• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

UFOs, McKenna & Childhood's End

Forums New posts
In a nutshell.... UFO's are a manifestation borne out of our corrupted collective paternalistic psyche ;)

What does he want ? abandon scientific methodology and return to the dark ages ?

Don't touch my IPAD... I'm a corrupted and spoiled kid LOL
 
I don't know why people give McKenna credence. My roomies in college did shrooms from time to time, never once did I consider the random nonsense they talked about having seen under the influence to be anything other than hallucinatory garbage.
 
I don't agree with everything the guy says or thought but he did have a few good points to make. Also, I thought whoever put the video together did a good job.
 
One of the "blessings" of being able to think is you can admire something without totally buying into everything about the artist,teacher,presenter. It takes a certain amount of intelligence to understand that. I read Stephen King but don't always agree with his world view. I saw a video of Richard Dawkins reading the Old Testament and his respect for the "literary" value of something he didn't believe in was moving on some level. My respect and enjoyment of his reading even though I absolutely disagree with his world view was not diminished. You don't have to debunk everything or embrace every thought of somebody to respect or enjoy or "get" where they are coming from.

Merry Christmas! :)
 
CapnG said:
I don't know why people give McKenna credence. My roomies in college did shrooms from time to time, never once did I consider the random nonsense they talked about having seen under the influence to be anything other than hallucinatory garbage.
Click to expand...

Okey dokey!

Let me try this too:

I have never read that book but whenever people talk about it there is nothing but pseudo intellectual bunk.

Wow, that's fun. No thinking involved either.
 
trainedobserver said:
The idea that there are "other tenants in the building" who we may not normally perceive is worthy of consideration and doesn't require you to de-tune your central nervous system to appreciate.
Click to expand...

That is a seperate concept entirely from the "drugs are the answer" approach preached by McKenna and his acolytes. If there are indeed others then it is only a matter of time (however long that span may ultimately be) until their existence is discovered and proven scientifically, either accidentally or intentionally.
 
CapnG said:
That is a seperate concept entirely from the "drugs are the answer" approach preached by McKenna and his acolytes. If there are indeed others then it is only a matter of time (however long that span may ultimately be) until their existence is discovered and proven scientifically, either accidentally or intentionally.
Click to expand...

Or you may meet one yourself.
 
Altered states of mind induced by any chemical are different to each and every person, I don''t doubt there are a lot of classified army stories of this. As long as it is illegal, believe him or don't.
 
CapnG said:
That is a seperate concept entirely from the "drugs are the answer" approach preached by McKenna and his acolytes.
Click to expand...

Well, that is a good point and I'm glad you made it. I don't think changing your brain chemistry does anything but detune the machine and cause it to operate outside of its design specifications. You don't randomly adjust potentiometers in the back of a radio and expect it to operate correctly so no one should expect to alter brain function and get anything but degraded performance.

Wow, I didn't think that video would generate that much discussion.
 
I would love to see Rick Strassman on the Paracast. His writings are very interesting and he has done his research. Now, agreeing or not agreeing is another thing althogether. I'm not convinced either way at this point. However, I do think if "Enlightenment" is possible there are better ways to acheive it than drugs. I have found prayer, meditation and even fasting in the past to be ways to connect with my inner self or the Divine. Of course once you get into "inner" life you are dealing with very subjective reality. I know even on this forum I'll read somebody who will look at an account that I find to be "evidence" of enlighthenment or spiritual truth and they will see purely mechanistic and maybe even psyhcological forces at work. On the other hand I might see something as silly or even as false that some others will see as indications of some greater scientific truth. So, when it comes to the mind/brain problem or the reality of inner expereinces I doubt we will ever find a one size fits all. At least not at our present place of knowledge. Ya never know what may be around the bend. :cool:

---------- Post added at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

I'm sorry I have a bad habit of "thinking" and then talking or in this case writing as if the other party is completely privvy to my inner thoughts.:p I was thinking of Rick Strasssman who has done work with DMT and written books about it. While most here more than likely knew who I was talking about there may be others who didn't. So, I gotta slow down today and start from the begining instead of just blabbing (or writing.) :p
 
I listened to the Paratopia interview with McKenna's brother Dennis and enjoyed the discussion. Dennis doesn't come across half as smug as Terence in my opinion.

In the past few weeks I've tried to share the admiration felt for McKenna by some people I quite respect and it's been difficult. In interviews, there's too much mutual admiration amongst guests and hosts and references to other texts seem to be applauded with gasps of wonder. I'm not moving on and shouting "Next!" I'll read some more and maybe change my mind?

Part of my distance from what he expressed is because I've had plenty of experience. He isn't discussing a mysterious world I can only wonder at; he's relating a place I've been to frequently enough to qualify for 'air miles.' Such experiences can have a profound effect on the percipient, but we also have epiphanies and 'game changing' events in our lives without using props. Despite being deliberately vague here, no doubt most of you understand the point being made.
 
Back
Top