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McKenna's Successor

topic posted Tue, February 26, 2008 - 8:50 AM by  M_Glow
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There isn't anybody out there in the psychedelic community that has really filled McKenna's shoes, but I thought it would be fun to try and name a few people that might be his successor.

Mark Pesce
A personal friend of TM. Virtual reality designer. Very influenced by TM and an excellent speaker and thinker.

Daniel Pinchbeck
Has written extensively about subjects McKenna covered.

And so forth.

Any thoughts?
posted by:
M_Glow
Dallas
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  • Unsu...
     

    Re: McKenna's Successor

    Tue, February 26, 2008 - 8:53 AM
    no one even comes close,
    yet.
    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Fri, February 29, 2008 - 5:37 AM
      Search no further, brothers and sisters, for _I_ am he of which ye speak! [g].

      But seriosly... McKenna is now such as he described himself: living forever —for the attentive— in a form of pure thought and the energy transmuting it, eh? As McKenna has been made 'immortal' in fact, there is no need of a successor... he is still with us!

      Moreover, we are able to stand on these massive shoulders and transmute that energy, refine it —revisit it again and again for the art that was aspired to and that McKenna knew it was— thereby sailing even closer to the Concrescence than perhaps even Terence did, right?

      These _are_ the white knuckle times, where the walls of humanities birth canal squeeze down uncomfortably upon us, and are we not admonished if we are attentive to individually put the pedal down in a progressive manner even further for a "forward escape" to the eschaton? It's the function, I submit, of a "shoulder stander." Terence was a "shoulder stander," too. Whitehead -- Dick -- McLuhan -- Joyce... just a few!

      So, search no further Brothers and Sisters! WE are such of which of ye speak! [g].

      Thanks for the opportunity to contribute! I know what you meant, but this seems a look akimbo, if _not_ askance, eh?

      ¥

      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Sun, May 11, 2008 - 10:57 PM
        aw, man, right on, RIGHT FREAKIN ON!!

        That was what was so cool about Terry. There could be no more 'successors' after him. No need for any, because most of us are live through the 2013 stargate anyway, so we don't need stories about it, we'll be THERE!

        Did you know the tumor that formed on his pineal gland was shaped like a mushroom? He said that in an interview I think.
        I'd like to see Mr. Pinchbeck top THAT!
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Tue, February 26, 2008 - 10:08 AM
    Pesce has tried and, instead reverted to cyber-commentary.

    Pinchbeck has tried, but he hasn't the eloquence or vision that approaches Terence's.

    Even Denis (Terence's brother) has offered some interesting, albeit more scholarly than bard-like, commentary on the role of plant medicines.

    Perhaps no one person has risen as an heir apparent to McKenna's visionary role, but perhaps no one person is necessary. For one thing, Terence's talks continue to inspire, provoke, and guide many people who are just now discovering his hours upon hours of talks and lectures around the internet. For another thing, perhaps a leader, visionary, or guide is not what is needed (anymore), but rather a concerted effort on the part of communities formed around the ideas and insights shared over a decade ago. Say something once, why say it again?

    No, the exciting work these days, to my mind, has been in the slow but methodical revivification of scientific and clinical scrutiny of these plant medicines. Individuals like Rick Strassman, Charles Grob, Alexander Shulgin, Stanislav Grof, Rick Doblin, and others work to rebuild a rightful acceptance and respect for these chemicals and substances which, many believe, may be the catalyst for the collective raising of consciousness this planet so desperately needs.
    • Unsu...
       

