Description
Book SynopsisBrotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna, is an autobiographical account of renowned ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna’s childhood, his relationship with his brother, and the author’s experiences with and reflections on psychedelics, philosophy, and scientific innovation.Chronicling the McKenna brothers’ childhood in western Colorado during the 1950s and 1960s, Dennis writes of his adolescent adventures including his first encounters with alcohol and drugs (many of which were facilitated by Terence), and the people and ideas that shaped them both. Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss weaves personal narrative through philosophical ideas and tales of psychedelic experimentation.
In this book, Dennis describes these inquiries with the wisdom of perspective. In his account of what has become known as “The Experiment at La Chorrera”— which Terence documented in his own 1989 book, True Hallucinations — Dennis describes how he had visions of merging mushroom and human DNA, the brothers’ predictions for the future, and their evolving ideas about society and consciousness. He also offers an intellectual understanding of the hallucinogenic effects of high-dose psychedelic mushrooms and other psychedelic substances.
Dennis, now world-renowned for this ethnobotanical work, describes in Brotherhood his early interests in cosmology and astrology, his sometimes rocky relationship with his older brother and how their paths diverged later in their lives. Dennis describes his academic career in between touching accounts of both his mother’s and Terence’s battles with cancer. In the 10th Anniversary edition of Brotherhood, Dennis reflects on scientific revelations, climate change, and the social and political crises of our time. The new edition also features both the original foreword by Luis Eduardo Luna and a new foreword by Dr. Bruce Damer.
Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss is a story about brotherhood, psychedelic experimentation, and the intertwining nature of science and myth.
Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword to the 2023 Edition
Foreword to the First Edition
Preface to the 2023 Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Part One: Beginnings
1 Beginnings
2 Three Sisters
3 Roots and Wars
4 Terry and Denny
5 Happy Day Rides
6 The Nobody People
7 The Collector
8 Flying, Fishing, and Hunting
9 Goodbye to All That
10 The Big Picture
11 First Loves: 1962
12 The California Crusade
13 The Experimental College: 1965
14 Cannabis: 1966
15 The Tutor
16 A Psychedelic Education
17 Mapping Inner Space: Carl Jung
18 The Ladders of Ecstasy: Mircea Eliade
19 Summer of Love: 1967
20 The Secret Encountered
21 The Stoners’ Revenge
22 My Datura Misadventure
23 Escape from Mordor: 1968
24 The Church Lawn Bunch
25 Busted Again: 1969
26 Girl with a Gun: 1970
Part Two: Into the Abyss
27 The Brotherhood Forms
28 Our Mother’s Death
29 A Narrow Passage: 1971
30 On the Edge of the Abyss
31 The Experiment at La Chorrera
32 Waiting for the Stone
33 The Bell Tower and a UFO
34 Reflections on La Chorrera
Part Three: Invisible Landscapes
35 Invisible Landscapes
36 The Timewave
37 To See the Great Man
38 Fun with Fungi: 1975
39 A Lab in Paradise
40 In the Trenches
41 An Encounter with Ayahuasca
42 The River of Poisons
43 Adulthood and Its Victims
44 The Plant Teachers: 1985
45 The Perpetual Postdoc
46 Climbing the Vine: 1991
47 New in Town
48 The Bard in Light and Shadow
49 A Desperate Situation
50 Into the Fire
Epilogue
The Rearview Mirror
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Appendix
Index
