Insight from Terrence Mckenna

What civilization is, is 6 billion people trying to make themselves happy by standing on each other’s shoulders and kicking each other’s teeth in. It’s not a pleasant situation.

And yet, you can stand back and look at this planet and see that we have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us - the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary. We are led by the least among us and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons.

This is something, culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.

Yet we glorify the creative potential of the individual, the rights of the individual. We understand the felt-presence of experience is what is most important. But the culture is a perversion. It fetishizes objects, creates consumer mania, it preaches endless forms of false happiness, endless forms of false understanding in the form of squirrelly religions and silly cults. It invites people to diminish themselves and dehumanize themselves by behaving like machines - meme processors of memes passed down from Madison Avenue and Hollywood… Terence McKenna

I think he's absolutely right,and humanity has to change it's ways from the current self destructive mentality that western culture has proliferated and is forcing down on the world, otherwise humanity will become just a sad memory of this planet's history going into the future.

Discuss.

Sometimes I think it's already too late.

We're doomed. Caught in an endless spiral of consumerism and war.

We actually fight each other over whose invisible sky fairy is best.

There's no hope for us. I just hope the planet is inhabitable for the remaining life forms when the last of our selfish, stupid species exits stage left.

Why in the world do we think that this is only western civilization? Other cultures that have nothing to do with the West do things like this as well.

but I'll be the sirst to admit that a country that insists on drinking all their water out of bottles, then tosses them out to become a part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has a lot of explaining to do.

Originally posted by The_Oracle
What civilization is, is 6 billion people trying to make themselves happy by standing on each other’s shoulders and kicking each other’s teeth in. It’s not a pleasant situation.

And yet, you can stand back and look at this planet and see that we have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us - the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary. We are led by the least among us and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons.

This is something, culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.

Yet we glorify the creative potential of the individual, the rights of the individual. We understand the felt-presence of experience is what is most important. But the culture is a perversion. It fetishizes objects, creates consumer mania, it preaches endless forms of false happiness, endless forms of false understanding in the form of squirrelly religions and silly cults. It invites people to diminish themselves and dehumanize themselves by behaving like machines - meme processors of memes passed down from Madison Avenue and Hollywood… Terence McKenna

That should be a poster and all of us should display it in our windows.

reply to post by jtap66


I believe humanity has already started the next step in our progression, evolution, awakening take your pick. This is a great time in human history and its very exciting to watch it all unfold. No worries we are coming together and don't even realize it! Sending positivity out to you!

Conformity allows for multiple beings to live in some semblance of harmony and order yet represses the individual and creativity. It is the ultimate social paradox.
How do we unleash the potential of the individual while establishing norms for social behavior?

As best I can tell true free-market capitalism and the Bill of Rights have set the bounds that allow for the individual to maximize their potential while retaining a cohesive national element. No other system in history has been so productive, so inventive as what we've seen in the United States.

Yet as our freedoms both personal and economic are compromised or abolished so to does our capacity to fulfill individual potential. We have entered in a spiral of downward progress.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals

Conformity allows for multiple beings to live in some semblance of harmony and order yet represses the individual and creativity. It is the ultimate social paradox.
How do we unleash the potential of the individual while establishing norms for social behavior?

Yet as our freedoms both personal and economic are compromised or abolished so to does our capacity to fulfill individual potential. We have entered in a spiral of downward progress.

With a Resource Based Economy it's possible.If you create the proper environment and allow humans access to resources for free combined with education tailored around humans being able to achieve their maximum potential,you can have both the development of creativity and that would be your supposed conformity.

As best I can tell true free-market capitalism and the Bill of Rights have set the bounds that allow for the individual to maximize their potential while retaining a cohesive national element. No other system in history has been so productive, so inventive as what we've seen in the United States.

I believe this is only so because humanity has not known of any other, and therefor always turned to familiar systems like capitalism or communism.With today's technological possibilities we can bring the very best together to improve the human life qualities for everyone and not just a few as in capitalism.The system capable of doing that is a Resource Based Economy.

The 21st century has brought on a very abrupt and obvious divide amongst its people. On one hand we have the majority of people who are comfortable in their "culture"/conformity and then on the other we have those with a more open mind and have much higher potential to fulfill their individuality.

Terrence McKenna was completely right when he said that culture is not your friend. Culture states "This is what you believe, this is what you think, and this is how you behave." When in reality, one should rely on the self to exercise free will to make good decisions without limiting the self to what others have deemed as correct or appropriate (because it's usually of no benefit to the individual).

