Yes, and harmine (the main b-carboline in Banisteriopsis caapi) was also known as telepathine, so perhaps ayahuasca was what that One Step Beyond host was talking about, not mushrooms. I'm not sure what pharmaceutical actually increases telepathy, but any compound that increases communication could be on the list.....
Grant to Meade, 1864: "Gord, duuude, we'll outflank Lee's trenches at Petersburg METAPHYSICALLY........These Spencer-equipped dragon cavalry are some kick-ass shit".
As someone who suffers with extreme severe anxiety I can totally relate to her. I would stop eating for days at a time as a punishment. I worry a lot about my life, everyone around me and pleasing everyone. It's absolutely crippling, so glad she got the help she needed, lovely young lady it's so sad that society has 1 in 3 people suffering mental health issues. I hope everyone seeks help
Can you help with the reliable source I would really appreciate it. Many people talk about how mushrooms and psychedelics treats anxiety, but nobody talks about where to get them. Very hard to get a reliable source here in Australia. Really need!
Yes, doctor Greg mushroom I have the same experience with anxiety, depression, PTSD and addiction and Mushrooms definitely made a huge huge difference to why am clean today.
@@AtunSheiFilms While I agree, I think that would have sentenced him to being a second rate Phillip K Dick... or a first rate Robert Anton Wilson... As broken clock gurus go, TMK is a gem. I feel sorry for kids today, trying to piece together weird ontologies out of the broken ramblings of Brett and Eric Weinstein and whoever was on Joe Rogan last week.
@@EphemeralTao I think it's more accurate to say there was cross-pollination between all these guys. I'd add Timothy Leary to the mix and a host of other lesser-known underground writers and thinkers.
Everyone knows you for Checkmate and Witchfinder, that much is undeniable. But my favorites from you have been the weird ones out of left field. The Hotel, Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, and this. I’m glad you’re comfortable enough to jump high out of the potential rut often and give us some real gems.
I genuinely appreciate his perspectives on these somewhat niche cultural facets, and hope he'll keep doing them! Even if 40 years passed, he'd still most certainly keep my interest with this weird stuff :P
@@MatthewTheWanderer I largely finished editing Checkmate in early May. I was researching and writing this one during the month or so that the composer and VFX artist were putting the final touches on the finale :)
One Step Beyond, Fitzcarraldo, that amazing jacket and mushrooms, I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole!! Major heat wave great to sit in front of the fan & watch this.
There's an older man that lives in my apartment. He has a lot of chronic terminal health issues and in all honesty is actively dying. He said he did a 6 mg mushroom trip over the weekend and was able to find a profound sense of peace through it
I think that kind of ties into the whole thing, psychedelics are very often cognitively damaging they have the ability to convince people they have experienced some profound connection with a greater power and many maintain that feeling after takeing it. thing is if someone is dieing, or has life impedeing PTSD thats actively useful in provideing quality of life. does not however mean its a good idea for most people. Just do MDMA or something
Hey I studied this stuff for a few years while I was in college and in case anyone is wondering there is ample evidence of the physically damaging effects of MDMA as it acts basically like meth in realizing such huge amounts of serotonin quickly. It doesn't mean it can't be done safely, but if your being careful around traditional psychedelics (which can cause psychotic breaks, but don't appear to cause psychical damage) than you should avoid MDMA which does cause physical brain damage based on actual data, and can still cause psychotic breaks.@@therideneverends1697
@therideneverends1697 the active ingredient in certain fungi has actually been repeatedly proven in studies to be the opposite of "cognitively damaging", increasing neuroplasticity, healing emotional trauma to brain pathways and curing depression and ptsd. It can aid with a range of issues from mental health disturbance to simply boosting creativity.
