

1.4 Mid- to later life

1.4.1 Public speaking
In the early 1980s, McKenna began to speak publicly on
the topic of psychedelic drugs, becoming one of the pioneers of the psychedelic movement.[36] His main focus
was on the plant-based psychedelics such as psilocybin
mushrooms (which were the catalyst for his career),[5]
ayahuasca, cannabis, and the plant derivative DMT.[10]
He conducted lecture tours and workshops[10] promoting natural psychedelics as a way to explore universal
mysteries, stimulate the imagination, and re-establish a
harmonious relationship with nature.[37] Though associated with the New Age and Human Potential Movements, McKenna himself had little patience for New Age
sensibilities.[3][11][12][38] He repeatedly stressed the importance and primacy of the felt presence of direct experience, as opposed to dogma.[39]

Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Growers Guide (1986 revised

edition)

Soon after graduating, McKenna and Dennis published a

book inspired by their Amazon experiences, The Invisible
Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching.[9][19][32]
The brothers experiences in the Amazon would later be
the main focus of McKennas book True Hallucinations,
published in 1993.[5] McKenna also began lecturing[19]
locally around Berkeley and started appearing on some
underground radio stations.[10]

In addition to psychedelic drugs, McKenna spoke on

a wide array of subjects[6] including; shamanism;
metaphysics; alchemy; language; culture; selfempowerment; environmentalism, techno-paganism;
articial intelligence; evolution; extraterrestrials; science
and scientism; the web; virtual reality (which he saw
as a way to artistically communicate the experience of
psychedelics); and aesthetic theory, specically about
art/visual experience as information representing the
signicance of hallucinatory visions experienced under
the inuence of psychedelics.
McKenna soon became a xture of popular
counterculture[9][10][37] with Timothy Leary once
introducing him as one of the ve or six most important
people on the planet[41] and with comedian Bill Hicks'

1.5

Death

referencing him in his stand-up act[42] and building an

entire routine around his ideas.[6] McKenna also became
a popular personality in the psychedelic rave/dance scene
of the early 1990s,[8][43] with frequent spoken word performances at raves and contributions to psychedelic and
goa trance albums by The Shamen,[11][6][37] Spacetime
Continuum, Alien Project, Capsula, Entheogenic, Zuvuya, Shpongle, and Shakti Twins. In 1994 he appeared
as a speaker at the Starwood Festival, documented in the
book Tripping by Charles Hayes.[44]

3
ported healing properties.[50] McKenna was involved until 1992, when he retired from the project,[48] following
his and Kathleens divorce earlier in the year.[19] Kathleen still manages Botanical Dimensions as its president
and projects director.[49] After their divorce, McKenna
moved to Hawaii permanently, where he built a modernist
house[19] and created a gene bank of rare plants near his
home.[8] Previously, he had split his time between Hawaii
and Occidental, CA.

McKenna published several books in the early-to-mid1.5

1990s including: The Archaic Revival; Food of the
Gods; and True Hallucinations.[10][5][8] Hundreds of
hours of McKennas public lectures were recorded either
professionally or bootlegged and have been produced on
cassette tape, CD and MP3.[6] Segments of his talks have
gone on to be sampled by many musicians and DJs.[4][6]

Death

McKenna was colleagues and close friends with chaos

mathematician Ralph Abraham, and author and biologist
Rupert Sheldrake. He conducted several public and
many private debates with them from 1982 until his
death.[45][46][47] These debates were known as trialogues
and some of the discussions were later published in the
books: Trialogues at the Edge of the West and The Evolutionary Mind.[45][3]
1.4.2

Botanical Dimensions
Terence McKenna during a panel discussion at the 1999 AllChemical Arts Conference, held at Kona, Hawaii.

Botanical Dimensions ethnobotanical preserve in Hawaii.

In 1985, McKenna founded Botanical Dimensions with

his then-wife, Kathleen Harrison.[8][48] Botanical Dimensions is a nonprot ethnobotanical preserve on the
Big Island of Hawaii,[3] established to collect, protect,
propagate, and understand plants of ethno-medical signicance and their lore, and appreciate, study, and educate others about plants and mushrooms felt to be signicant to cultural integrity and spiritual well-being.[49]
The 19 acres (7.7 hectares) botanical garden[3] is a repository containing thousands of plants that have been used
by indigenous people of the tropical regions, and includes a database of information related to their pur-

In mid-1999, after a long lecturing tour, McKenna returned to his home on the Big Island of Hawaii. A
longtime suerer of migraines, McKenna had begun
to have increasingly painful headaches. His condition
culminated in three brain seizures in one night, which
he claimed were the most powerful psychedelic experiences he had ever known. McKenna was diagnosed
with glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive form
of brain cancer.[11][5][27] For the next several months
he underwent various treatments, including experimental
gamma knife radiation treatment. According to Wired
magazine, McKenna was worried that his tumor was
caused by his 35 years of smoking cannabis, although his
doctors assured him there was no causal relation.[27]
In late 1999, Erik Davis conducted what would be the
last interview with McKenna.[27] During the interview
McKenna also talked about the announcement of his
death:
McKenna died on April 3, 2000, at the age of
53.[11][12][19]

1.6 Library re
On February 7, 2007, McKennas library of rare books
and personal notes was destroyed in a re that burned of-

