Terence McKenna

Here American metaphysician and author Terrance McKenna (1946-2000) delivers a scathing but profound analysis of American culture ~ far different from his usual anthropologically abstract and mild-mannered talks. "Culture and language tend to become traps," he says here. "And yet they can be the platforms for enormous freedom ... if you understand what it's all about."

[My plan for these "Wisdom" clips is to provide interesting teachings that run two minutes or less. On some, the audio may be bad, others may exceed two minutes by a bit. But I hope they'll still be worth your time.]

Time Acceleration

The topic of "time acceleration" fascinates me to no end. In that spirit, I offer this 3-minute clip featuring the thoughts of Terence McKenna, who studied time acceleration from several vantage points, but most notably from the perspective of the I Ching.

I still puzzle over whether time ~ as in the space/time continuum ~ is in fact speeding up, or if time only seems to be passing by more quickly due to the phenomenal rate of change we're experiencing. The catalyst, of course, would be technology and its ability to process information at ever-faster speeds, which would create the sensation of time accelerating. I don't know the answer.

If you're unfamiliar with the late Terence McKenna, he was something of a phenomenon. To sum him up, here's the opening paragraph to his Wikipedia entry:

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was a writer, public speaker, philosopher, psychonaut, ethnobotanist, art historian, and self-described anarchist, anti-materialist, environmentalist, feminist, platonist and skeptic. He was noted for his knowledge, and the ability to articulate his knowledge, of the use of psychedelics, metaphysics, plant-based entheogens, and subjects ranging from shamanism, mysticism, hermeticism, neo-platonism, biology, geology, physics, astrophysics, media theory, linguistics, poetry, historical and civilizational timelines, the theoretical origins of human consciousness, psychedelic phenomenology, and his concept of novelty theory.

I want to thank the insightful Colorado astrologer Melody Scott Zindell for posting this a while ago on her blog, which is where I spotted it.