@@therideneverends1697 I'm gonna add onto the comment above me since they didn't mention the MDMA you mentioned at the end, but you can't pull 1 drug out of a category and attribute its features to everything else in that category (especially when that 1 drug fits within an entirely separate major subcategory of said larger category). MDMA is neurotoxic. Psilocybin and LSD, among many other psychedelics have not shown to be, and while MDMA is neurotoxic, if you take advantage of harm reduction practices, such as testing your MDMA to make sure it's what you think it is and isn't cut with anything, taking the appropriate supplements before, during, and after your doses, and spacing your doses out 3-6 months has shown effective to completely negate any neurotoxic effects (actually that last one does it on its own, provided you actually have MDMA, supplements can help keep you safe on consistent dosing on the lower end of that 3-6 month timespan, probably lower than that, but I recommend being safe and staying within that timespan at minimum)
"I've met and spoken to entities that were not human." Yeah, a lot of people have done that here. Most pubs do welcome dogs, and the dogs often snuggle up to other customers, who then talk to them. It's cool.
*Glendower:* I can call the spirits from the vasty deep. *Hotspur:* Why, so can I, or so can any man; but will they come, when you do call for them? - William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1
I had a couple friends trip sit me on a hike (nothing physically strenuous) and they wouldn't believe me that a spirit was watching us. Imagine their shock when they saw a mountain lion watching us from behind a tree.
@@Sableagle my original comment about saying the f-word to annoying flys got removed. Sorry RU-vid far be it from me to cuss in the comment section of a video about drugs
Plants and fungi everywhere: "You bite me, I'll mess you up! I'll change your heartbeat! I'll burn your tongue! I'll make your teeth tingle! I'll make you blush and sweat! I'll make your skin incredibly sensitive! I'll stop you feeling anything above the neck! I'll make you taste rectangles and hear magenta! I'll mess with your whole nervous system until you don't know what's even REAL!" This one species of ape, every wretched time: "Cool! Can I grow you at home?"
What does it say about sapience that our favorite activity throughout history has been numbing, intensifying, slowing, quickening, and modifying our own consciousness whenever possible?
elephants dig up fermented roots for alcohol, lemurs chew on poisonous centipedes for a buzz, there was a flock of geese that got addicted to opiates grazing a poppy field, they all had to be detoxed at a animal hospital
@@noah4822 Aug. 19, 2004, AP: When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby - dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer. The bear apparently got into campers’ coolers and used his claws and teeth to puncture the cans. And not just any cans. “He drank the Rainier and wouldn’t drink the Busch beer,” said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker. Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest. The beast then consumed about 36 cans of Rainier. A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear from the campground but the animal just climbed a tree to sleep it off for another four hours. Agents finally herded the bear away, but it returned the next morning.
54:50 Charles Darwin wasnt a social darwinist. He offered a descriptive model where those who fit the environment survive. Not necessarily at all those who survive a battle royale. His famous galapagos finches dont survive by killing each other nor by stealing from each other, but by having beaks useful for cracking nuts. There isnt a need to further conflate the two separate ideas more than social darwinists already have.
He was in fact horrified by the concept, as it came about in his life time, and while he wrote extensively against them, he was sadly unsuccessful, and these horrific corruptions of his ideas were able to take hold and justify the many crimes of the 19th and 20th centuries, despite his his own beliefs and his attempts to fight them
Wow. Every night for the past year or so I search RU-vid for "terence mckenna" and fall asleep to one of his lectures. Last night I made my usual search and this video came up. This is the first video of yours I've ever seen. I'm in my late 30s now and have all but given up psychedelics but there's just something about his voice and thought process that keeps me coming back. Over the years I've given a lot of thought to his theories and musings and have come to pretty much the same conclusions that you did. Especially the one at the end about the transcendental object at the end of time, the eschaton, being death itself. Death sure is transcendental after all. What a wonderfully thought out video man, great job. I feel like you're the only person in the 21st century that has talked about Terence as a historical figure and summed up his life in this way. Extremely well done sir, thank you.