2 THOUGHT

ces belonging to Big Surs Esalen Institute, which was was that, psilocybin mushrooms are a species of high
storing the collection. An index maintained by his brother intelligence,[3] which may have arrived on this planet as
Dennis survives, though little else.[52]
spores migrating through space[12][62] and are attempting
to establish a symbiotic relationship with human beings.
He postulated that intelligence, not life, but intelligence
may have come here [to Earth] in this spore-bearing life
2 Thought
form pointing out that I think that theory will probably
be vindicated. I think in a hundred years if people do biology they will think it quite silly that people once thought
2.1 Psychedelics
that spores could not be blown from one star system to
Terence McKenna advocated the exploration of altered another by cosmic radiation pressure" and believed that
states of mind via the ingestion of naturally occurring Few people are in a position to judge its extraterrestrial
psychedelic substances.[9][32][43] For example, and in par- potential, because few people in the orthodox sciences
ticular, as facilitated by the ingestion of high doses of have ever experienced the full spectrum of psychedelic
[3][20][11]
psychedelic mushrooms,[6][53] ayahuasca and DMT,[10] eects that are unleashed.
which he believed was the apotheosis of the psychedelic McKenna was opposed to Christianity[63] and most forms
experience. However he was less enthralled with the syn- of organized religion or guru-based forms of spiritual
thetic drugs[10] stating that I think drugs should come awakening, favouring shamanism, which he believed was
from the natural world and be use-tested by shamanically the broadest spiritual paradigm available, stating that:
orientated cultures...one cannot predict the long-term effects of a drug produced in a Laboratory.[3] McKenna
What I think happened is that in the world
always stressed the responsible use of psychedelic plants
of prehistory all religion was experiential, and
saying: Experimenters should be very careful. One must
it was based on the pursuit of ecstasy through
build up to the experience. These are bizarre dimensions
plants. And at some time, very early, a group
of extraordinary power and beauty. There is no set rule
interposed itself between people and direct exto avoid being overwhelmed, but move carefully, reect a
perience of the 'Other.' This created hierargreat deal, and always try to map experiences back onto
chies, priesthoods, theological systems, castes,
the history of the race and the philosophical and religious
ritual, taboos. Shamanism, on the other hand,
accomplishments of the species. All the compounds are
is an experiential science that deals with an area
potentially dangerous, and all compounds, at sucient
where we know nothing. It is important to redoses or repeated over time, involve risks. The library
member that our epistemological tools have deis the rst place to go when looking into taking a new
veloped very unevenly in the West. We know a
compound.[54] He also recommended and often spoke
tremendous amount about what is going on in
of taking, what he called, 'heroic doses,'[32] which he dethe heart of the atom, but we know absolutely
ned as ve dried grams of psilocybin mushrooms,[10][55]
nothing about the nature of the mind.[64]
taken alone, on an empty stomach, in silent darkness and
with eyes closed.[6][27] Stating that when taken this way
Either philosophically or religiously, he expressed admione could expect a profound visionary experience,[6] believing it is only when slain by the power of the mushroom ration for: Marshall McLuhan, Alfred North Whitehead,
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Carl Jung, Plato, Gnostic
that the message becomes clear.[53]
Christianity and Alchemy, while regarding the Greek
Although he avoided giving his allegiance to any one philosopher Heraclitus as his favorite philosopher.[65]
interpretation (part of his rejection of monotheism),
he was open to the idea of psychedelics as being He also[3]expressed admiration for the works of Aldous
trans-dimensional travel"; proposing that DMT sent Huxley, James Joyce; calling Finnegans Wake the
one to a parallel dimension[12] and psychedelics lit- quintessential work of art, or[66]at least work of litthe science ction
erally, enabled an individual to encounter 'higher di- erature of the 20th century,
writer
Philip
K.
Dick
who
he
described
as an incred[56]
or what could be ancestors, or
mensional entities'
[67]
fabulist
Jorge
Luis
Borges,
with whom
ible
genius,
[57]
spirits of the Earth,
saying that if you can trust
McKenna
shared
the
belief
that;
scattered
through
the
your own perceptions it appears that you are enterordinary
world
there
are
books
and
artifacts
and
perhaps
[58]
ing an ecology of souls.
McKenna also put forrealms,
ward the idea that psychedelics were doorways into people who are like doorways into impossible
[12]
of
impossible
and
contradictory
truth
and
Vladimir
[43][59]
suggesting that the planet has
the Gaian mind
a kind of intelligence, it can actually open a chan- Nabokov: McKenna once said that he would have benel of communication with an individual human be- come a Nabokov lecturer if he had never encountered
ing and that the psychedelic plants were the facilita- psychedelics.
tors of this communication.[60][61] In a more radical ver- During the nal years of his life and career, McKenna besion of biophysicist Francis Crick's hypothesis of di- came very engaged in the theoretical realm of technology.
rected panspermia; another idea McKenna speculated on, He was an early proponent of the technological singular-

2.2

Stoned ape theory of human evolution

ity[12] and in his last recorded public talk, Psychedelics in eating Psilocybe cubensis, a dung-loving mushroom often
The Age of Intelligent Machines, he outlined ties between found growing out of cowpat.[10][11][43][76]
psychedelics, computation technology, and humans.[68]
He also became enamored with the Internet calling it the
birth of [the] global mind,[19] believing it to be a place
where psychedelic culture could ourish.[27]
2.1.1

Machine elves

McKenna spoke of hallucinations while on DMT in which

he claims to have met intelligent entities he described as
self-transforming machine elves".[3][12][69][70]
So I did it and...there was a something,
like a ower, like a chrysanthemum in orange
and yellow that was sort of spinning, spinning,
and then it was like I was pushed from behind
and I fell through the chrysanthemum into
another place that didn't seem like a state
of mind, it seemed like another place. And
what was going on in this place aside from
the tastefully soted indirect lighting, and
the crawling geometric hallucinations along
the domed walls, what was happening was
that there were a lot of beings in there, what
I call self-transforming machine elves. Sort
of like jeweled basketballs all dribbling their
way toward me. And if they'd had faces they
would have been grinning, but they didn't have
faces. And they assured me that they loved me
and they told me not to be amazed; not to give
way to astonishment.[71]
Terence McKenna, Alien Dreamtime

2.2

Stoned ape theory of human evolution

Psilocybe cubensis: the psilocybin-containing mushroom central

to McKennas stoned ape theory of human evolution.

