What do all you Nexus folk know about Terrence Mckenna's death?
All I've looked at so far is the Wikipedia writing on it.

"A longtime sufferer of migraines, in mid-1999 McKenna returned to his home on the big island of Hawaii after a long lecturing tour. He began to suffer from increasingly painful headaches. This culminated in three brain seizures in one night, which he claimed were the most powerful psychedelic experiences he had ever known. Upon his emergency trip to the hospital on Oahu, Terence was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. For the next several months he underwent various treatments, including experimental gamma knife radiation treatment. According to Wired magazine, McKenna was worried that his tumour was caused by his 35-years of smoking cannabis; though his doctors assured him there was no causal relation.[15]

In late 1999, Erik Davis conducted what would be the last interview of McKenna.[16] During the interview McKenna also talked about the announcement of his death:

“ I always thought death would come on the freeway in a few horrifying moments, so you'd have no time to sort it out. Having months and months to look at it and think about it and talk to people and hear what they have to say, it's a kind of blessing. It's certainly an opportunity to grow up and get a grip and sort it all out. Just being told by an unsmiling guy in a white coat that you're going to be dead in four months definitely turns on the lights. ... It makes life rich and poignant. When it first happened, and I got these diagnoses, I could see the light of eternity, a la William Blake, shining through every leaf. I mean, a bug walking across the ground moved me to tears.[17]
”


McKenna died on April 3, 2000, at the age of 53, with his loved ones at his bedside. He is survived by his brother Dennis, his son Finn, and his daughter Klea."

You see, I'm interested as to what you guys think, if this is infact the full story of his death, has it at all crossed anyone elses minds that Terrence may have suffered these issues with his brain due to his use of hallucinogens?
I'm not poo pooing the plants, their use, or Terrence at all, I think they are great, and I believe that Terrence was / is a great man, I also like to explore all possibilites and be real with myself.

What do you think? Or have I missed the point and is there something I don't know about his passing? See due to how high I am at the moment, my Garlic Bread and Pumpkin soup are what I'm investing the next 30 minutes into, so I thought I'd pick your brains for conversation.

Ive wondered that too myself. I always kinda hoped cannabis and the various visionary plants would keep my brain/body healthy lol. Then i see a absolute genius (IMO)who frequently used said substances and died way to early of a terrible brain cancer.

At the same time he did say he was a long time suffer of migraines, I mean thats a red flag right there. I dont understand why he went so long before he had some kind of brain imaging done though... I wonder if it could have been caught earlier or if it wouldve even mattered.



Its no wonder he loved psychedelics so much, he very well couldve been self medicating his migraines.

on a side note, what ive always found suspicious about his death is that his library burned to the ground.

I'm currently re-listening to his audio catalog(I drive all night)
What a remarkable man!
I have heard that his last words were "Keep breathing" , which is what he would often say to himself while tripping on DMT.
If that's true, I find it amazing.
I've been finding a lot of things amazing as of late though=)
RIP Terrence McKenna

alot of things can contribute to cancer..like diet, stress etc..

I think if these plants were related to cancer we would see it more in other users. Alot of people take these plants.

There is a talk with art bell and terence where he goes a bit more into it, and mentions how a month or so before the seizure he actually told his son one morning (half tongue in cheek perhaps) that he probably should get a brain scan because the dreams he was having lately were just unbelievably wierd and impossible to describe- which is really saying something for him lol

Theres another talk out there with dennis and he goes a bit more into it, talking about the more metaphysical side of his death and the shamanic work they did in the summer leading up to it. that talk was really interesting

if you guys haven't heard about the new omnibus videos being released check this thread out: terence mckenna omnibus 2012

edit; forgot to add that i think the idea that these things contributed somehow to his cancer is pretty paranoid and isn't supported by any evidence..i mean the alkaloids in ayahuasca and marijuana have even been shown to have anti-tumor properties

"Theres another talk out there with dennis and he goes a bit more into it, talking about the more metaphysical side of his death and the shamanic work they did in the summer leading up to it. that talk was really interesting"

Can you post a link, please??

hmmm..not sure exactly which one jamie but i would guess towards the end of this http://paratopia.org/?p=491 (edit; just checked and yea i think thats it!)

i'm pretty sure its on his kickstarter update page somewhere if thats not it http://www.kickstarter.c...aming-abyss/posts?page=1

A friend of mine knew him and knows his brother.

McKenna was told by a doctor that his tumor had nothing to do with psychedelic drug use.

Maybe it was induced by Nazis living in Venezuela?
(Joke)

The thread I am linking below has three .pdf's that show the entire content of the last interview with T. McKenna - OP quoted from it above.

