I'll echo what others have said here about TM. I was fortunate enough to meet him several times over the years. No one is perfect and TM had many human faults. I resonated with a lot of what he said, though. One of the things I liked about him and that I miss is that he was sort of an evangelist for psychedelics. We do not have many of those people currently and I think they are sorely needed in modern times.

In an interview or talk with mckenna in the 90's( I think late 90's before his death) he said that he had been taking synthetic psilocybin and that it was very nice or something like that..I wish I could remember where it was that he said it..

I think he also said on his death bed something like "I wish I had taken more DMT" or something like that..then went on about how it "was all love"..am I correct?

I dont see this as too alarming..many many people start with lots of mushrooms, and slowly end up with just ayahuasca. I used to take mushrooms all the time. After I found ayahuasca I stopped taking mushrooms for about a year and then only took them a few times the next year. I still really love mushrooms but they can be more threatening in a way and I do not go bit with mushrooms anymore. 1-2g of cubes is my dose. I have taken very large doses of mushrooms in the past and have no desire to do that anymore because it can be a rougher ride than oral DMT and can last longer. The guy was still taking DMT, it is not like he stopped tripping.

Yeah Jamie, TM also took pretty heroic doses of mushrooms. He would often talk about 5+ grams in silent darkness and being able to sometimes have a conversation with the mushrooms at that level. He apparently once asked "what would you like to be called" and the reply came back "Alice." He questioned, "Why Alice" and the mushrooms apparently answered back to him "Because I sure feel like I am in wonderland right now!" For TM this gave credence to one of his theories that the mushroom goes through its own psychedelic experience as it is absorbed into the body and consciousness of the human (possibly animal as well) who consumes them. This is a pretty hard body/mind load for most humans to endure that much psilocybin. He said that he often had to spend days screwing up his mental courage enough to be able to get ready for such an experience. At one of his lectures he said he would try t do it at least once a year, perhaps every two.

Why?

Because people need to be reminded that it is our birthright to alter our consciousness. Laws need to be challenged that go against this, and ultimately changed. People need to know that there are substances that can help people heal and evolve. I grew up with the "drugs are bad" and "just say no" propaganda campaigns. All us kids knew it was complete bullshit, but we didn't really know why at the time or just how much misinformation was out there. Real information is needed. Perhaps "evangelist" is not the best term to use because it brings up religious imagery, but I think you get the general idea of what I meant.

Yep Mitakuye Oyasin - thanks for explaining.

Although I don't think we should have to convince anyone of the merits of any of our choices, in order to be permitted to do it.

I feel the same way about a lot of things. Not just psychedelics. First of all my body and mind are sovereign, secondly my self as an ecosystem actor is sovereign. If I choose to alter my body or brain chemistry, or to sustainably participate in ecosystems (e.g. hunting) or hell, to do anything else that doesn't negatively impact anyone else -- I will do it. Anyone who thinks otherwise can you know what.

Learning that Terence hadn't had mushrooms since 1988 due to a very bad trip is very revealing and certainly does humanise the myth like status he has achieved in the community and in my mind also. I very much admire the man for his ideas and philosophies and I really like the quote posted by Dante earlier:

“You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.”
and I strongly resonate with it."

He was a very switched on and together individual but like anyone, had his own faults, doubts and insecurities. I myself have had a very dark night of the soul on psychedelics, which lead me on a long path of painful soul searching and self discovery, so I can relate and the fact that such an experienced explorer of the mind like Terence could have such a shattering experience as to never touch mushrooms again doesn't make him any less of a person or a crock, at least to me, it makes him more human and I can relate to him even more now, and not view him as some infallible god who was incapable of a bad trip. He was a remarkable man with faults just like the rest of us and had a very extraordinary mind capable of extremely illuminating thoughts and perceptions and I think thats why he has left such a gaping hole in the community, a true original... RIP Terence.

Terence's aim was to get people to question things rather than simply accept their lot. He explained to people that they should see through Governments, Religions, Media, TV, Fashion, Overfarming, and to question what their real honest needs were.

It always blows my mind at how many people accept life as it is presented to them at face value by society and they don't dig deeper to question why that is, and find a path that truly works for them. I realise that that might sound elitist, and I don't mean it to, if that approach works and makes people genuinely happy then more power to them but it seems that a lot of people are unhappy with their lives for that reason also. I feel infinitely blessed to have been raised by forward thinking parents and to have been exposed to think for myself from a relatively early age and find my own path... Anyway, before I derail the thread, Terence is one of those people that has opened my mind infinitely because of his own ideas making me question life and the universe at large, and for that I thank you Mr McKenna, thank you

P.S. And that being said, there is some of his ideas that don't resonate with me, but nevertheless are still interesting due to his unique delivery and way with words.

i dont think it matters at all that TM's usage dropped or even stopped, its not like he never partook in the mystery and was a charleton, he had walked the walk and then continued to talk the talk which is fine by me as he probably explored further than most and was relaying the things he had discovered.