McKennas hypothesis was that low doses of psilocybin

improve visual acuity, meaning that the presence of psilocybin in the diet of early pack hunting primates caused the
individuals who were consuming psilocybin mushrooms
to be better hunters than those who were not, resulting
in an increased food supply and in turn a higher rate of
reproductive success.[3][11][6][43] Then at slightly higher
doses, he contended, the mushroom acts to sexually
arouse, leading to a higher level of attention, more energy
in the organism, and potential erection in the males,[3][11]
rendering it even more evolutionarily benecial, as it
would result in more ospring.[6][43][72] At even higher
doses, McKenna proposed that the mushroom would have
acted to dissolve boundaries, promoting community
bonding and group sexual activities.[5][43] Consequently,
there would be a mixing of genes, greater genetic diversity, and a communal sense of responsibility for the group
ospring.[77] At these higher doses, McKenna also argued that psilocybin would be triggering activity in the
language-forming region of the brain, manifesting as
music and visions[3] thus catalyzing the emergence of language in early hominids by expanding their arboreally
evolved repertoire of troop signals.[11][6] Also pointing
out that it would dissolve the ego and religious concerns
would be at the forefront of the tribe's consciousness, simply because of the power and strangeness of the experience itself.[43][77]

In his book Food of the Gods, McKenna proposed that the

transformation from humans early ancestors Homo erectus to the species Homo sapiens mainly had to do with
the addition of the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis in its
diet,[6][7][72] an event that according to his theory took
place in about 100,000 BCE (this is when he believed
that the species diverged from the Homo genus).[8][73]
McKenna based his theory on the main eects, or alleged
eects, produced by the mushroom[3] while citing stud- Therefore, according to McKenna, access to and
ies by Roland Fischer et al. from the late 1960s to early ingestion of mushrooms was an evolutionary advantage to
1970s.[74][75]
humans omnivorous hunter-gatherer ancestors,[6][76] also
[76][78]
He beMcKenna stated that due to the desertication of the providing humanities rst religious impulse.
lieved
that
psilocybin
mushrooms
were
the
evolutionary
African continent at that time, human forerunners were
[3]
forced from the increasingly shrinking tropical canopy in catalyst from which language, projective imagination,
philosophy, science, and all of human
search of new food sources.[10] He believed they would the arts, religion,
[11][12][27][76]
culture
sprang.
have been following large herds of wild cattle whose dung
harbored the insects that, he proposed, were undoubtedly Later on this idea was given the name The 'Stoned Ape'
part of their new diet, and would have spotted and started Hypothesis.[43][7]

2 THOUGHT

McKennas stoned ape theory has not received attention from the scientic community and has been
criticized for a relative lack of citation to any of the
paleoanthropological evidence informing our understanding of human origins. His ideas regarding psilocybin and
visual acuity have been criticized by suggesting he misrepresented Fischer et al., who published studies about
visual perception in terms of various specic parameters,
not acuity. Criticism has also been expressed due to
the fact that in a separate study on psilocybin induced
transformation of visual space Fischer et al. stated that
psilocybin may not be conducive to the survival of the
organism". There is also a lack of scientic evidence that
psilocybin increases sexual arousal, and even if it does, it
does not necessarily entail an evolutionary advantage.[79]
Others have pointed to civilisations such as the Aztecs,
who used psychedelic mushrooms (at least among the
Priestly class), that didn't reect McKennas model of
how psychedelic-using cultures would behave, for example, by carrying out human sacrice.[5] Although, it has
been noted that psilocybin usage by the Aztec civilisation
is far removed from the type of usage on which McKenna
was speculating.[43] There are also examples of Amazonian tribes such as the Jivaro and the Yanomami who use
ayahuasca ceremoniously and who are known to engage in
violent behaviour. This, it has been argued, indicates the
use of psychedelic plants does not necessarily suppress
the ego and create harmonious societies.[43]

2.3

Archaic revival

dition of neo-shamanism, channeling, crystal and herbal

healing. The archaic revival is a much larger, more global
phenomenon that assumes that we are recovering the social forms of the late neolithic, and reaches far back in the
20th century to Freud, to surrealism, to abstract expressionism, even to a phenomenon like National Socialism
which is a negative force. But the stress on ritual, on organized activity, on race/ancestor-consciousness these
are themes that have been worked out throughout the entire 20th century, and the archaic revival is an expression
of that.[3][20]

2.4 Novelty theory and Timewave Zero

Timewave Zero redirects here. For album by Dutch
Aggrotech band, Grendel, see Timewave Zero (album).
Novelty theory is a pseudoscientic idea[14][15] that purports to predict the ebb and ow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. Proposing that time
is not a constant but has various qualities tending toward either habit or novelty.[9] Habit, in this context,
can be thought of as entropic, repetitious, or conservative; and novelty as creative, disjunctive, or progressive
phenomena.[12] McKennas idea was that the universe is
an engine designed for the production and conservation of
novelty and that as novelty increases, so does complexity.
With each level of complexity achieved becoming the
platform for a further ascent into complexity.[12]

One of the main themes running through McKennas

work, and the title of his second book, was the idea that
Western civilization was undergoing what he called an
archaic revival.[3][6][80]
His notion was that Western society has become sick
and is undergoing a healing process, in the same
way that the human body begins to produce antibodies
when it feels itself to be sick, humanity as a collective whole (in the Jungian, sense) was creating strategies for overcoming the condition of dis-ease and trying
to cure itself, by what he termed as a reversion to archaic values. McKenna pointed to phenomena including: surrealism, abstract expressionism, body piercing
and tattooing, psychedelic drug use, sexual permissiveness, jazz, experimental dance, rave culture, rock and
roll and catastrophe theory, amongst others, as his evidence that this process was underway.[81][82][83] This idea
is linked to McKennas stoned ape theory of human
evolution, with him viewing the archaic revival as an The 64 hexagrams from the King Wen sequence of the I Ching.
impulse to return to the symbiotic and blissful relationship he believed humanity once had with the psilocybin The basis of the theory was originally conceived in
the mid-1970s after McKennas experiences with psilomushroom.[6]
In dierentiating his idea from the "New Age", a term cybin mushrooms at La Chorrera in the Amazon led
closely study the King Wen sequence of the I
that he felt trivialized the signicance of the next phase in him to[9][10][27]
Ching.
human evolution, McKenna stated that: The New Age is
essentially humanistic psychology '80s-style, with the ad- In Asian Taoism philosophy the concept of opposing phe-

