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Summary: human-plant symbiosis
Review: a highly original, powerful work of revolutionary thinking designed to heal the planet and our own minds.The author was a brilliant man who vouchsafed to us some of the most amusing and enlightening ideas ever transmitted. This work is full of brainstorming wonder!
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Summary: I love his thesis as it shows respect for the feminine.
Review: As a 39 year old lifelong feminist, I was impressed by the true respect McKenna shows for the feminine (aka Mother Nature, Gaia). Plus I am enormously impressed by the elegance,lucidity and poetry of his natural science-based thinking. Of most importance for 1999, I believe, is his outlining of the lost partnership model of society as opposed the the inevitable burn-out of the dominator model.
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Summary: Breaks it all down
Review: Before reading Food of the Gods, I thought that I was paranoid concerning western civilization. After I finished it, I became aware of all these little and big things which McKenna ties to the ego-dominator complex. McKenna has a way of putting things which describes human civilization as no one else I have read has. He does not write about the psylocybin experience, its effects on the human mind, but the impact of its effects on our civilization, across millions of years. I expected this to be a book of his theories about the Stropharia cubensis species being part of the cosmic gateway of data and consciousness transference, but this is about us, humanity, and what we have done with our minds, our bodies and our planet. This book kind of brings it all back home. I enjoyed it immensely. Get it :)
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Summary: Mckenna's Ultimate Theory
Review: First of all I must say Kirkus's review of the book was only "okay", in fact it misleads potential customers when it says Mckenna is all for "legalization of all drugs". HA! Any avid fan of Mckenna knows from his speeches that he is not for a populace of drug-users. In fact he feels only a select few should experience mind altering drugs, as most aren't responsible enough. I reiterate... VERY misleading on Kirkus's behalf. But onward.. McKenna, more or less sums up all his beliefs on humanity in this one book. It's his thesis on history more or less. He gives good examples of what the scientific community has shoved under the rug, and what these examples could do for liberating our theological minds. At times though, McKenna has the tendency to lose his audience with phrases like "Trancendent Other". He assumes a lot in such cases, but in the end he does provoke one's mind. Into considering the vast possibilities that remain untouched in Man's early history.
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Summary: Critics miss the point
Review: Food of the Gods explores mankind's connection with the Earth as an organism. The author's speculations on our long lost mutualist relationship with plants has deep implications in science and offers sound insight into modern conditions of human iniquity.
To give you an idea, McKenna postulates that: - The loss of the feminine in today's 'dominator' cultures
has been further catalyzed by our abuse of plants, drugs,
and nature as a whole - The psychedelic experience, with its ego dissolving effects
represents an important component of the symbiosis of man
on Earth - The striking similarities in the chemical structures of
neurotransmitters in the brain and indole compounds in
hallucinogenic plants are no coincidence Despite the exhaustively researched and largely scholarly presentation of this work, unfounded criticism ensues when the subject matter stands as evidence in the indictment of many commonly held belief systems. However, most often the tone of McKenna's opponents caries the confident smirk of one safely distanced from his fierce intelligence, by their lack of experience with psychedelics. Terrence McKenna didn't write for the amusement of those unfamiliar with the psychedelic experience. It was well within his mental capacity and scholarly abilities to legitimize his work for an audience of intellectual indifference. I wont say it's easier, but it certainly displays less integrity and truth of cause for one to cater to the lowest common denominator when attempting to relate ideas of this scope, even if they are only speculative. Neither was it that the uninitiated were intentionally ignored and his priceless intellectual contribution was meant to be out of reach from common people, in an extension of Huxley's philosophy which he is often mistaken for representing. Rather, his weakness seems to be his naivety in assuming that people inexperienced with psychedelics would approach his work with the unbiased mindfulness due of a reader of any great work of cultural and spiritual diagnosis. The fact is that any intelligent, honest approach to this work will inevitably lead one to an intersection with a reality that cannot be negated.
Those who are experienced with psychedelics are likely to find in this book truths which they will integrate without hesitance - truths with implications profound enough to dissolve many of the illusions that largely pass as fact. This book is a powerful catalyst of intellectual growth for anyone engaged in the pursuit to understand this world.
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Summary: Good Ethnogen Info, Bad History
Review: I'm a bit flabbergasted by all the accolades here about McKenna's "solid research." Well, partially flabbergasted. His research into the properties of ethnogens is unrivaled. But his research into history is awful. For instance, he simply takes for granted such things as the Great Mother Goddess theory, without apparently considering that this was never accepted by serious scholars in the first place - with the exception of Gimbutas - and is now accepted only in the popular imagination. (Read Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of the Moon" for more info on how this theory took hold of popular consciousness.) And he routinely presents various conspiracy theories (the CIA destroyed the "New Left", etc.) as complete fact without stopping to even consider that alternative viewpoints and interpretations may exist. That is not good scholarship. McKenna was an important countercultural figure and his work has great value, but don't take him as authoritative on purely historical issues. Read him for his unique point of view and for his first-hand experiences with the various substances he writes about.
