(, , or ; Greek: ''logos'') is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge.

Ancient philosophers used the term in different ways. The sophists used the term to mean discourse, and Aristotle applied the term to refer to "reasoned discourse" or "the argument" as relates to persuasive public speech in the field of rhetoric. The Stoic philosophers identified the term with the divine animating principle pervading the Universe.

After Judaism came under Hellenistic influence, Philo (ca. 20 BC–AD 40) adopted the term into Jewish philosophy. The Gospel of John identifies the Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (''theos''), and further identifies Jesus as the incarnation of the Logos.

Although the term "Logos" is widely used in this Christian sense, in academic circles it often refers to the various ancient Greek uses, or to post-Christian uses within contemporary philosophy, Sufism, and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung.

Etymology and linguistic issues

In ordinary, non-technical Greek, ''logos'' had a semantic field extending beyond "word" to notions such as, on the one hand, language, talk, statement, speech, conversation, tale, story, prose, proposition, and principle; and on the other hand, thought, reason, account, consideration, esteem, due relation, proportion, and analogy.

Despite the conventional translation as "word", it is not used for a word in the grammatical sense; instead, the term ''lexis'' (λέξις) was used. However, both ''logos'' and ''lexis'' derive from the same verb ''legō'' (λέγω), meaning "to count, tell, say, speak".

Philo distinguished between ''logos prophorikos'' (the uttered word) and the ''logos endiathetos'' (the word remaining within). The Stoics also spoke of the ''logos spermatikos'' (the generative principle of the Universe), which is not important in the Biblical tradition, but is relevant in Neoplatonism. Early translators from Greek, like Jerome in the 4th century, were frustrated by the inadequacy of any single Latin word to convey the Logos expressed in the Gospel of John. The Vulgate Bible usage of ''in principium erat verbum'' was thus constrained to use the perhaps inadequate noun ''verbum'' for word, but later romance language translations had the advantage of nouns such as ''le mot'' in French. Reformation translators took another approach. Martin Luther rejected ''Zeitwort'' (verb) in favor of ''Wort'' (word), for instance, although later commentators repeatedly turned to a more dynamic use involving ''the living word'' as felt by Jerome and Augustine.

In English, ''logos'' is the root of "logic," and of the "-logy" suffix (e.g., geology).

Ancient Greek philosophy

Heraclitus

The writing of Heraclitus was the first place where the word ''logos'' was given special attention in ancient Greek philosophy, although Heraclitus seems to use the word with a meaning not significantly different from the way it was used in ordinary Greek of his time. For Heraclitus ''logos'' provided the link between rational discourse and the world's rational structure.

What logos means here is not certain: it may mean 'reason' or 'explanation' in the sense of an objective cosmic law; or it may signify nothing more than 'saying' or 'wisdom'. Yet, an independent existence of a universal ''logos'' was clearly suggested by Heraclitus.

Aristotle's rhetorical logos

Following one of the other meanings of the word, Aristotle, in the ''Ars Rhetorica'', gave ''logos'' a different technical definition as argument from reason, one of the three modes of persuasion (the other two modes are ''pathos'' (), persuasion by means of emotional appeal: "putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind", and ''ethos'' (), persuasion through convincing listeners of one's "moral character." According to Aristotle, ''logos'' relates to "the speech itself, in so far as it proves or seems to prove." In the words of Paul Rahe:

''Logos'', ''pathos'', and ''ethos'' can all be appropriate at different times. Arguments from reason (logical arguments) have some advantages, namely that data are (ostensibly) difficult to manipulate, so it is harder to argue against such an argument; and such arguments make the speaker look prepared and knowledgeable to the audience, enhancing ''ethos''. On the other hand, trust in the speaker, built through ''ethos'', enhances the appeal of arguments from reason.

Robert Wardy suggests that what Aristotle rejects in supporting the use of ''logos'' "is not emotional appeal per se, but rather emotional appeals that have no 'bearing on the issue,' in that the ''pathē'' they stimulate lack, or at any rate are not shown to possess, any intrinsic connection with the point at issue – as if an advocate were to try to whip an anti-Semitic audience into a fury because the accused is Jewish; or as if another in drumming up support for a politician were to exploit his listeners's reverential feelings for the politician's ancestors."

