File:Hanna_jon_1999_mckenna_terence.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Terence McKenna
Sign in to saveAlso known as Terence Kemp McKenna
American ethnobotanist and mystic (1946–2000)
OverviewAI-generated
Terence McKenna was an American author and speaker associated with psychedelic, spoken word, philosophy, and spiritual topics. Born in 1946, he passed away in 2000. His literary output includes works such as *The Archaic Revival*, *Evolutionary Mind*, *The invisible landscape*, *Food of the gods*, and *Die süsseste Sucht*. He is also linked to the publication *INDEX: Hyperborea*.
McKenna’s writings and ideas have been referenced by 176 other encyclopedia articles. His recorded material has been tagged with themes of entheogens and spirituality. Notable quotes attributed to him include statements about synergizing progress and being sucked into the body of eternity.
Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, Firecrawl, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1946
- Works
- 18
Top works
- The Archaic Revival
- Die süsseste Sucht
- Evolutionary Mind
- The invisible landscape
- Food of the gods
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 5,182
- Total plays
- 59,164
Tags
Terence McKenna (1946-2000) studied the ontological foundations of shamanism and the ethnopharmacology of spiritual transformation for a quarter century. He grew up in Paonia, Colorado. At age sixteen, he moved to Los Altos, California, where he was first introduced to psychedelics by Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception." Inspired by Huxley's rapturous depiction of the psychedelic experience, he "got started" on Heavenly Blue morning glory seeds. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Terence+
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- The Genome Analysis Toolkit: A MapReduce framework for analyzing next-generation DNA sequencing data
· 2010 · cited 26,052x
- Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report
· 1982 · cited 11,172x
- A framework for variation discovery and genotyping using next-generation DNA sequencing data
· 2011 · cited 10,651x
- Signaling Recognition Events with Fluorescent Sensors and Switches
· 1997 · cited 6,550x
- Integrated Genomic Analysis Identifies Clinically Relevant Subtypes of Glioblastoma Characterized by Abnormalities in PDGFRA, IDH1, EGFR, and NF1
· 2010 · cited 6,478x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “synergizing progress is the notion to be maximized ...”
- “What we call imagination is actually the universal library of what’s real. You couldn’t imagine it if it weren’t real somewhere, sometime.”
- “History is a set of nested resonances with each epoch being shorter than the one that preceded it. This event horizon is like a series of ghost horizons, and once you enter into history, you enter into the outer shell of the temporal field of the attractor or the concrescence.”
- “We are being sucked into the body of eternity.”
- “The Beliefs of a Witoto shaman and the beliefs of a Princeton phenomenologist have an equal chance of being correct, and there are no arbiters of who is right. Here is something we have not assimilated. 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.”
- “Life lived in the absence of the psychedelic experience that primordial shamanism is based on is life trivialized, life denied, life enslaved to the ego.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1946-11-16 ) November 16, 1946, Paonia, Colorado , U.S.
- Died
- April 3, 2000 (2000-04-03) (aged 53), San Rafael, California , U.S.
- Occupation
- Author, lecturer
- Education
- BSc in ecology, resource conservation, and shamanism
- Alma mater
- University of California, Berkeley
- Period
- 20th century
- Subject
- Shamanism , ethnobotany , ethnomycology , metaphysics , psychedelic drugs , alchemy
- Notable works
- The Archaic Revival , Food of the Gods , The Invisible Landscape , Psilocybin Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide , True Hallucinations .
- Spouse
- Kathleen Harrison ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1975 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1992 )
- Relatives
- Dennis McKenna (brother)
via Wikipedia infobox
Official website
INDEX: Hyperborea
levity.com →Link to the official site · 30,810 chars · not written by Vinony
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Terence
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Paonia
- Place of death
- San Rafael
- Sibling
- Dennis McKenna
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- ethnobotany
- Official website
- www.levity.com/eschaton
- Image
- Mckenna1.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Terence McKenna
- date of birth
- 1946-11-16
- date of death
- 2000-04-03
- lifestyle
- mysticism
- manner of death
- natural causes
- described by source
- UbuWeb
- name in native language
- Terence Kempes McKenna
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American philosopher, ethnobotanist, lecturer, and author who advocated for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants and mushrooms. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, metaphysics, alchemy, language, philosophy, culture, technology, ethnomycology, environmentalism, and the theoretical origins of human consciousness. He was called the "Timothy Leary of the '90s", "one of the leading authorities on the ontological foundations of shamanism", and the "intellectual voice of rave culture". Critical reception of Terence McKenna’s work was deeply polarized, with critics accusing him of promoting dangerous ideas and questioning his sanity, while others praised his writing as groundbreaking, humorous, and intellectually provocative.
Born in Colorado, he developed a fascination with nature, psychology, and visionary experiences at a young age. His travels through Asia and South America in the 1960s and ’70s shaped his theories on plant-based psychedelics, particularly psilocybin mushrooms, which he helped popularize through cultivation methods and writings. McKenna became a countercultural icon in the 1980s and ’90s, delivering lectures on psychedelics, language, and metaphysics while publishing influential books and co-founding Botanical Dimensions in Hawaii. He died in 2000 from brain cancer.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Terence McKenna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.