Terence McKenna, R.I.P.

Psychedelic visionary explored mind-expanding drugs, the Amazon rain forest, the end of time and, now, death.

Note: The following was an article I wrote and published in the Tacoma Reporter, an alternative weekly, on April 27, 2000. I am posting it here today to honor the weekend of the 20th anniversary of Terence McKenna’s passing into the Great Unknown.

Note II: I share this not only to honor McKenna, but because his message of Being Human in opposition to the rise of Culture seems even more relevant today than it did 20 years ago. There’s much more I’ll say about that in future essays. For now, enjoy this look at some of the provocative thoughts of one of the 20th century’s most fascinating thinkers.

Terence McKenna lounges in the Café Beyond Time and he just can’t stop giggling at the Irony of It All. He spent just over 53 years on the human plane, sharing his cosmic consciousness with the rest of us, rapping about everything from nanotechnology, fractal mathematics and human evolution to the end of time as we know it, all while quoting extensively from the likes of Marshall McLuhan and Carl Jung.

Indeed, the world-traveling scholar with hundreds of radical theories could talk for hours without notes and without repeating himself. But on April 3…