2.4

Novelty theory and Timewave Zero

nomena is represented by the Yin and Yang. Both are always present in everything, yet the amount of inuence of
each varies over time. The individual lines of the I Ching
are made up of both Yin (broken lines) and Yang (solid
lines).
When examining the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams, McKenna noticed a pattern. He analysed the
degree of dierence between each successive hexagram and claims he found a statistical anomaly, which
he believed suggested that the King Wen sequence was
intentionally constructed,[9] with the sequence of hexagrams ordered in a highly structured and articial way,
and that this pattern codied the nature of times ow in
the world.[28] With the degrees of dierence as numerical values, McKenna worked out a mathematical wave
form based on the 384 lines of change that make up the
64 hexagrams. He was able to graph the data and this
became the Novelty Time Wave.[9]

A screenshot of the Timewave Zero software (written by Peter

Meyer) showing the timewave for the 25 years preceding a zero
date of December 21, 2012.

Peter Meyer, in collaboration with McKenna, studied and

improved the foundations of novelty theory, working out
a mathematical formula and developing the Timewave
Zero software enabling them to graph and explore its dynamics on a computer.[9][11] The graph was fractal, it exhibited a pattern in which a given small section of the
wave was found to be identical in form to a larger section of the wave.[3][9] McKenna called this fractal modeling of time temporal resonance, proposing it implied
that larger intervals, occurring long ago, contained the
same amount of information as shorter, more recent,
intervals.[9][84] He suggested the up-and-down pattern
of the wave shows an ongoing wavering between habit
and novelty respectively. With each successive iteration
trending, at an increasing level, towards innite novelty.
So according to novelty theory, the pattern of time itself is
speeding up, with a requirement of the theory being that
innite novelty will be reached on a specic date.[3][9]
McKenna suspected that notable events in history could
be identied that would help him locate the time waves
end date[9] and attempted to nd the best-t placement
when matching the graph to the data eld of human
history.[11] The last harmonic of the wave has a duration

7
of 67.29 years.[85] Population growth, peak oil, and pollution statistics were some of the factors that pointed him
to an early twenty-rst century end date and when looking
for an extremely novel event in human history as a signal
that the nal phase had begun McKenna picked the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.[9][85] This worked
out to the graph reaching zero in mid-November 2012.
When he later discovered that the end of the 13th baktun in the Maya calendar had been correlated by Western
Maya scholars as December 21, 2012,[Note a] he adopted
their end date instead.[9][86][Note b]
McKenna saw the universe, in relation to Novelty theory, as having a teleological attractor at the end of time,[9]
which increases interconnectedness and would eventually
reach a singularity of innite complexity. He also frequently referred to this as the transcendental object at
the end of time.[9][11] When describing this model of the
universe he stated that: The universe is not being pushed
from behind. The universe is being pulled from the future toward a goal that is as inevitable as a marble reaching the bottom of a bowl when you release it up near the
rim. If you do that, you know the marble will roll down
the side of the bowl, down, down, down until eventually it comes to rest at the lowest energy state, which is
the bottom of the bowl. Thats precisely my model of
human history. I'm suggesting that the universe is pulled
toward a complex attractor that exists ahead of us in time,
and that our ever-accelerating speed through the phenomenal world of connectivity and novelty is based on the
fact that we are now very, very close to the attractor.[87]
Therefore, according to McKennas nal interpretation of
the data and positioning of the graph, on December 21,
2012 we would have been in the unique position in time
where maximum novelty would be experienced.[3][9][27]
An event he described as a concrescence,[5] a tightening 'gyre'" with everything owing together. Speculating
that when the laws of physics are obviated, the universe
disappears, and what is left is the tightly bound plenum,
the monad, able to express itself for itself, rather than
only able to cast a shadow into physis as its reection...It
will be the entry of our species into 'hyperspace', but it
will appear to be the end of physical laws, accompanied
by the release of the mind into the imagination.[88]
Novelty theory is considered to be pseudoscience.[14][15]
Among the criticisms are the use of numerology to derive dates of important events in world history,[15] the
arbitrary rather than calculated end date of the time
wave[6] and the apparent adjustment of the eschaton from
November 2012 to December 2012 in order to coincide
with the Maya calendar. Other purported dates do not
t the actual time frames: the date claimed for the emergence of Homo sapiens is inaccurate by 70,000 years, and
the existence of the ancient Sumer and Egyptian civilisations contradict the date he gave for the beginning of
historical time. Some projected dates have been criticised for having seemingly arbitrary labels, such as the
height of the age of mammals[15] and McKennas anal-

5 SPOKEN WORD

ysis of historical events has been criticised for having a of True Hallucinations, in a 1992 issue of Esquire Magaeurocentric and cultural bias.[10][6]
zine that, it would be hard to nd a drug narrative more
compellingly perched on a baroquely romantic limb than
this passionate Tom-and-Huck-ride-great-mother-river2.4.1 The Watkins Objection
saga of brotherly bonding, adding put simply, Terence
is a hoot!"[10]
In 1994, the British mathematician Matthew Watkins
talking head who was
of Exeter University (then a Cambridge PhD student) Wired called him a charismatic [27]
brainy,
eloquent,
and
hilarious
and Jerry Garcia of
conducted a mathematical analysis of the Time Wave.
the
Grateful
Dead
also
said
that
he
was
the only person
Watkins claimed there were various mathematical aws
who
has
made
a
serious
eort
to
objectify
the psychedelic
in the construction of the wave. He stated that when the
[19]
experience.
mathematics was accurately performed a more trivial and
uninteresting waveform was created, which was not fractal but a complex piecewise linear progression.[6]

