Terence Mckenna: The hour is late; the clock is ticking
By: Terence Mckenna
“We have gone sick by following a path of untrammeled rationalism…
We have gone very, very sick. And the body politic, like any body, when it feels itself to be sick, it begins to produce antibodies or strategies for overcoming the condition of disease.
And the 20th century is an enormous effort at self-healing.
Phenomena as diverse as surrealism, body piercing, psychedelic drug use, sexual permissiveness, jazz, experimental dance, rave culture, tattooing, the list is endless.
What do all these things have in common?
They represent various styles of rejection of linear values. The society is trying to cure itself by an archaic revival, by a reversion to archaic values.
So when I see people manifesting sexual ambiguity, or scarifying themselves, or showing a lot of flesh, or dancing to syncopated music, or getting loaded, or violating ordinary canons of sexual behavior, I applaud all of this; because it's an impulse to return to what is felt by the body -- what is authentic, what is archaic -- and when you tease apart these archaic impulses, at the very center of all these impulses is the desire to return to a world of magical empowerment of feeling.
And at the center of that impulse is the shaman: stoned, intoxicated on plants, speaking with the spirit helpers, dancing in the moonlight, and vivifying and invoking a world of conscious, living mystery.
That's what the world is. The world is not an unsolved problem for scientists or sociologists. The world is a living mystery: our birth, our death, our being in the moment -- these are mysteries. They are doorways opening onto unimaginable vistas of self-exploration, empowerment, and hope for the human enterprise. And our culture has killed that, taken it away from us, made us consumers of shoddy products and shoddier ideals.
We have to get away from that… and the way to get away from it is by a return to the authentic experience of the body -- and that means sexually empowering ourselves, and it means getting loaded, exploring the mind as a tool for personal and social transformation.
The hour is late; the clock is ticking; we will be judged very harshly if we fumble the ball. We are the inheritors of millions and millions of years of successfully lived lives and successful adaptations to changing conditions in the natural world.
Now the challenge passes to us, the living, that the yet-to-be-born may have a place to put their feet and a sky to walk under; and that's what the psychedelic experience is about, is caring for, empowering, and building a future that honors the past, honors the planet and honors the power of the human imagination.
There is nothing as powerful, as capable of transforming itself and the planet, as the human imagination. Let's not sell it straight. Let's not whore ourselves to nitwit ideologies. Let's not give our control over to the least among us.
Rather, you know, claim your place in the sun and go forward into the light. The tools are there; the path is known; you simply have to turn your back on a culture that has gone sterile and dead, and get with the program of a living world and a re-empowerment of the imagination. Thank you very, very much.”
You can find this passage in McKenna’s extraordinary book, The Archaic Revival.
Indeed. Do it. Don’t read this and go yeah yeah Terrance and go back to the job you hate, the life that is dull. Don’t continue to fool yourself in the world of stuff. Don’t offend your capacity for greatness by becoming a passive consumer and believer of culture. Do it. Do something else. Go have an experience, do something you want to do. It’s your life. Live it, feel it, be part of it. Don’t subcontract your autonomy to some faceless corporation. It doesn’t care about YOU. Don’t complain about this or that political ideology/government/system. They’re not listening. They tell you they are but trust me they’re not. Go kayak up a river, ride a horse, drink a bottle of wine and fall asleep under a tree. Just do it. Culture, especially this one, is not your friend.
I wish I could like this a thousand times. Terence speaks more now from the grave to a sick culture. Point of singularity INDEED!