WHO WAS TERENCE MCKENNA? EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS MAGICAL MAN

Terence McKenna is one of the most famous psychonauts who ever lived. We write lived, because he sadly died far too early in the year 2000. Even though he was only 53 when he left the physical world, his legacy is vast. From protected nature reserves, interesting theories to books, wonderful docu and even musical input for psytrance greats. Read all about Terence McKenna's life and legacy here.

A short biography of Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna was born and raised in the US town of Paonia, Colorado in 1946. A hole, especially by American standards. Even today, less than 2,000 people live there. As a child, he was already fascinated by geology and nature. For that reason, he went to study ethnobotany at California's Berkeley University in 1965. But McKenna was not the type to just sit with his nose in the books.

So as a twenty-something, he went on a field trip to Nepal to learn about local shamanic traditions, language and painting. But that turned out to be a bit more adventurous when he set up a hash smuggling operation and got caught. Fortunately, he got off unscathed. After some time travelling around various Asian countries, he returned to the university campus in California, where he graduated in ecology, shamanism and conservation in 1975. That same year, he met the woman who would become the mother of his two children. With her, he founded a nature reserve in Hawaii, Botanical Dimensions. Here you will find (not entirely surprisingly) all kinds of plants that have a place in psychedelic and shamanic traditions.

McKenna's trips and psychedelic expertise

Before, during and after his studies, he experimented extensively with all kinds of trip drugs. His eyes were first opened by Morning Glory. Later his interests included opium, DMT, Ayahuasca and psilocybin. Like Terence, his brother Dennis was an ethnobotanist and shared the same interests in psychedelics. In 1970, the two brothers headed into the Amazon in search of a DMT-containing plant. Instead, they stumbled upon fields full of magic mushrooms: the Psilocybe cubensis, and several forms of Ayahuasca. At home, they started working with spores of these mushrooms, which they had smuggled in from the Amazon. This is how they became true experts in growing magic mushrooms.

Pioneer in psychedelics

McKenna's strengths were his enthusiasm, tireless interest in psychedelics and, of course, his intelligence. This soon made him a true pioneer and expert on psychedelics. He gave many lectures on the topic and became increasingly involved in the psychedelic dance scene. He talked at raves and collaborated on music by well-known psytrance artists such as The Shamen, Entheogenic and Shpongle.

McKenna's books and documentaries

Terence wrote several seminal books on psychedelics, many of which have also been captured as fine documentaries. Here are some of his interesting works.

Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide

Dennis and Terence McKenna wrote down everything they found out about magic mushrooms in their growing guide: Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide. Released in the 70s, it was obviously a welcome source of information for the home grower.

Food of the Gods and McKenna's famous Stoned Ape Theory

In 1992, McKenna published his 'cult classic' Food of the Gods. This features his 'Stoned Ape Theory'. A fascinating theory about why we humans got so smart so fast. You see, back in the old days, lol, we had pretty small brains. And the development of our brains didn't exactly progress either. But at some point, our brains just started growing like cabbages and we got smarter and smarter. McKenna's theory: this is because that's when people started eating psychedelic mushrooms. Read how exactly: what is Terence McKenna's Stoned Ape Theory?

True Hallucinations: book and docu about his Amazon adventures

As you can imagine, Terence experienced all kinds of things while hanging out in the Amazon jungle. Not only did he have his brother with him at the time, but also several friends. About all their adventures, he wrote the book True Hallucinations, which also became a docu. An absolutely unique masterpiece that will make any psychonaut think hard.

Archaic Revival

Archaic Revivalwas the title of his second book. This was more of a sociological cultural study, but then again linked to magic mushrooms. Again, a book that is difficult to summarise, given McKenna's many concoctions and theories on all sorts of things. The book's full title tells you enough: "The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History".

In 1999, Terence McKenna was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumour, which was not treatable. He died of it in 2000, aged 53.