[TheAceOfHearts]

Terence McKenna would often say all sorts of crazy-sounding things but he never struck me as someone who took himself too seriously. Here's a short clip [0] which I believe perfectly captures his essence; at the end you can hear him laugh at himself and his story.

Edit: I've enjoyed listening to many hours of Terence McKenna speaking, but I wouldn't recommend swallowing all of his pills.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHFC1BB2gOU

[dorkmind]

What is the Tao-drug connection? I feel like this is a case of Orientalism where Western drug culture is getting in the way of popular perception of Taoism, especially Chuang Tzu. Why aren't intellectual snobs trading in-jokes about Taoism and Zen and Mahayana Buddhism and the Diamond Sutra? It's like they ceded a huge swath of territory to the stoners, and for no good reason, I might add.

Why is there no popular Taoist movement? Why was it marginalized in the hippie movement? Why did intellectuals allow the hippies to control the perception of Taoism?

Chuang Tzu is just so fundamental. I can't see how you can go wrong adding it to a standard Western education.

    YOUR LIFE HAS A LIMIT but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger. If you understand this and still strive for knowledge, you will be in danger for certain! If you do good, stay away from fame. If you do evil, stay away from punishments. Follow the middle; go by what is constant, and you can stay in one piece, keep yourself alive, look after your parents, and live out your years.

[52-6F-62]

Hippies are marginalized?

I thought all of that movement has been more or less mainstreamed over the past forty years.

This isn’t exactly Crowley’s England.

[netizen-936824]

Drug using hippies are marginalized.

[52-6F-62]

Are they?

Everywhere I look cannabis use has virtually normalized outside of outdated and contrived legal frameworks, and 1%er business tycoons are micro-dosing on the job for presumed spiritual and/or perceptual advantages.

I'm not sure how that counts as marginalized.

[netizen-936824]

You need to consider your informational sphere, considering you are on HN its probably vastly different than 95% of the US. Most of the US still views drug use as a criminal issue, including psychedelics. Psychedelics are still central to large pieces of the counter culture.

[52-6F-62]

I live and operate well outside of the typical sphere of Hacker News. Cannabis has been normalized across my country for decades. It's well known for it.

[okareaman]

I really enjoy his address to the Jung Society because he is a little more formal without the amusing speculative half-serious statements. He really broke through to me in this one ("the dime dropped"), whereas I didn't take him as seriously before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvBP2sm5kJM

[omilu]

Do you have a time stamp to the interesting bit? That video is 3 hours long.

[mistermann]

And also beautiful things:

https://youtu.be/Q-J09gk0mJk