Terence McKenna

Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

Terence McKenna was an ethnobotanist and philosopher known for his exploration of consciousness and the use of psychedelics in understanding reality.

Born
November 16, 1946
Quotes
705
Rank
#563

Quote collection

Terence McKenna quotes (page 34 of 36)

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"Just because you have a nut theory it doesn't mean that you agree with other nut theories. In fact, it often makes you very hostile to them. After all, there's a limited pool there that we're all after."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"All of you who have been through high dose psychedelic experiences know that it's very hard to carry stupid baggage through that keyhole. In fact you're lucky if you just get your soul and yourselves through and intact."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"I think the experience over the past thousand years is that ideology is poisonous. . . . The world seen through the lens of ideology is a very limited world."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"All psychedelic explorers should be aware of the concept of what is called a cognitive hallucination. The is a much more insidious phenomenon. This is, quite simply, an out-and-out delusion."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"I think what electronic culture permits is incredible diversity, and what the print-created world demanded and created was tremendous suppression of diversity."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"Is there a necessary succession in style, or are these things pure chance?"

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"An interesting thing about drugs is often, when a new drug is discovered, it takes a long time to figure out how do you do it."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"To me, the most amazing the most amazing transformation in my lifetime is not the revolution of the Sixties but the counter revolution of the Seventies, where they managed to put the cuckoo clock back together again"

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"What I like to talk about, and what I have very little competition in terms of talking about, is the content of the psychedelic experience."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"Eschaton comes from the Greek word 'echatos', which just means the end."

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"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."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"Perhaps, you know, new laws, new domains of potential openness are occurring as the universe ages, and complexity previously disallowed is now possible, and we are that complexity. We are nature moving out of its genetic phase - a phase under the control of chemical genes, which are physical structures, in to an epigenetic phase, a phase of culture ruled by codes, transformable culturally confined codes - mathematics, religion, philosophy, art, dance, humor."

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"These things which are made of light and grammar and sound that come chirping and squealing and tumbling toward you. 'Hooray! Welcome! You're here!', and in my case, 'You send so many and you come so rarely!'"

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"I mean everybody knows there's something wrong with the world and if you read left wing politicians or deconstructionists or thoughtful historians they will offer thoughtful critiques of our situation. But the question is, you know, the Tolstoyian question; 'What is to be done?'"

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"Standing outside the cultural hysteria the trend is fairly clear. It is a trend toward temporal compression and the emergence of ambiguity."

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"My normal lectures deal with the psychedelic experience as a generalized and historical phenomenon, but this effort at communication is slightly more personal in that it's an effort to impart [just] one idea that came out of an involvement with psychedelic substances."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"But what I really am interested in is not the end of the world but everything which precedes it."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"The 'person' is not an interchangeable part. The 'citizen' is. ... The person is harking back to a pre-print model. It's what the hippies were."

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Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer
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"And science, when it examines psychedelics, as it will and must, is going to discover a revolution, I believe, that will put all the previous revolutions in perspective."

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"Don't diddle the dose. Once you have done your homework, go for it."

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