Shamanic Approaches to the UFO

Terence McKenna, should I describe him? I asked a number of people and they looked puzzled and loped off.

Finally, I managed to get a consensus which is this, that Terence is an expert in Amazonian shamanism, a philosopher and an explorer of altered states, the sort of thing we all do when we get home of an evening.

So, but I think he does it rather better than most. Terence McKenna, please welcome Terence.

Well, I'm aware of how late in the day it is and I know some of you must be double parked, so I'll make this as succinct as possible.

This morning's discussion caused me to wonder how much we would understand about electricity if our method of studying it was to stand on the tops of high hills and wait to be struck by lightning.

It seems to me that's sort of the position that we're in vis-a-vis the UFOs.

We have no real theory. We have conjectures. We have fiercely defended hypotheses, but we have very little that is concrete to go on.

It's almost as though the issue of the UFO were an onion.

As we peel the layers of the onion we discover, when we get to the center, that there is nothing there what whatsoever left.

It reminds me that if you cross an onion with a UFO what you get is a flying saucer that brings tears to your eyes.

and so what I would like to do is just based on the notes I took today

to review what the options available to us are

in terms of trying to get some kind of intellectual handle on this phenomenon

and I'll move through them rather quickly

one possibility that I suppose is now out of fashion

because it wasn't mentioned here today

other than what Jacques said about ball lightning and plasmas

is that the UFOs are somehow natural phenomena

perhaps piezoelectric forces that have an ability to interact

with the delicate electrochemical machinery of the human nervous system

to create an impression of hallucination or visitation or abduction

that's one possibility

the more serious contenders as explanations I think fall into three categories

is it us, are we being visited

or is there another tenant in the building that we are unaware of

and

, my own feeling about this tends to vacillate

I have had contact experiences

I have seen a UFO very close

I have met with entities from other dimensions

and it has not impelled me to take a strong position

I've paid very close attention

when these experiences were happening to me

and there always seem to be loose ends

that argue against whatever hypothesis seems currently most attractive

and though Jacques didn't mention it today

I recall in his book, The Invisible College

he stressed the absurdity that seems to attend the contact experience

that it's not just a matter of being visited or not being visited

and that if the contactee will truly tell the unvarnished truth

then there will be elements in the story which will make the contactee look like a moron

in other words the invalidation of the experience is an inimical part of its structure

almost as though the entities were saying well you may tell this story if you wish

but if you tell it, it's not true

but truthfully you'll be taken for a fool

well there's nothing wrong with being taken for a fool

except that it does seal the phenomenon rather nicely

away from the very sober ladies and gentlemen

who are making their careers in some branch of science

they are not interested in investigating the kinky, the anecdotal, the possibly pathological

in preparation for this conference I re-read Carl Jung's book published in 1954

called Flying Saucers, A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky

and to my mind no one has really gone beyond Jung

he understood very clearly that saying that something is a denizen of the psychic realm

no way precludes its also having

an efficacious force in the physical realm

through the phenomenon which he called synchronicity

some of the points which Jacques made today about the nature of the medical examinations that are reported

they are absurd

they are unnecessary to be performed at our level of technology

let alone any future more advanced level that we might be asked to believe in

so if the UFO phenomenon is something that is coming from us

then what is it and what is it for

and I've given a good deal of thought to this question over the years

because I tend to lean toward the notion that the UFO problem

like many subtle problems is haunted by our own naivete

concerning language

if I were to randomly choose, and don't worry I shan't

five of you to come up here

and each one of you would have forty seconds to explain to the rest of us what an atom is

it would be preposterous

none of us know, I doubt there's a person in this room who can give an account of the atom

that tallies with the quote unquote orthodox

description of the atom

so there is a curious fuzziness about the most mundane parts of reality

when we really attempt to magnify and understand them in the clear light of consciousness

how much more ambiguity there is then naturally

attendant upon the examination of any kind of phenomenon

phenomena which are rare or tend to be fringy

so it isn't a matter of achieving consensus over the UFO

we can't even achieve consensus about what constitutes a decent souffle

so this passionate desire to drag us all under the umbrella of a single explanation

