Terence McKenna: Food of the Gods

[Guest djdavid4u]

We are beset by the sad spectacle of "drug wars" waged by governmental institutions that usually are paralyzed by lethargy and inefficiency or are in transparent collusion with the international drug cartels they are publicly pledged to destroy. Our culture, self-toxified by the poisonous by-products of technology and egocentric ideology, is the unhappy inheritor of the dominator attitude that alteration of consciousness by the use of plants or substances is somehow wrong, onanistic, and perversely antisocial. I will argue that suppression of shamanic gnosis, with its reliance and insistence on ecstatic dissolution of the ego, has robbed us of life's meaning and made us enemies of the planet, of ourselves, and our grandchildren. We are killing the planet in order to keep intact the wrongheaded assumptions of the ego-dominator cultural style. It is time for change

Terence McKenna: Food of the Gods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MEIbisokQE...&playnext=1

[vigor]

I'm absorbing is stuff right now, part 3 running. Cool stuff. Thanks V

[THC4METOO]

I love old TM, and not just cos he sounds like Kermit the Frog

[DtH]

nice. terence mckennas time wave zero stuff is worth a look too :fuckyou:

[Boojum]

Food of the Gods is a great book (OK, there's some lunacy in there, but on the whole it's a great book). Was what first stimulated my interest in ethnopharacology and led me down the path of researching and trying as many plant psychedelics I could. Archaic Revival is pretty good, but pretty out there too. True Hallucinations is utter madness, but in a good way (if that makes sense). I'd put McKenna above Timothy Leary as far as 'drug gurus' go, to be honest - Leary was a bit elitist and not much of a scientist, McKenna may have skirted the edge of barking mad on occasion with his philosophical views, but he knew a lot of what he was talking about on a botanical & pharmacological level, not something you could really say about Leary.

Bloke really did change my life, cos like I said if I'd never read Food of the Gods I'd never have got into the personal research I did concerning natural psychedelics.

[vigor]

Just ordered the book Can't wait

[The Flumps]

Just ordered it also, looks very interesting.

[cf]

great book this, nice and easy to read too.

it does make me wonder thought why there arent more modern examples of the kind of sacramental drug use Mckenna talks about, by which i mean using the supposed intelligence in the hallucinogens to connect with the nature in some kind of ritualised setting.

or maybe there are? the only example i know of is santo daime

[Guest djdavid4u]

This mesmerizing, surreal account of the bizarre adventures of Terence McKenna, his brother Dennis, and a small band of their friends, is a wild ride of exotic experience and scientific inquiry. Exploring the Amazon Basin in search of mythical shamanic hallucinogens, they encounter a host of unusual characters and discover the missing link in the development of human consciousness and language.

True Hallucinations - Full Play List

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxDNeEHDrrM...&playnext=1

[chroma]

more McKenna videos and loads of information about him here

[chroma]

not sure how to do links yet

http://deoxy.org/mckenna.htm

[The Flumps]

My book arrived on Friday, pretty good reading.

[chroma]

it does make me wonder thought why there arent more modern examples of the kind of sacramental drug use Mckenna talks about, by which i mean using the supposed intelligence in the hallucinogens to connect with the nature in some kind of ritualised setting.

or maybe there are? the only example i know of is santo daime

perhaps because the sacraments are prohibited?

[cf]

it does make me wonder thought why there arent more modern examples of the kind of sacramental drug use Mckenna talks about, by which i mean using the supposed intelligence in the hallucinogens to connect with the nature in some kind of ritualised setting.

or maybe there are? the only example i know of is santo daime

perhaps because the sacraments are prohibited?

nah, pots illegal in most of the world (along with loads of other drugs) and all i see is increasing use despite prohibition.

these sacramental agents are by their nature different to most of our recreational drugs and maybe we have lost the ability or habit of incorporating them into our diet like McKenna said ..and something in our present physical and social make up makes their consumption unattractive to the majority of us now

[Boojum]

it does make me wonder thought why there arent more modern examples of the kind of sacramental drug use Mckenna talks about, by which i mean using the supposed intelligence in the hallucinogens to connect with the nature in some kind of ritualised setting.

or maybe there are? the only example i know of is santo daime

perhaps because the sacraments are prohibited?

nah, pots illegal in most of the world (along with loads of other drugs) and all i see is increasing use despite prohibition.

these sacramental agents are by their nature different to most of our recreational drugs and maybe we have lost the ability or habit of incorporating them into our diet like McKenna said ..and something in our present physical and social make up makes their consumption unattractive to the majority of us now

Totally. Historically the spiritual use of hallucinogens has been accompanied by some kind of ritual, which ties in totally with the idea of set and setting. Now that these things are considered illegal mind altering drugs, not spiritual sacraments, the whole idea of set and setting has been forgotten. Even if they are just recreational drugs, the fact that they were consumed within a spiritual and ritualistic framework by its very nature ensured that people had 'good trips', but now they are actually seen as recreational drugs (taken against a background of repression and risk of arrest) for many the risk of bad trips is too great. Plus nowadays there are so many drugs that are 'lazy' - drugs that you don't have to work with to get the high, drugs that have no risk, drugs that are just simple, empty pleasure with no revelation, no need to think (smack aside mostly stimulants, with the ubiquitous cocaine being the zenith of that kind of drug - empty as a vacuum, as much revelation as an episode of Jeremy Kyle, but make you feel good and absolutely no risk in the short term). An empty, capitalist, consumerist society has no place for hallucinogens, the drugs that suit such a society are alcohol and cocaine. Drugs that are all about ego, not revelation, not spirituality, not thought.