Atun Shei may be about many things that seem like something you may not be intrested in, like American history, the Civil War, and other stuff, but it's all very, very good stuff I deeply recommend for you to try out. Atun Shei, cloud cuckoo country, shammy, and Noah Caldwell Gervais are the best RU-vidrs on the platform currently. From a young person to an older person, I want you to know that the algorithms on RU-vid have been designed with more and more effiency to divide you away from intelligently made content (like this) and towards circular dumb content that doesn't say anything new or make you think, and it hurts all of us no matter who we are. Ever since the advent of AI and the alt right's misinformation campaigns it's only gotten harder. Doesn't matter who you are or where you live, all of us are feeling the effects of it Id reccomend to hold on to atun shei and check out his stuff, and see his channels and subscriptions tab to see the other kinds of channels he reccomends, since the algorithm itself very rarely recommends them anymore
Holy crap are you me?! -> "Every night for the past year or so I search RU-vid for "terence mckenna" and fall asleep to one of his lectures." . I check almost daily to see if Danit Friedman has uploaded another video.
Eerily similar … lately I’ve been listening to random tm lectures with and without added background music and its hypnotic in its own way and I doze off as well
One of the many things that I love about your videos is that you always take such care and thought about the music in them, it's never just generic royalty free lofi or the like. Another fascinating video Andy, keep up the good work.
I think as a mythological sceptic, you’d love the novel “Foucault’s Pendulum” by Umberto Eco (the Ur-Fascism guy). It goes deep into the esoteric and the realm of ceremony, building up an all-encompassing theory of the sacred and profane throughout history, before unceremoniously tearing it down to reveal the post-modern lie hidden within. I loved it 10/10.
Duuuuuuuuuuude read "The Illuminated Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. It's amazing. They were basically 2 hippies who worked for Playboy Magazine and kept a file of letters by conspiracy crackpots as inspiration for their SF novel. I believe they were friends with Terrence McKenna too.
@@johannesdecorte434 I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. The companion books I'd recommend are the Principia Discordia, and the Book of the Subgenius. Both classics, both very well known, and both worth the read.
Hugely enjoying this. However at 55 min you use a common misunderstanding of the term ‘survival of the fittest.’ It does not mean the largest or most fearsome. In this context the fittest individual is the one best adapted to the surrounding environment and their place in it. E.g better camouflaged, better at collecting pollen or better at working as part of a cooperative group. Remember, natural selection can only select for or against a trait if it has an effect on passing on the organism’s genes.
So like how Otodus megalodon was outcompeted by the Great white shark due to the medium sized baleen whales like cetotheres going extinct and replaced with dolphins and porpoises the great white was better at hunting despite the fact Otodus megalodon would've destroyed a great white shark in a fight?
That’s not entirely true. Evolution selects the organism that is most fit for survival. Traits get passed on that are irrelevant or redundant. Traits even get pass on when that make survival harder. None of that matters if the organism is itself is the most fit for survival.
Yup. Darwin's theory was only meant to describe the physical attributes and evolutionary mechanisms that species experience in order to adapt to their environment. Anything else being extrapolated from that to anything social related is Herbert Spencer's pseudoscientific Social Darwinist dribble.
I see our favorite homosexual liberal has climbed forth, eager to present us with content. Edit: I hope people realize this is satirical, some goofy things have been said in ye olde comment section..
You spend a lot of time thinking about gay guys and the filthy, nasty things they do. I'm sure you could find one who would be happy to do those things to you if you'd just be honest about what you want.
Fukuyama was so wrong it is almost hilarious to read his political/economic theory. He never considered that the human ego and thirst for power can’t be tamed by stable upbringing or commodity. Even more naive than the most sheltered bookish Marxists I know.