is I think missing the point

to my mind, if the UFO phenomena is something arising out of the superego

of the human psychic organization

then we should ask why

what is it doing

and I don't want to sound like a public relations agent for Jacques Vallée

but to my mind, with the exception of Jung

Jacques is the only commentator

on the phenomenon

who has really pushed the frontier back

to my mind in the invisible college

when Vallée says

in looking at the effect

not asking the question what is it

but what does it do

you very quickly see

what the flying saucers are doing

what they are doing

is eroding faith in science

they are an antidote

to the scientific paradigm

that has evolved over the past 400 years

and which has led us to the brink of global catastrophe

so the notion being developed here is

that within the structure of the human psyche

there is something like a governor

something like a monitoring circuit

which when a society begins to evolve

in a pathological or lethal direction

phenomena can be induced

not by the egos of men and women

not by their institutions

but by the overmind

the collectivity of the human species

phenomena can be induced

which are so corrosive

to the ideologies currently in place

that their underpinnings are cut away

their validity is called into question

and their programs for social development and control

are invalidated and destroyed

now a perfect example of this

is the rise of infant Christianity

if you'll cast your mind back to the situation

in the early years of the Christian era

and imagine the mentality

of a Roman aristocrat

a person of power in Roman society

their physics is drawn from

democracy and atomism

in other words they are thoroughgoing materialists

their social theory is drawn from

Epictetus and Plato

they are in fact extremely modern people

by our own standards

however among the gardeners

and kitchen help and stable boys

there is news of a modern

momentous event in the Middle East

a Jewish rabbi has triumphed over death

and risen after three days in the tomb

should the master of a Roman household

have caught wind of this kind of

superstitious talk among the help

he would have just dismissed it with a sneer

what a preposterous idea

and it is a preposterous idea

nevertheless

the fact that an idea is preposterous

has never held it back

from making zealous converts

and within 120 years

after the enunciation of the birth of Christianity

its missionaries were beating on the gates of Rome

attempting to convert the emperor

now I see a similar situation

in the modern context

that rationalism

scientific technology

which began

and came out of

the scholasticism of the Middle Ages

and the quite legitimate wish

to glorify God

through an appreciation of his natural world

turned into

a kind of demonic pact

a kind of descent

into the underworld

a necceia if you will

leading to the present

the present cultural and political impasse

that involves massive stockpiles of atomic weapons

huge propagandized populations

cut off from any knowledge of their real histories

male dominated organizations

plying their message of

lethal destruction and inevitable historical advance

and into this situation

comes suddenly an anomaly

something which cannot be explained

I believe that that is the purpose

of the UFO

to inject uncertainty

into the male dominated paternalistic

rational solar myth

under which we are suffering

so I suppose if you had to categorize this point of view

you would say I'm taking a depth psychological

psychoanalytic point of view

what I'm saying is that

the UFO is nothing more

than an assertion of herself

by the goddess

into history

saying to science

and paternalistically

governed and driven organizations

you have gone far enough

we are going to turn the world upside down

your science is going to be shown up

for what it is

nothing more than a pleasant metaphor

usefully extrapolated

into the production of toys

for healthy children

that's what science is good for

it is not some meta theory

at whose feet

every point of view

from astrology to acupressure

to channeling

need be laid

to have the hand of science

announce thumbs up

or thumbs down

now there is another possibility

which can be dovetailed into the first

it is that

it is not so much the over soul

or the super ego of the human species

which is responsible for

stopping scientific masculine paternalism

in its tracks

but rather that unbeknownst

to self-absorbed and myopic human beings

we have always shared

or at least for a very long period of time

have shared this planet

with an other

another intelligent species

another entity

which may have been perfectly content

to allow us to abide in our ignorance

of its presence

until the point where

it came to its awareness

that our style

was toxifying

ruining

raping

and perverting the planet

and at that point

this thing springs into action

with similar end results

as the previous scenario

the invocation of the super ego

it's astonishing to me

that in the 45 years

that the UFO

are we being visited question

has been kicked around

I have never seen

in any UFO

book or publication

the suggestion made

that if we believe

we are being visited

by organic intelligent life forms

from some other dimension

or place in the galaxy

then we should

very very thoroughly

examine the ecology

of this planet

for traces of its presence