Stoics

In Stoic philosophy, which began with Zeno of Citium c. 300 BC, the ''logos'' was the active reason pervading the universe and animating it. It was conceived of as material, and is usually identified with God or Nature. The Stoics also referred to the ''seminal logos'', ("''logos spermatikos''") or the law of generation in the universe, which was the principle of the active reason working in inanimate matter. Humans, too, each possess a portion of the divine ''logos''.

The Stoics took all activity to imply a Logos, or spiritual principle. As the operative principle of the world, to them, the Logos was ''anima mundi'', a concept which later influenced Philo of Alexandria, although he derived the contents of the term from Plato.

Logos in Hellenistic Judaism

In the Septuagint the term ''logos'' is used for the word of God in the creation of heaven in Psalm 33:6, and in some related contexts.

Philo of Alexandria

Philo (20 BC – 50 AD), a Hellenized Jew, used the term Logos to mean an intermediary divine being, or demiurge. Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect idea, and therefore intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the material world. The Logos was the highest of these intermediary beings, and was called by Philo "the first-born of God." Philo also wrote that "the Logos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts, and prevents them from being dissolved and separated."

The Platonic Ideas were located within the Logos, but the Logos also acted on behalf of God in the physical world. In particular, the Angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was identified with the Logos by Philo, who also said that the Logos was God's instrument in the creation of the universe.

Christianity

Christ the Logos

The Christian concept of the Logos is derived from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, where the Logos (often translated as “Word”) is described in terms that resemble, but likely surpass, the ideas of Philo:

John also explicitly identifies the Logos with Jesus:

Christians who profess belief in the Trinity often consider John 1:1 to be a central text in their belief that Jesus is God, in connection with the idea that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are equals. As theologian Frank Stagg writes:

... Yet the Logos is in some sense distinguishable from God, for "the Logos was with God." God and the Logos are not two beings, and yet they are also not simply identical. ... The Logos is God active in creation, revelation, and redemption.|}}

"God" or "a god"

The last four words of John 1:1 (θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος, literally "God was the Logos," or "God was the Word") have been a particular topic of debate within Christianity. In this construct, the subject (the Logos) and the complement (God) both appear in the nominative case, and the complement is therefore usually distinguished by dropping any article, and moving it before the verb. Grammatically, the phrase could therefore read either "the Word was God" or "the Word was a god." Early New Testament manuscripts did not distinguish upper and lower case, so that pre-existing beliefs about the Trinity have influenced translation, although many scholars see the movement of "God" to the front of the clause as indicating an emphasis more consistent with "the Word was God." Some translations, such as An American Translation and Moffatt, New Translation, preserve a sense of ambiguity with "the Word was divine." Related translations have also been suggested, such as "what God was the Word also was."

While "the Word was God" is by far the most common English translation, non-Trinitarian groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses (in the New World Translation and their edition of the Emphatic Diaglott) and Unitarians (in Thomas Belsham's modification of William Newcome's version) translate "the Word was a god."

Early Christian writers

Following John 1, the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr (''c'' 150) identified Jesus as the Logos. Like Philo, Justin also identified the Logos with the Angel of the Lord, and used this as a way of arguing for Christianity to Jews:

In his ''First Apology'', Justin used the Stoic concept of the Logos as a way of arguing for Christianity to non-Jews. Since a Greek audience would accept this concept, his argument could concentrate on identifying this Logos with Jesus. However, Justin does not go so far as to articulate a fully consistent doctrine of the Logos.

Rhema and logos

The word logos has been used in different senses along with Rhema. Both Plato and Aristotle used the term logos along with ''rhema'' to refer to sentences and propositions.

The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek uses the terms Rhema and Logos as equivalents and uses both for the Hebrew word Dabar, as the Word of God.

Some modern usage in Christian Theology distinguishes Rhema from Logos (which here refers to the written scriptures) while Rhema refers to the revelation received by the reader from the Holy Spirit when the Word (Logos) is read, although this distinction has been criticized.

