McKenna on Alchemy

[deviadah]

The following quote is by Terence McKenna from Lectures on Alchemy (http://www.well.com/user/davidu/tmalchemy.html). This is a long transcript of a talk he had, and I post here only an interesting snippet that I think you all might find interesting.

...I will challenge you to try and imagine what the achievement of the philosopher's stone would be like because it's in trying to think that way that you begin to dissolve the categories of the Cartesian trap. So, imagen for a moment an object, a material, which can literally do anything. It can move across categorical boundaries with no difficulty whatsoever. So what do I mean? I mean that if you possess the philosopher's stone and you were hungry, you could eat it. If you needed to go somewhere you could spread it out and sit on it and it would take you there. If you needed a piece of information, it would become the equivalent of a computer screen and it would tell you things. If you needed a companion, it would talk to you. If you needed to take a shower you could hold it over your head and water would pour out. Now, you see, this is an impossibility. That's right, it's a coincidencia apositorum. It is something that behaves like imagination and matter without ever doing damage to the ontological status of one or the other. This sounds like pure pathology in the context of modern thinking because we expect things to stay still and be what they are and undergo the growth and degradation that is inimical to them, but no, the redemption of spirit and matter means the exteriorization of the human soul and the interiorization of the human body so that it is an image freely commanded in the imagination.

/.../

The imagination is central to the alchemical opus because it is literally a process that goes on the realm of the imagination taken to be a physical dimension. And I think that we cannot understand the history that lies ahead of us unless we think in terms of a journey into the imagination. We have exhausted the world of three dimensional space. We are polluting it. We are overpopulating it. We are using it up. Somehow the redemption of the human enterprise lies in the dimension of the imagination. And to do that we have to transcend the categories that we inherit from a thousand years of science and Christianity and rationalism and we have to re-empower and re-encounter the mind and we can do this psychedelically, we can do this yogically, or we can do it alchemically and hermetically.

[m1thr0s]

hard to disagree with any of that. I do think however that the odds tend to favor the idea that the Philospher's Stone is more in the nature of a principle than a substance. Alchemy has relied very heavily on metaphor for many centuries and for good reason I think...metaphors have a certain staying power at the level of imagination itself...like fairy tales I suppose.

Understanding that the Philosopher's Stone may be more a principle than a substance then, is not something everyone will be ready to digest all at once but the distinction is ultimately more productive, since at the level of principle we are looking for a mechanism of some kind whereby thought and matter may finally come to operate in perfect balance...perfect vibrational synchronism. Through the lens of this principle, anything which can be imagined can be accomplished at the level of matter. We know of no way that Mind and Matter can operate at this level of equilibrium, aside from occasional rumors which still leaves us with no certain principle to guide us. So I do not believe that the Philosopher's Stone has been found, or if found, has been fully capitalized upon thus far.

A few have put forward the notion that it must necessarily be a faculty we are after but I do not agree with this personally...I think any such faculty devoid of the principle will only yield a sporatic and unreliable results... Nevertheless the faculty assertion has its merits and should not be discounted altogether...we are almost certainly hedging on the harnessing of some innate faculty, but I do not believe that the faculty can amount to the Philosopher's Stone itself...the very term implies a principle...not a thing per se...nor a sense.

We have looked for this substance and we will probably continue to look for it and this may be a good thing so far as it goes. I do not personally believe it will be possible to pin it down at the level of substance though. I think we will have to come to grasp it at the level of principle since the substance is all around us anyway...failing to understand its mechanism is more a hindrance to us than failing to understand its compositional characteristics.

m1thr0s

[Catalytic Subterfuge]

In regards to McKenna, I've always believed his goal was to point us "through" the substance to view the principle which resides in the mind of man. That being said, many (some of those here) are able to perceive the principle without the substance. A highly desirous attainment. Some of us occasionally need a swift kick in the pants.

[m1thr0s]

Some of us occasionally need a swift kick in the pants.some of us? Xst, I think I'd just about kill for a swift kick in the pants about now...no substitute for jump-start when your batteries are just plain low...

m1

[Kuroyagi]

dev. thats scary- I have just read that 30 some p. script by Mc Kenna on the train the other day...it was enjoyable cause I like his imaginativeness and his historic expertise...and also the fact that I could correct the faulty transcription of certain names and thereby show to myself that I am also educated ;)

Well, as far as the stone goes m1. (and Mc Kenna) have a point: cause if it were not a principle then it would be difficult to keep it up and running, see. If its only a certain state or substance then it would be subjected to entropy or change but if -lets say- change itself were the mechanics on which it were founded, then it would "stay" (in an abstract sense) and "be"...

[deviadah]

Mind Food of the Gods - collected works by and about Terence McKenna (http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/mckenna/)

:cool:

[Kuroyagi]

Thanks for that, Mr. "cool"-guy! :)

[m1thr0s]

McKenna died too soon. That kind of shit really pisses me off...his work wasn't done yet...some almighty prick in some distant galaxy someplace is gonna get his ass severely kicked over it. I don't believe in accidents of that kind...that was a calculated hit...

so the payback is locked and loaded...whole damn clan goes down over that kind of shit. you can call it megalomania today but it's a prediction sure as rain.

It's really too damn bad...he was making important inroads...I suppose he'll pop up again pretty soon just like a forest mushroom.

m1thr0s

[Naomi]

i like to call it a free roaming buffet

[Xner]

McKenna definitely did die way too soon. His work and philosophies were phenomenal, and the loss of such an enlightened thinker is a tragedy.

Perhaps even worse than his untimely death is the fact that there is not yet a successor, an understudy to pick up where he left off and carry on the important work that McKenna began. Hopefully this does not result in all of his brilling words going to waste, because with time and a bit of inertia, his ideas could well become nothing short of paradigm revolution.

[m1thr0s]

there may be more out there than we think...one can hope at least. McKenna had a huge impact on my own thinking and I know that in my case it really set me to work...not just thinking...so maybe this is true with others also. We may not see them all since they are busy getting their works together...

but still...he could have made 2012 no sweat, so that sucks...

m1

[deviadah]

It kind of reminds me of what Bill Hicks said (who also died way to early btw):

"Ever notice we live in a world where good men are murdered and mediocre hacks thrive? John Kennedy murdered, Gandhi murdered. Martin Luther King murdered. Jesus murdered. Reagan... wounded."

:cool: