Dennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, author and brother to well-known psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna.
McKenna’s research led to the development of natural products for Aveda Corporation as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored numerous scientific articles and books. He co-authored The Invisible Landscape with his brother Terence. McKenna spent a number of years as a senior lecturer for the Center for Spirituality and Healing, part of the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is now a senior research scientist for the Natural Health Products Research Group at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in the Vancouver area.
McKenna received his Master’s degree in botany at the University of Hawaii in 1979. He received his Doctorate in Botanical Sciences in 1984 from the University of British Columbia, where he wrote a dissertation entitled Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in Amazonian hallucinogenic plants: ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological investigations. His research has included the pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-hé, the subjects of his master’s thesis. He has also conducted extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brazilian Amazon.
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HMMM, I reserve the questions and the answers for later. Very interesting show, well the reasoning here is good but…. I feel Mr. McKenna is missing the point his clinging to not being opened up to ridicule is what holds this interview and him back quite a bit. Still good though and the point the caller made, and Geo expanded as how to use the trivium to both find your individual path, as well see it and use the trivium to stay on it. That is it the simple truth, take that and use the trivium it’s that simple the universe is really that “user” friendly
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why would you prank call a show like this?? this is some of the most interesting subject mattter out there. stick to prank calling Fox News and CNN please.. or y’know just kill yourself
Commercial breaks are very stressful! This was a most thoughtful exchange of views Jan – notwithstanding the constraints of the oppressive radio format. Dennis made a very important point that was not developed. How do you test the quality of the information entheogenic trance experience can elicit? This actually brings us (logically) to a very profound argument in favour of ritual formulae. That is to say, adopting rigorous methods of purification, preliminary to any specific symbolic actions that are performed in a consciously sacred context and manner, & conducted with great attention to ceremonial propriety, mystical coherence and the studied integrity that should accompany all formal esoteric praxis. What all this amounts to is acknowledging and respecting the virtue of systemic methodologies of initiation, or what the Neoplatonists called divine work or theurgy. It is curious that when the discussion led to the difficulties associated with elucidating the complex and enigmatic mysteries of brain, mind and cosmos and the general relations or constitution of the “soul” vis-a-vis altered states of consciousness, the metaphors that came up were instrumental-mechanistic, like computer, radio, dial, and so on. These are unconscious cultural artefacts. Years of accumulated experience have taught us that the context of any psychonautic experience, our mind set & setting – or, as Betty Eisner included, the concept of our life “matrix” – all these preparatory things contribute to that experience, hence the value of shamanic/ceremonial/psycholytic facilitation methods. Once we open to the possibilities of visionary conscious engagement with other planes through ceremonial means & by yogic methods, the everyday universe of habitual reflex dissolves away and we find ourselves in the company of all manner of forces, powers, gods, elementals, potential daimonic intelligences, spiritual beings & angelic entities. Hence as Dennis properly suggests, the importance of understanding the right protocols or etiquettes of communication, and proper methods of discernment in trance cannot be overstated. This all comes under the rubric of theurgical propriety and esoteric prophylaxis. The posturing craziness we witness today in some New Age “magick” circles and would-be mystery schools is directly in proportion to the degree to which these ancient perennial principles are elided, neglected or dismissed as trivial. Occult relations are even more critical and consequential than straightforward social acquaintance. As the old saying goes, whoever you “hang out with” is exactly how (or what) you’ll turn out to be…
Really interesting discussions, but those commercial breaks kill me. I hate standardized programming.