After Skool The End of Time - Novelty Theory - Terence McKenna | After Skool
Sep 12, 2025
Terence McKenna, an influential ethnobotanist and mystic known for his work with psychedelics, dives deep into his groundbreaking Novelty Theory. He explores how the universe's complexity is accelerating, suggesting it leads to a transformational phase of human consciousness. McKenna intriguingly connects his ideas to the Maya calendar, predicting significant changes by 2012. He discusses societal contradictions and upheavals, arguing they create the conditions for evolution. His insights blend mysticism with a sharp critique of modern culture.
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Acceleration Produces Unprecedented Contradiction
- Terence McKenna predicts accelerating contradictions and strangeness in society leading to questions about reality itself.
- He expects societal rupture with both technological wonders and brutal collapses occurring before a transformative endpoint.
Collapse Of Old Paradigms Feels Inconceivable
- McKenna recalls the collapse of the socialist world and the internet as paradigm-shattering, unexpected shifts.
- He notes people rarely discuss how inconceivable those changes would have seemed decades earlier.
Adapt Rather Than Cling To Tradition
- Embrace human adaptability instead of resisting change because primates survive extreme conditions.
- Prepare mentally for intense testing rather than trying to preserve old orders in the face of rupture.