In The Light of Nature - Terrence Mckenna

The Light In Nature (1988) Esalen

Art: Blaine Garrett, Joe Lipscomb & Charles Denton

"The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas.

It is the night sea journey, the lone fisherman on a tropical sea with his nets, and you let these nets down - sometimes, something tears through them that leaves them in shreds and you just row for shore, and put your head under your bed and pray.

At other times what slips through are the minutiae, the minnows of this ichthyological metaphor of idea chasing.

But, sometimes, you can actually bring home something that is food, food for the human community that we can sustain ourselves on and go forward."

~ Terence McKenna

The Light In Nature

Understanding & The Imagination in The Light of Nature (1987, 17 Oct)

Transcript: http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/UILN.html

Art: Max Ernst 'Europe After The Rain ll' (1940)

Presented: Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles.

Because the fact is, what blinds us to the presence of alien intelligence is linguistic and cultural bias operating on ourselves. The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world, you see. We operate on a very narrow slice based on cultural conventions. So the important thing, if synergizing progress is the notion to be maximized (and I think it's the notion to be maximized), is to try and locate the blind spot in the culture — the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not — because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve, you see. For Western Civilization that place is the psychedelic experience as it emerges out of nature. "Understanding and Imagination in the Light of Nature"

Imagination In The Light Of Nature