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonist philosophers such as Plotinus (204/5–270 AD) used the term "Logos" in ways which drew on Plato and the Stoics. but the term Logos, was interpreted in different ways throughout Neoplatonism and similarities to Philo's concept of Logos appear to be accidental. The Logos was a key element in the meditations of Plotinus regarded as the first Neoplatonist. Plotinus referred back to Heraclitus and as far back as Thales in interpreting Logos as the principle of meditation, existing as the interrelationship between the Hypostases (The 'One', 'Spirit' (nous) and 'Soul').

Plotinus used a trinity concept that consisted of "The One", the "Spirit" and "Soul". The comparison with the Christian Trinity is inescapable, but for Plotinus these were not equal and "The One" was at the highest level, with the "Soul" at the lowest. For Plotinus, the relationship between the three elements of his trinity is conducted by the outpouring of Logos from the higher principle, and ''eros'' (loving) upward from the lower principle. Plotinus relied heavily on the concept of Logos, but no explicit references to Christian thought can be found in his works, although there are significant traces of them in his doctrine. Plotinus specifically avoided using the term Logos to refer to the second person of his trinity. However, Plotinus influenced Victorinus who then influenced Augustine of Hippo. Centuries later, Carl Jung acknowledged the influence of Plotinus in his writings.

Victorinus differentiated between the Logos interior to God and the Logos related to the world by creation and salvation.

Augustine of Hippo, often seen as the father of medieval philosophy was also greatly influenced by Plato and is famous for his re-interpretation of Aristotle and Plato in the light of early Christian thought. A young Augustine experimented with, but failed to achieve ecstasy using the meditations of Plotinus. In his Confessions Augustine described Logos as the ''Divine Eternal Word''., by which he, in part, was able to motivate the early Christian thought throughout the Hellenisticly influenced world (among which the Latin speaking west) Augustine's Logos ''had taken body'' in Christ, the man in whom the logos (i.e. veritas or sepientia) was present as in no other man.

Sufism

The concept of Logos in Sufism is used to relate the "Uncreated" (God), to the "Created" (man). In Sufism, for the Deist, no contact between man and God can be possible without the Logos. The Logos is everywhere and always the same, but its personification is "unique" within each region. Jesus and Muhammad are seen as the personifications of the Logos, and this is what enables them to speak in such absolute terms.

One of the radical and boldest attempts to reformulate the Neoplatonic concepts into Sufism was due to the philosopher Ibn Arabi, who traveled widely in Spain and North Africa. His concepts were expressed in two major works ''The Ringstones of Wisdom'' (Fusus al-Hikam) and ''The Meccan Illuminations'' (Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya). To Ibn Arabi, every prophet corresponds to a reality which he called a Logos (Kalimah), as an aspect of the unique Divine Being. In his view the Divine Being would have for ever remained hidden, had it not been for the prophets, with Logos providing the link between man and divinity.

Ibn Arabi seems to have adopted his version of the Logos concept from Neoplatonic and Christian sources, although (writing in Arabic rather than Greek) he used more than twenty different terms when discussing it. For Ibn Arabi, the Logos or "Universal Man" was a mediating link between individual human beings and the divine essence.

Other Sufi writers also show the influence of the Neoplatonic Logos. In the 15th century ʻAbd al-Karim al-Jili introduced the ''Doctrine of Logos and the Perfect Man''. For al-Jili the ''perfect man'' (associated with the Logos or the Holy Prophet) has the power to assume different forms at different times, and appear in different guises.

Jung's analytical psychology

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, he contrasted a rational, decisive ''logos'' with an emotional ''mythos''. Jung contrasted the critical and rational faculties of logos with the emotional, non-reason oriented and mythical elements of ''mythos''. In Jung's approach logos vs mythos can be represented as "science vs mysticism", or "reason vs imagination" or "conscious activity vs the unconscious".

For Jung, logos represented the masculine principle of rationality, in contrast to its female counterpart, ''eros'':

Jung attempted to equate logos and eros, his intuitive conceptions of masculine and feminine consciousness, with the alchemical Sol and Luna. Jung commented that in a man the lunar anima and in a woman the solar animus has the greatest influence on consciousness. Jung often proceeded to analyze situations in terms of "paired opposites", e.g. by using the analogy with the eastern yin and yang and was also influenced by the Neoplatonics.

In his book ''Mysterium Coniunctionis'' Jung made some important final remarks about anima and animus:

In so far as the spirit is also a kind of "window on eternity"... it conveys to the soul a certain influx divinus... and the knowledge of a higher system of the world, wherein consists precisely its supposed animation of the soul.

