Terence McKenna - True Hallucinations
(box-set, 1984)
Original release: Lux Natura, 1984 (box-set of 8 cassettes)
A talking book by Terence McKenna, featuring occasional rock music
by the
Nomadband, and sound effects
Produced by Sound Photosynthesis, CA
| Comments: Terence McKenna should need no
introduction to anyone reading these pages. However, this ambitious talking
book project from 1984 has been somewhat overlooked among the wealth of
material the great man left behind, even though it was at that point his
crowning achievement. It exists only as a set of cassettes, which plays a
part in this oversight -- had Terence waited just a couple of years he could
have put it out as commercial CDs instead, but probably he felt he had
waited long enough already. Clocking in at circa 9 hours, "True Hallucinations" is a dazzling mix of detailed autobiography, diary notes, psychedelic rock music, fringe science, unlimited speculation, and plain old fun. The backbone of the contents is formed by the now legendary trek deep into the Amazon basin in Southern Colombia that McKenna undertook along with his brother Dennis and a few more fellow travelers in 1971. These spoken word recordings contain the most detailed account Terence ever gave of his life-changing experiences, which seem fuelled as much by personal circumstances and the milieu as the far out mushroom & DMT experiment that was undertaken. It is meaningless to try and summarize it all here, especially as much of the strength comes from the well-written and often quite arresting descriptions of the natural environment around La Chorrera and the co-explorers. It seems obvious that at least part of the material comes from a book manuscript with literary (not just scientific) aspirations, but given his extraordinary qualities as a spoken word performer, this audio format is probably the best possible presentation of it. Some parts seem more or less ad-libbed before a small circle of listeners, and the mood is occasionally loosened as McKenna cracks up. The rock music isn't essential to the work but works well, with a certain Grateful Dead influence. McKenna would later rework parts of this material into his True Hallucinations and Archaic Revival books, but most people agree that these later works do not reach the psychedelic heights of the audio box-set. Sold for $80 at the time (a lot of money then), it was later reprinted with an altered cover design; what is shown here is the original 1984 version. The later version is still in print. The audio rips circulating on the internet are in poor MP3 that loses the magic and atmosphere of the original recording. Here is a 5-minute clip where Terence raps about a mysterious purple fluid connected with shamanic use of yage. |
PS in an odd twist of synchronicity, my copy
used to belong to Dennis McKenna !
©
Patrick The Lama 2007