@@warweasel2832 actually people are really disingenuous for the haven't read his actual words, he was hardly arguing the triumph of the western neoliberal system and the cessation of societal development was a good thing. he was arguably just describing 'capitalist realism' which is very apt about 2024
This is the most psudointellectual comment I’ve ever read. Like “hey guys I know who came up with the end of history thing!! I know the guys name!” Like bro you are not smart and also Fukuyama has largely disowned that theory
I love the use of Philip Glass’s Opera, Akhnaten, as the background music. It's like flying through the night sky towards the Milky Way and it fits the theme psychedelic transcendence well.
As a former Seminarian who once held a gnostic mushroom mass at an Anglican Church, later turned dialectical materialist, this really scratches that itch of psychedelic kabbalistic nostalgia. #psilocybinpsunday
I feel it necessary as a sort of PSA to remind everyone: DO NOT USE PSYCHEDELICS IF CURRENTLY TAKING LITHIUM. This can cause SEIZURES and other harmful effects! It is strongly advised that one avoid use of psychedelic substances while experiencing severe depression, anxiety, or other negative emotional states, or if one has a genetic predisposition towards schizophrenia. It is highly recommended that one test any substance to ensure its quality and safety before ingesting it. It is also recommended that there be at least one trusted and reasonably sober person present to watch over one if they do decide to take such a substance.
100% agree. And I'm saying this as someone who kinda thinks psychedelics cured my depression. I don't really recommend anybody take them tbh. I've seen too many ppl have bad trips or get lost in the sauce. Also while I think I've definitely had insights and breakthroughs while on acid, but a lot of those profound feelings are fool's gold. I remember watching 2001 and having a cool realization about structure of the film that probably wouldn't have had sober. However, every time I've ever tried to journal on acid I just wrote utter nonsense lol. I think the boring truth is that whatever you're looking in these chemicals is already inside you. They just lower your inhibitions and shuffle your neural pathways. Treat them like prescription drugs. Do actual research from authoritative sources. Anecdotal experiences and non academic resources can also be helpful and even save a life, but take them with a whole salt shaker lol
Thanks for the warning. Am currently taking lithium, but was also mildly interested in taking these just to see what the shining world of the gods might have been for my ancestors.
This is a poor warning. The correct warning is as follows: all classes of psychedelics, in normal use, without exception, will gradually damage the brain, and with continued use, you will diminish in your powers of analytical thought until you are no longer recognizable. This has nothing to do with set and setting, or with any predisposition to schitzophrenia, rather, it is a product of the action of the drugs themselves.
i opened it up to watch later, just to check it out. was immediately sucked in by the extremely well written script, fantastic delivery, and just your approach to the whole thing. so refreshing to hear an open-minded, but sober (and also not toooo sober) perspective. fantastic stuff as always.
Video: "They took mushrooms and saw visions, and these visions felt so real they kept believing in them once the effects of the mushrooms ended." My Neuroscientist Friend: "This feels like they are giving themselves psychosis" Dennis McKenna: "In hindsight, that was psychosis" My Neuroscientist Friend: "Well it's good they realized, eventually"
Our society causes psychosis. The biggest benefit of mushrooms is pulling the individual out of ego out of the psychosis of society and inducing laughter.
Glad to see you still making bangers after retiring your most popular show. I'm interested in seeing where you go from here and if you keep putting out stuff like this you'll be just fine!
At various points during the video I could only think of the you cannot kill me in a way that matters meme. I think Terence would have liked it. Fantastic work.