And in this book Jung again emphasized that the animus compensates eros, while the anima compensates logos.

See also

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Christianity

Dabar

Epeolatry

Logic

Logocracy

Nous

Parmenides

Rhema

Shabda

Sophia

Spirituality

References

External links

The Apologist's Bible Commentary

Category:Christian philosophy Category:Christology Category:Concepts in epistemology Category:Greek loanwords Category:Heraclitus Category:Language Category:Language and mysticism Category:Philosophical terminology Category:Rhetoric Category:Singular God Category:Stoicism Category:Trinitarianism Category:Names of God

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Coordinates	26°29′″N49°04′″N
name	Faded Paper Figures
background	group_or_band
origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
genre	electro pop
years active	2007–present
label	Shorthand Records
website	www.fadedpaperfigures.com
current members	Kael Alden, R. John Williams, Heather Alden
notable instruments	}}

Faded Paper Figures (abbreviated as FPF) is an American Indie Pop Electronica band from Los Angeles, California. FPF is known for their electro-organic sound often compared to bands like Weevil, The Postal Service, Belle and Sebastian, and Morrissey. The band consists of three members, R. John Williams (guitar and vocals) (brother of Becky Jean Williams, lead singer and lyricist for Late Night Alumni), Kael Alden (bass, guitar, drums, etc...), and Heather Alden (vocals). The band formed in February 2007 and released their debut album ''Dynamo'' in 2008. Their second album ''New Medium,'' was released on May 25, 2010.

History

Faded Paper Figures formed in early 2007. The genesis was at a party in Irvine, California, where John Williams and Kael Alden were discussing music. Kael was composing music for TV and film with his older brother's company, Robot Repair. John already had some experience as a musician and songwriter. Both full of ideas for a new sound, they decided to record some material together. After a few days the music they were able to create surpassed their own expectations. Over the next few months they wrote and composed a number of songs, experimenting with blending traditional guitar with electronica. The songs went up on a new MySpace page under the name of Machine Discourse. Heather Alden joined in as a harmony vocalist, rounding out and softening the band's sound. Not long after the band's name changed to Faded Paper Figures, and with a growing song list and a mounting audience, the band's sound solidified. NPR described their first album as "a balance of upbeat and soothing electronics," but their recent music has taken on a more energetic tone, with live drums sounds mixing with electro-beats. The Band is also currently recording new music and preparing a music video.

''Dynamo''

Faded Paper Figures released their first album, ''Dynamo'', offered on iTunes on July 11, 2008. The track "Being There" won Best Song of the Year in the UC Irvine Songwriting Contest. A music video of "Metropolis" came out and the band began to play live concerts. They were chosen Best Electronic live band by the OC Music Awards in 2009, and were declared one of the New York Post's "must have" new music of 2009.

''New Medium''

Various developments changed the band recently, with Heather beginning medical school at UCLA, and John moving to New Haven, Connecticut with a job as a Professor in English and Media Studies at Yale University. But they continue to write, compose and record bi-coastally. The group's new album, ''New Medium'', was released May 25, 2010. During their summer 2010 west coast tour, two more people joined the band to translate their studio sound live: Kurt Deninger (drums) and Sebastian Hackett (additional keys and guitars).

Discography

Albums

''Dynamo'' (July, 2008)

''New Medium'' (May 25, 2010)

Singles

"Logos (Remix)" (2010)

Song appearances

"Polaroid Solution" was played on ''Grey's Anatomy'', episode "I Saw What I Saw" on October 22, 2009.

"North By North" was played on ''Grey's Anatomy'', episode "Invest In Love" on November 5, 2009, and was also featured as a KEXP song of the day on Dec. 31, 2008, and on NPR's "Second Stage" on November 25, 2008.

"Metropolis" was played on ''Grey's Anatomy'', episode "Time Warp" on February 18, 2010.

"I Fell Off My Name" was on the soundtrack to the season premier of MTV's ''The Real World'', October 2009.

"Red State," "One More Crash," and "I Fell Off My Name," have all appeared on the soundtrack to MTV's ''My Life as Liz'', Winter 2011.