what assurance do we have

that the several million life forms

that we know to exist

on this planet

all evolved here

do we have any assurance

there are ways to gain

that assurance

by doing comparative DNA sequencing

and this sort of thing

some of you may know

my own position

or one of my positions

which is that

plants and fungi

containing psychoactive compounds

are extremely important

and extremely viable candidates

for extraterrestrial intruders

into the environment

of this planet

and this is not to put down

Whitley's story

which is a very interesting story

but had he prefaced his story

with the comment that

before it all happened

he took 5 grams of mushrooms

I doubt he could have sold it

to his mother

because in the world

where mushrooms

and other psychedelic plants

are imbibed

such stories are commonplace

it's no big deal

so I'm always amused

by UFO investigators

and compilers of data

who will tell you

well the first thing we did

is we got rid of all the stories

told by anybody

who was intoxicated on anything

it seems to me

that move has probably

absolutely precluded

any possibility of understanding

what is going on

you see culture

is something that we wear

like clothes

and we're very much at ease

with culture

our mind is very much at ease

with culture

and we gather the language

of a given culture around us

culture is the mind

unperturbed

when a shaman

or an ecstatic visionary

goes into the wilderness

and through ordeal

or yogic practice

or breath control

or the taking of a psychoactive substance

perturbs the mind

then we see what the mind is

out naked

undressed from the clothing

of language and convention

that's why I've made this point

over and over again

there cannot

there will not

be a serious discussion

of the origin of UFOs

or for that matter

of the nature of consciousness itself

until we leave

the utterly culture bound

provincial

and hick like attitude

that science has foisted on us

about perturbing the mind

without the use of psychedelic substances

I think solving the UFO dilemma

is going to be

as thankless a task

as attempting to understand

the nature of the universe

without availing yourself

of the use of a telescope

it is simply tying our hands

behind our backs

now there is a third possibility

which is

the one that is the more commonly

entertained notion

which is simply

that we are being observed

by

intelligent life forms

that evolve somewhere else

in the galaxy

they have quarantined our planet

to keep us from being agitated

by their presence

and they will eventually

reveal themselves

I find this an extremely

odious notion

especially the part about

how much chaos there will be

if the truth is ever revealed

this is nothing more than

the reassertion of masculine paternalism

its right to keep secrets

from the rest of us

its belief that there is

a privileged all-male class of people

who can be let in

on what's really going on

and the rest of us

poor dears

have to be shielded

from these tremendously shocking facts

I discussed this once

with an entity

and it said to me

well

you know

we've disguised ourselves

as an extraterrestrial invasion

so as to not alarm people

with what's really going on

we're getting close to the end folks

there is a fourth possibility

which I mention only in the interests

of thoroughness

which is

that these entities

and their vehicles

are not spacecraft at all

but are in some sense

time craft

and that we may be

the tremendous sense of empathy

with these quite physically unusual beings

may arise out of the fact

that we're looking into the faces

of our great great great grandchildren

who may be emanating back through time

carrying the message

a message

about some sort of future event

or situation

that lies many centuries downstream from us

but that is of such import

that from that point

agents are moving backward

and possibly forward through time

spreading the news

of some kind of mode shift

this doesn't seem to me

to be impossible

however

based on my own experience

which is what I think this thing

really comes down to

because what we have

in the UFO issue

is an official position

supported by scientists

whether they be Neanderthal right wingers

or doctrinaire Marxists

or whatever

a conspiracy of consensus

against the

personal experiences

of individual human beings

who are told

well what you're saying happened to you

can't have happened

you are insane

you are mentally ill

you are mistaken

so what we really have here

is a political issue

which do you believe

your perceptions

memories and expectations

aided by your intellect

or some kind of utterly abstract

official doctrinaire sexist philosophy

laid on from above

so I think really

what the saucers do

if you accept their presence

is they empower us

they empower us

to see science

for the shell game

that it is

to see the past

400 years

of western culture

for the pathetic

narrowing

of the spectrum

of allowable phenomena

that it is

to the point where people think

that if you can't bang on something

with a hammer

it isn't real

which to me

is just wild talk

I can't even imagine

where that kind of thing

is coming from

so I think

and I'll just leave you

with this final thought

that in lieu

of the repression

and it is a repression

throughout this century

of legitimately available ways

of exploring

the modalities of consciousness

