This chapter explores the evolution of drugs like cannabis, coca, cocaine, and psychedelics, discussing their cultural relationships and varying perceptions over the years. It also delves into the comparison between drugs and television, questioning societal attitudes towards the two.
Guest speaker: Terence McKenna
PROGRAM NOTES:
[NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.]
“An interesting thing about drugs is often, when a new drug is discovered, it takes a long time to figure out how do you do it.”
“In 1948, television was introduced, and millions and millions of people lead larval, low-awareness, warehoused lives mainlining an electronic drug straight into their brains.”
“I would argue that it's almost better to do heroin than to watch TV. At least when you're doing heroin you're responsible for your own reveries and thought processes. When you're mainlining TV what is it but endless messages to fetishize products?”
“If the world is made of language, then you can hack it in the sense that you can hack code.”
“My idea of enlightenment is when ego and Tao are fused, and Tao is perceived as ego. Then everything happens with complete appropriateness.”
“I think of the mainland as Blade Runner Land.”
“Anything which must be understood by millions of people is so hopelessly divorced from how it is that it becomes a form of fiction.”
“I think what we have to do is convince people that matter is tacky.”
Download
MP3
PCs – Right click, select option
Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option
Hyperborea - Terence McKenna's Website
Autopsy for a Mathematical Hallucination? by Matthew Watkins Introduction by Terence McKenna
2012 and the "Watkins Objection" to Terence McKenna's "Timewave Theory" . . . by Matthew Watkins
Terence McKenna's Reading List