"Small Talk" was used in the ''Isenseven'' snowboard film "Don't Panic" in 2010.

"New Medium" was used in the ''Isenseven'' snowboard film "Let's Go, Get Lost" in 2010.

"North By North" was used in the ''Isenseven'' snowboard film "Teenage Love Graffiti" in 2008.

References

External links

Faded Paper Figures official website

Myspace site with songs

Faded Paper Figures on Twitter

Category:American indie pop groups Category:Musical groups from Los Angeles, California Category:American New Wave musical groups

Coordinates	26°29′″N49°04′″N
region	Western Philosophy
Era	20th century philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
image	Mckenna1.jpg
name	Terence Kemp McKenna
Birth date	November 16, 1946
Birth place	Paonia, Colorado, United States
Death date	April 03, 2000
Death place	San Rafael, California, United States
School tradition	Metaphysics, phenomenology|
Main interests	shamanism, ethnobotany, metaphysics, psychedelic drugs, futurism, primitivism, environmentalism, consciousness, phenomenology, historical revisionism, evolution, ontology, Mind at Large, virtual reality, dominator culture, criticizing science, the Logos
Influences	psychedelic drugs, Marshall McLuhan, Alfred North Whitehead, Teilhard de Chardin, Aldous Huxley, I Ching, William Blake, Riane Eisler, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Heraclitus
Influenced	Rupert Sheldrake, Robert Anton Wilson, Ralph Abraham, RU Sirius, Cliff Pickover, Timothy Leary
Notable ideas	Novelty Theory, The "Stoned Ape" Theory of Human Evolution, Machine elves }}

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an Irish-American researcher, philosopher, speaker, spiritual teacher and writer on many subjects; such as human consciousness, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and the end of the universe, cybernetics, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings.

Biography

Early life

Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado. He was introduced to geology through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the arroyos near his home. From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.

At age 16, Terence moved to Los Altos, California to live with family friends for a year. He finished high school in Lancaster, CA. In 1963, McKenna was introduced to the literary world of psychedelics through ''The Doors of Perception'' and ''Heaven and Hell'' by Aldous Huxley and certain issues of ''The Village Voice'' that talked about psychedelics.

Terence claimed that one of his early psychedelic experiences with morning glory seeds showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing." In an audio interview Terence Mckenna claims to have started smoking cannabis regularly during the summer following his 17th birthday.

Studying and traveling

In 1965, Terence enrolled in U.C. Berkeley to study Art History. In 1967, while in college, he got involved with shamanism after being lead there by studying Tibetan religions That year, which he called his "opium and kabbala phase," he also traveled to Jerusalem, where he met Kathleen Harrison, who would later become his wife.

In 1969, Terence traveled to Nepal lead by his "interest in Tibetan painting and hallucinogenic shamanism." During his time there, he studied the Tibetan language and worked as a hashish smuggler, until "one of his Bombay-to-Aspen shipments fell into the hands of U. S. Customs." He was forced to move to avoid capture by Interpol. He wandered through Southeast Asia viewing ruins, collected butterflies in Indonesia, and worked as an English teacher in Tokyo. He then went back to Berkeley to continue studying biology, which he called "his first love."

After he completed part of his studies and his mother's death from cancer in 1971, Terence, his brother Dennis, and three friends traveled to the Colombian Amazon in search of oo-koo-hé, a plant preparation containing DMT. Instead of oo-koo-hé they found various forms of ayahuasca, or "yagé," and gigantic psilocybe cubensis which became the new focus of the expedition. In La Chorrera, at the urging of his brother, he was the subject of a psychedelic experiment which he claimed put him in contact with Logos: an informative, divine voice he believed was universal to visionary religious experience. The voice's revelations and his brother's simultaneous peculiar experience prompted him to explore the structure of an early form of the I Ching, which led to his "Novelty Theory." During their stay in the Amazon, Terence also got romantically involved with his translator, Ev.

In 1972, Terence returned to Berkeley to finish his studies. There he decided to switch majors to a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Conservation, in a then-new experimental section of the same university called the Tussman Experimental College. During his studies, he would also develop techniques for cultivating psilocybin mushrooms with Dennis.

In 1975, he parted with his girlfriend Ev, when she left him for one of Terence's friends from Berkeley. Their parting left him "tormented with migraines and living alone." He graduated in 1975. That same year, he began a relationship with a friend he met in Jerusalem, Kathleen.

