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The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.

Terence McKenna

We are told No, you’re unimportant, you’re peripheral – get a degree, get a job, get a this, get that, and then you’re a player.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Degree Game Job Player Told Unimportant
The 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 MCKENNA

Astronaut Before Being Fact Human Psychedelic Seen
And what is the primary datum? It’s the felt presence of immediate experience. In other words, being here now is the primary datum.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Data Datum Experience Felt Immediate Primaries
One thing that these Buddhists have certainly gotten right is that attention to attention is the key to taking control of your mental life.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Attention Buddhist Control Key One Thing Take
The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer
TERENCE MCKENNA

Answer Face Mind Blowing Problem
Knowledge, or verbal facility, is no proof that you know what you’re talking about.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Know Proof Talking Verbal
The 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 MCKENNA

Adventure Authentic Being Culturally Give Major Real True
You are not naked when you take off your clothes. You still wear your religious assumptions, your prejudices, your fears, your illusions, your delusions.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Assumption Clothes Naked Off Prejudice Religion Religious Take
Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Behaviour Down Everything Illegal Information Model Psychedelics Structure Wrong
Notice that the whole story of Eden is the story of the struggle over a woman’s relationship to a psychoactive plant.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Eden People Person Plant Psychoactive Relationship Stories Struggle Woman
The overriding problems are brought on by the existence of the ego, a maladaptive behavioral complex in the psyche that gets going like a tumor. If it’s not treated – if there’s not pharmacological intervention – it becomes the dominant constellation of the personality.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Behavioral Comox Ego Existence Metadative Override Personality Problem Psyche
There is no knowledge without risk taking.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Knowledge Risk Take
Nature is not our enemy, to be raped and conquered. Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Conquer Enemy Expression Nature Raped Teaching Understanding
Your memories are eroding away. The futures you anticipate, will mostly not come to pass, and the real richness is in the moment. And it’s not necessarily some kind of ‘Be Here Now’ feel-good thing because it doesn’t always feel good. But it always feels. It is a domain of feeling. It’s primary.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Anticipate Away Encode Feel Future Good Memories Pass Real Richness
Nobody is smarter than you are. And what if they are? What good is their understanding doing you?
TERENCE MCKENNA

Doing Good Nobody Smart Smarter Understanding
The Imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Everywhere Golden Imagination Pathways

The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.

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The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.

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Popular Authors

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