I had such a fascination with psychedelics after my first serious experiences. I'm lucky enough to be the kind of person who can hold on tight to their sanity during even the craziest trips (even during ego death, to some extent), and I found it endlessly enjoyable picking apart the changes in my psychology and senses. It was like looking into my brain's code, which I'm sure is what scares most people. Buuut, there's definitely a limit to their usefulness. They helped me realize that cigarettes and booze were disgusting and unhealthy when I was in the middle of addiction. They highlighted areas in my life that I absolutely needed to improve upon. And yet, they didn't DO these for me. They just indicated their importance. At some point, I realized that psychedelics were amazing at highlighting and recontextualizing problems and ideas, but you still need to act upon those changes in your everyday life. There are plenty of people who are already great at doing that, but I was never the type of person who did great with "doing," even if I've always been a planner and a thinker. And as a side note, I also used to believe that anyone could benefit from psychedelics, but after a friend had such a bad breakdown that they called the cops under the psychotic notion that my friend and I were going to rape and kill him, I've reevaluated my stance a bit. We were playing Smash Bros and talking about college, so this wasn't a scenario of bad settings and trip sitters. He just couldn't take the reins and ended up getting lost in his neurotic thoughts.
can’t put into words how thankful i am to have this art here in my come down. this video helped me come to terms with my own relationship with psychedelia and the profound spiritual significance it has to me.
Honestly i like these types of videos you do. This, metamorphosis of prime intellect, getting drunk and talking about vikings are some of my favorite of yours.
I was wondering who that was. I thought I had heard some of it before. I am not really found of Glass in large doses. To repetitive. Background or in small amounts is OK.
As someone materialistically hidebound, I still found plenty to take away from the video. While the communion with the great mushroom demiurge may elude me, the concept of the internet as a great species-wide hallucinatory dreamscape is something to chew over. At the very least, we can cast the resurgent growth of fascism as a kind of malignant Bad Trip we're all having, warmed over historical memories rising from cyberspace like the head of a hydra we all thought vanquished.
I have basically only watched the intro but this is just so cool: it is like my worlds colliding. I am one of those guys who has heard EVERYTHING he ever recorded (literally, I have been searching for something new for many years) many times, but I'm also a history nerd who loves your channel. I did not expect these beams to cross.
Here I am; wallowing in selfpity, after my girlfriend of 6 years broke up with me - and Atun-Shei Films drops a feature length distraction. Thank you good sir; I sure need it!
Eat well, start swimming a few times a week for your cardio, do power yoga, and eventually cycle on some weights in the week. Fuck her! You don't need her. What's important is that you MOVE FORWARD.
Genuinely love to see this new subject on your channel! I think there is a significant hunger for psychedelic/spiritual/scientific content. Keep up the great work brother!
I really love seeing this more freeform and earnest side of you and your material. Especially the trip report section. I've known people like you who are still totally sober materialists who also got a lot of perspective and love of life from psychedelic experiences, but you truly have a way of communicating it leaps and bounds better than they could. Bravo, sir. Looking forward to seeing more of this side of ya, should you so choose.
Me and my roomate, as well SWIM and SWIH who have extensive histories with moderate to large doses of psilocybin were quite amazed by how well this video's structure resembles a trip.
My coworker has been hounding me about Terrence Mckenna for the past 2 weeks. It's all he talks about recently. Then you go and drop this. I CAN'T ESCPAE THE MUSHROOM MAN Edit: accidentally typed Howard instead of Mckenna
Darwin mentioned survival of the fittest a couple of times and everybody still pariots that quote today. Darwin emphasized that it was in corporation that allowed society to advanced.
It's more of a rationalization for inactivity of the thinker, most ideologies are excuses for inactivity if you examine them. I.e. not serious thinking but theological apologism Scatology if you will. Survival of the fittest is a sort of rationalization why it's okay to destroy the rainforest by yuppies feeling bad about it.
