Rating: 
Summary: mind enriching fun
Review: a powerful, fascinating work that gives you access to entertaining, raucous good humor and intelligent facts that you probably never considered. Terence McKenna was a brilliant raconteur who is sorely missed. This work, like many of his others, has magically captured the essence and joy of certain mystical experiences.As for the other review castigating him for using the word "goddess" in the title: man-hating (as represented by so-called wise feminist ones who feel that only they can utter the term "goddess") has no place in the McKenna pantheon of thoughts. McKenna deserves only credit for the sacred portrayal and placement of the "feminine" in our universe. If you're holding out for a more enlightened male than McKenna you'll probably be waiting a long time!
Rating:
Summary: You were......and still are....Ahead by a Century
Review: first I would like to quote Tim Leary from his skymaster speech "Terence Mckenna means a great deal to me, he's deffinently one of the 5, 6 most impotant people on the planet......I can't even think of any others....lol....(short term memory loss)...by the way the role Terence is playing right now takes not only vision but it also takes f***ing courage!" Terence Mckenna is not just a scientist, philosopher, theorist, new age thinker, and shamman, he is someone who took it upon himself, at the cost of his own life, to teach humankind the truth, or something that came closer to truth than any other intellectual or prophet in human history. No one else of the 60's generation will likely go down in history as infamously as Terence will in the changing times we live in and will continue to change. Through the use of psychedelics, Mckenna has delved into the deepest levels of human consciousness and with the rigour and skepticism of a scientist. Deffinently a chalenge to those who think mind altering drugs dullen or stupify the intellect. Terence Mckennas intellect and thought processing speed capacity appear to have been accelerated by his use of DMT and psylocybin if you listen to him on interviews. Here is a person came into the world, underwhent formal schooling and academic training and managed to decondition himself evolving into genuine spiritual domains; surpassing the academic minds and spiritual models of his time and culture. Time-Wave Zero was his project, Novelty Theory his lifes work. Archaic Revival touches upon the ideas of novelty theory in relation to shammanism and extratterestrials, psychedelics and human cultural evolution into the surreal dimensions of hyperspace-spirituality. This is our future, our destiny as a species of absolute evolving consciousness. Novelty theory is based on the immediate experience we have with reality in which all things in history and science seem to coincide in ways that not only defy explanation, but continuously addapt to their own conservatives. Terence believed novlety was a universal and necessary constant of not only all living beings consciousness but also a binding and cohesive principle of material/physical nature. Cosmological and evolutionary processes occur in accordance to novelties, physical laws and the behaviour of atoms, cells, populations and genetics behave and abide the way they do because it is the most novel thing to do. Simillar to Leibniz conception of this world as the best of all possible worlds, novelty states that this is not necessarily the best nor the only world but it is possible and exists because it is the most novel world. Another one of Terences discoveries was that self-reflective human consciousness evolved from language that the brain facilitated and expanded from the primate because of their consumption of psychedelic mushrooms. In this less popular model, conspiracies of alien intervention and genetic tampering of "reptilian" with "homonid" DNA to form human speciel consciousness is an intervention not by immediate technology from ET's but by evolving biological implantations of psychedelic chemicals into nature. Aliens do not fly arround in spacecraft as suggested by the modern myth, or as vampires, or as any other ancient view of shammanism, primitvism, religion, etc. rather these beings are products of collective collapse of human consciousness. The upright reptilians of millions of years ago, the dinosaurs, we now know only recently, were wipped out by a comet from outer space ("spacecraft"). An instantaneous annihilation through radiation (also a mutanogen) of a reptilian, upright species of intelligent small-brained but fully utillized neocortex had the effect to the disincarnate catastrophe of their energy. That dinosaur energy had to go somewhere, what better way than to evolve through millions of years, psychedelics, and homonids; and eventually upright sentient human bodies for their incarnation to us the proper phylogeny structure (upright soul-body complex). As outlandish as these novel theories sound they will no doubt become the cutting edge models to describe reality and of our evolution if the wars of today do not annilate us first (radiation). And yet another reflection of the Middle Eastern warfare we face today is no longer a search for language, craddles of man, or Messiahs, but that very fossil fuel (oil) that was their energy now embodied as a complexly knotted perturbation of human consciousness. I recommend all members of the human species to read this book and also purchase Terences Alien Dream Time CD with electronica by Space-Time Continuum. To get the whole scope of these ideas I would also reccomend reading Terences friends; Rupert Sheldrake on morphogenesis, Michael Talbot in Holographic Universe and David Bohm on the Implicate Order.