      Re: McKenna's Successor

      Tue, February 26, 2008 - 8:14 PM
      I think you shoulld check out the work bieng done by MARK COMINGS regarding 'space. it is going to be VERY exciting when Rick Strassman and Mark Comings share discoverys, because they are linked.
      www.youtube.com/watch

      Also, graham hancock is doing a GREAT job at pointing towards poiting at NEED TO KNOW aspects of the Life.
      www.youtube.com/watch

      I think T Mckenna was great, and the message he exposed is getting LOUDER in the many new voices that are growing
      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Sat, June 14, 2008 - 8:52 PM
        That is cool Mark Commings did all the Physics for Dr JOse ARguelles to back his discoveries, I was just seeing a psychoanalyst at UNM, and afer 15 minutes of him talking to me said i was perfectly sane, more sane than most he works with, our talk ventured forth about the book PHIKAL on his shelf 'a CHEMICAL LOVE STORY/' WELL, where Dr Rick Strassman did his research for DMT the spirit MOlecule was at UNM, the whole thing was kinda weird. As we talked about how Phikal's can help people with opiate addiction., and how the DMT trip is really the OBE , or near death expiranece. LOL

        well I nominate Dr BLue of 3sidedwhole, he channels Terance all the time:)
  • D
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    Re: McKenna's Successor

    Wed, February 27, 2008 - 10:41 AM
    I've thought of this a lot - his torch sits on the ground still burning, waiting for someone to take it up
    • Unsu...
       

      Re: McKenna's Successor

      Wed, February 27, 2008 - 12:03 PM
      we're holding candles lit from this torch.
      • D
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        online 103

        Re: McKenna's Successor

        Wed, February 27, 2008 - 6:04 PM
        "we're holding candles lit from this torch."

        perfect - you have a way with words, ik! We are all his successors!
        • Unsu...
           

          Re: McKenna's Successor

          Wed, February 27, 2008 - 6:09 PM
          little by little.
          thanks D, so do you.
          I love these tribes
          I love speaking with all of you about the things we love. (AND HATE) ;]
          • Re: McKenna's Successor

            Thu, February 28, 2008 - 9:50 AM
            you guys will like this guy. his name is Rafaelo Aisner, good vibes, great energy.
            positive outlook, breaks into the angel vibe.

            here's the page link for matrixmasters.

            www.matrixmasters.com/pn/BM-t...004.html

            heres the link to the actual talk at BM 2004

            "Cracking the Code, Picking the Lock, and Removing the Door to the Vault of Heaven"
            pn.matrixmasters.com/mp3/ais...code.mp3
            • Unsu...
               

              Re: McKenna's Successor

              Fri, February 29, 2008 - 10:43 AM
              I listened those Rafaeo Aisner recordings, your right, I did enjoy them. He has a good outlook (and in-look) in regards to sensitivitys in health/body. Tho, I dont think his over all vision resonates with me. Like mckenna, he seemed very judgmental toward fellow man, this might stem from what he himself talked about, a bad family (dad) relationship when younger.

              But I dont know him and have only heard these recordings. Myself, i prefer a more radical veiw of what is going on around us, sure heaven is here, but thats not the whole story. Good work, good public speaker.
              • D
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                Re: McKenna's Successor

                Fri, February 29, 2008 - 3:09 PM
                maybe Terence was judgemental about his fellow man because his fellow man deserved it not because of his relationship with his dad?
                • Re: McKenna's Successor

                  Fri, February 29, 2008 - 3:41 PM
                  <Like mckenna, he seemed very judgmental toward fellow man, this might stem from what he himself talked about, a bad family (dad) relationship when younger.>

                  Where do you get this from? That is, in which lecture does Terence discuss his relationship with his dad?
              • Re: McKenna's Successor

                Sun, March 2, 2008 - 8:43 AM
                Friends,

                "Like mckenna, he seemed very judgmental toward fellow man..."

                There's a big difference between "judgmental" and "discerning", "perceptive" and "insightful".

                Veg
  • D
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    Re: McKenna's Successor

    Fri, February 29, 2008 - 3:08 PM
    look's like Hillary's gonna have some time on her hands, maybe she can take up the torch? Wouldn't that be weird as hell, pull a link to a site where where Hillary's lecturing an assembled group in the benefits of entheogens?
    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Fri, February 29, 2008 - 3:43 PM
      <Wouldn't that be weird as hell, pull a link to a site where where Hillary's lecturing an assembled group in the benefits of entheogens?>

      That would be wild! And with digital editing advancing as it is, I can see a clip like this becoming possible!