Soon after graduating, Terence and Dennis published a book inspired by their Amazon experiences, ''The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching.'' Terence also began lecturing. The brothers' experiences in the Amazon would later play a major role in Terence's book ''True Hallucinations'', published in 1993. In 1976, the brothers published what they had learned about the cultivation of mushrooms in a book entitled ''Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide'' under the pseudonyms OT Oss and ON Oeric.

Later life

In the early 1980s, McKenna began to speak publicly on the topic of psychedelic drugs, lecturing extensively and conducting weekend workshops. Though associated with the New Age and human potential movements, McKenna himself had little patience for New Age sensibilities. He repeatedly stressed the importance and primacy of felt experience, as opposed to dogma. Timothy Leary once introduced him as "one of the five or six most important people on the planet." }}He soon became a fixture of popular counterculture. His growing popularity culminated in the early to mid-1990s with the publication of several books: ''True Hallucinations'', relating the tale of his 1971 La Chorrera experience; ''Food of the Gods''; and ''The Archaic Revival''. He became a popular personality in the psychedelic rave/dance scene of the early 1990s, with frequent spoken word performances at raves and contributions to psychedelic and goa trance albums by The Shamen, Spacetime Continuum, Alien Project, Capsula, Entheogenic, Zuvuya, Shpongle, and Shakti Twins. His speeches were, and are, sampled by many. In 1994 he appeared as a speaker at the Starwood Festival, documented in the book ''Tripping'' by Charles Hayes. His lectures were produced on both cassette tape and CD.

McKenna was a colleague of chaos mathematician Ralph Abraham, and biologist Rupert Sheldrake, creator of the theory of "morphogenetic fields", not to be confused with the mainstream usage of the same term. He conducted several public debates known as ''trialogues'' with them from the late 1980s until his death. Books containing transcriptions of some of these events were published. He was also a friend and associate of Ralph Metzner, Nicole Maxwell, and Riane Eisler, participating in joint workshops and symposia with them. He was a personal friend of Tom Robbins, and influenced the thought of many scientists, writers, artists, and entertainers. His influences include comedian Bill Hicks, whose routines about psychedelic drugs drew heavily from McKenna's works. He is also the inspiration for the Twin Peaks character Dr. Jacoby.

In addition to psychedelic drugs, McKenna spoke on the subjects of virtual reality, which he saw as a way to artistically communicate the experience of psychedelics; techno-paganism; artificial intelligence; evolution; extraterrestrials; and aesthetic theory, specifically about art/visual experience as ''information'' representing the significance of hallucinatory visions experienced under the influence of psychedelics.

In 1985, McKenna co-founded Botanical Dimensions with his then-wife Kathleen, a nonprofit ethnobotanical preserve in Hawaii, where he lived for many years before he died. In 1997 he and Kathleen divorced. Before moving to Hawaii permanently, McKenna split his time between Hawaii and Occidental, located in the redwood-studded hills of Sonoma County, California.

Death

A longtime sufferer of migraines, in mid-1999 McKenna returned to his home on the big island of Hawaii after a long lecturing tour. He began to suffer from increasingly painful headaches. This culminated in three brain seizures in one night, which he claimed were the most powerful psychedelic experiences he had ever known. Upon his emergency trip to the hospital on Oahu, Terence was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. For the next several months he underwent various treatments, including experimental gamma knife radiation treatment. According to Wired magazine, McKenna was worried that his tumour was caused by his 35-years of smoking cannabis; though his doctors assured him there was no causal relation.

In late 1999, Erik Davis conducted what would be the last interview of McKenna. During the interview McKenna also talked about the announcement of his death:

Terence died on April 3, 2000, at the age of 53, with his loved ones at his bedside. He is survived by his brother Dennis, his son Finn, and his daughter Klea.

The library fire

On February 7, 2007, McKenna's library of rare books and personal notes was destroyed in a fire which burned offices belonging to Big Sur's Esalen Institute storing the collection. An index maintained by his brother Dennis survives, though little else.