I would much prefer him to stop taking mushrooms and continue his talks as they do alot of good for folk. If he would have stopped giving talks just because he no longer delved the depths it would have been a tragedy.

Equally.

Terence is good for teenagers growing up that need some wisdom in their lives. If those teens turn to the media or church for help they are unlikely to be told the truth. That is why Terence can help. He isn't right about it all, he had his theories, but it was easy to recognise where he did make sense. Terence was a friend of people, and wether he ate x amount of shrooms or not made no difference.

Terence simply was like a "guidebook", not to be followed to heart. Terence said like Budddha said: Find your own path, and most likely would say "FFS STOP GOING ON ABOUT THE LAST SHROOM MEAL, WHAT ARE YOU LOT LIKE!"

I agree Terrence was fun to listen to years ago when I found out about him, and it was a great starting point to research about things that he mentioned, leading to further studies of very relevant and interesting material. I also agree he himself said not to take his words too seriously or literally. I think he even mentioned that the worse that could happen from his ideas was if people made some kind of mckenna cult.

Nevertheless, I also agree with the sentiments that sometimes it gets boring for some people to keep mentioning him over and over again and validating their own ideas only through referencing Mckenna, and it does at some point ends up sounding like a fanclub/cult kind of thing. There's a lot of other interesting people to reference and researches and ideas to talk about too.

Lastly, I think it's natural to reduce psychedelic intake as one grows older. Even though im relatively quite young, i've been taking psychedelics for over a decade and in the last years i've taken less and less often (and taking more time with integration). This doesn't necessarily mean one appreciates it less, but one may take more time with integration, and there's other things in life that we must also dedicate to at some point. Personally, I feel that as I grow older, if there's one psychedelic I would be able to continue consuming more or less regularly at least in not-too-high doses, it would be ayahuasca.

hello christian,

i said that because through the years in which he was pschedelically active he built up a vast knowledge and developed many ideas, and i think that just because he stopped using certain substances doesnt mean that he needs to stop telling people about the things he learnt.



this is what i meant, he was very knowledgeable about psychedelics and continued to share even after he stopped deposting into his personal psychedelic bank account. i think it is good that he did continue and it would have been a shame if he had stopped doing his work.

If he chose to stop talking for personal reasons then that would be fair enough, there is much to explore in life, but if he stopped just because he was no longer taking entheogens then it would be a shame.

as a stupid analogy i have a friend who used to be a very good hockey player and used to teach kids in his spare time when he wasnt playing. he eventually stopped playing hockey through injury but continued to teach kids. Even though he no longer played he had been there and done that and knew what he was talking about so he continued to help other people even though he no longer played the game.

Yes, 3'rd eye, i edited my post because i realised i read yours out of context. I understood what you meant when i re read it. Apologies for that.

I couldn't agree more endlessness, I find all the questions brought up by the psychedelic experience so awe inspiring and interesting (as well ideas proposed by Terence and other great thinkers) that it's really easy to get lost in my own head too much. Luckily my first, and most certainly, my life long passion is music and art, so when I find my interests in psychedelics and esoterica approaching obsession, I focus back on the art and music (easy to do as I make my living through music). After all, I am human and need to keep my feet on the ground... well, at least a little, ha ha

Happily, I find the music/art and esoteric, psychedelic thinking really go hand in hand and inform each other to a great degree.

no worries brother.

I thought either you read it wrong or i wrote it wrong, i sided with me writing it wrong, so i added more waffle .

great thread here.. thank you all for your thoughts

Yeah that is definitely the case with me. I started off with a flourish in my late teens/early twenties and as time went on it just felt right for me personally to trim back to fewer sessions. I spent over 10 years between mushroom sessions at one point and the return was amazing. A weird thing about that experience was that despite how amazing it was and how great I felt I felt no desire to repeat it soon after. My wife and I took some things to heart that we learned that day and worked hard on them since and I think improved our lives due to it.

It's almost too bad reflecting now that Terence seemed so obsessed with that "Heroic" dose thing because while I feel those experiences have value, I think over time and experience I learned how to really use more normal doses and that some of my later trips on say 2g of mushrooms were much more rewarding then when I was young and sort of cocky and taking 4 hits of decent acid or whatever I was doing.

News Flash!

Terence's last trip was NOT in '88 and Dennis's book will reflect that.

best

Schwann Cybershaman