Our ability to destroy ourselves is the mirror image of our ability to save ourselves. Terence McKenna More Quotes by Terence McKenna More Quotes From Terence McKenna There has been no progress in 60,000 years in reducing the psychedelic experience to a known quantity. It is as terrifying, as awesome, as ecstatic, as irreducible to us as it was to them. Terence McKenna psychedelic progress years What they [psychedelics] cause is what I'm advocating, a fundamental revaluation of cultural values, because culture as we're practicing it currently is causing a lot of pain to a lot of people, and animals, and ecosystems, none of whom were ever allowed to vote on whether they wanted this process to go in this direction. Terence McKenna ecosystems pain animal Our medium is meat, but we are made of information. Terence McKenna information meat made I believe that what makes the psychedelic experience so central is that it is a connection into a larger modality of organization on the planet, which is a fancy way of saying it connects you up to the mind of Nature Herself. Terence McKenna organization mind believe Culture is the greatest barrier to your enlightenment, your education, and your decency. Terence McKenna enlightenment barriers culture The Gaian mind is what were calling the psychedelic experience. Its an experience of the living fact of the entelechy of the planet - and without that experience we wander in a desert of bogus ideologies. But with that experience the compass of the self can be set. Terence McKenna desert self mind No more do we create cultural artifacts that are simply our furniture, but now it's our thoughts, our values, are embodied in this [digital] stuff. Terence McKenna furniture digital stuff And so, these are the things, the exploration of which, the singing about of which, makes us human beings. The exploration of the universe of the unseen is the business of human beings. Terence McKenna unseen exploration singing We have the tools, the intellect, the will to create a caring global culture. It isn't going to come without a recognition of the power of the psychedelic experience. The psychedelic experience is the birth right of every human being on the planet. It is as much a basic part of each and every one of us as our sexuality, our national identity, our consciousness of self. And any society which attempts to hold back or impede this dimension of self-expression, when the history of that society is written, it will be called barbarous. Terence McKenna caring expression self The planet has a kind of intelligence, it can actually open a channel of communication with an individual human being. The message that nature sends is, transform your language through a synergy between electronic culture and the psychedelic imagination, a synergy between dance and idea, a synergy between understanding and intuition, and dissolve the boundaries that your culture has sanctioned between you, to become part of this Gaian supermind Terence McKenna communication imagination ideas What is the psychedelic experience? What promise does it hold for a sane future for our planet and our children? And what is it about it that kindles the kind of loyalty that I feel coming from the people in this room this evening? And I submit to you that it is nothing less than the rebirth of a voice that has been silent for at least a thousand years, the still small voice of the Logos of the planet. Terence McKenna loyalty children years Liberate yourself from the illusion of culture. Terence McKenna responsibility culture thinking The western mind, because of it's unique history, is the most sensitive mind to the impact of psychedelics. Terence McKenna impact unique mind The same organizational principles which called us forth into self-reflection have called forth self-reflection out of the planet itself. And the problem then is for us to suspect this, act on our suspicion, and be good detectives, and track down the spirit in its lair. And this is what shamans are doing. They are hunters of spirit. Terence McKenna track reflection self The real justification for psychedelics is that they feed new data into your model. Terence McKenna justification data real We're not going to save the monkey unless we can shed the monkey. And the greatest impetus, the greatest inspiration to the expression of our higher selves comes in the confrontation with psyche that occurs in the psychedelic experience. Terence McKenna inspiration expression self It's the impossible become possible and yet remaining impossible. Terence McKenna impossible-becomes-possible impossible To me, the psychedelic experience is the experience of trying to make sense of reality. Terence McKenna psychedelic trying reality We love to congratulate ourselves on the forward-leaning liberal society that we live in, and the truth is it's a bunch of rattle snake-handling fundamentalists that are much closer to Stalin than they are to FDR or anybody else like that. Terence McKenna truth-is snakes bunch We are all cells of a much larger body, and like the cells of our own body it is hard for us to glimpse the whole pattern of the whole of what is happening, and yet we can sense that there is a purpose, and there is a pattern. Terence McKenna glimpse cells purpose