@@JKavanagh-tq8rp survival of the fittest is not an ideology its a simple description of the principle underlying evolution. i have no idea what the fuck you are talking about
Amazing video. I knew basically none of this but found it very fascinating. Essentially it feels like Terrence was right along the same lines as countless others, not that different than say even Graham Hancock. Starting with a conclusion and then finding anything to meet that conclusion. With that said I certainly appreciate Terrence's sensibilities and motivations far more than many others. As a an atheist former Christian (like so many of us out there) I certainly can appreciate trying to find an alternative objective "truth" out there to rival that of the western patriarchal Christian world that many of us dislike so much in so many ways (now at least). Though I think essentially it's applying the same mindset and tactics as that same world just in the inverse. I always go back to Francis Bacon: "If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end with doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." Likewise despite my innate skepticism to psychedelics (and everything) I tried to watch this with an open mind and was glad to see you apply your same sort of rational application you do in other forms to this. I certainly could understand how having such dramatic experiences might convince someone. Though in the end it's really not all that different than the religious experiences people have. Even myself as a Christian I believed 100% I experienced the supernatural at bare minimum twice during my life before leaving the faith. Of course now I realize and understand the massive body of data pointing to how horrendous human perception is at a measure of nearly anything. My wife, before we met, went through a period of great stress and had hallucinations, very real and vivid (of blood being all over hands when she worked as someone who cleaned hospital rooms, but in this case there was none). She was on no drugs. Then when she got prescribed waaay too many drugs like anti-psychotics (good ole 90s and early 2000s and kicking out drugs like candy) she got even worse. Likewise she also experienced things she thought was supernatural. Now like me we both think different. Our world views dictated what we expected combined with fragile human perception and mental states. Now I can imagine throwing psychedelics on that fire would probably crank all these 100 fold. Though there may be some metaphysical or supernatural connection or reality out there the reality is we have no reliable data or evidence of such and in this day and age we would expect to see quite a bit of it. In this case I think Terrence might have been right partially like you expand on. With the advent of technology and the internet it has indeed expanded our perceptions in ways. I think in an age where so many people have literal cameras in their pocket and are trained to record anything interesting. The fact we have no reliable recordings of miracles or God (or deities in general) stands as the absolute strongest evidence that none exist. We would expect tons of reliable data at this point. These same capabilities have helped us reveal a world of Karens, of police brutality, of countless injustices and human behaviors. Yet not a single piece of reliable data for the supernatural tied or not tied to any religion at all. That's pretty massive when you think of it and I think will lead further and further to the shifting away of the Christianized Western world view and sort of to some of Terrance's aspirational predictions that go with that. Until now and what the internet and related technologies provided this was just not possible. Also yeah there's a pessimistic side of me that looks to stormfront and the internet allowing those nuts to circle the wagons and unite and fight stronger for themselves. Though in a lot of ways these feel like a real last gasp, that surge before the death cry, much like that of the Lost Cause. I spent years on a Civil War forum where nearly every week or two someone new one come out spouting Lost Cause mythos. Myself and others would challenge it with data, quotes, and references. Now we have years of your videos and countless others repeating the real historical material over and over. In the end progress is inevitable and two steps forward is often followed by one step back, but to put it as my 2nd great granduncle Miles Ledford Langley put it in the 1868 Arkansas Constitutional Convention "Progress is an unchangeable law of nature. This is an age of improvement. Reform is the order of the day. We are passing through a crisis unparalleled in the history of the world. We have just struggled through a gigantic war, and are inaugurating a new era in the history of our' national policy. We must reconstruct the government of our country on radical principles-universal freedom, impartial suffrage, and equal rights. We must be governed by natural justice and scientific principles. Scientific truth must be our guide in ethics, in religion, in politics, in social life, and in legal matters." He was imprisoned, shot, and beat in Arkansas during the Civil War for being a southern abolitionist preacher and then in this convention he was laughed at (by both parties) for arguing for women's suffrage and rights here. In that time someone so ahead of their time and era in progressive thought had to seem to be arguing impossibilities. Sure it took about 50 years but it did in fact become a reality. You can't fully stop progress IMHO.
That Hamilton Morris quote at the start really sums up my experience with McKenna. I accidentally picked Food of the Gods off a library shelf when I was 14, and I've recommended it a thousand times since not because of its rigorous science but its ethical mindset. It gets at personal and cultural evolution we can undertake.
