Patrick Everitt - DMT, Elf-Machines & the Mysterious Other/Psychedelic Philosophy of Terence McKenna

Описание: On April 10th we were joined by Patrick Everitt, who spoke to us on the fascinating subject of "DMT, Elf-Machines, and the Mysterious Other: Esoteric language and magical metaphor in the psychedelic philosophy of Terence McKenna".

About the lecture:
One of the most remarkable yet puzzling characteristics of psychedelics is their capacity to produce deeply impressive experiences of communication with seemingly autonomous non-human intelligences. These magical and revelatory visionary experiences, typically associated with N,N-DMT, present a number of intellectual and cultural challenges, and also contrast starkly with the mystical, unitive, and non-relational experiences typically associated with 5-MeO-DMT. For example, it is not clear how to interpret this ‘magical’ or ‘revelatory’ category of psychedelic experience in naturalistic terms that are compatible with science, without robbing the experience of its intrinsic ‘spiritual’ value or diminishing its dramatic personal impact.

Interestingly, contemporary academic studies in the philosophy of psychedelics typically focus their discussions on psychedelic experiences characterized by ‘mystical’ and ‘unitive’ forms of consciousness, rather than the ‘visionary’, ‘entity encounter’ experiences characterized by an abundance of astonishingly interactive contents. However, one notable figure who grappled with these philosophical challenges head-on was the American ethnobotanist and psychedelic raconteur Terence McKenna, who described N,N-DMT as ‘the quintessential spiritual and magical tool of this dimension’.

Contextualizing McKenna as a prime exemplar of both ‘entheogenic esotericism’ (Hanegraaff) and ‘psychedelic philosophy’ (Lyon), this presentation examines McKenna’s use of esoteric language and metaphor to portray the extreme novelty of DMT experiences, and presents this in terms of the ‘psychedelic space’ conceptual framework recently developed by the analytic philosopher Aidan Lyon. It also situates McKenna’s psychedelic philosophy in relation to contemporary academic philosophical discussions of psychedelic experience, and highlights the key metaphors McKenna used to convey his understanding of psychedelics as evolutionary agents mediating a symbiotic relationship between humanity and mysterious non-human intelligences capable of offering a non-human perspective on human problems.

Speaker bio:
Patrick Everitt is an independent researcher of western esotericism. He completed the Masters in Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam, where his thesis investigated Aleister Crowley’s use of peyote for ceremonial magic. His primary research interest is the intersection of religious experience, esoteric entheogenic practices, and naturalistic philosophy in the works of Aleister Crowley, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence McKenna. He has presented his research on psychedelics and esotericism at a range of international conferences, including the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research, the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) conference, Breaking Convention, and the Occulture Conference.

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