      And damaging as hell to her political reputation! <snicker>
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Sun, April 27, 2008 - 11:35 PM
    Yeah, interesting thing to bring up. In a sense, Terence provided a nice contrast to the stadium filling, cast your cares to the wind and drop acid leary. His style was definitely more gentle, and wide ranging, although both provided a nice new vocabulary of ideas. As I was listening to a terence lecture, he mentions, about his talks, that they are a statement on the state of the union, yes, I thought, in a way, he was the psychedelic president, he was a leader of a cultural group, and one that I could get behind, or at least one that I'm very willing to pay attention to. And I have been thinking about who is there to fill his grandiose shoes. Who could? One thing about psychedelics is that they create such unique characters, he was so unique that I don't think anyone could succeed him in his own manner, but one who sort of explains, guides, directs,
    a psychedelic mentality, and provides incisive cultural commentary, I think could achieve this in many different ways. When I met Daniel Pinchbeck in Durham, I mentioned to him that I thought it was interesting that he considered himself to be sort of taking the place of terence mckenna, the psychedelic spokesperson, or the alien ambassador or whatever. Although I like daniel, and I like his book, and I feel that he's representative of a more contemporary culture than terence in a way, and younger that mark pesce also, I don't think he could hold a candle to terence's mental glow. I'm not saying he's dim at all, it's just that terence was and is one of the few people who I can say, I am really interested in. He really impressed me. And he still does. He's one of the very few that I feel like I could learn from them. I don't really feel that way about Daniel, although he is somewhat interesting and I'm glad he's doing what he's doing. Yes terence was truly exceptional.
    Was it all the mushrooms and dmt? I wonder. Mark Pesce has said some interesting things and is also very intelligent, but I don't feel his character has reached the unfoldment that terence did, whatever that means. One meme I take from Mark Pesce is the concept of moving into the future with a guarded optimism, and the mimicry of biological systems in preparation for a nanotech world. It's funny how Dennis Mckenna makes a big point that he's not his brother, and he sure isn't. He said terence could read the phonebook and people would be interested, but he's someone different. I don't know. Even terence said, that there's got to be people out there who can describe this stuff as well or better than he but they sure don't show up. I agree, I think there are people out there on his level of description and intellect, but they may not come out for whatever reason. Daniel Pinchbeck and Mark Pesce aren't bad. I'd like to at least try to do what terence did, in terms of simply facilitating dialogue on the significance of psychedelic experiences with my friends, and I think about the socratic method of learning through dialogue that he talked about and practiced. Oh well, at least I can listen to him on my ipod whenever I want.
    • Unsu...
       

      Re: McKenna's Successor

      Mon, April 28, 2008 - 12:00 AM
      Terence
      I could listen to him rap for hours.
      I dont find that with Daniel P.
      When I hear Terence, I hear my own experiences for the most part.
      When I listen to Daniel, I find his attitude clouds the connection,
      Watching Terence, I can hear an under-current of condensention sometimes,
      While watching Daniel, he seems more friendly

      Both have helped me termendously
      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Mon, April 28, 2008 - 7:41 PM
        Dennis was and is the one. Most of what Terrence spoke about was from a very few experiences with psychotropics, then he extrapolated. Dennis was the one hanging from the church bell stepel in "La Chorea", it was Terrence that was watching over him.
        He's a scientist so of course he speaks that language, but if you were to come to Iquitos and hear him speak spontaneously about whatever you ask him, you'll see quite readily that he was and is the inspriation.
        • Re: McKenna's Successor

          Mon, April 28, 2008 - 9:42 PM
          I like that. I met Dennis in Asheville and enjoyed hearing him speak and talking with him a bit. Both times he said that he wasn't his brother, I think, but you've made me reconsider with your post. It is true...he climbed the worldtree, with an awareness of what he was doing. He smashed everyone's watch and flung off his glasses, you're right, I think he may be...Another thing I like about Dennis is that he's willing to communicate, he answered my email fully to which I was really grateful. Well, it must be interesting to be with him in peru, and thanks
    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Tue, April 29, 2008 - 4:52 AM
      Stephen-

      I hope Pinchbeck doesn't seriously believe he's a successor to Terence. If so, it seems he's suffering from a deep delusion of grandeur. The two don't even seem to be inhabiting the same universe. While Terence shows up as a white hot light, verging, at times, on being a upernova, Pinchbeck could barely manage to be a Bick lighter in a dark closet.