4 Bibliography

Critical reception

One expert on drug treatment attacked McKenna for popularizing dangerous substances. Surely the fact that
Terence McKenna says that the psilocybin mushroom 'is
the megaphone used by an alien, intergalactic Other to
communicate with mankind' is enough for us to wonder
if taking LSD has done something to his mental faculties, Judy Corman, vice president of Phoenix House of
New York, a drug treatment center, said in a letter to The
New York Times in 1993.[19]
Others had trouble with his self-consciously cosmic literary style. I suered hallucinatory agonies of my own
while reading his shrilly ecstatic prose, Peter Conrad
wrote in The New York Times in a 1993 review of Mr.
McKennas book True Hallucinations.[19]
But some praised his scholarly approach. Biologist
Richard Evans Schultes, of Harvard University, wrote in
American Scientist in a 1993 review of McKennas book
Food of the Gods, that it was; a masterpiece of research
and writing and that it should be read by every specialist working in the multifarious elds involved with the
use of psychoactive drugs. Concluding that It is, without question, destined to play a major role in our future
considerations of the role of the ancient use of psychoactive drugs, the historical shaping of our modern concerns
about drugs and perhaps about mans desire for escape
from reality with drugs.[89]
John Horgan in a 2012 blog post for Scientic American also commented that, Food of the Gods was a rigorous argument...that mind-expanding plants and fungi
catalyzed the transformation of our brutish ancestors into
cultured modern humans.[12]
His outpouring of unique thoughts was a marvel to many.
To write him o as a crazy hippie is a rather lazy approach to a man not only full of fascinating ideas but
also blessed with a sense of humor and self-parody, Tom
Hodgkinson wrote in The New Statesman and Society in
1994.[19]
Some found his writing captivating. Mark Jacobson said

McKenna, Dennis; (1975). The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching. New
York: Seabury. ISBN 9780816492497.
McKenna, Dennis; ; under the pseudonyms OT
Oss and ON Oeric (1976). Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Growers Guide. Berkeley, CA: And/Or Press.
ISBN 9780915904136.
The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic
Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs,
Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess,
and the End of History. San Francisco: Harper San
Francisco. 1992. ISBN 9780062506139.
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree
of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs,
and Human Evolution. New York: Bantam. 1992.
ISBN 9780553078688.
Synesthesia.
Illustrated by Ely, Timothy C.
New York: Granary Books.
1992.
ISBN
9781887123044. OCLC 30473682.
Abraham, Ralph H.; ; Sheldrake, Rupert (1992).
Trialogues at the Edge of the West: Chaos, Creativity, and the Resacralization of the World. Forward by Houston, Jean. Bear & Company. ISBN
9780939680979.
True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Authors Extraordinary Adventures in the Devils Paradise. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. 1993.
ISBN 9780062505453.
Abraham, Ralph H.; ; Sheldrake, Rupert (1998).
The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science,
Imagination & Spirit. Monksh Book Publishing.
ISBN 0974935972.

5 Spoken word
History Ends in Green: Gaia, Psychedelics and the
Archaic Revival, 6 audiocassette set, Mystic Fire au-

9
dio, 1993, ISBN 1-56176-907-X (recorded at the
Esalen Institute, 1989)
TechnoPagans at the End of History (transcription
of rap with Mark Pesce from 1998)
Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines
(1999) (DVD) HPX/SurrealStudio
Conversations on the Edge of Magic (1994) (CD &
Cassette) ACE
Rap-Dancing into the Third Millennium (1994)
(Cassette) (Re-issued on CD as The Quintessential
Hallucinogen) ACE
Packing For the Long Strange Trip (1994) (Audio
Cassette) ACE
Global Perspectives and Psychedelic Poetics (1994)
(Cassette) Sound Horizons Audio-Video, Inc.
The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
(1992) (Cassette) Sounds True
The Psychedelic Society (DVD & Video Cassette)
Sound Photosynthesis
True Hallucinations Workshop (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Vertigo at Historys Edge: Who Are We? Where
Have We Come From? Where Are We Going? (DVD
& Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Ethnobotany and Shamanism (DVD & Video/Audio
Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Shamanism, Symbiosis and Psychedelics Workshop
(Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Shamanology (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Shamanology of the Amazon (w/ Nicole Maxwell)
(Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Beyond Psychology (1983) (Audio Cassette) Sound
Photosynthesis
Understanding & the Imagination in the Light of Nature Parts 1 & 2 (DVD & Video/Audio Cassette)
Sound Photosynthesis
Ethnobotany (a complete course given at The
California Institute of Integral Studies) (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Forms and Mysteries: Morphogenetic Fields and

Psychedelic Experiences (w/ Rupert Sheldrake)
(DVD & Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
UFO: The Inside Outsider (DVD & Video/Audio
Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
A Calendar for The Goddess (DVD & Video/Audio
Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
A Magical Journey: Including Hallucinogens and
Culture, Time and The I Ching, and The Human Future (Video Cassette) TAP/Sound Photosynthesis
Aliens and Archetypes (Video Cassette) TAP/Sound
Photosynthesis
Angels, Aliens and Archetypes 1987 Symposium:
Shamanic Approaches to the UFO, and Fairmont
Banquet Talk (DVD & Video/Audio Cassette)
Sound Photosynthesis
Botanical Dimensions (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Conference on Botanical Intelligence (w/ Joan Halifax, Andy Weil, & Dennis McKenna) (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Coping With Gaias Midwife Crisis (Audio Cassette)
Sound Photosynthesis
Dreaming Awake at the End of Time (DVD &
Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Evolving Times (DVD, CD & Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Food of the Gods (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound
Photosynthesis
Food of the Gods 2: Drugs, Plants and Destiny
(Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Hallucinogens in Shamanism & Anthropology at
Bridge Psychedelic Conf.1991 (w/ Ralph Metzner,
Marlene Dobkin De Rios, Allison Kennedy &
Thomas Pinkson) (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Finale Bridge Psychedelic Conf.1991 (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Man and Woman at the End of History (w/ Riane
Eisler) (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Non-ordinary States of Reality Through Vision

Plants (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Plants, Consciousness, and Transformation (1995)

(Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Mind & Time, Spirit & Matter: The Complete Weekend in Santa Fe (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Metamorphosis (w/ Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham) (1995) (Video Cassette) Mystic Fire/Sound
Photosynthesis

