Terence McKenna's ancient future

Quotes + videos to celebrate his 78th birthday

Happy birthday to of my favorite thinkers, Terence McKenna (1946 – 2000), who would have been 78 today. The best way I can describe Terence is as a psychedelic philosopher. He wrote several books, gave talks around the world, and helped bring psychoactive plants (like psilocybin and ayahuasca) into the public consciousness of western civilization. 

Terence was both ancient and futuristic. He spoke about memes in the 80s and 90s, understood the current ecological and spiritual crisis better than anyone, and saw a direct relationship between technological advancement and the awakening of consciousness.

One of his most enduring ideas is called The Stoned Ape Theory, which suggests that 200,000 years ago, our ancient ancestors began eating psilocybin mushrooms found in cow dung. Over the course of centuries the psychedelic effect expanded the brain size and accounted for the evolutionary leap from primate to human.

I wouldn’t be making memes today without Terence, who has been a significant influence in my personal philosophy. Following are some of my favorite Terence McKenna quotes, and a few video clips of his talks and interviews.

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Terence McKenna quotes

“Chaos is what we've lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existence is defined in terms of control.”

“The proper role of intelligence in a planetary ecology is that of gardener, caregiver, and maintainer of balance.”

“There are others like you. Find the others.”

“The cost of sanity in this society, is a certain levelof alienation.”

“You are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.”

“Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet.”

“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.”

“If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on.”

“The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.”

“Do you know what a meme is? It’s the smallest unit of an idea. Our task is to create memes. Launch your meme boldly and see if it will replicate.”

“Human beings are co-partners with deity in the project of being. This is the basis of all magic.”

“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it’s stranger than we CAN imagine."

“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 it's a feather bed.”

“We live in condensations of our imagination.”

"If you don't at least occasionally contradict yourself, your position isn't nearly complex enough."

“The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas.”

“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.”

“Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coercion, brainwashing, and manipulation.”

Terence McKenna talks

The origin of memes (clip, 1990)

The role of artists (clip, 1990)

McKenna’s final interview (full video, 2000)

McKenna meets Ram Dass (full video, 1992)

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