Terence McKenna: Psilocybin & The Sands Of Time (1982)

Our ability to destroy ourselves is the mirror image of our ability to save ourselves, and what is lacking is the clear vision of what should be done... What needs to be done is that fundamental, ontological conceptions of reality need to be redone. We need a new language, and to have a new language we must have a new reality... A new reality will generate a new language, a new language will fix a new reality, and make it part of this reality.

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Terence McKenna: Linear Societies & Nonlinear Drugs (1999)

Terence McKenna at the Entheobotany Seminar
Palenque, Mexico on January 16, 1999

On Saturday night, January 16, 1999, Terence McKenna gave one of his last lectures at the legendary Entheobotany Series by the foot of the pool at the Chan Kha Hotel near the Mayan ruins of Palenque. There were about 100 people sitting in the moonlight, listening to the lowing of cattle in the distance and the occasional chatter of the howler monkeys in the trees nearby. This was Terence doing what he did best, which was to challenge all of us to stretch our minds to their far limits and then expand them once again.

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Illustration: Adam Scott Miller (Thermohoizon)

Trialogue: Metamorphosis (1995)

Metamorphosis: A Trialogue on Chaos and the World Soul

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

"The key is surrender and a dissolution of  boundaries, dissolution of the ego and a trust in the love of the Goddess which transcends rational understanding. There will come a moment which will be an absolute leap into space, and we will simply have to have the faith that there is something waiting there, because the dominator style has left us no choice"

~ Terence McKenna

Trialogue: The World Soul (1989)

Trialogue: The World Soul

Recorded in 1989. Terence begins by telling a rather amazing story about a walk he had on a beach that turned into a fractal psychedelic experience, and without the aid of any substances I should add. From there it takes a while to get to the World Soul, and then after talking for a while, they discover that they are actually talking about different concepts! A couple of my favorite McKenna quotes from this talk are: "For my money, monotheism is the single most reactionary force in all of human history. I don't even know what is running second," and "Democracy is a step away from anarchy."

"I think that creativity depends on having sufficient indeterminacy around for a new pattern to arise up within it." -Rupert Sheldrake

"If there is no randomness in the universe, then what do we mean by chaos?" -Rupert Sheldrake

"Not thinking about the World Soul but the individual soul, that the seizure of DMT is almost like a simulacrum of death itself, and that you seem to see into an ecology of souls." -Terence McKenna

"The World Soul, I think, is in communication with us in the culminating moment of human history. This is all being scripted for a purpose and toward an end unglimpsed by us but tied up with the survival of everything." -Terence McKenna

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Trialogue: Santa Cruz

Trialogue: Santa Cruz

Between 1989 and 1998, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake conducted a series of trialogues on a wide range of topics. This program is from an undated tape that was simply labeled "trialogue-mini".

Terence McKenna: "Another way of thinking of it (the Knot of Eternity) is it's the nexus of connectivity. It's a place where everything is cotangent, as the mathematicians say. Everything is connected, and I think that's the place we are growing toward."

Ralph Abraham: "If a present moment is between a past that's familiar and a future which is completely different, then that's a very special moment."

Terence: "The great successful conspiracies, the Catholic church, capitalism, the Communist Party of China, Zionism, these things don't call themselves conspiracies. They call themselves historical social movements."

Terence: "The task of discerning shit from Shinola looms very large at the end of history."

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Trialogue: How The Web Looked Back In 1994

Trialogue: How The Web Looked Back In 1994

Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna, and Rupert Sheldrake were thinking about the World Wide Web at a time before it was yet two years old. Recorded in Hawaii sometime in 1994, this was a private trialogue (conversation) between the three of them in the garden at Terence's house on the Big Island of Hawaii. Fortunately for us they had the foresight to turn on a tape recorder that day.

"I believe that the World Wide Web is, as a matter of fact, the noogenesis of the noosphere of the future. This is it!" --Ralph Abraham

"Notice that throughout history the most oppressed group has not been the Jews, the Irish, the blacks, they've taken their hits, but the most consistently oppressed group of people throughout human history have been smart people. And now comes a tool for smart people [the Internet] utterly incomprehensible to dullards, that is essentially the equivalent of the hydrogen bomb." --Terence McKenna

"Chaotic as the Web is, what it is is a controlled psychedelic experience spreading through the populace at the highest levels of intelligentsia." --Terence McKenna

"What it [the Internet] will be in the future will depend on what kind of people with whatever motives would actually go there." --Ralph Abraham

"I think it's [the Internet] built into the evolutionary morphogenetic unfolding of the cosmos in that it could no more be stopped than mitocondria or societal organization." --Terence McKenna

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Trialogue: What Hawaii Says About Evolution (1994)

Trialogue: What Hawaii Says About Evolution

Trialogue: A cassette tape recording made by Ralph Abraham during a private trialogue between Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake, and himself. It was recorded sometime in 1994 on the Big Island in Hawaii, most likely at Terence McKenna's home there. Their conversation about evolution includes an interesting comparision between the island of Hawaii and the island in space called planet Earth.