Rating: 
Summary: Dangerous Thinking
Review: I once read a book by the deceased psychiatrist R.D. Laing called the Politics of Experience. It was brilliant. It contained useful information. The Archaic Revival intrigued me because of the title--Mircea Elidae has long written about the crisis of contemporary culture as the collision between modern and archaic realities. McKenna is an intrepid journeyer into the hidden worlds of the deep well of the soul--but this is a dangerous, dangerous, journey. We are, after all, storming heaven by force. Reason shreds, ripped asunder. And yet, we evolved in an environment where the Sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, where we drink water when we are thirsty and rest when we are tired. In short, a world that makes sense to us. The problem has to do with "living in the real world". We all know this world. We must shelter ourselves against excessive heat and cold, pay taxes, find food, gainful employment, love, spiritual fulfillment, and preserve our health. If we are particularly responsible we will contribute to the community in some way. McKenna journeys deep, and he has a gift for describing the ineffable denizens of that realm--but I find that his descriptions lack the ring of the general. To me, they sound highly individual. A unique and personal mythological landscape of his own psyche. I believe that is the mistake that he made. Generalizing from his own experience to the collective. His adventures were exciting. Thrilling. Dramatic. But I find that what he brought back in his bucket is not particularly useful to someone who must cope with reality and make all the right moves. He does not offer much useful knowledge. Nor are his accounts particularly inspiring. For, in the final analysis, what is important? Important, when confronted with the fact of ones own demise, for example. Is it memories of weird trips taken, or the sense of loss of loved ones, and the journey taken through the real world with those you cared deeply about? Whose hand you held? Whom you comforted and were comforted by... I am trying to salvage some kind of pragmatic wisdom that might be useful in terms of the quest for enlightenment, here, from all of his journeys into the netherworld, and I am coming up short. For all of his intrepid travelling, he somehow fails to hit the existential bullseye. When describing his visions, he seems to forget that they are visions; he treats them as extensions of reality. Well they are extensions of reality, to a certain extent--but HIS reality. Not mine, and probably not yours, either. His mythology, in the end, says more about his journey than our journey. What is the point of his visions, anyway? What do they teach us? What's a vision for? Why did native Americans attach so much value to them? What is the job of a vision? A vision must provide wisdom in an organic way. If it isn't the native intelligence of the organism trying to provide inspiration and insight to guide us in our conscious engagement with reality--then it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. If it doesn't point to a natural world imbued with a sense of reverence, and filled with peace and love, then, we are left with a hollow desert world dreamed by hollow men whose souls have withered. In the end, what remains of McKenna's Sermon is sound and fury, signifying nothing. I am reminded of Naga, the naked ascetic, who remarked to the Buddha, after hearing him claim his enlightenment: "Well, maybe you are." And walked away.
Rating:
Summary: OK but Out of Focus
Review: My review is not intended to be of the anti-psychedelic nature nor is it to take a contrary stance to those who are into the psychedelic arena. I also do not wish to disrespect a man who has a following and who is deceased. I bought this book because it was recommended here at Amazon and was said to be similar to the writings of Tom Robbins. Aside from Robbins writing the intro, their being generally from the same era and given their interest in the rebirth of the Goddess (of which Robbins seems to be more intact), there really is a thin association between the two. I would say that Robbins is definitely more enjoyable and enlightening to read and certainly more creative. McKenna's work seems to be quite a bit more technical, scientific and complex. If this is where you're at, you probably will enjoy it! The one thing that I might advise to a potential reader is that if you are looking for a book that will benefit you as a guide to higher consciousness (outside of a mushroom munching or a smokable trip), look elsewhere. In my opinion this book doesn't come close to others that work at constructing the psyche and our general relations to the earth and our fellow man/womankind. It is basically one man's detailed account of tripping without respect to nature or the fact that we are humans existing in a very real, physical world. The fact that shamanism is included in this book could be a little misleading, considering there is more to magic and healing than getting high. Just like MOM used to say... "Do you really need to get high to have a good time?"
