Terence McKenna: Food of the Gods

[chroma]

The book True Hallucinations and the bulk of McKenna's work (to the best of my recollection) focuses on the sacramental and entheogenic properties of DMT, ayahuasca, psilocybin, and marijuana. Those were his drugs, tools and sacraments of choice.

Sadly, all of them are prohibited in the UK, the USA and in most of the western world.

Despite this, their global usage I believe is quite steady, if anything on a slight rise.

The usage of recreational drugs including MDMA, LSD and ketamine (which are also considered powerful sacraments if used in a spiritual context) is on the increase as we know. This also sadly includes drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth and other potentially damaging 'recreationals'

there is no empirical way to measure if the sacramental use of entheogens and psychedelics is increasing or decreasing relative to the amount of recreational usage.

i like to think that spirituality is an inherent human trait, therefor the more people that are experimenting with these sacraments (in an informed and safe environment) the better.

[CheezyBushFrog]

hi all!

... was'nt there an idea in Leary's work that these substances were preparing us for Space Migration!. ...and also did McKenna do any serious work with Salvia ...cheers

p.s i also have a hard back edition of true hallucinations which i bought in birmingham 10yrs ago!!

Edited July 29, 2008 by CheezyBushFrog

[Boojum]

Don't recall him ever mentioning salvia, but I could be wrong, long time since I read his stuff, read Food of the Gods when I was a teenager.

[chroma]

:wink:

hi all!

... was'nt there an idea in Leary's work that these substances were preparing us for Space Migration!. ...and also did McKenna do any serious work with Salvia ...cheers

Leary had a concept that he called “S.M.I.I.L.E.” . . . Space Migration, Intelligence Increase and Life Extension. Sounds nutty until you think of it as inner-space migration, and realise that what he is talking about is essentially a modern reworking of buddhist ideas.

McKenna never did any serious work with Salvia. I recall him talking about it very briefly in a recording once though i can't remember which recording it was.

As i remember he was rather in awe of the power of the plant and its teaching/healing properties but found it difficult to work with due to the chaotic and unrepeatable aspects of the experience.

[cf]

what i was driving at was this.

a community like santo daime operate in a way that seems to derive a lot of its spiritual and social direction and cohesiveness not from ancient texts but from the experience gained consuming the hallucinogenic brew drunk at their meetings.

they dance, chant and sit in contemplation having taken the plant derived drug and out of this communal experience seems to come a communal cohesiveness, projects instigated and undertaken benefit the members of the church and the wider community, social problems like drug addition and alcohol abuse seem non existent and the spiritual and physical health of the followers seems far better than the rest of host community.

of course i see the likes of bruce parry revealing to us the workings of tribal villagers that incorporate these type of hallucinogens in their lives but these old way of life would seem to be in retreat from the modern world

..and i'm fully aware that folks can have spirit enriching experiences at a personal level on these type of substances , from me gazing up at the firmament and bathing in a reverie that i would have no chance of experiencing had i not changed my brain chemistry to mr McKenna expanding on his experiences to postulate theories about our origins and develpoment.

but what i'm wondering about is why modern day organisations like santo daime that seem to derive a strong spiritual direction from the sacramental use of ayahuasca are relatively rare? they seem to embody McKennas idea that there is an inherent intelligence in the plant that can be absorbed and manifested in the life to the benefit of all, the 'daimists' themsleves, the people they touch on the fringes of their communities and nature.

my own experience of being involved with a community that would take mdma, dance together every sunday, and would in the week strive to bring the 'egoless-ness' and cohesiveness of that ceremony into th practice in the daily life and create a supportive, loving, sharing place to live was such a positive and nourishing one that it amazes me that there arent more folks striving to do this.

