Reclusland

December 18, 2009

- Terrence McKenna on the Reconscious -

“Nothing is now unconscious if your data-search commands are powerful enough.” – from Surfing Finnegans Wake

quotes —

  1. The MP3 I have is titled “Surfing Finnegans Wake” but apparently the above quote is from the second part of that lecture, titled “Riding the Range with Marshall McLuhan”.

    Comment by Ian — December 18, 2009 @ 9:24 am


  2. I’m halfway through “food of the Gods” Also at the same time I am reading “man and his symbols” which is all about Jung.

    So its interesting to see Mckenna’s take on the unconscious. Mckenna was really against “the ego” in an extreme way. But really what he is against is the extreme ego centrism of Western Civilization, and rightly so.

    So what I think the healthy thing to do, is to periodically open to ones unconscious and reintegrate the ego.

    Comment by Ted — December 18, 2009 @ 2:00 pm


  3. Jung and McKenna, that’s quite a heady mix…

    to periodically open to ones unconscious and reintegrate the ego.

    McKenna would have said that hallucinogens do this, but I’m not so sure. Maybe for some people. For others, I think they give the ego the experience of having done this, without actually doing it.

    I do agree its important to keep them in balance though. Unless there’s a way to combine the two…? I dunno.

    Comment by Ian — December 18, 2009 @ 2:12 pm


  4. Extreme ego-centrism is found among Psychopaths and Narcissists also within the erroneous philosophy of “Scientism”

    At its most extreme it is simply severe alienation and isolation…solipsism.

    So, I’d say psychedelics could maybe help this condition, if it makes one aware of the interconnectedness of life in the Universe.

    Anyway, I think the extreme condition of what I described above is what Mckenna was so vehemently against.

    I think Buddhists and so forth are looking at the ego in a different way. Its still the ego but perhaps a less severe manifestation of it.

    Comment by Ted — December 21, 2009 @ 10:18 pm


  5. Yeah, the William Segal quote I posted earlier really does it for me. The ego is just there, it’s not anymore you than anything else your body produces. Our brain processes sensation/thoughts and creates “self” from them, just like our lungs process air to create oxygen for our body. No reason to take it all that seriously, but no reason to try to be completely rid of it either…

    Comment by Ian — December 22, 2009 @ 10:55 am



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