10
Nature is the Center of the Mandala (Audio Cassette)
Sound Photosynthesis
Opening the Doors of Creativity (1990) (DVD &
Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Places I Have Been (CD & Audio Cassette) Sound
Photosynthesis
Plants, Visions and History Lecture (Audio/Video
Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Psychedelics Before and After History (DVD &
Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

9 NOTES

6 Discography
Re : Evolution with The Shamen (1992)
Dream Matrix Telemetry with Zuvuya (1993)
Alien Dreamtime with Spacetime Continuum &
Stephen Kent (2003)

7 Filmography
Experiment at Petaluma (1990)

Sacred Plants As Guides: New Dimensions of the

Soul (at the Jung Society Clairemont, California)
(DVD & Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Prague Gnosis: Terence McKenna Dialogues (1992)

Seeking the Stone (Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis

Shamans of the Amazon (2001)

Shamanism: Before and Beyond History A Weekend at Ojai (w/ Ralph Metzner) (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Shedding the Monkey (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
State of the Stone '95 (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Ethnobotany of Shamanism Introductory Lecture: The Philosophical Implications of Psychobotony: Past, Present and Future (at CIIS) (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Ethnobotany of Shamanism Workshop:
Psychedelics Before and After History (at CIIS)
(Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Grammar of Ecstasy the World Within the
Word (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Light at the End of History (Audio/Video Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The State of the Stone Address: Having Archaic and
Eating it Too (Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
The Taxonomy of Illusion (at UC Santa Cruz) (DVD
& Video/Audio Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
This World ...and Its Double (DVD & Video/Audio
Cassette) Sound Photosynthesis
Trialogues at the Edge of the Millennium (w/ Rupert
Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham) (at UC Santa Cruz)
(1998) (Video Cassette) Trialogue Press

The Hemp Revolution (1995)

Terence McKenna: The Last Word (1999)

Alien Dreamtime (2003)

2012: The Odyssey (2007)
The Alchemical Dream: Rebirth Of The Great Work
(2008)
Manifesting the Mind (2009)
Cognition Factor (2009)
DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010)
2012: Time for Change (2010)
The Terence McKenna OmniBus 2012 (2012)

8 See also
Omega Point

9 Notes

Most Mayanist scholars, such as Mark Van

Stone and Anthony Aveni, adhere to the GMT
(Goodman-Martinez-Thompson) correlation with
the Long Count, which places the start date at 11
August 3114 BC and the end date of b'ak'tun 13 at
December 21, 2012.[90] This date was also the overwhelming preference of those who believed in 2012
eschatology, arguably, Van Stone suggests, because
it was a solstice, and was thus astrologically significant. Some Mayanist scholars, such as Michael
D. Coe, Linda Schele and Marc Zender, adhere
to the Lounsbury/GMT+2 correlation, which sets

11
the start date at August 13 and the end date at December 23. Which of these is the precise correlation has yet to be conclusively settled.[91] Coes initial date was 24 December 2011. He revised it to
11 January AD 2013 in the 1980 2nd edition of
his book,[92] not settling on December 23, 2012 until
the 1984 3rd edition.[93] The correlation of b'ak'tun
13 as December 21, 2012 rst appeared in Table B.2
of Robert J. Sharer's 1983 revision of the 4th edition
of Sylvanus Morley's book The Ancient Maya.[94]

10

[10] Jacobson, Mark (June 1992). Terence McKenna the

brave prophet of The next psychedelic revolution, or is
his cosmic egg just a little bit cracked?". Esquire. pp.
10738. ESQ199206.
[11] Dery, Mark (2001) [1996]. Terence McKenna: The inner elf. 21C Magazine. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
[12] Horgan, John. Was psychedelic guru Terence McKenna
goong about 2012 prophecy?" (blog). Scientic American. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
[13] Krupp, E.C. (November 2009). The great 2012 scare

The 1975 rst edition of McKennas The Invisible

(PDF). Sky & Telescope. pp. 226 (25).
Landscape refers to 2012 (but no specic day during the year) only twice. In the 1993 second edition, [14] Bruce, Alexandra (2009). 2012: Science Or Superstition (The Denitive Guide to the Doomsday Phenomenon).
McKenna employed December 21, 2012 throughDisinformation Movie & Book Guides. Red Wheel
out, the date arrived at by the Mayanist researcher
Weiser. p. 261. ISBN 9781934708514.
[86]
Robert J. Sharer.

References

[1] Znamenski, Andrei A. (2007). The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780198038498.
[2] Horgan, John (2004). Rational Mysticism: Spirituality
Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment. Houghton
Miin Harcourt. p. 177. ISBN 9780547347806.

[15] Normark, Johan (June 16, 2009). 2012: Prophet of nonsense #8: Terence McKenna Novelty theory and timewave zero. Archaeological Haecceities (blog).
[16] Kent, James (December 2, 2003). Terence McKenna Interview, Part 1.. Tripzine.com. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
[17] Dennis McKenna (2012). The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna (eBook) (1st
ed.). Polaris Publications. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-87839637-5.
[18] McKenna, Dennis 2012, pp. 115.

[3] Brown, David Jay; Novick, Rebecca McClen, eds.

(1993). Mushrooms, Elves And Magic. Mavericks
of the Mind: Conversations for the New Millennium.
Freedom, CA: Crossing Press. pp. 924. ISBN
9780895946010.

[19] Martin, Douglas (September 10, 2013).

Terence
McKenna, 53, dies; Patron of psychedelic drugs. The
New York Times. Retrieved 2012-09-12.

[4] Partridge, Christopher (2006). Ch. 3: Cleansing the

Doors of Perception: The Contemporary Sacralization of
Psychedelics. Reenchantment of West. Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture 2.
Continuum. p. 113. ISBN 9780567552716.

[21] McKenna 1993, p. 215.

[20] McKenna 1992a, pp. 20417.

[22] McKenna 1993, pp. 5558.

[23] McKenna 1993, pp. 223.
[24] Terence McKenna. Omni 15 (7). 1993. pp. 6970.