I don’t agree with any of Terrance McKenna’s metaphysical beliefs or most of his historical ones, but I am absolutely in love with the term “Hyperspace Elves”. Just the peak of psychedelic occult milieu.
What a fascinating coincidence: I just watched a video debunking Terence McKenna's Stoned Ape Theory yesterday, and I wasn't even searching for it yesterday or today. This one will surely be more informative (since it's much longer) and more entertaining!
Honestly, I won't be brash and say its your Magnum Opus, but this is a really engaging video. Delving into our expierence of reality itself. Great work! - and I'm only at the damn beginning. Well done.
I like your usage of the term bio-prospecting, I had never heard it before. People are very aware of prospecting in the conventional sense (mining) and the effects it can have (environmental, social, economic, etc...) on local populations, the positives and the much more daunting negatives. But it's good to show that open lithium mines of Spanish gold sickness aren't the only kinds out there. Prospecting for psycchodelic fungi and plants can destroy local communities, as you very much show in this video, but also historically has fueled a great deal of colonialism (and plenty of other fuckery).
I had never heard that term before, either, but it makes sense. A lot of modern medicines originally came from substances found in plants, many of which were discovered in rain forests. That's one reason some people find the destruction of rain forests so upsetting, because we could be missing out on new undiscovered medications and cures. So, bio-prospecting can be a good thing, if done carefully and respectfully.
This is why I vow to stay away from the bufo alvarius toad. I went to the Sonoran desert and didn’t see a single one there. Their population is really sad.
Assigning psychedelic experiences to entities outside of ourselves lessens the experience for me. In the same way that a supernatural creator is a less impressive, and I would say less spiritual, than scientific cosmological hypotheses. Acknowledging that the "I" is merely a drop in an ocean of mind, where seemingly discrete entities can not only be communed with, but present themselves in ways that confound expectation... that is where the magic lies for me.
I understand the way you feel. I never had a clue that the entity experience was part of psilocybin, it just happened to me while alone under the moon. I can see some of them as actually being parts of myself that were unexamined, forgotten or unsuspected. But I've had (like a lot of people) what seemed to be downloads of extremely complex information that I couldn't trace back to my own thoughts or obessions. But I can't prove it nor wish too. It can hurt the psychedelic community when people come out as zealots preaching in the streets about their newfound enlightenment given to them by hyperdimensional beings. It comes off as obnoxious and puts them right there in the same category of other zealots. I did the same thing myself for awhile until I realized what a huge miscalculation I was making. If these entities are just part of ourselves I'm totally fine with that and we have a whole lot of self reflection to do!
@crono3339 "downloads of extremely complex information that I couldn't trace" Nope. You were just really high on a psychedelic. There's no truth to making up bullshit. Just accept it was a drug. You were on drugs. It's OK to have fun on drugs and NOT take the hallucinations seriously. None of it was real. You were high. End of story. No need to prove anything. You never would be able to: because it wasn't true. There are no magical entities. They're not "part of you," they're your hallucinations. Nothing more.
I think it’s the same thing kinda ? I personally don’t see the difference with how you are describing it. Either way they would still be there and so would we. It’s just opening us up to it like you said in your second paragraph. ..also I would say any view of a “creator” is spiritual, cuz there’s no real evidence, but I think maybe I know how you mean that , either way I believe in something spiritual, and Terrance is a total legend and genius
Of all the mysteries of psychedelics, here's an answer which may help: It is a consistent phenomenon that whatever emotions a person may experience, awe is consistently one of them. This, combined with the hallucinations, can account for some of the profound spiritual, magical experiences which people tend to report. This is not to discount or diminish anybody's experiences. It is simply a lens through which it can be presented to skeptical people and those of us who prefer rational explanations. Ultimately, interpreting a trip is like interpreting literature, like the Bible, and is highly dependent on individual lived experience.
