Shamanism Terence McKenna

[Anonymous]

Terence McKenna died in the year 2000. His beliefs have created a group of followers and many of them believe in Shamanism. One of their beliefs is that the world is going to end in the year 2012. I would be interested to read of others who may have encountered this group and what experiences are being made there. Is it basically a hippie-sex-and-drug movement? Here are some of McKenna's ideas:

"Basically, I think of the ego like a tumor in the psyche that will form unless there is the presence of psilocybin. For a hundred thousand years, nobody went longer than a month without having this boundary-dissolving experience. After the psilocybin faded, the ego was able to get hold and then eventually redefine the whole personality around it."

McKenna believes that the proliferation of UFO and alien encounter reports are indicative of the approach of "a transcendental object from beyond the end of history." In effect, he says, the future is breaking into the present. This inbreaking influence is emanating from something -- a "transcendental object" -- that will cause a complete disruption and transformation of reality as we know it.

McKenna has filled notebooks with mathematical calculations that show, he says, that the end of history occurs in the year 2012. He has developed a computer program that traces a "time-wave," a graph showing points in history where "novelty" disrupts the normal flow of events. McKenna says he trusts his "time-wave" computer program because it accurately predicts the past - that is, it shows precise moments of great novelty which correspond to known upheavals of geological and evolutionary pre-history as well as human history, both ancient and modern. The time-wave's ability to model the past is, for McKenna, a good reason to consider how it models the future. And it shows that history as we know it simply ends in 2012 -- plunging, as it were, into total and incalculable novelty. With the end of history so close, McKenna says, it shouldn't be surprising that things are getting pretty weird.

McKenna says that the "time-wave" equations are actually alien artifacts that were given, or revealed, to him more than 20 years ago. He's now convinced that they explain why the Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012, and why a proliferation of prophets, seers, abductees and others are all predicting massive, unprecedented changes ahead.

[Anonymous]

terence mckenna
October 19, 2000

NOTE: Terence McKenna expired on April 3rd, 2000. May he rest in peace.

According to occult scientist Terence McKenna, the end of the world as we know it will occur at 11:10 PM, December 22, 2012 and he's worked out a computer model based on an intuitive decoding of the I Ching to prove it mathematically. Before you scoff at McKenna's claims, bear in mind that the ancient Mayan calendar, a calendar accurate to within MINUTES for THOUSANDS of years ends at precisely the same time... But McKenna is no mere doomsday prophet and once you've been exposed to the psychedelic mindscape of the man referred to as 'the Timothy Leary of the Nineties' (by Leary himself!), your worldview may never be the same ever again....

[theta80110]

If you look at Alien Dreamtime, there seem to be some subliminal messages.

Going to the grave without a psychedelic experience = going to the grave without having sex

so, the psychedelic experience=having sex.
psychedelic experience=tapping into the gaian mind.
having sex= tapping into the gaian (guy in) mind.


also, the future that looks more like the past than the future, the "archaic revival", the strange attractors pulling us toward a transcendental object at the end of history, and the whole "going to the grave". I think that the end of human history is a dead person, and the archaic revival is the act of digging up a grave, and he makes it seem like it's bad to go to the grave without having sex.

[Anonymous (67.240.146.242)]

Well, I think that theta's 'subliminal messages' are a bit far-fetched, and I'm not sure what he/she's getting at, ultimately. There seems to be some kind of anti-homesexual sentiment there, but then the focus is shifted to the "the end of the world," which the first poster was concerned about.

I have to agree with the second anonymous that when you look at McKenna's ideas with any kind of attention, it becomes obvious that he was not predicitng a doomsday-style end of the world. What he was so enthusiastic about and so driven to communicate is that through psychedeilc states, humans can free themselves from dogmatic worldviews and approach the world with awe and wonder. This was his focus, theorotically and practically; that is, he lived what he preached. He most likely smoked marijuana habitually like Leary; it is obvious McKenna believe that ingesting mushrooms was a sort of sacred experience; he also talks about his infrequent use of DMT and the paradigm-shifting effects of that experience.
There are several things that are clear about McKenna. One, he had some far out ideas. Two, he used drugs and he advocated the freedom of people to use drugs, but he was in a sense responsible about his use of drugs and his advocacy. He approached the use of psychedlics as a sacred activty, and you can infer from reading his books that he placed importance on set and setting in the use of drugs. He is not some guy going to a rave and eating ecstacy, selling ecstacy to kids. He is not some dopey hippie recycling cans, eating tofu, and playing Grateful Dead Covers. Not that I am judging anyone http://www.factnet.org/discus/clipart/happy.gif but that is simply not who McKenna was. He was a man with some very unconventional views and habits--a very creative person. Unfortunately, I think his enthusiasm for these fringe interests--psychedelics (btw, it should be noted that McKenna did not advocate the use of cocaine and similar narcotics; his interests lay in shamanism and pharmacology), the I Ching and the resultant 2012/"Time Wave Zero" model of his, and shamanism, relegate him to the outskirts of the counterculture. Most people will look at him and see a wacko, and I think that there is some validity to that. Logic and proving theories were not his strong points; his career, such that it was, would have been much more effective had he just used his charisma, speaking presence, and enthusiasm for psychedelic shamanism to espouse his ideas. He did that as well as the "Time Wave Zero" schtick, but I think the whole "Time Wave Zero" thing cannot be taken seriously.

[forest]

Do a google search on "2012" and you will see that the Mayans (who believed in Shamanism) - their calendar ends in the 2012 - if you do the search - you will see how occult these beliefs really are. And this is basically what Terence McKenna believed, and his followers now believe. It's basically the worship of Baal.

[dorje]

Traditionary, the shaman, the visionary of the tribe was always a bit on the edge. If you are communicating between two or many more worlds you are going to appear a little strange and kooky to those that just live on one.

O.K Terence Mckenna tended to see the mushroom in everything, but there is a lot of evidense to back him up if not conclusive. But there is so much more to him than this.

Time will show that he was definately onto something. Before judging him it is well worth watching some Terence Mckenna Videos (http://www.tvshaman.co.uk).
Even if you think he is a nut-job, there is no doubting he is a skilled and charasmatic orater and he is always entertaining and informative to watch