Terence McKenna American author, philosopher, ethnobotanist, mystic, psychonaut Date of Birth: 16.11.1946 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. College and Psychedelic Experimentation
3. Travels and the Discovery of Psychedelics
4. Later Years and Career
5. Lost Legacy

Early Life and Education

Terence McKenna was born in Paonia, Colorado in 1946. As a child, he developed a keen interest in geology, exploring ravines and canyons near his home, and was introduced to basic geology principles by his uncle. Due to poor eyesight and ill health, he spent much of his childhood in solitude. At age 10, he became fascinated by psychology after reading Carl Jung's "Psychology and Alchemy." At 16, he moved to Los Altos, California, and attended high school, living with family friends who desired to provide him with the benefits of California's highly regarded public schools. It was during this time that McKenna first learned about psychedelics through Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception" and articles in "The Village Voice." His early psychedelic experiences included ingesting the seeds of the "Morning Glory" plant, which contained ergin, a relative of LSD. In 1964, McKenna's family circumstances led to a move to Lancaster, California, where he graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1965.

College and Psychedelic Experimentation

In 1965, McKenna enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, and relocated to San Francisco. That same year, he first smoked marijuana and later used LSD. As an undergraduate, he participated in the two-year Tussman Experimental College program. In 1969, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in ecology and conservation.

Travels and the Discovery of Psychedelics

After graduating from college, McKenna taught English in Japan and traveled extensively throughout India and Southeast Asia, where he engaged in drug smuggling and collected butterflies for biological supply companies. Following the death of his mother in 1971, he joined his brother Dennis and three friends on an expedition to the Colombian Amazon in search of plant-based psychedelics. In La Chorrera, he reluctantly agreed to undergo psychedelic experiments with psilocybin-containing mushrooms, which led him to become an advocate for plant hallucinogens. Along with his brother, he co-authored the bestselling book "The Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide."

Later Years and Career

Throughout the 1970s, McKenna lived off the profits from the sale of "The Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide" and cultivated psilocybin mushrooms. Fearing legal repercussions (he had briefly been sought for questioning by Interpol for drug trafficking), he eventually ceased distributing these substances. In his later years, McKenna directed a botanical sanctuary in Hawaii, dedicated to the collection, preservation, study, and propagation of medicinal and shamanic plants. He died from brain cancer in 2000.

Lost Legacy

On February 7, 2007, McKenna's library and personal archive were tragically lost in a fire at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. A catalog of his library and archive, maintained by his brother Dennis, partially survives.