Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Honey McKenna

Over the last few days I have been reading the book "Food of the Gods" and it really is a great read. I am not one to be really interested in Terence McKenna in the past as he seems to be more of a Timothy Leary of his time, with individuals flocking to his teaches and seeming to be more of a religious teacher than anything, but after reading his book (or the most of it) I have become to really see why people would want to come hear him teach.  In his book Food of the Gods, McKenna provides us a very detailed history of how drugs were used and why they are used like they are today.

One of the many things that I found interesting is how McKenna theorizes alcohol use came about. He talks about how psychoactive mushrooms were put into honey in order to be preserved for long periods of transportation as honey was used a preservative, even for bodies.  It was most likely found that honey was fermented over time and increased the affects of the mushrooms and produced its own mind altering experience. Mead was made and produced at this point and after clutres came into power that didnt allow for mind altering mushrooms to be used (at least for the average person) then mead started to become more popular.

I found it interesting as well that McKenna points out that throughout history humans have always used substances that alter consciousness, and most importantly when they are told that they cant use those substances, they revolt.

Anyways a great read and highly recommended. I can not even come close to providing a justly informative summery of his book as it is full of important information in understanding why the drug situation is what it is today.

3 comments:

  1. This is a great book! I was genuinely shocked at how well written and researched it was too. My expectations were a bit low because of the reputation of McKenna, Leary and crew for their, dare I say, "drug rants".

    If you get a chance, you might enjoy checking out a little review I wrote of this book awhile back, too.

    BTW, it's been awhile since I've been to your blog. You've got a kickass thing going here. Love the Elegant theme you've got set up too. This was one of the themes I was sizing up using myself, actually, at one point.

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  2. Ben,

    Thanks for your comment! I will make sure to check out your book review and post something about it on the blog. It sounds like you and I have the same view about the "drug rants" in the 60's and I am truly not for it. I think that the worst thing that could have been done with such a powerful consciousness exploring tool in America is abusing the hell out of it and making it illegal. They being more educated people then the average person, should have seen its usefulness for good and helping people and slowly exposed the public to the idea.

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  3. BTW I added your link to my blog list! Great blog!

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