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Astonishment is the proper response to reality.

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.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Animal Begin Imagination Mind Psychedelic Substance
$Terence McKenna Quote - The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world.$

The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Fraction Perceive Tiny World
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
To the degree that you avert your gaze from this truth, you build the potential for pain into your life. Everything is this act of embracing the present moment, the felt presence of experience, and then moving on to the next felt moment of experience. It’s literally psychological nomadism is what it is.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Act Degree Everything Experience Literally Moment Movement Potential Present Truth
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
Shamanism has always known this, and shamanism has always, in its most authentic expressions, taught that the path required allies.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Always Authentic Expression Knowm Shamanism
I see the psychedelic experience as a birthright, and we can’t have a free society until people are free to explore their own mind.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Bright Explore Free Mind People Psychedelic Right Society
What happens with DMT is you leap over all the barriers in the first few seconds. Unlike mushrooms where over hours and hours on a high dose you might navigate yourself to the center of the mandala, DMT is like being struck by metaphysical lightening.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Barrier Dmt Few First Happen might Mushrooms Second
Capitalism is going to deal itself out of existence, but before it does that, you’re gonna pay $50 for a latte, because inflation is going impoverish all of us before people get pissed off enough,
TERENCE MCKENNA

Capitalism Existence Game People Years
I don’t know what life is like without cannabis, I hear there is such a thing.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Cannabis Hear Life Like Thing
What civilization is, is 6 billion people trying to make themselves happy by standing on each other’s shoulders and kicking each other’s teeth in. It’s not a pleasant situation.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Billion Blowing Civilization Kick Mind People Shoulder Six Stand Themselves
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
This 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 MCKENNA

Abyss Bed Discover Done Feather Shamanic
The cost of sanity in this society, is a certain level of alienation
TERENCE MCKENNA

Alienation Certain Cost Dmt Level Mind Blowing Sanity Society
Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Against Blowing Culture Ego Fact Member Mind Neurotic Structure
Beauty is self-defined, perceived and understood without ambiguity. It’s the stuff that lies under the skins of our individual existences.
TERENCE MCKENNA

Ambiguity Beauty Define Life Lying Self Understood

Astonishment is the proper response to reality.

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Astonishment is the proper response to reality.

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