Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025) • Hacker News Board

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#111

Post by buildsjets » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 11:37 PM UTC

antonvs wrote: post #79

carljungslabtek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he didn’t say it would diminish, he said it would increase until we reached a singularity, which he pegged to 2012. not that i’m a mckenna devotee but i always thought it was interesting that he speculated the final push would be a “device that a small group of people use to generate infinite novelty” and then the smartphone really took off exactly around 2012. the “small group” is just you and your buddies making en…

> which he pegged to 2012 He picked the date because of the Mayan calendar. Bullshit all the way down.

To expand on the levels of bullshittery, he initially picked “sometime in 2012” based on noting the number of elapsed days between 3 events in his life that he considered significant. (death of his mother, meeting a woman, and the date of the La Chorrera experiment with said woman.) He claimed that these events formed a sequence that could be found hidden in the King Wen sequence of the I Ching. By curve fitting these 3 data points and extrapolating to the end of the King Wen sequence, he predicted an event of peak novelty and the termination of history in 2012-ish. A computer (Apple ][) was used therefore the method is clearly scientifically sound.

He later refined it to align specifically with the Mayan Calendar because that was getting trendy, and he had a public speaking business to support. He pretty much says so in some of his later recordings.

Note he always claimed the end of his “Timewave” was the end of history, not the end of the planet or the end of the universe, or the end of humanity. He speculated that one potential event that could thus end history would be the invention of a time machine.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#112

Post by psd1 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #96

psd1 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also impressed, but not in a good way. I consider certainty to be the biggest tell of falsehood, and I wish to deny the vote to people with certainty. Certainty of opinion on a complex topic reveals a belief that organic brains can, in practice, judge the correctness of their own reasoning - a conceit that borders on the psychotic, and at minimum a complete failure of self-awareness. These people don't need agenc…

You sound awfully sure of yourself!

Have you accepted Bertrand Russell into your heart? Here's a pamphlet.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#113

Post by Loughla » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

LocalH wrote: post #60

Loughla wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that psychedelics will not get rid of anything on their own. They provide you with a different perspective on what you may or may not already know is going on. This perspective can help you process those issues, absolutely. But they will not solve anything. I was always interested in finding a psychiatrist or therapist that would help me process during a shroom trip, but never found one. And resettin…

A single deep DMT experience "cured" my ADHD for several months before it faded, and I had zero guidance

I guess I was talking more about depression and anxiety than anything else. That's awesome for you. Any way to keep that going, or did you see diminishing returns?

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#114

Post by pstuart » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 12:28 AM UTC

temp0826 wrote: post #56

pstuart wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody's different. I am approaching the problem from multiple angles (pharma, non-pharma); CBT is on the table and I'm open to other non-chemical routes. Your comment conflates depression with "being sad/hurt". There's biological aspects that no amount of trauma processing (whether talk therapy or spiritual (psilocybin)). Sometimes the machine itself is broken, not the programming. I've experience significant tra…

I've been pretty blessed with my path- I've spent the greater part of the last 6 years steeped in traditional ayahuasca (Shipibo) work and it has convinced me that there is very likely something at the root that is not biological/genetic/structural in nearly all cases (the exceptions being schizophrenia/bipolar). The issue is that nearly no one is so blessed to be able to take off for the months/years it requires to…

I know that there was no ill intent but it certainly seemed to be conflating things.

I know that I am neurospicy and seen extreme evidence of same in family members. I have my grief, and the ongoing worry of wasting my life and all that fun stuff. That part feels like various forms of therapy would help, but there's other aspects that are just flat out biochemical failures. It's an adventure in how to deal with all the above the best one can within the given constraints.

What would be extra helpful is to not do it alone, but alas, one can't always get what one wants, or needs.