      Despite his current "fifteen minutes", I find Pinchbeck boring, annoying and overly fascinated with himself. He seems to feel that every word he says is remarkably important, though I find nothing to suggest he's correct.

      It's clear when you listen to them speak, Terence has been places Pinchbeck couldn't conceive of on his best of days.

      Veg
      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Fri, May 2, 2008 - 10:04 PM
        >> While Terence shows up as a white hot light, verging, at times, on being a upernova, Pinchbeck could barely manage to be a Bick lighter in a dark closet. <<

        LOL! Great metaphor! This made me smile...
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Fri, June 13, 2008 - 10:51 PM
    Erik Davis aka Elf was a close friend of TM's, recorded the last interview with him, is an excellent speaker and to top it off, check out this synchronistic photo taken of him lecturing at Burning Man 2003 where he is in the exact same pose as the photo of TM on the platform that he's lecturing from!
    harlanemil.com/bman2003/elf.html
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Sat, June 14, 2008 - 6:20 AM
    I thought it was sort-of misguided for Terrence to have been called Leary's successor by some....
    so I think it would be equally innaccurate to label someone else as such to Terrence.

    Dennis is his own incredible person and although I wish I heard more references to Dennis and
    "the McKenna Brothers" - It is my understanding (I think i read it somewhere, but no source)
    that Dennis' much lower-profile life was completely his own decision and that they each agreed that
    the other WAS the best suited for the type of endeavors they were each involved in.

    Im glad that since the 60's, the number of people available to expound upon these things has exploded.

    no one could ever replace Leary, Terrence, or Dennis...
    and I think Dennis is his own right should be recognized for the unique pioneer he is BEFORE we no longer have him.

    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Sat, June 14, 2008 - 8:57 PM
      just listen to Alien Dreamtime ,,,,,,hit me up, Ill send u a copy, every human needs to hear this, and if i can send it to just one person.....it would be like taking one of those little fabrage eggs and bringing back it back to the now,.....lol

      because this is a true gem of music, and terrance...........in one. "This is the real thing people , this isnt a dress rehearsal "
      G
      E
      T

      OFF

      youR

      A
      S
      S


      And do something, positive, like support KUchinich and tell your senators FUCK YEA IMPEACH BUSH

      thank you.

      there is still time before 2012.......how do you want it to end?
      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Fri, July 11, 2008 - 1:00 AM
        Bush is a Puppet

        2012 is not an End, it's a new beggining.

        Any "leader" of a country is just a puppet. Why do we need one person in charge? Why not have a council?

        Terrance is dead. Jerry is Dead. Lennon is dead. Jimi is dead. JFK is dead. Elvis is Dead. OK maybe Elvis faked it, i'm not really sure. But my point is, get over it. Do something positive for human kind in the direction of sustainability and ecology, because the neo-cons and neo-liberals have a big economic stimulus package that is going to only benefit the elites. They know shit will carry on and they can just fulfill any "prophesy" that predicts doom, gloom, and disaster. The powerful believe it is genes that will carry on.

        Memes are more powerful than genes. And here are a couple for you...

        Corporations are not people. Property is not a person as much as a person is not property.

        Change happens

        Look up: Seawater foundation and Seawater greenhouse

        Peas in the middle east
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Sun, July 27, 2008 - 3:57 PM
    Hah! Terence McKennna's "successor"?

