Terence McKenna

"For me it's an issue of are we afraid of ourselves? And we inherit a huge bunch of idealogical baggage, not only Christianity, but Freudianism, and Marxism . . . We inherit all kinds of idealogical baggage designed to make us fear ourselves."

14 likes

Source: Source: www.theguardian.com

About the author

Terence McKenna

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.

All quotes by Terence McKenna →

Same author

More quotes by Terence McKenna

See all →
Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

"Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream 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. 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."

Read quote
Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

"Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. 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."

Read quote
Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

"This is the message of your life and my life - it’s that nothing lasts. Heraclitus said it: Panta Rhei. All flows, nothing lasts. Not your enemies, not your fortune, not who you sleep with at night, not the books, not the house in Saint-Tropez, not even the children - nothing lasts. 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."

Read quote
Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

"You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness."

Read quote