Perhaps no one is more famous in the world of psychonauts than Terence McKenna. Mckenna was undoubtedly a larger-than-life figure with a passion for psychedelics and a deep mind.
Not only that, but he helped create the magic mushroom culture that we know and love today. McKenna was a constant advocate for the use of psychedelic drugs for everyone.
He believed that psychedelics were the answer to helping society heal and grow. Through constant writing and public speaking, McKenna helped pave the way to the psychedelic future we’re all heading towards.
Join us as we explore the remarkable life of Terence McKenna by reading below.
Who Is Terence McKenna?
It’s challenging to narrow down who Terence McKenna actually is. His official description is that of a ‘mystic’ and an ‘ethnobotanist.’
Yet, he had many ideas spanning many subjects, such as history, biology, language, philosophy, and technology. Yet all of these ideas often touched on the subject he’s most famous for—psychedelics.
In short, McKenna was an inspired individual with a passion for psychedelics. He wrote about them, studied them, debated about them, and endlessly theorized about them.
So, how did Terence McKenna become interested in psychedelics in the first place? It all started at a young age when he read the 1957 Life Magazine article called Seeking the Magic Mushroom.
This article is credited with re-introducing magic mushrooms to the Western World, and it certainly piqued McKenna’s interest. After that, he became interested in the literary world of psychedelics and began reading books by Aldous Huxley.
In 1965, he enrolled in college at UC Berkeley and began studying shamanism. At this time, he began experimenting with LSD and other psychedelics.
McKenna then traveled through Nepal, where he learned about the shamanistic use of ‘visionary’ plants. After traveling through Nepal and then South East Asia, McKenna’s real passion for psychedelics began.
Terence McKenna DMT and Magic Mushrooms
While in the US, Terence McKenna tried DMT but stated it was ‘incredibly rare’ to get a hold of. Terence McKenna found that DMT had an entirely new dimension to it when compared to acid.
That’s what inspired his trip down to the Colombian Amazon. In 1970, Terence, his brother Dennis, and a few friends headed to the jungles of Colombia in search of oo-koo-hé, a plant that contains the hallucinogen DMT.
This hallucinogenic plant was used for thousands of years in the Amazon Basin by shamans, and the local tribes in the area still used it. However, McKenna and his party found something else—a vast field of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms.
Then, they stopped trying to find oo-koo-hé and focused on the psilocybin mushrooms. During their time in the rainforest, they took massive doses of magic mushrooms and let the mushroom become their ‘mushroom teacher.’
After this initial insane trip, they performed an experiment using various psychoactive plants and magic mushrooms. This experiment became known as the Experiment at La Chorrera.
McKenna would go on to come up with many new ideas from this experiment and even wrote a few books about it.
Terence McKenna’s Magic Mushroom Cultivation
One of the best parts about this trip is that Terence and his brother Dennis brought back magic mushroom spores from the Amazon. Over the years after their journey, they began experimenting with magic mushroom growing.
Then, in 1976 they perfected their techniques and published a book called the Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide. This was the first guide that set out how to make magic mushrooms easily at home using materials that anyone can buy.
This was revolutionary not just for magic mushroom culture but for McKenna’s idea about easy psychedelic access.
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While his early life was focused on traveling, learning, and discovering, his later life was dedicated to spreading his ideas. Starting in the 1980s, McKenna started publicly speaking about psychedelic drugs and writing books.
Psychedelic Author
One of his most famous works is a book called True Hallucinations. In it, he details everything about his trip to the Colombian Amazon, where he first discovered mushrooms.
In it, he goes on insane ramblings about his psychedelic experiences but keeps everything fresh by being a compelling author. More than anything, the book looks at the mind and body when it’s in higher states of being.
Perhaps his best-known book that’s gotten broader appeal is a book titled Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge. McKenna dives into human history and looks at its relationship with psychoactive plants and substances.
Terence McKenna’s Theories
McKenna had a lot of different theories, which he usually spoke of in his books. However, some of these theories have now taken a life of their own, such as the Stoned Ape Theory.
The Stoned Ape Theory is the idea that early human ancestors came into contact with psilocybin mushrooms and consumed them. McKenna thinks psilocybin mushrooms would have benefited our ancestors by helping them adapt, decrease their fear, and think of new ideas to survive.
Another one of McKenna’s theories was known as the Novelty Theory. McKenna predicts that the inherent quality of time is the ebb and flow of novelty or new ideas.
Try One of McKenna’s Amazonian Mushrooms
Throughout his life, Terence was a hero in the psychedelic community, and sadly, he’s no longer with us. However, his legacy lives on in the organism he loved the most—magic mushrooms.
In fact, one of the most iconic and potent magic mushroom strains is descended from the spores McKenna brought back from the Amazon. That strain is now known to us as Penis Envy.
This legendary strain is a lasting testament to who McKenna was, and now, we can all take part in what he was trying to show us.
The easiest way to try these mushrooms is by going to Get Magic Mushroom if you live in Canada. After all, GMM is the best magic mushroom dispensary online in Canada.
Get Penis Envy magic mushrooms shipped straight to you no matter what province you live in. Every mushroom is grown with care and under the supervision of professional certified Canadian growers.
So don’t hesitate, try the food of the gods today by heading to Get Magic Mushrooms.