"I think what life on islands brings home to us is that Earth itself is an island."

"I think the technological principle on which the next century [21st] will operate is a mimicking of nature, solid-state, micro-miniaturized, solar-based, no moving parts, and so forth."

"Any theory which has us gathering together in large crowds to chant should look back at the Third Reich before it proceeds too far with its agenda."

"America is a cultural bulldozer. It just tramples and destroys everything in its path."


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Trialogue: Morphogenic Family Fields (1998)

Trialogue: Morphogenic Family Fields

A Trialogue held on June 8, 1998 at Santa Cruz, CA, where Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake explored Rupert's concept of a morphogenic family field.

Rupert Sheldrake: "And so in human family groups we'd expect the same kind of morphic fields [as in other animal family groups]. . . . It would mean that family fields, with their morphic fields, would have a kind of memory from the families that contributed to them. The father's and mother's families of origin would come together in a family."

Rupert: "Whatever the merits or demerits of [Bert] Hellinger's system, which I think is very interesting and apparently very effective, the idea of making models of the family field seems to me something that one could address in a more general sense."

Terence McKenna: "The family thing works because people really are complex chemical systems with genetic affinity."

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Trialogue: Skepticism & The Balkanization Of Epistemology (1998)

Trialogue: Skepticism & The Balkanization Of Epistemology
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

In this trialogue held on June 8, 1998 at Santa Cruz, CA, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake explored the "fluff factor" and what degree of healthy skepticism is required these days.

Terence McKenna: "Somehow as a part of the agenda of political correctness it has become not entirely acceptable to criticize, or demand substantial evidence, or expect people, when advancing their speculations, to make, what used to be called, old fashioned sense."

Terence: "These phenomenon, which we know exist, and which we find rich in implication, would simply not be allowed as objects of discourse, they would be ruled out of order. So there's something wrong on one level with what's called empiricism, skepticism, positivism, it has different names."

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Trialogue: Utopianism & Millenarianism (1992)

Trialogue: Utopianism & Millenarianism
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1992

Utopianism and Millenarianism. A cultural history of utopianism. Surges of utopian renewal. The trinitarian utopian model. Are the utopian and millenarian movements tendencies of the European mind in reaction to Christianity? Millenarians are dominated by the apocalyptic idea. How have these trends influenced the trialoguers? The Marxist utopian model. Scientific utopianism. Liberal political utopianism.. New age and psychedelic utopianism. A mathematical utopia. 2012 - the end of history? What is the connection between the Archaic Revival and the Timewave? Is millenarianism an anti-progressive force? Origins and end-points. Utopianism is reasonable if we can change our minds.

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Trialogue: The Heavens (1992)

Trialogue: The Heavens
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1992

The ancient view of the universe as alive. The anima mundi. The fall into the deterministic and mechanistic worldview. How this view is now being transcended. The recovery of the sense of the life of nature and of the heavens. Creativity and morphic resonance in nature. Resacralizing the earth through seasonal festivals and pilgrimage. Linking astronomy and astrology and resacralizing the heavens. Is the universe somehow conscious? Contacting celestial intelligences. Elizabethan star magic and the concept of the great chain of being.

Are the contents of our imagination somehow real? Organismic philosophy and the re-infusion of spirit into nature. Re-animating the cosmos. The different levels of intelligence in the universe, and possible techniques for communicating with them. Channelling the stars. A synthesis of astrology and astronomy. Guiding intelligences. Questions and answers: The need to engage with the environment. Light and energy as a manifestation of spirit. Various ways to invoke stellar deities. Long barrows. The feeling of reverence for the heavens. The sky as teacher. The consciousness of the sun. Imagination as the source of creativity in nature. Renaissance magic.