and by that I mean

psychoactive compounds

the repression of those compounds

and their use by science

has created a neurotic

energy dynamic

in the mass psyche

and the mass psyche

has begun to hallucinate

because

because the destiny

of human beings

is to live

in the imagination

in the hands of the goddess

and wherever that

thrust

is impeded

psychopathy will result

there will be neurosis

there will be psychic epidemic

there will be confusion

so I believe

that until we

form

a resolution

to conduct

an unfettered

and mature

exploration

of the human psychology

using all the tools

available to us

that the skies of earth

will continue

to be haunted

by flying saucers

they will be

they will continue

to be haunted

by flying saucers

and their denizens

because they

are symbols

of our

infantile

infantilism

of our

sense of loss

of our

incompleteness

and we can heal

that breach

by simply

recognizing

that the true mystery

lies within us

the true mystery

is in the mind

and its historical promise

is the transformation

of our society

through the abandonment

of reason

as it has been

narrowly defined

by this extremely

solar

masculine

paternalistic

materialistic

legacy

that we are

the victims of

well I could talk

for a long time

but I think that's it

in a nutshell

thank you

points I didn't cover

before I get into that though

I would like to

thank and call attention

to the magnificent

accomplishment

of Elisa Gar

and the Omega Foundation

her people have done

a tremendous job

and this is definitely

the most glittering

new age event

that I have

ever had the privilege

of attending

I said to someone

does the fact

that the backdrops

are beginning to look

like the Russian Revolution

mean we're making progress

can you all

hear me

the area that I wanted

to spend a few minutes

on tonight

that I didn't touch on

this afternoon

is what then

is to be done

Tolstoy's question

once we reach

this level of

admitting the phenomenon

experiencing the phenomenon

trying to talk

with each other

about it

what is to be done

how are we

to translate

the message

coming from the other side

into a concrete reality

that works for all of us

or is that

a good thing

and my take on this

which is nothing more

than my take on it

is that what we are involved

in and with

in the UFO phenomenon

is an extremely poignant

and intense effort

to end our alienation

from the unconscious

that we can no longer

have the luxury

of an unconscious portion

of the human psyche

that that is an artifact

of the childhood

of our species

and that in fact

the ending of childhood

anticipated brilliantly

in Arthur C. Clarke's

novel Childhood's End

the ending of childhood

is what we are experiencing

in relationship

to the alien archetype

as a species

we are coming into

a kind of

pubescent awareness

of the presence

of the other

our childish

historical concerns

that were self-directed

and self-indulgent

no longer satisfy

and a deep

kind of yearning

has come upon the species

a yearning for

the confirmation

of the presence

of an other

in the same way

that an adolescent child

becomes aware of

and develops

an extremely intense

highly charged

and ambivalent attitude

toward the opposite sex

I think we are discovering

in our own psychic structure

the potential

the possibility

of a relationship

with an intelligent species

outside ourselves

and this raises for us

all the tensions

all the issues

that accompany

an adolescent love affair

how are we

to eliminate

the human unconscious

and come into our birthright

as fully conscious

enlightened beings

what is to be done

again my opinion

is that what we need to do

is to concentrate

on the phenomenon

of communication

and the evolution

of language

we have been far too naive

about the role

that language has played

in the construction

of reality

at its center

let alone

off on the fringes

with the elves

and the fairies

and the UFOs

we need to test

the envelope

of language

we need to perfect

the fine idea

of being able

to communicate

with each other

at the moment

and I think we proved it

at this conference

it's nothing more

than a fine idea

I felt before I came

to this meeting

that we would all sit down

in a room

and make great progress

in about an hour

toward understanding

the phenomenon

and then I discovered

that we were all

including myself

heavily freighted

with linguistic momentum

the power of our own metaphors

to carry us past

the opportunity

to listen

to what other people

were saying

and so I think that

what we are dreaming of

is a common language

and what the saucers

are attempting to teach

is the modality

of a linguistic transformation

in the direction

of a kind of communication

that is not dependent

on culturally sanctioned

dictionaries

but that is in the bones

in the neurons

in the synapses

so that the ambiguity

of the language

which attends

all our discussions

about reality

will be purged

from our world view

this is the essence

of falling in love

one definition

of falling in love

is nothing more

than lifting the veils

of misconception

between two entities

and still being able

to go forward

toward some kind of union

so I really believe

that we have moved

so far

from an awareness

of the feminine portion

of our psyche

that now

the thing dearest to us

and closest to us

must present itself

in consciousness