By removing yourself from these limiting factors the decisions you can make can have staggering capabilities. Some of the people who have done this are Einstein, Shakespeare, and many many others including Terrence McKenna.

There is a reason why these magnificent people were often labeled as crazy but only because they distanced themselves from societal norms while at the same time providing profound advancements for humanity as a whole.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Acceptance Vs. conformity. These are my thoughts ... I don't understand why we all cant live by the golden rule for example. Whats wrong with a little simplicity? Some times Humanity makes these things overly complex. Back to the golden rule. This is a thought that twist through many many religions and philosophies. In my opinion Unifying them. I choose to see the way philosophies, religions, theories, and spiritualism are alike. I don't have to compromise my spiritual individuality to accept a new perspective. Acceptance tempered with tolerance. I think change has to begin locally. starting in our own communities. Start treating people how we really want to be treated. There will be change and transition but these are things not to be feared. Great times! Sending out a good vibe!

I love this post.

Repeating what I wrote so many times on this site: We have false beliefs that we can fix the world through politics, religions, wars, consumerism, societies, cultures, meetings in boardrooms, at the voter's poll, and other places outside ourselves.

We need to fix what is wrong on the inside of each human heart to reach human harmony.

Another Terrence Mckenna quote:

“Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.”

Those of you who found wisdom in the engineer/architect who met the people from planet Iarga, whether it being fact or fiction, might have taken away 3 basic wrongs with our world according to the Iargians:

1.) We are driven by ego, selfishness, self centred action with a massive lacking in compassion and awareness of our own dynamic spirit life, and that of others.

2.) Inefficiency: We run this planet in the most inefficient way possible. We use our planet's resources to manufacture goods purely for the purpose of trade/greed/making money, not from a point of necessity or benefit to the inner human soul or his well being. Then we use it, break it, and store it up in heaps of broken junk. We are totally ineffective. We are now even at a point where we manufacture goods to break, so that it can be replaced sooner.

This is a total waste of natural resources, human labor, money, and human spirituality. Value has been degraded, and everything is replaceable.

3.) Materialism: we have sold our souls to the devil, by associating ourselves very strongly to what we earn, what we can afford, what we look like, pouring our life's energy down the drain in pursuit of things that will not benefit the soul, cannot accompany you after death, causes divide and hate, greed and lust, subtracts from wisdom and harmony. What for?

Originally posted by jtap66
We're doomed. Caught in an endless spiral of consumerism and war.

Agreed!

IRM

Originally posted by TRGreer
reply to post by jtap66

 

I believe humanity has already started the next step in our progression, evolution, awakening take your pick. This is a great time in human history and its very exciting to watch it all unfold. No worries we are coming together and don't even realize it! Sending positivity out to you!

I really hope you're right. So far, humanity hasn't instilled me with confidence.

Originally posted by jtap66

Originally posted by TRGreer
reply to post by jtap66

 

I believe humanity has already started the next step in our progression, evolution, awakening take your pick. This is a great time in human history and its very exciting to watch it all unfold. No worries we are coming together and don't even realize it! Sending positivity out to you!

I really hope you're right. So far, humanity hasn't instilled me with confidence.

We have to work and bring change together not wait for it to happen.The more people that think progressively, the better chance of this change actually becoming a reality.Check out the Resource Based Economy if you haven't already, it really is the system of the future.

There appears to be more and more people waking up to the fact that we have the answer within us, that the solution to our own demise, so expertly messed up on a grand scale by ourselves, can only be found by true awaking. However, here is another quote by Terrence Mckenna that rings powerfully true for us:

“It's clearly a crisis of two things: of consciousness and conditioning. We have the technological power, the engineering skills to save our planet, to cure disease, to feed the hungry, to end war; But we lack the intellectual vision, the ability to change our minds. We must decondition ourselves from 10,000 years of bad behavior. And, it's not easy.”

“The problem is not to find the answer, it's to face the answer”

“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.”

“Nature is not our enemy, to be raped and conquered. Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.”

“If you don't have a plan, you become part of somebody else's plan.”

If only we can see ourselves for what we really are, every thing will change:

“You are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.”

“The apocalypse is not something which is coming. The apocalypse has arrived in major portions of the planet and it’s only because we live within a bubble of incredible privilege and social insulation that we still have the luxury of anticipating the apocalypse.”

Well, I guess one more time won't hurt. I've been posting this same stuff here for years now. Please read on.