[5] Pinchbeck, Daniel (2003). Breaking Open the Head:

A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary
Shamanism. Broadway Books. pp. 2318. ISBN
0767907434.
[6] Letcher, Andy (2007). 14.The Elf-Clowns of Hyperspace. Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic
Mushroom. Harper Perennial. pp. 25374. ISBN
0060828293.
[7] Mulvihill, Tom. Eight things you didn't know about
magic mushrooms. The Telegraph. Telegraph Media
Group Limited. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
[8] Terence McKenna; Promoter of psychedelic drug use.
Los Angeles Times. April 7, 2000. p. B6.
[9] Jenkins, John Major (2009).
Early 2012 Books
McKenna and Waters. The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History. Penguin. ISBN 9781101148822.

[25] McKenna 1993, pp. 113.

[26] McKenna 1993, p. 23.
[27] Davis, Erik (May 2000). Terence McKennas last trip.
Wired (8.05). Retrieved 2013-09-10.
[28] Gyus. The End of the River: A critical view of Linear Apocalyptic Thought, and how Linearity makes a
sneak appearance in Timewave Theorys fractal view of
Time". dreamesh. The Unlimited Dream Company.
Retrieved 19 July 2015.
[29] McKenna 1993, p. 194.
[30] McKenna 1993, p. 3.
[31] McKenna 1993, pp. 2057.
[32] Hancock, Graham (2006) [2005]. Supernatural: Meetings
with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. London: Arrow.
pp. 5567. ISBN 9780099474159.

12

10

[33] Letcher 2007, p. 278.

[34] Ott J. (1993). Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, their
Plant Sources and History. Kennewick, Washington: Natural Products Company. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-96142343-8.; see San Antonio JP. (1971). A laboratory method
to obtain fruit from cased grain spawn of the cultivated
mushroom, Agaricus bisporus". Mycologia 63 (1): 16
21. doi:10.2307/3757680. JSTOR 3757680. PMID
5102274.
[35] McKenna & McKenna 1976, Preface (revised ed.).

REFERENCES

[50] Nollman, Jim (1994). Why We Garden: Cultivating a

Sense of Place. Henry Holt & Co. p. 181. ISBN
9780805027198.
[51] Davis, Erik (January 13, 2005). Terence McKenna Vs.
the Black Hole. techgnosis.com (Excerpts from the CD,
Terence McKenna: The Last Interview). Retrieved 201209-12.
[52] Frauenfelder, Mark (February 22, 2007). Terence
McKennas library destroyed in re. Boing Boing (group
blog). Retrieved 2012-09-12.

[36] Wojtowicz, Slawek (2008). Ch. 6: Magic Mushrooms.

In Strassman, Rick; Wojtowicz, Slawek; Luna, Luis Eduardo; et al. Inner Paths To Outer Space: Journeys to Alien
Worlds Through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions. p. 149. ISBN
9781594772245.

[53] Stamets, Paul (1996). 5. Good Tips For Great Trips.

Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identication
Guide. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. p. 36. ISBN
9780898158397.

[37] Toop, David (February 18, 1993). Sounds like a radical

vision; The Shamen and Terence McKenna. Rock Music. The Times.

[55] Wadsworth, Jennifer. Federal Approval Brings MDMA

From Club to Clinic. Metro Active. Metro Silicon Valley.
Retrieved 17 May 2016.

[38] Sharkey, Alix (April 15, 2000). Terence McKenna.

The Independent (Obituary). p. 7.

[56] Pinchbeck 2003, p. 193.

[39] McKenna,
Terence
(1994).
181McKennaErosEschatonQA.
In Hagerty, Lorenzo.
Psychedelia: Psychedelic Salon ALL Episodes (MP3)
(lecture). Event occurs at 32:00. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
[40] McKenna, Terence (September 11, 1993).
This
World...and Its Double (DVD). Mill Valley, California:
Sound Photosynthesis. Event occurs at 1:30:45.
[41] Leary, Timothy (1992). Unfolding the Stone 1. In
Damer, Bruce. Psychedelia: Raw Archives of Terence
McKenna Talks (MP3) (Introduction to lecture by Terence
McKenna). Event occurs at 2:08.
[42] Hicks, Bill (1997) [November 1992 December 1993].
Pt. 1: Ch. 2: Gifts of Forgiveness. Rant in E-Minor
(CD and MP3). Rykodisc. Event occurs at 0:58. OCLC
38306915.
[43] Gyrus (2009). Appendix II: The Stoned Ape Hypothesis. War and the Noble Savage: A Critical Inquiry Into
Recent Accounts of Violence Amongst Uncivilized Peoples.
London: Dreamesh. pp. 636. ISBN 0955419611.
[44] Hayes, Charles (2000). Tripping: An Anthology of TrueLife Psychedelic Adventures. Penguin. p. 1201. ISBN
9781101157190.
[45] Abraham, McKenna & Sheldrake 1998, Preface.
[46] Abraham, McKenna & Sheldrake 1992, p. 11.

[54] McKenna 1992a, p. 43.

[57] McKenna, Terence. The Invisible Landscape. futurehi.net (lecture). Future Hi. Archived from the original
on October 16, 2005.
[58] Pinchbeck 2003, p. 247.
[59] Trip, Gabriel (May 2, 1993). Tripping, but not falling.
New York Times. p. A6.
[60] Shamen (1992). Track 10: RE: Evolution. Boss Drum
(CD and MP3). Epic. Event occurs at 4:50. OCLC
27056837.
[61] McKenna, Terence. The Gaian mind. deoxy.org (cut-up
from the works of Terence McKenna).
[62] Pinchbeck 2003, p. 234.
[63] Rabey, Steve (August 13, 1994). Instant karma:
Psychedelic drug use on the rise as a quick route to spirituality. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. p. E1.
[64] McKenna 1992a, p. 242.
[65] McKenna, Terence (1992). Unfolding the Stone 1. In
Damer, Bruce. Psychedelia: Raw Archives of Terence
McKenna Talks (MP3) (lecture). Event occurs at 17:30.
[66] McKenna, Terence (19901999). SurngFinnegansWake. In Damer, Bruce. Psychedelia: Raw Archives
of Terence McKenna Talks (MP3) (lecture). Event occurs
at 0:45.