It is well worth any psychonaut's time in my opinion to read the full article. I found it to be touching and enlightening . . .

Hope you enjoy . . . .


https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=20803

I often worry about the same thing. I've been a sufferer of cluster headaches and I do medicate with psychedelics. I had a brain scan done several years ago and there were no tumors or anything. So obviously my psychedelic use hasn't caused something like brain cancer, but it sure does help in treating cluster headaches and migraines.

Still, I wonder if I'll wake up one day when I'm 50 and find that I have something similar to what Terence went through...

I'm working from some pretty old memories here, but I think I recall a discussion where he talks about the rarity of his type of cancer, and wondered if there was a link to his unusual lifestyle. It turns out that it is a rare form of cancer but that the people who get it don't fall into any discernible statistical cluster concerning lifestyle or habits. This would suggest that it's just genetic bad luck.

Terence joked that he asked the doc about his heavy cannabis use ("Popeye had spinach, I have this! (pufff)" the doc explained that cannabis actually slows down tumor growth and pretty much gave his blessing for its continued use. Terence replied, "Doc, if cannabis prevented tumors, I wouldn't be here!"

RIP Terence. Before the Internet, he was my sole source of info.

Both Terrence and his brother Dennis talked to a number of doctors and scientists to find out if any of the substances he had consumed had in any way been a factor in creating or advancing his brain tumor. The answers were always no. These were very smart people who were telling him and his brother this, many had no stake at all in psychedelics or any positive or negative spin on them or their use. Everyone close to the family trusted these opinions and it brought Terrence and his brother Dennis a bit of relief that he had not somehow caused nor advanced his condition through the use of these substances. Just shitty genetic luck I guess.

I would bet that if it had anything to do with drugs, it was probably from handling large amounts of chemicals, extracting DMT and whatever, and possibly from growing boatloads of mushrooms where various fungi spore loads and bacterial spores can be heavy in the right environments. I talked to some friends who told me that he did produce a great deal of psychedelics, but I doubt that it was eating them that got him a brain tumor. There are plenty of shaman in the rainforests and jungles that live to be 80+ years and they don't have near the medical check-ups, the state of the art hospitals, nor the best "healthcare systems", and their repeated use of these jungle plants and herbs keep them very healthy. Probably the natural diet doesn't hurt, either.

I think somewhere i read that he spent hours on his mobile phone...was that the cause?

I've spent my entire life inside a computer, and nothing is wrong with me.

imho, high mercury content of the water he'd been drinking, and too close a proximity to the satellite dish he loved so much...in Hawaii, at Terence's house, they used water that came off that mountain...they had no regular supply, nor of electricity....I spent hours talking with Dennis about this...

of course not
not
not
not

I would like to think there were factors and causes involved that were non-genetic.
However I agree that there is zero evidence that the tumor was related to psychedelic use...

Dennis did a lot of the same things T. did... but no tumor...

I am not sure he was not killed actually, but the rules here prevent such discussions from taking place.

McKenna talk about MDMA I think. It destroys something in the brain but they dont know if that is bad. I dont know exactly but one of the lectures he talks about this. And then he says to use drugs that have been used for a long time and tested by thousands of years of use. That dont mean they are completely safe. Who knows how many shamans and Huicol died of tumors in brain? I doubt research was done.

I dont think its impossible there is a connection but probably not. When I smoke dmt I feel I overload my brain. The sound and pressure feel unhealthy to me. It scares me.

I think you cant eat or use anything that wont cause damage. I see my body as a vessel. And it has a date when it breaks down, like the date on food when it is no longer good to eat. (Which is a lie, you can eat many foods after this date, sometiems years later is still good.) So everything you put in it makes the vessel a bit worse. It is very small effect. But life is a deadly disease. I think there must be balance, like, how much you put into the body and still live as long as you can. I think that is why Terrence say you have to do big dose of shrooms not often. So you have get something to study from it. For a long time. Small trips just put damage on the brain.

Its like every day you get radiation from the universe, cosmic rays, sunshine, like x-rays. This causes damage in DNA. Life is like grinder for weed and your body is the weed. Everything we do causes damage. Even our heart is a pump with a date on it.

Graham Hancock had migraines too but he use Ayahuasca and no longer has them. I guess they were emotional problem, like trauma. With Ayahuasca the trauma gone, and the headaches.

So if you use drugs, make it count, do it not so much and big dose then. Not enough research on this at least I dont know. They study MDMA, I never use that ever. But I dont know if they study physical brain for use with DMT and shrooms.

I think shrooms very heavy on the heart. Seems to beat very fast. For many hours. I drive trucks, I dont get much training.

Seriously??? this is why we advocate critical thinking ^^^^