[DtH]

was that community you were involved in, in england, cf? sounds pretty awesome if you ask me

at the risk of sounding slightly trite, i think modern society relies largely on the belief that physical reality is the only one that exists, and that a lifetime is to be spent working for money and bettering your social status, as opposed to any kind of inner developmental focus. if everyone started taking lsd/ayahuasca it's fairly guaranteed it would directly impact at least their perception of the mundaneness of their reality/normal 9-5, and we're required to stay chained to our cow fattening stations/desks, unfortunately.

another thing ive wondered is in relation to the guidance and teachers of old who held a ceremony and were able to guide the initiate directly within that altered reality. that's gone nowadays, it's people sitting indoors with their mates for a night of tripping balls (not to knock anything positive that may have come out of that kind of experience for anyone), the old teachers warned of the dangers associated with no proper ceremony/guidance..and as anyone who's taken an hallucinogen knows, you can quite easily get absorbed in 2 hours of staring at the pattern in the oil on the pavement. not that that in itself is particularly dangerous, but it's not really a focus, more of an indulgence of the mind, and there's no one to really oversee and help you maintain the degree of concentration/discipline necessary to actively achieve the same kind of personal development as seen of old. not to mention help you out of bad trip situations etc. wouldn't it be dangerous to re-introduce hallucinogens into mainstream society for those kinds of reasons? i think nowadays to a large degree our outer reality (modern society) is manifesting the disharmony of our inner worlds/selves, and who in their right mind is ready to address the external, let alone the internal, nowadays. to throw yourself into that, for most people, would be a completely overwhelming and arduous task, and thus why we dont see it so much these days, perhaps. the hallucinogens de construct the ego, and most of our society is not ready to let that go just yet imo.

[pinhead1337]

was that community you were involved in, in england, cf? sounds pretty awesome if you ask me

at the risk of sounding slightly trite, i think modern society relies largely on the belief that physical reality is the only one that exists, and that a lifetime is to be spent working for money and bettering your social status, as opposed to any kind of inner developmental focus. if everyone started taking lsd/ayahuasca it's fairly guaranteed it would directly impact at least their perception of the mundaneness of their reality/normal 9-5, and we're required to stay chained to our cow fattening stations/desks, unfortunately.

another thing ive wondered is in relation to the guidance and teachers of old who held a ceremony and were able to guide the initiate directly within that altered reality. that's gone nowadays, it's people sitting indoors with their mates for a night of tripping balls (not to knock anything positive that may have come out of that kind of experience for anyone), the old teachers warned of the dangers associated with no proper ceremony/guidance..and as anyone who's taken an hallucinogen knows, you can quite easily get absorbed in 2 hours of staring at the pattern in the oil on the pavement. not that that in itself is particularly dangerous, but it's not really a focus, more of an indulgence of the mind, and there's no one to really oversee and help you maintain the degree of concentration/discipline necessary to actively achieve the same kind of personal development as seen of old. not to mention help you out of bad trip situations etc. wouldn't it be dangerous to re-introduce hallucinogens into mainstream society for those kinds of reasons? i think nowadays to a large degree our outer reality (modern society) is manifesting the disharmony of our inner worlds/selves, and who in their right mind is ready to address the external, let alone the internal, nowadays. to throw yourself into that, for most people, would be a completely overwhelming and arduous task, and thus why we dont see it so much these days, perhaps. the hallucinogens de construct the ego, and most of our society is not ready to let that go just yet imo.

well said. pass that man a spliff B)

[Twenty Three]

McKenna never did any serious work with Salvia. I recall him talking about it very briefly in a recording once though i can't remember which recording it was.

There's a 50 minute presentation on Salvia by Rob Montgomery available which includes contributions from McKenna and Jonathan Ott.

There's also a 12 minute recording with just Terence talking about Salvia,which I've uploaded to rapidshare for anyone that's interested

Terence McKenna On Salvia

[rebirth]

he is inspiring but you look in his eyes and think wow if ever a man took tooo much acid and still retained his smarts its him. he has an inspirationally open mind which makes him kinda wierd kinda crazy but i like the geezer. makes me want to take the acid in the fridge and talk about mammoth eclipseing things. rebirth

[Graeto]

Thx

I have never heard of him before now so thx for that will look him up

Graeto