Ideas

Terence McKenna advocated the exploration of altered states of mind via the ingestion of naturally occurring psychedelic substances. For example, and in particular, as facilitated by the ingestion of high doses of psychedelic mushrooms, and DMT, which he believed was the apotheosis of the psychedelic experience. He spoke of the "jeweled, self-dribbling basketballs" or "self-transforming machine elves" that one encounters in that state.

Although he avoided giving his allegiance to any one interpretation (part of his rejection of monotheism), he was open to the idea of psychedelics as being "trans-dimensional travel"; literally, enabling an individual to encounter what could be ancestors, or spirits of earth. He remained opposed to most forms of organized religion or guru-based forms of spiritual awakening.

Either philosophically or religiously, he expressed admiration for Marshall McLuhan, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Gnostic Christianity, Alfred North Whitehead and Alchemy. McKenna always regarded the Greek philosopher Heraclitus as his favorite philosopher.

He also expressed admiration for the works of James Joyce (calling ''Finnegans Wake'' "the quintessential work of art, or at least work of literature of the 20th century") and Vladimir Nabokov: McKenna once said that he would have become a Nabokov lecturer if he had never encountered psychedelics.

The "Stoned Ape" Theory of Human Evolution

In his book ''Food of the Gods'', McKenna proposed that the transformation from humans' early ancestors ''Homo erectus'' to the species ''Homo sapiens'' mainly had to do with the addition of the mushroom ''Psilocybe cubensis'' in its diet - an event which according to his theory took place in about 100,000 BC (this is when he believed that the species diverged from the Homo genus). He based his theory on the main effects, or alleged effects, produced by the mushroom. One of the effects that comes about from the ingestion of low doses, which agrees with one of scientist Roland Fischer's findings from the late 60s-early 70s, is it significantly improves the visual acuity of humans - so theoretically, of other human-like mammals too. According to McKenna, this effect would have definitely prove to be of evolutionary advantage to humans' omnivorous hunter-gatherer ancestors that would have stumbled upon it "accidentally"; as it would make it easier for them to hunt.

In higher doses, McKenna claims, the mushroom acts as a sexual stimulator, which would make it even more beneficial evolutionarily, as it would result in more offspring. At even higher doses, the mushroom would have acted to "dissolve boundaries", which would have promoted community-bonding and group sexual activities-that would result in a mixing of genes and therefore greater genetic diversity. Generally McKenna believed that the periodic ingestion of the mushroom would have acted to dissolve the ego in humans before it ever got the chance to grow in destructive proportions. In this context he likened the ego to a cancerous tumor that can grow uncontrollable and become destructive to its host. In his own words:

The mushroom, according to McKenna, had also given humans their first truly religious experiences (which, as he believed, were the basis for the foundation of all subsequent religions to date). Another factor that McKenna talked about was the mushroom's potency to promote linguistic thinking. This would have promoted vocalisation, which in turn would have acted in cleansing the brain (based on a scientific theory that vibrations from speaking cause the precipitation of impurities from the brain to the cerebrospinal fluid), which would further mutate the brain. All these factors according to McKenna were the most important factors that promoted evolution towards the ''Homo sapiens'' species. After this transformation took place, the species would have begun moving out of Africa to populate the rest of the planet Later on, this theory by McKenna was given the name "The 'Stoned Ape' Theory of Human Evolution".

Bibliography

1975 - ''The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching'' (with Dennis McKenna) (Seabury; 1st Ed) ISBN 0-8164-9249-2.

1976 - ''The Invisible Landscape'' (with Dennis McKenna, and Quinn Taylor) (Scribner) ISBN 0-8264-0122-8

1976 - ''Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide'' (with Dennis McKenna: credited under the pseudonyms OT Oss and ON Oeric) (2nd edition 1986) (And/Or Press) ISBN 0-915904-13-6

1992 - ''Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide'' (with Dennis McKenna: (credited under the pseudonyms OT Oss and ON Oeric) (Quick American Publishing Company; Revised edition) ISBN 0-932551-06-8

1992 - ''The Archaic Revival'' (HarperSanFrancisco; 1st edition) ISBN 0-06-250613-7

1992 - ''Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge - A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution'' (Bantam) ISBN 0-553-37130-4

1992 - ''Synesthesia'' (with Timothy C. Ely) (Granary Books 1st Ed) ISBN 1-887123-04-0