    Well, M_Glow, I wish there were an easy answer, even if it was wrong; for example, as if one were asked "who is Timothy Leary's successor?" and the answer was "Terence McKenna". The notion of a "successor" hardly fits with Terence's deeply anti-hierarchical point of view, does it? He wasn't "the psychedelic president", he hated that kind of crap. He was bigger than his psychedelic interests.

    Terence was an artist and a poet. Who was Joyce's successor? Who was Shakespeare's successor?

    It's just so sad he died. I remember crushing his hand encouragingly and telling him he would beat the cancer. I think a lot of people are still in mourning for him. What a unique person. His like will not be seen again, as the Irish say.

    But anyway, I think if he were still here to consider the question, he would be saying something like "Why don't YOU be my successor? Please?"

    Will there ever be a replacement for Terence? NEVER!!!

    (Oh, and just for the record, his tumor was NOT on his pineal gland)
    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Sat, August 2, 2008 - 8:24 AM
      I thought you would all get a kick out of this conversation:

      gaia.tribe.net/thread/5f7...050b47b4c10

      Whoa.. Like trippy man..
      • Re: McKenna's Successor

        Tue, March 17, 2009 - 12:45 PM
        just found this old thread.
        but, only recently really started reading pinchbeck...
        and he strikes me as someone trying to go down in history. someone with quite an ego to boot. I was listening to a terrence lecture on tape and he was talking about 2012 and how everyone, every single person, should advance to the next level *together*. pinchbeck thinks just he and his elite force of psychedelic stormtroopers should do that deed... and all else can just fry. uh, personally, I like terrence's view of this. I just hope more and more people become more skeptical of pinchbeck... talk about false messiahs!
        • Re: McKenna's Successor

          Tue, March 17, 2009 - 11:46 PM
          werd !
          it's just my opinion man . but peebeck is no terence.
          • Re: McKenna's Successor

            Fri, March 20, 2009 - 7:54 AM
            word!! I find Daniel P an UNevolved macho led by his... well ya know what I'm sayin... brains & prose but way too much EGO there...

            Women's Visionary Congress brings the message from the female perspective... entheogenic community lives!

            And McKenna... will be a shining light EVER... maybe he just IS and will not have a "successor" as such...

            love to all...
            • Re: McKenna's Successor

              Mon, March 23, 2009 - 11:02 AM
              I think you're right. he just is. he had some ideas he wanted to share and wasn't too into the guru thing at all, from what I could tell.

              pinchbeck seems to be cherry picking ideas from elsewhere and using it to get some rockstar-like status out of this. sad that a lot of people are eating out of his hand so easily.
              • Re: McKenna's Successor

                Mon, March 23, 2009 - 12:40 PM
                Going out to have a bite of lunch and read some "Trialogues at the Edge of the West"... Ralph Abraham, McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake. Vernal love, y'all....
                • Re: McKenna's Successor

                  Wed, March 25, 2009 - 9:31 AM
                  Hey all,

                  i'm a big fan of Terence's and listen to his speeches fairly often (Check out the Psychedelic Salon Podcasts!)....

                  i was thinking about Terence on my run yesterday.... Since many of Terence's thoughts were on the possibility of significant shifts around 2012, i was wondering what your thoughts were....

                  Did Terence depart early (in 1999), because his spirit did not want to be here "when the shit hit the fan" (to use his words)?

                  Perhaps he is out there somewhere trying to ensure all things unfold in the most painless way possible?

                  Or just now part of a void?

                  Anyway, any thoughts on what Terence's spirit may be up to these days?

                  Sorry if off topic :)

                  wade
                  • This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.

                    Re: McKenna's Successor

                    Wed, March 25, 2009 - 6:07 PM
                    For the role of McKenna's Successor, I nominate:
                    *All the dude's searching the cow paddies and with mason jars in their garage,
                    *All the technoshamans and cyber-medicine-men in the jungles south, with love of enlightenment in their hearts rather than greed.
                    *All the brave people here and other tribes and networks, telling their subjective truths and creation myths!