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Summary: Wide-ranging topics--
Review: of the generally unusual kind, and providing a unique and fascinating look into each one. Word to the wise--bring an open mind, because otherwise, you can expect it to be blown (UFO's, psychedelia, alchemy and the notion of mushrooms being entities--yes, seriously.)Definitely a book that can give you something to chew on.
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Summary: Does Man know of his ego
Review: Sorry to tell you I haven't read this particular book, but I have read other McKenna books, (bless the man he's gone from this earth). I have also read Tom Robbins, and he does the intro. I have a problem with the title, mentioning the Goddess. What do these men know of the Goddess? These men are not feminists, nor womyn, and so with what authority can they speak of the yin element, when they do not recognize harmony and balance? Please allow the mushroom to trancend ego and I recommend Leary's Psychedelic Prayers.
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Summary: Best Starting Point for McKenna
Review: This book offers the best taste of all of McKenna's wild ideas. The book is a compilation of 18 or so interviews, speeches, essays and stories about magic mushrooms, shamans, UFOs, virtual reality, partnership societies and basically anything else that Terence McKenna mused on during his thirty year career as psychedelic spokesman. This will be a rewarding read for anyone who's ever though that there may be more to the world than what most of us experience in day to day life.
Rating: 
Summary: Read this if you're interested in drugs or mysticism.
Review: This is a great book to read if you feel the least bit innundated by the whole UFO, alien, and/or E.T. hype. McKenna's view of UFO sightings and other related phenomena as an affect of a "Jungian" archetype of the collective unconscious derived from our modern feeling of oppression by science and objectivity is definitely a breath of fresh air in the midst of all these guys who claimed to have been abducted or have proof of alien existence. Also interesting in this book is McKenna's view of human evolution as being facilitated by the discovery and use of psychedelic mushrooms. The only part about McKenna's views expressed in this book that I had a little bit of trouble with is his reluctance to validate mystical traditions of the world that don't or never have used psychedelic drugs as a part of their tradition. Terrance is definitely coming from a subjective realm in his description of his psychedelic experience (even though the experience can be confirmed to some degree by others who trip). Therefore, I believe that he should not discount non-psychedelic mystical traditions without having experienced the level of subjectivity that he obviously has with psychedelic drugs. Great book!!
Rating:
Summary: The many doors of perception
Review: This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. At first, I was convinced that McKenna must be insane (obviously too much shrooming); but then I began to wonder if it was us (20th century American society) that are the insane ones. He truly sees the world from a unique perspective. I must admit that the book piqued my curiosity...and yes...at least for me...it was a mind-expanding/life-changing experience. But, I am a college physics instructor in my 30's whose sole motivation was consciousness and spirituality. I'm glad I never took "the voyage" in my teens or twenties, before I had an idea of who I am and what is important. I have a feeling it would have been very destructive.
Rating:
Summary: An update on Jungian concepts
Review: _The Archaic Revival_ is most memorable for its section on UFO's, and the psychological implications of the alien-abduction phenomenon. This is not to say that Mckenna is obsessed with aliens or that he believes these abductions really are happening. His beliefs are essentially an update on Carl Jung's idea that UFO encounters are a generic form of "psychic phenomenon". That is, they are a type of hallucination originating from the individual's inborn archetypal unconscious. The alien abduction is merely a form of personality complex dissociation - a result of a split-personality or a full-blown psychotic episode. However, both Mckenna and Jung are in agreement that this type of encounter does not necessarily mean the victim is crazy. It is simply a revelation or vision of the "archetype", and this is not necessarily good or bad. It is merely a strange but undeniable psychic phenomenon. The _Archaic Revival_ also contains other interesting essays, often emphasizing the concept that language is the basis of all consciousness and reality. Mckenna has many insightful theories on the nature of langauage, consciousness, subjectivity, solipsism, and the self as center of the universe. I highly recommend this book to all readers.
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