under the guise

of an extraterrestrial

or interdimensional invader

it's a comment

on the alienation

of our era

and the way

this schism

can be breached

the way this psychic wound

can be breached

can be healed

and a kind of species

wide individuality

merge

is through taking control

conscious control

of the evolution

of language

this means paying

a great deal more attention

to what we say

to each other

to linguistic intent

I think that

the main legacy

of the 1960s

into the 80s

was a legacy

of language transformed

in the direction

of feeling

to me the most shocking

part of the male dominance

of our world view

is the paucity

in our language

of terms

that convey emotion

we have 500 words

for the components

of a steering mechanism

we have five words

for emotions

each one of us

is a swim

in a concavity

in a concatenation

of emotionally subtle

wave phenomena

that come and go

just below the surface

of our awareness

but if any one of us

turns to another

and says

how are you doing

the answer is

fine, fine

yourself

this is presenting

a tremendous barrier

to us

to the expression

of our wholeness

and I'm completely

willing to line up

behind Carl Jung

on the notion

that the UFO

is an expression

of our longing

for wholeness

in principio

ad verbum

ad verbo

caro factum est

in the beginning

was the word

and the word

was made flesh

in other words

if you were

an actual

extraterrestrial

standing off

in a spaceship

looking down

on this planet

you would not see

the strides

that we have made

in the writings

of individual species

you would not even see

the great classes

of organized

organic life

what you would see

instead

is a gene swarm

a language frenzy

the coding

of meaning

in genes

in words

in architectonic

productions

in poetry

what is happening

on this planet

is the

self reflecting

energy

that is

being produced

on this planet

is the

self reflecting

energy

that is

being produced

on this planet

is the

genesis

of communication

for itself

it is language

somehow

that is loose

in our species

on our planet

within and

without

the flying saucer

so

communication

which we take

astonishingly

for granted

considering

the very

basic

kinds of

needs

that we communicate

to each other

is actually

the great

frontier

of our

spiritual

becoming

it seems to have

passed right

by us

that we already

possess

a form

of telepathy

the

miracle

of communication

involves the

fact that

I make small

mouth noises

and you

instantaneously

consult

the

culturally

sanctioned

dictionary

and out

of your

dictionary

you construct

a map

of my

linguistic

and then

through a series

of grunts

and nods

we assure

each other

that we know

what we mean

so

in a sense

the

I said

this afternoon

that the UFO

was here

to confound

us

to confound

science

on another

level

like

the psychedelics

it is here

to catalyze

a finer

evolution

of communication

to

connect

us

to

a

little

tighter

epistemic

and ontological

definition

of the

business

of communicating

with each

other

if

we could

refine

our channels

of communication

we would

coalesce

into the

kind of

omnipotent

extra

worldly

organism

that we

anticipate

in our

lives

to become

the guiding

image

of our own

cultural

evolution

we are going

to live

in the

imagination

this planet

is involved

in a

birth

process

there is

nothing

unnatural

about what

is going

on

on this

planet

and there

is nothing

unnatural

or inappropriate

about us

we are now

ready to

leave the

womb

and the

womb is

in danger

of toxemia

if we in fact

do not leave

it

we have passed

into a new

kind of

time

where the

separation

of our

species

from the

planet that

gave us

birth

is a necessity

for the

survival

of both

parties

and like

any birth

and perhaps

the saucers

stand off

to perform

a necessary

cesarean

if things

really turn

into chaos

many contactees

report

an apocalyptic

scenario

involving

the saucers

taking everybody

away

in the wake

or in the

eminence

of a

thermonuclear

exchange

however

the mature

way

the

self

reflective

way

out of

this cultural

impasse

out of this

global

stand off

is for us

to take

seriously

on a personal

level

the possibility

of evolving

our communications

with each

other

so that we

actually

become

the loving

family of

the goddess

the planetary

organism

that we all

feel

ahead of us

in the future

casting

an enormous

shadow

back over

the historical

landscape

eventually

and when

is up

to us

it will

no longer

be

a higher

dimensional

object

throwing

a shadow

into the

flat

dimensions

of history

it will

be instead

a transcendental

object

made manifest

we are

in fact

on the

brink

of great

evolution

for hundreds

of thousands

of years

possibly

but nevertheless

it is

somehow

spun in

to the fate

of our species

and the

overwhelming

image

of self

transcendent

flight

of return

to a

mandalic

unity

that transcends

space

and time

is the guiding

archetype

of our

paragrammation

through history

so I believe

that we

are

in the

same

way

that the

individuated

personality

waits

at the

end

of the

ontological

development

of the

individual

and if

we act

in good

conscience

and with

great faith

in each

other

we can

in fact

realize

the hope

of the

Irish prayer