X-Message-Number: 13501 Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 05:52:52 -0700 From: Hara Ra <> Subject: Fwd: Terence McKenna --=====================_5738525==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Here's the SF Chronicle obit: www.sfgate.com >Terence McKenna, an author, lecturer and >counterculture drug guru who believed that eating >psychedelic mushrooms could ``empower a sense >of community and dissolve boundaries,'' has died >after a long battle with brain cancer. > >Mr. McKenna, 53, died Monday at a friend's home >in San Rafael. > >A longtime advocate of experimental drug use who >updated a popular slogan to become ``log in, turn >on, drop out,'' Mr. McKenna believed that >psychedelic drugs were the key to human evolution. > >In his 1991 book, ``Food of the Gods,'' he >proclaimed to a skeptical world that prehistoric >human beings developed language, religion and >advanced civilizations only after accidentally finding >and ingesting psychedelic drugs while gathering >food. > >Warfare, he believed, caught on only after >mushrooms became scarce as a result of a world >drought. > >A native of Paonia, Colo., and a graduate of Los >Altos High School and the University of California >at Berkeley, Mr. McKenna traveled extensively in >Asia, Europe and South America, experimenting >with drugs and writing vivid accounts. > >In one book, ``True Hallucinations,'' he described a >1971 drug trip through the Amazon jungle and an >attempt to communicate with his dead mother using >the ``manipulative power of consciousness'' to >overcome the ``inertia of pre-existing physical >laws.'' (True hallucinations is a wild ride - Terence at his best! -HR) >In later years, he delivered lectures about the end of >time, which he believed would occur in the year >2012, and worked as a live pundit at all-night >``rave'' parties. > >He was the author of six books on psychedelia and >a ``scholar-in-residence'' at the counterculture >Esalen Institute on the Big Sur coast. > >His role model, 1960s drug guru Timothy Leary, >once called Mr. McKenna ``ten times smarter and >more effective than I was.'' > >He is survived by his longtime companion, Christy >Silness, of Kona, Hawaii, and by children Klea >McKenna of Santa Cruz and Finn McKenna of >Jersey City, N.J. > >Plans for memorial services in the Bay Area and in >New York are pending. +---------------------------------+ | Hara Ra <> | | Box 8334 Santa Cruz CA 95061 | +---------------------------------+ --=====================_5738525==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13501