Terence and Dennis McKenna - Encyclopedia

Terence McKenna has authored several books on the growing of magic mushrooms and the impact of psychedelics on ancient and contemporary culture. In the early seventies, he and his younger brother travelled to the Amazon, where they first encountered magic mushrooms and ayahuasca. In the eighties and early nineties, Terence became well known for his very interesting and amusing talks, while Dennis became a well-respected ethnopharmacologist, working for the Heffter Research Institute.

Terence is best known for his vivid personal accounts of the DMT experience ("And so, like jewelled, self-dribbling basketballs, these beings come running towards you..." and "The gnomes have learned a new way to say hooooooraaaaayyyyyy..."). Other ideas for which he's well known are the "Stoned Ape theory", his ideas about aliens and flying saucers, his experiences with indigenous shamans, his recommendation of taking a "heroic dose" of "five grams of dried mushrooms, in silence and darkness", and the pharmacology of ayahuasca. Some of his favourite and often cited authors were Marshall McLuhan, Julian Jaynes and James Joyce.

Terence wrote several books, including The Invisible Landscape, Food of the Gods and True Hallucinations. Together with his brother Dennis he authored the Psilocybin Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide (originally published in 1976), under the pseudonyms OT Oss and ON Oeric.

Unfortunately, Terence, who had suffered from headaches throughout his life, developed a brain tumour and died April 3, 2000. Many of his lectures have been made freely available online, of which fragments can be heard on numerous ambient and psytrance tracks (by Shpongle, Entheogenic etc.).

A vast resource of Terence McKenna related material can be found at Terence McKenna Land

Dennis McKenna's personal page is at www.heffter.org