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Summary: A good read, not to be taken fanatically
Review: If anything, McKenna denies such a concept as intangible as enlightment-that was Leary's ego-trip. He's drawing attention to the fact that we are an evolving species that has, up till now at least, made some very selfish and destructive decisions. He claims that psilocybin is a mutagen proven to be capable of aiding in our collective evolution toward balance with each other and with nature. Anyone who claims that psilocybin is not a mutagen that puts man in contact with the vegetable-mind-the "mama matrix most mysterious" -and catalyses the realization that we are a part of magnificant nature, not something seperate from or stuggling against it, is to put it nicely, completely misinformed. As is anyone who claims that abuse of sugar, coffee, tobacco, chocalate, automobiles & television are not addictions that push us further from nature & away from balance, understanding and integration. People who view their "sober," selfish, game-playing, costume-wearing, coffee-drinking existences as productive and meaningful have a little waking up to do. McKenna is far from braindead. Read the book and you may be impressed, as I was, with his daring conjecture, botanical, historical & anthropological knowledge, prose and literary savoir-faire in discussing a topic which society has branded evil, immoral, degenerative or, at the very least, highly controversial. Remember when you claim that his radical viewpoint lacks scientific credulity that our lawmakers are responsible for fanatically denying all access to the subject-matter by legitimate researchers, forcing the study and the knowledge underground. People acting from a basis of profound paranoia are not helpful guides and their insights should be taken with a grain of salt. Unfortunatly, to watch the news or to listen to our politicians speak, this paranoia about things mysterious, supressed or unexplored seems to be omnipresent in our society, which is thoroughly based upon male-ego/dominator values-talk about building your house on the sand! This world is incredibly screwed up. To dream of progress and productivity in a time when we can see that all that these false idols have led us to is disorder and eminent doom is a dangerous delusion. The goal is to keep this planet intact for ourselves, for each other, for our children and for our children's children. Following Christ or whichever pathological egotist claims to be His representative has not been enough, so far, to awaken people to the fact that we are riding a runaway train in which the conductor has hidden from himself the emergency brake. We are living in a time when corporate bigshots and good-ole-boy politicians are seen as the good guys, while spiritual explorers, environmentalists and even Nature herself are perceived by docile masses of egotists, each living in the darkest of personal ignorance, to be pawns of the Devil. We must search for a viable catalyst of selfless thought. To my mind, religion seems only to reinforce selfishness and inequality. Mushrooms, while less than a panacea, are definately a transcendental doorway beyond the restrictions that one's ego asserts over one's consciousness. About this subject, McKenna was far more qualified to speak than am I. If his claim was that mushrooms equal instant enlightenment, then I would be the first to attack his premise. Read the book and take from it what you like & try not to get hysterical or defensive. Paranoia, automatic nay-say and denial will get us no-place. This is just a theory, a stimulating one at that, and it is not inteded to be viewed as dogma or doctrine.
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Summary: Remarkable
Review: If the basic principles described in this book were widely accepted, we would have solved our current crisis (that of mutual self destruction), and embraced life in all the infinite ways that we are aiming to achieve by virtue of tecnology. We'd all realise that through the power of mind we can travel into any time/place and that our supreme goal of deep space travel to other worlds could be satisfied without destroying ourselves by virtue of technology.
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Summary: A challenging look at human history and drug use.
Review: If you are looking for a thought provoking book that is a bit left field, but well written, this book is for you. The main premise of the book is that due to climate changes homonids were forced to adapt eating habits to include previously untried foods, such as psychoactive plants and mushrooms, and that this led to an evolutionary jump for the species. McKenna then shows historically how and why certain drugs have become dominant and what this could mean for humanity. McKenna's idea concerning the origin of the human species is an interesting conjecture but the evidence seems too thin to me, but on the other hand his analysis of the effects of drugs on western civilization hits the nail on the head. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee, chocolate, sugar and television (yes, television) are all promoted or are tolerated by society. McKenna shows you why this is and what it could mean for our future. A previous reviewer said that McKenna promotes the annihilation of the mind, which is patently false. I can hardly believe he read the book. Whether you agree or disagree with the theories presented in this book it will make you think and entertain you in the process. The mind is what got humanity to this point in history and it is the key to our collective future. That is what this book represents, being responsible for our own consciousness and the world that we create.
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Summary: Mindless, for the mind numb
Review: It is very simple what this book intends to promote: the annihilation of the human mind. This book is a random mish mash of all the intellectual ideas promoted in American universities since the 60s. Europe is bad. Monotheism is bad. Egoism is bad. The author even goes so far as to suggest that "dominantism" is a strictly European invention. Of course, class and status doesn't exist amongst the wonderful peace loving Chinese and their gigantic slave empire, or the happy stoner Mexicans. I also loved how this new age witch doctor actually believes that Christianity and Buddhism are fundamentally different religions. This guy has to read a little Nietzsche. This is the fiction that all drug addicts wish for, that life is wonderful and everyone really DOES love each other, and that if it wasn't for those big bad Europeans we could all be sitting around getting messed up and not worry about eating, sleeping, procreating, building shelters, or other necessities of survival and reproduction. If you are a rich white liberal arts college graduate trying to find some justification for the utter pointlessness of an idle lifestyle, this book is for you. For the rest of us who don't get high every day because we actually enjoy using our limited time on this earth in a productive fashion, this book is useless. I don't know why the author doesn't just advocate outright suicide. it would be a lot faster.
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