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Trialogue: The Immediate Future & The Millenium (1992)

Trialogue: The Immediate Future & The Millenium
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1992

What is the nature of the political and social world that we should construct for ourselves and for our children? The problem of future-phobia within our society. How can society be reconstructed and improved? The crisis in values in our society. The incompatibility of capitalism and democracy. The need for intervention. Rethinking the notion of freedom. Could the idea of the eschaton be working against change? The need for leadership with positive guiding visions. Where will the new positive vision come from? What could trigger the next major shift? The return to local communities. A native peoples' intervention. The danger of pretending that catastrophe is not probable. What kind of miracle could help avert catastrophe? The need for mathematical models to aid environmental and economic interventions.

Electronic feudalism. Terence's view on and the fractionalisation and feudalisation of the world. The dangers of materialism. The need for the empowerment of women worldwide. The resurgence of shamanic practice. The need for social transformation and a vision on the mythological level. A way to achieve zero population growth. The psychedelic revival in England. The need for a collective vision quest. Entheogens and religion. The post-catastrophic world society. Crisis will force change. What is the true mission of humanity? Questions and answers: The eschaton as eraser of boundaries. 2012.


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Trialogue: Psychedelics & Mathematical Vision (1992)

Trialogue: Psychedelics & Mathematical Vision
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1992

Exploring the connection between mathematics and the experience of the logos. The psychedelic and computer revolutions of the 1960s helped cause the rebirth of mathematics. Maths as a language of space-time pattern. To what extent could the psychedelic vision of the logos be externalised through supercomputers? Will this technology enable us to communicate and share our experience of space-time pattern? Computer-graphic displays lack the emotional intensity of a psychedelic experience. In what ways can mathematical vision serve the spirit and extend the mind? Mathematical notation.

Deep data. Is mathematics a way to generate deep meaning? How could expanding our visual linguistic capability enhance our connection to the world? Visual language as a kind of telepathy.. The differences between print lineal cultures and oral aboriginal cultures.. Are we undergoing a transition from print to visual culture? The new forms of media that are shaping our culture. Could this new media enhance our connection to the natural world? The misuse of new technologies. Language as a new frontier in natural history. Using technology to try to understand language. Mathematics is part of the natural world. Ralph explains the importance of mathematics.

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Trialogue: A Report On Crop Circles (1992)

Trialogue: A Report On Crop Circles
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1992

A brief summary of the crop circle mystery. The increasing number of hypotheses. An international crop circle making competition. A mystery beyond hoaxing? Their apparent interaction with human consciousness.. Their connection with palaeolithic rock markings. If they are communications, what are they trying to tell us? Modern disillusionment with science. Crop physiology. Rupert's crop circle investigation and his encounter with the police. The amusing aspects of crop circles and the peculiar coincidences that happen around them. The Japanese investigation. Crop circles and UFOs.
Image: Mayan calendar crop circle, 2004

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Trialogue: Psychedics & The Computer Revolution (1991)

Trialogue: Psychedics & The Computer Revolution
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1991

What are the connections between psychedelics and the computer revolution? Some examples of the causal relationship between psychedelic use and creativity in the computer industry. A look at the parallel chronologies and future synthesis of computers and psychedelics. Creativity as a natural resource. Electronic media is returning us to an eye-oriented culture and causing the re-emergence of the suppressed unconscious. This reawakening of the collective and visual imagination is part of an archaic revival. The world of dreams as the prototype for this process. Print versus manuscript culture. Interactivity will be a key factor in the future of electronic media. Opening up the mathematical imagination through computer-graphics. Uploading the unconscious into a cultural artefact.

Psychedelics and the creative process. The future of the computer revolution. How the communication of visual mathematical revelation is enhanced by psychedelics. Understanding visual mathematics. The connection between mathematical visualization and the perception of ordinary reality. Is the mathematical landscape a realm of truth or a neurological construct? Exploring the mathematical landscape. The co-evolution between mathematical discovery and the neurological structures within the mind. How can mathematics help us in our understanding of the world?

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Trialogue: Crop Circles (1991)

Trialogue: Crop Circles
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1991

Exploring the crop circle phenomenon. The Plasma Vortex theory. Why are crop circles associated with megalithic sites? The evolution of their patterns and features. A look at some of the diverse theories: from migrating hedgehogs to the celestial theory. Is there a single satisfying explanation? Is the hoax theory an unlikely explanation? Terence's theory that crop circles are an intelligence operation and an experiment in deception.

