Terence McKenna
Ethnobotanist and talker: psychedelics, language and novelty, mostly heard through his lectures.
Ideas
- The stoned ape theory
- In Food of the Gods he speculated that psilocybin mushrooms helped spark human language and consciousness. Few scientists buy it.
- Novelty
- He argued that the universe tends toward more complexity and connection, and built the 'Timewave Zero' model around it.
- The archaic revival
- Modern culture should reconnect with shamanism and direct experience, not dogma.
- Culture is not your friend
- Culture serves itself, not you. Question the assumptions it hands down.
In their words
“Culture is not your friend.”
“Nature loves courage.”
Start with
- The Invisible Landscape (1975, with Dennis McKenna)
- The Archaic Revival (1991)
- Food of the Gods (1992)
- True Hallucinations (1993)