                    Hope we win!
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Mon, March 30, 2009 - 6:39 AM
    Only the mushroom speaks as eloquent as Terence. I always felt somehow Terence selected us, however, It is what you think that is important.
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Mon, March 30, 2009 - 12:40 PM
    I have thought about this question a lot over the years and never had a good answer. I recently subscribed to the Psychedelic Salon podcast and I am getting caught up and at the end of one of the podcasts the host, Lorenzo, said that he conducted a poll on the site about which speaker his listeners enjoyed the most. I would've thought that Terence would win a poll like this easily, with Leary as a possible contender.

    To my surprise and Lorenzo's the winner was Erik Davis. My only exposure to him prior to this was Terence's final interview with Erik Davis. He seemed very knowledgeable but I just never thought much of it. After hearing about this poll result I quickly downloaded all of Davis' talks that were up over at the Psychedelic Salon and have made it through three of them so far. I really like him, for me he has helped put visionary art like this Alex Grey stuff in its proper historical place and also spoke about what exactly the imagination is in one of the talks. It really resonated. I'll be on the lookout for more of Davis' stuff and I'll be grabbing some of his books. Listening to him talk has more of a down to earth, almost conversational feeling than Terence in my opinion. It might be an age thing. Terence is almost too eloquent with his elven languages and DMT descriptions. As informative and entertaining as Terence is, that is just not how my friends and I talk and I couldn't just stroll up to my friends and unleash a Terence McKenna rap on them. Davis is clearly on the level, but not quite as "oh my fucking god" as Terence, if that makes any sense at all. He talks about these memes and realms similar to the way that I would speak conversationally, which is a cool tool for propagating these memes. I feel like I could play an Eric Davis tape to anyone and they wouldn't look at me like I was nuts. I don't think anyone can replace Terence, but Davis was certainly a nice voice to hear who got my mind going in novel directions.
    • Re: McKenna's Successor

      Wed, April 1, 2009 - 5:59 AM
      i'm in the same position you were on davis, before you downloaded all that PS stuff. thanks for posting this! i'm going to go listen to the PS stuff now too!
  • Re: McKenna's Successor

    Wed, April 8, 2009 - 4:45 AM
    Another guy has to be Jan Irvin from gnosticmedia. One day I was searching for more info on how christianity evolved from earlier pagan religions because I was specifically interested in what pagan traditions made it into the new faith. Somehow after some googling I found his book, Astrotheology and Shamanism. I was interested in the topic so I ordered the book but I thought that it was going to be mainly conjecture and theory. What I realized was that Jan has read hundreds of books on religion and has a very well formed hypothesis and he has a forum where he defends his position against all challengers who to try to debunk his work. I spent a couple months reading his posts on his own forum and other forums and really he has yet to be defeated. His work is exciting to me because although I always kind of knew in the back of my heads that the current religious models are based at least somewhat off of shamanic/pagan roots (IE making Christmas on Dec. 25th to coincide with a popular pagan festival), I had never really seen the evidence of exactly what christianity borrowed from pagan faiths layed out so clearly and concisely, and I was actually surprised to see how much of it is taken from earlier faiths. Highly recommended. I really hadn't been that excited about academic work since I first heard Terence claiming that we're monkeys involved in a symbiotic relationship with a mushroom. Irvin's research invokes the same kind of reaction in me that Terence's does, where I hear/read about it and think "If what he says is actually true...this is awesome!!"

    I don't think Jan is quite the speaker Terence was but he works hard and writes legit stuff and is doing a bunch of really interesting interviews on his podcast weekly. I think it's tough and unfair to expect people to literally be Terence, though. I'm definitely glad that Jan has emerged on the scene because he is different than Terence, but fantastic in his own unique way. Although what he says is going to be very controversial, he has done the research and after reading his stuff it's hard to argue with his conclusions. If anyone doesn't know, Jan has basically re-examined the work of John Marco Allegro in light of new evidence and has concluded that he was more correct than anyone ever gave him credit for in his heyday.

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