Further investigations into the crop circle mystery. Are crop circles a method of Gaian communication? An international crop circle competition. Crop circles should be empirically investigated. Terence explains his 'trap theory' -- Are they a disinformation project aimed at preserving orthodoxy? Reactions to Terence's theory. Christian and pagan ideologies and the impact of Christianity on paganism. Christian animism. Appreciating sacred places. Rupert's plan for a research project on crop circles.

Image: 780ft. crop circle in the form of a double (six-sided) triskelion composed of 409 circles, Location: Milk Hill, 2001

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Trialogue: Cannabis (1991)

Trialogue: Cannabis

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

Terence's interest in cannabis. The feminising and boundary-dissolving influence of cannabis. Cannabis intoxication and dreams. Cannabis and anxiety. Victorian tales of cannabis. The influence of hashish on India and the Middle East. Cannabis as the carrier of a new set of values. A tool for creativity and the enhancement of empathy and communication. A medicine for cultural evolution? The difference between smoking and eating cannabis. How hemp is related to stories. An aid to the appreciation of sacred places. The impact of abstinence on peak performance. Cannabis as an aid for concentration and connectivity.

The shadow side of cannabis. The dangers of habitual usage. Cannabis and energy levels. The chemistry of cannabis. The impact of cannabis on memory and language. Aphrodisiac effects. Cannabis versus alcohol. Why is it illegal? Early use of cannabis. The drug war. Researching the different qualities and various forms of cannabis. Age-related experimentation. Decriminalisation versus legalisation. The impact of legal restraints on the attraction for illegal substances. Hemp. Is the right to the exploration of consciousness a part of the pursuit of human freedom and happiness?

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Trialogue: Gender Issues (1991)

Trialogue: Gender Issues
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

Ralph's hypothesis of androgyny. A person's soul does not necessarily share the gender restriction of the biological body. Social practices that emphasize gender differences can hinder the exposure of a complete person. Achieving maximum androgyny through the exploration of sexual experience. Proposals for the salvation of the nuclear family. Healing emotional diseases in relationships. How would androgyny impact monogamy and the behaviour of women? Androgyny as a state of completeness in a person's psychological make up. Celibacy as a method for personal development. Men's and women's movements. Is gender differentiation a necessary feature of human society?

Exploring ways to recover the extended family. The popularity of computer networking. New ways to satisfy the need for community. Our addiction to travel and the need to minimise mobility. The benefits of travelling on foot. Can the computer revolution help reduce the need for travel? A model for a locally-based community. Can the men's and women's movements help stabilise gender relations? The revival of interest in rites of passage. Voluntary monogamy.

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Trialogue: Saving The World (1991)

Trialogue: Saving The World
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

What can be done to solve the problem of over-population and resource depletion? Could encouraging a population policy save the world without disregarding individual concerns? How do you provoke a shift in consciousness that would result in people wanting less children? Resource depletion in high-tech societies. The prejudice against only children. How could such a plan be implemented? A new way to empower women. Exploring the potential positive and negative effects of achieving zero population growth on a planetary scale.

Further speculations on the impact of population policies. How a capsule that enables gender choice of offspring could make population growth plummet. Saving resources by moving people to different locations. Curbing resource depletion and overpopulation. Grassroots research projects on family dynamics. The liberation of women. Reforming people's attitudes through family dynamics models. The role that social sciences, mathematics and myth could play in saving the world. A demographic modelling disc. Family numerology. A positive re-evaluation of the only child. A sociological research programme.

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Trialogue: Grass Roots Science (1991)

Trialogue: Grass Roots Science
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, September 1991

The institutionalisation of mainstream science has alienated the public and marginalised the amateur base of science. A new model for science is both possible and necessary. The need for big science to reintegrate with grassroots science. Examples of important low budget amateur research projects. How the computer revolution and the formulation of specific questions could empower grassroots science. Global environmental problems are likely to provide the main motivation for the revival of grassroots science. Rescuing science from the distorting demands of capitalism. The benefits of combining holistic and analytical research. A grassroots research project on holistic medicine.

Re-distributing the budget in science. How to motivate and fund more amateur research projects. How grassroots science could contribute towards the solution of global environmental problems. The grassroots component in archaeology; paleontology; astrology; nutritional studies and consciousness research. Large-scale projects can be influenced enormously by the discoveries of grassroots science. The benefits of taking a holistic approach to the whole field of knowledge. The importance of posing appropriate questions to researchers. Low budget experiments that could change the world. Encouraging amateur scientists through a revitalized scientific education. 

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