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.
TERENCE MCKENNATo 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.
TERENCE MCKENNAHow can we know who is the other until we know who is the self?
TERENCE MCKENNAThe psychedelic inner astronaut sees things which no human being has ever seen before, and no other human being will ever see again. But in fact this has no meaning unless it is possible to carry it back into the collectivity.
TERENCE MCKENNAIf the ego is not regularly and repeatedly dissolved in the unbounded hyperspace of the Transcendent Other, there will always be slow drift away from the sense of self as part of nature’s larger whole. The ultimate consequence of this drift is the fatal ennui that now permeates Western Civilization.
TERENCE MCKENNAYou are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.
TERENCE MCKENNAThere is an angel within the monkey struggling to get free, and this is what the historical crisis is all about.
TERENCE MCKENNABeing imposes some kind of obligation to find out what’s going on.
TERENCE MCKENNABeauty is self-defined, perceived and understood without ambiguity. It’s the stuff that lies under the skins of our individual existences.
TERENCE MCKENNANature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles.
TERENCE MCKENNAThis is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed.
TERENCE MCKENNAThe apocalypse is not something which is coming. The apocalypse has arrived in major portions of the planet and it’s only because we live within a bubble of incredible privilege and social insulation that we still have the luxury of anticipating the apocalypse.
TERENCE MCKENNAThe drugs of the future will be computers. The computers of the future will be drugs.
TERENCE MCKENNADon’t worry. You don’t know enough to worry. . . . Who do you think you are that you should worry, for cryin’ out loud. It’s a total waste of time. It presupposes such a knowledge of the situation that it is, in fact, a form of hubris.
TERENCE MCKENNAThink about our dilemma on this planet. If the expansion of consciousness does not loom large in the human future, what kind of future is it going to be?
TERENCE MCKENNAThe major adventure is to claim your authentic, true being, which is not culturally given to you. The culture will not explain to you how to be a real human being. It will tell you how to be banker, politician, Indian chief, masseuses, actress, whatever, but it will not give you true being.
TERENCE MCKENNADream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood.
TERENCE MCKENNA