[48] Botanical Dimensions People. botanicaldimensions.org.

[67] McKenna, Terence (1991). Afterword: I Understand

Philip K. Dick. In Sutin, Lawrence. In Pursuit of Valis:
Selections from the Exegesis. Underwood-Miller. ISBN
9780887330919. Convenience copy. sirbacon.org.

[49] Botanical Dimensions Plants and People.

caldimensions.org.

[68] McKenna, Terence (1999). Psychedelics in The Age of

Intelligent Machines (Video) (lecture).

[47] Rice, Paddy Rose (ed.). The Sheldrake McKenna

Abraham Trialogues. sheldrake.org.

botani-

13

[69] Rick Strassman, M.D. (2001). DMT: The Spirit Molecule:

A Doctors Revolutionary Research into the Biology of
Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Inner Traditions
Bear and Company; Later Printing edition. p. 187. ISBN
0892819278.
[70] Pinchbeck 2003, p. 213.
[71] Spacetime Continuum; McKenna, Terence; Kent,
Stephen (2003) [1993]. Alien Love. Alien Dreamtime
(DVD, CD and MP3). Visuals by Rose-X Media House.
Magic Carpet Media: Astralwerks. Event occurs at 1:45.
OCLC 80061092. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
[72] McKenna 1992b, pp. 5660.
[73] McKenna 1992b, p. 54.
[74] Fischer, Roland; Hill, Richard; Thatcher, Karen; Scheib,
James (1970). Psilocybin-Induced contraction of nearby
visual space. Agents and Actions 1 (4): 1907.
doi:10.1007/BF01965761. PMID 5520365.
[75] McKenna 1992b, p. 57.
[76] Znamenski 2007, pp. 138-9.
[77] McKenna 1992b, p. 59.

[89] Schultes, Richard Evans (1993). Food of the Gods: The

Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence
McKenna. Life Sciences. American Scientist (Book review) 81 (5). pp. 48990. JSTOR 29775027.
[90] Matthews, Peter (2005). Whos Who in the Classic Maya
World. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
[91] Van Stone, Mark. Questions and comments. famsi.org.
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
[92] Coe, Michael D. (1980). The Maya. Ancient Peoples and
Places 10 (2nd ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. p.
151.
[93] Coe, Michael D. (1984). The Maya. Ancient Peoples and
Places (3rd ed.). London: Thames and Hudson.
[94] Morley, Sylvanus (1983). The Ancient Maya (4th ed.).
Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 603, Table
B2.

11 External links

[78] Pinchbeck 2003, p. 194.

Ocial website

[79] Akers, Brian P. Concerning Terence McKennas Stoned

Apes"". Reality Sandwich. Retrieved 12 August 2015.

Botanical Dimensions

[80] Hayes, Charles (2000). Introduction: The Psychedelic

[in] Society: A Brief Cultural History of Tripping. Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures.
Penguin. p. 14. ISBN 9781101157190.
[81] McKenna,
Terence
(1994).
181McKennaErosEschatonQA.
In Hagerty, Lorenzo.
Psychedelia: Psychedelic Salon ALL Episodes (MP3)
(lecture). Event occurs at 49:10. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
[82] McKenna, Terence. The Importance of Human Beings
(a.k.a Eros and the Eschaton)". matrixmasters.net.
[83] Spacetime Continuum; McKenna, Terence; Kent,
Stephen (2003) [1993]. Archaic Revival. Alien
Dreamtime (DVD, CD and MP3). Visuals by Rose-X
Media House. Magic Carpet Media: Astralwerks. Event
occurs at 3:08. OCLC 80061092. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
[84] McKenna 1992a, pp. 10413.
[85] Abraham, Ralph; McKenna, Terence (June 1983).
Dynamics of Hyperspace. ralph-abraham.org. Santa
Cruz, CA. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
[86] Defesche, Sacha (June 17, 2008) [JanuaryAugust 2007].
"'The 2012 Phenomenon': A historical and typological approach to a modern apocalyptic mythology (MA Thesis,
Mysticism and Western Esotericism, University of Amsterdam). Skepsis. Retrieved 2011-04-29.
[87] McKenna, Terence (1994). Approaching Timewave
Zero. Magical Blend (44). Retrieved 15 June 2015.
[88] McKenna 1992a, p. 101.

Terence McKenna Bibliography, list of references

to books, articles, audio, video, interviews and translations by and about Terence McKenna
Psychedelic Salon, Over 100 podcasts of Terence
McKenna lectures
Erowid's Terence McKenna Vault
Terence McKenna at the Internet Movie Database
Tao of Terence, a 12-part series of essays on
McKenna by Tao Lin at Vice

14

12

12

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1

Text

Terence McKenna Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna?oldid=724933042 Contributors: The Anome, JeLuF, R

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File:Botanical_Dimensions_ethnobotanical_preserve_in_Hawaii.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/

12/Botanical_Dimensions_ethnobotanical_preserve_in_Hawaii.jpg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Zac
White
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File:Hanna_jon_1999_mckenna_terence.jpg Source:
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mckenna_terence.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Jon Hanna
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Wikipedia
File:Mckenna1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Mckenna1.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors:
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File:Psilocybe_Cubensis.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Psilocybe_Cubensis.JPG License: CCBY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Rohan523 Original artist: Rohan523
File:Psilocybin_Magic_Mushroom_Growers_Guide_book_cover.jpg Source:
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Psilocybin_Magic_Mushroom_Growers_Guide_book_cover.jpg License: Fair use Contributors: Original publication: U.S. revised and
expanded edition Book cover 1986
Immediate source: http://www.atomicbooks.com/index.php/psilocybin-magic-mushroom-growers-guide-handbook.html Original artist:
Kathleen Harrison McKenna
File:Screenshot_of_Timewave_Zero_software.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Screenshot_of_
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