Terence McKenna, psychedelic pioneer, 53

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Thursday April 6 3:25 PM ET

Terence McKenna, psychedelic pioneer, dies aged 53

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Terence McKenna, a psychedelic pioneer, radical
raconteur and passionate promoter of the mind-expanding powers of drugs, has
died of brain cancer at the age of 53, associates said.

McKenna, who followed the late Timothy Leary as one of the key figures in
the California counterculture movement, died Monday at the home of a friend
in San Rafael, California.

A student of shamanism, virtual reality and the botany of the Amazon,
McKenna was a proponent of the use of psilocybin ''magic'' mushrooms and
believed human civilization developed after early hunter-gatherers
accidentally ingested psychedelic drugs.

He doggedly promoted that belief, as well as the idea that warfare developed
only after the original hallucinogenic plants began to disappear because of
climatic change.

``Our dilemma is that halfway on the way to becoming angels, we stopped
taking our medicine,'' McKenna once said.

In later years McKenna developed what he called ``Novelty Theory'' which
described ``the ebb and flow of novelty on planet Earth'' and the eventual
end of the world at an ``Omega Point'' on the Mayan calendar, identified as
Dec. 21, 2012.

McKenna was born in Paonia, Colorado, and graduated from the University of
California-Berkeley. A traveler and author, McKenna and his brother Dennis
co-wrote ``The Invisible Landscape'' and ``Psilocybin: The Magic Mushroom
Grower's Guide.''

He later took to the lecture circuit, and appeared on a number of CDs and
live performances with ``rave'' musical groups. In 1993 the British techno
the Shamen sampled one of McKenna's lectures and hit No. 5 on Top of the
Pops, while McKenna's 1993 book ``True Hallucinations'' was launched with an
all-night dance party.

``He's an eloquent and imaginative poet of the psychedelic experience,''
1960s drug guru Timothy Leary said of McKenna.

McKenna founded and operated Botanical Dimensions, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to the investigation of ''ethnomedical'' and sacred plants, and
established a gene bank of rare species in Hawaii.

He is survived by his longtime partner, Christy Silness, and two children.
Memorial services are being planned in both New York and the San Francisco
area.

Reuters/Variety

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