Terence McKenna Quotes

The life force knows exactly what it takes to keep any particular living organism - any organism - alive. Anything in manifestation, for that matter. Even a rock is a manifestation of some sort, and you know, in physics and quantum physics, they know a rock is not dead.

Molecules dissolve and pass away, but consciousness survives the death of the matter on which it rides.

Work with yourself. Work. If you have a partner, so much the better. Speak. Use whatever process is appropriate. Know that this universe is compassionate, aware and alive. This is a universe of life. This is not a material enterprise. It is a spiritual enterprise and it is filled with loving assistance. This is a thought form that must be in place in order for you to receive assistance.

To think and to be fully alive are the same.

Is the earth in our head? Or do we stand on the earth?

I realize that most of us live on the skin - on the surface - without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.

We are the consciousness of the earth. We are the eyes of the earth. The voice of the earth.

To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

When things are in order, if the cause of the orderliness cannot be deduced from the motion of the elements or from the composition of matter, it is quite possibly a cause possessing a mind.

You are only here now; you're only alive in this moment.

You knew the truth all along, Colie. That's all matters. You knew.

Matter is motion outside, mind is motion inside.

Without the ability to think about yourself, to reflect on your life, there’s really no awareness, no consciousness. Consciousness doesn’t come automatically; it comes through being alive, awake, curious, and often furious.

I grow aware of various forms of man and of myself. I am form and I am formless, I am life and I am matter, mortal and immortal. I am one and many -- myself and humanity in flux.

I'm proposing on one level that hallucinogens be thought of as almost as social pheromones that regulate the rate at which language develops, and therefore regulate human culture generally.

When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all — except life. We shall have found the basis of everything — of the earth we walk on, of the air we breathe, of the sunshine, of our physical body itself, of everything in the world, however great or however small — except life.

Matter is merely mind deadened by the development of habit to the point where the breaking up of these habits is very difficult.

What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.

To be awake is to be completely alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.

It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you.

We are defined by how we place our attention.

I imagine the center of the Earth must be a crowded place by now, but perhaps it is the spirits of those of us residing there that keep the Earth alive and green.

We are as much alive as we keep the Earth alive.

Matter and energy seem granular in structure, and so does “life”, but not so mind.

A certain construct of emotions that really define who you are and who you will become and I feel very much that my childhood is very alive inside of me, very close to me, very much part of me. And it's a sometimes painful, sometimes joyous inexhaustible resource for poetry.