Many years ago, strange things started happening in my life, not least of which were some very clear messages coming to me in meditation. They went completely against the sort of world I was living in and the sort of lifestyle I was living myself. My credit was maxed out, I smoked cigarettes as I had done for years, I worked in an embassy in defense diplomacy, we had two refrigerators full of food all the time at home and a good bit of it was just thrown away because no one got around to eating it before it went off, but it was there just in case. I drank port a lot. I drank Guinness a lot. I went to diplomatic and ministerial parties a lot. I went to commercial event parties a lot. We were all about selling whatever we could sell. But I was living like most people - well beyond my means in all areas, because that's what it is to be human nowadays.

I started getting these messages though. Probably had many more coming in around me but I ignored them, of course. I was already doing exactly what our culture wants us to. Then the emails started coming in. What? Yes, emails. I had six weeks (paid) holiday around Christmas so there were a LOT of emails when I came back. The emails started before I left and by the time I had finished going through the mass of mail when I returned, there were those still waiting. And then another came in. I wasn't on any sort of mailing lists from that account. I asked around - no one else had been getting them, only me. Okay. I opened it and read it. It was from the Falun Dafa and upon reading it, I saw something about qigong. I checked that out and it looked pretty cool. But the Falun Dafa don't charge anything for their lessons. You can even learn it right online from their videos. So to me, obviously this meant it was of no value. You get what you pay for, right? So I asked my teenage kids if they wanted to go to some seriously expensive Shaolin qigong lessons that were starting for the first time in our town the following Monday. Off we went.

That's when the messages started. We met weekly for 90 minutes and by the fourth meeting I was starting to feel things I had never imagined. I asked the sifu what it all meant. He doubted me as an attention grabber, though I asked him in private. Spontaneous meditations would start up at work, I started seeing energies that I simply never thought could be seen. My life started changing quite dramatically. Then the messages came in. I will recount them to you now.

Practice some sort of gentle exercise. Qigong and taiji are quite excellent for the purpose. It will help to balance the qi in your body and allow a closer communication between "up there" and "down here". Don't question this, just do it.

Eat raw foods or very simple cooked foods, depending on your current physical imbalances. Whatever the case, eat only one kind of plant per day for the first period of time. If you need cooked food, eat steamed broccoli, for example, and nothing else at all for the first month or so. It takes a great deal of time to detox. It won't be painless. It won't be without dramatic results either. Do this in conjunction with qigong. Practice before you eat so that you align the energies without distraction. Food is energy, but not in the sense we like to think. More about that later, if you like.

Never drink sodas, milkshakes, mass-produced beers. Drink water - spring water. Use the money you save on food for that.

Wash with hot salt water. Use a rough cloth to rub your skin with this hot saline from your heart upward, outward, and downward. Change the water as it gets dirty. Use sea salt, never iodized. In fact, throw away your iodized salt now and never use it again.

Get rid of all your subscriptions, no matter how valuable you might think they are. You subscribe to nothing now. You are finding yourself and your true way of living. Do not subscribe.

You no longer watch nor listen to tv. Music is the same. Both fill your mind with very disturbing vibrations and messages. They are part of the reason you will find it very difficult to meditate with qigong practice. Your mind is full of all that crap. Detox it. No tv, radio, or music. Not even in the background.

Practice deep breathing. Instead of lighting up a smoke or having a drink, practice deep breathing. You won't need those anymore.

You will notice that most of your income is still there when you live this way. There is still a lot more, but this is where you start.

I need to add to that that you should also systematically get rid of stuff you don't actively use or has a lot of emotional weight for you. You must learn to let go of "things". "Things" are not life. Acquisition of "things" does not bring value to your life or to you as a person. When you rid yourself of these material memories and weight, you allow yourself to experience freedom. You find yourself disinterested in having anything for your own. It's enough for you that the thing exists. Ownership is irrelevant and quite simply an illusion in any case that serves only to bloat the ego.

Cleaning is another thing that has come in quite strongly, to me at least. I've always been rather particular about having things clean. I don't care too much for neatness but cleanliness has always been a priority for me. There is nothing in the world worse than dirty bathrooms or kitchens. Can't stand dirty windows. As you detox, you may find that comes more to the forefront as well. I had to clean my friends' homes too during this process. It was so strong that it overflowed.

Also, as you pare down your life you will find that you earn more money than you can spend. Good in many ways. You can save it or spend it to help others in your sphere (though you will need to be careful about that because you don't want to encourage them toward more materialism) or you can simply cut back the hours you spend at work. Or you can take another job doing something you love but that didn't pay as well. Now you can literally afford to do what you love doing.

Non-materialism opens up your life to so much more. You have time. You sleep well. You have resources. You find and create what is really important to you. You make the world better by actively renouncing the things we have polluted ourselves with.

I welcome comments and encourage any questions you may have.