1992 - ''Trialogues at the Edge of the West: Chaos, Creativity, and the Resacralization of the World'' (with Ralph H. Abraham, Rupert Sheldrake and Jean Houston) (Bear & Company Publishing 1st Ed) ISBN 0-939680-97-1

1993 - ''True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author’s Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil’s Paradise'' (HarperSanFrancisco 1st Ed) ISBN 0-06-250545-9

1994 - ''The Invisible Landscape'' (HarperSanFrancisco; Reprint edition) ISBN 0-06-250635-8

1998 - ''True Hallucinations & the Archaic Revival: Tales and Speculations About the Mysteries of the Psychedelic Experience'' (Fine Communications/MJF Books) (Hardbound) ISBN 1-56731-289-6

1998 - ''The Evolutionary Mind : Trialogues at the Edge of the Unthinkable'' (with Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph H. Abraham) (Trialogue Press; 1st Ed) ISBN 0-942344-13-8

1999 - ''Food of the Gods: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution'' (Rider & Co; New edition) ISBN 0-7126-7038-6

1999 - ''Robert Venosa: Illuminatus'' (with Robert Venosa, Ernst Fuchs, H. R. Giger, and Mati Klarwein) (Craftsman House) ISBN 90-5703-272-4

2001 - ''Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness'' (with Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph H. Abraham) (Park Street Press; revised ed) ISBN 0-89281-977-4 (Revised edition of Trialogues at the Edge of the West)

2005 - ''The Evolutionary Mind: Trialogues on Science, Spirit & Psychedelics'' (Monkfish Book Publishing; Revised Ed) ISBN 0-9749359-7-2

Spoken word

''History Ends In Green: Gaia, Psychedelics and the Archaic Revival'', 6 audiocassette set, Mystic Fire audio, 1993, ISBN 1-56176-907-x (recorded at the Esalen Institute, 1989)

''TechnoPagans at the End of History'' (transcription of rap with Mark Pesce from 1998)

''Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines'' (1999) 90 minutes video

''Alien Dreamtime'' with Spacetime Continuum & Stephen Kent (Magic Carpet Media) (CD) video

''Conversations on the Edge of Magic'' (1994) (CD & Cassette) ACE

''Rap-Dancing Into the Third Millennium'' (1994) (Cassette) (Re-issued on CD as ''The Quintessential Hallucinogen'') ACE

''Packing For the Long Strange Trip'' (1994) (Cassette) ACE

Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell, broadcast on May 22, 1997, Five hour interview covering various topics

''Global Perspectives and Psychedelic Poetics'' (1994) (Cassette) Sound Horizons Audio-Video, Inc.

''The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge'' (1992) (Cassette) Sounds True

Discography

''Re : Evolution'' with The Shamen (1992)

''Alien Dreamtime'' with Spacetime Continuum & Stephen Kent (Magic Carpet Media) (DVD)

2009 - ''Cognition Factor'' (2009)

See also

Ethnomycology

Exopheromone

List of notable brain tumor patients

Machine Elf

References

External links

Terence McKenna Land at Deoxy.org

Terence McKenna at Levity.com

Erowid's Terence McKenna Vault

Botanical Dimensions

Rotten.com bio

FloatingWorldWeb's McKenna Pages

Terence McKenna's Last Trip 2000 Wired Magazine article by Erik Davis

"Mind contagions" (2001) at disinfo.com

Psychedelics, Evolution & Fun 2008 essay by Patrick Lundborg

Machine Elves 101, or Why Terence McKenna Matters - Reallity Sandwish by Daniel Moler

Transcription from 1991 interview regarding cannabis

Audio and video resources

Terence McKenna's interview Conducted by John Hazard in October 1998

Audio and video archive at Deoxy.org

Terence McKenna media archive at EROCx1.com

FutureHi.net MP3 Downloads - Terence McKenna, Albert Hoffman, Robert Anton Wilson, and more

McKenna at the 1999 Entheobotany Seminar - Audio Podcast

Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines - Video samples from the 1999 DVD

McKenna Video on FloatingWorldWeb - McKenna Video Portal

Over 100 podcasts of Terence McKenna talks - Audio Podcast

Transcripts

MindofMcKenna - McKenna Audio Excerpts, Transcriptions and Quotes

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