In the 90s I would upload McKenna speeches from audiotape to websites, eventually almost all of them. It's been a while though and I think you did a superb job articulating his strengths and weaknesses, just perfect in many ways with some wonderful turns of phrase. One role Terence occupied in those days was be an intellectual Pop-pops like a kindly professor indulging his acolytes with forbidden jars of wonder. ("Don't listen to me, eat a shroom"). He also spoke of the "toxic nature of ideology" saying it's not like there are good ideologies and bad ones - they generally need to be dissolved at their brittle old foundations and psychedelics and the internet do that job. Perhaps like mushrooms themselves he was better decomposing and deconstructing rather than building theories as if an edifice upon an invisible landscape.
☝️🤓 Ackshually.. the visual acuity part is one of the most *objective* scientifically established truths about serotonergic psychedelics. Tests, over multiple decades WITH control subjects and strict parameters, have demonstrated pretty unambiguously that tryptamine hallucinogens do increase the ability to discern subtle color variations or identify more ultra thin lines in a sort of barcode pattern compared to sober subjects. That isn't to say I significantly disagree with anything in the video. It was perfect. Subscribed! 🙂
Psychedelics have always been my secret addiction, love the experience so much but its so untenable to do with my busy day to day life. Always love to hear other's perspectives on this 🙌
You are an amazing sage. You are one of 2-3 people who I will watch every video you make, even if it hadn't interested me before. Thanks for being such an incredible edutainer!
Now I understand how you decided to do a ten part series about arguing with the comment section and ending up with interdimensional light-sabre fights. And I'm here for it.
Dude until you lose your own mother you will never understand what its like. I totally see everything he is talking about under that lense because i lost mine. Had some really profound things going on in my mind. And the real taboo in America is not drugs its death.
thank fucking GAWD I now have a reference video about Terrence McKenna, to pass to the curious, that doesn't come from a certain toe-headed podcaster...
What an absolutely wonderful video I have experienced. Very well done, Sir. I will reference back to this as I contemplate what steps are next in my art series.
My problem with the stoned ape theory is that it assumes that not only are drugs a way to a higher understanding, they are the primary way to a higher understanding. Meanwhile, they aren't even the only way to get yourself into a state of altered consciousness. Things like starvation, sleep deprivation, heatstroke, some types of mental illness, hell, even walking trough a monotonous country for miles on end can fuck with your perception just as well as any drug, and were presumably more frequent. And that's assuming altered states of consciousness were at all necessary or important for the development of religion, rather than a quick and easy way for people to reach for thoughts and emotions they already had on their own.
And coming to completely bizzare and abstract thoughts you HAVEN'T had before is one of the most important parts of a psychedelic experience. Yes other activities can be very psychedelic and amazing, but it's not quite the intensity.
@@crono3339 "But maybe eating mushrooms is a safer way to enlightening thoughts that heatstroke haha." - Fair enough, I suppose. "And coming to completely bizzare and abstract thoughts you HAVEN'T had before is one of the most important parts of a psychedelic experience. Yes other activities can be very psychedelic and amazing, but it's not quite the intensity." - Spoken like someone whose sleep schedule isn't so fucked they woke up at 5am with the stupidest idea you've ever heard seemingly springing forth from their mind fully formed. In all seriousness, I am getting kinda sick of people with no imagination taking psychedelics and suddenly thinking that mindaltering substances are the source of all original thought, just because they themselves are incapable of thinking or feeling anything too out there without them.
His theories about early humans are based way too much on the idea of "man the hunter woman the gatherer" popular in anthropology in the 60s. This was based on ethnography of h-g groups in the 20th century. We now understand how influenced those cultures are by western cultures. The more we understand about the past, the less water that holds.
It took me three days to finish this (thanks, running out of ADHD meds and antidepressants) and I have to say this is probably your best work for the RU-vid channel yet. Seriously, this is up there with Sudbury Devil, dude. Love when you get REALLY esoteric with it
