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Interview: Terence McKenna |
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Written by Scott
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Wednesday, 24 December 1997 |
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Page 2 of 4
(TM:)
We are old friends now. But we are of different generations. I first heard about Sasha's experiments when I was fifteen years old. He was already hard at work on mescaline research as a government scientist. I was completely in awe of him and didn't really get to know him until years later, in the mid 80's.
(ED:)
What kind of future do you see for the human race as far as psychedelics are concerned?
(TM:)
The future of the human race lies in the exploration and making explicit of the contents of the human imagination. To the degree that psychedelics push the envelope of the imagination they will continue to be among the most important items in the human tool kit, right there along with mathematics and scientific experimentalism.
Psychedelics can be the windows onto previously invisible worlds that, through new technologies like virtual reality and other immersive strategies, we can share and make real. We have always done this, this is what culture does, but working in stucco, brick and glass is so different from working with light. We are moving into a shortened loop where downloading the contents of the imagination into shared cultural space will occur much more quickly.
(ED:)
Have you ever read the book Ishmael? I'd love to hear your comments about it.
(TM:)
No, sorry. Read “Moby Dick”, whose narrator is a character called Ishmael.
(ED:)
That's true, I didn't remember that. Many people are into making their own sacraments from plant substances these days. Some make extractions, and others prefer to use whole plant materials. What are your thoughts about average, every day citizens using self-grown hallucinogens? Do you see it as something that the government will tolerate?
(TM:)
This is a situation which I and many others have worked toward for many years. People are informing themselves about the methods that can lead to the spiritual results that people desire. This is a very healthy trend, a trend away from slavish guru worship and spirituality as intellectual pabulum rather than soul exalting, mind transforming direct experience. People are far less likely to get into serious trouble taking plants than they are buying and taking illegal white powders sold in the underground under many names and with no standards of purity at all.
The flora of earth is full of wonderful plants that can serve as the sources for mind and life transforming psychedelics in the hands of diligent and sincere students of natural history. This was what the lost alchemical arts were in part about, recovering the secrets of nature and using them for the perfection of human existence.
(ED:)
What do you think of Salvia divinorum?
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