Extra-Environmentalism (Terence McKenna)
Terence on personal empowerment and finding your own way.
In this excerpt from a 1992 workshop on the Hermetic Tradition, Terence sounds a lot like another one of my favourite anti-gurus, U.G. Krishnamurti, who described the natural state in a way that vibes with McKenna’s “extra-environmentalism”:
“Since there is no centre here, since there is no mind here, since there is nothing here, what is it that is happening? What is happening here is that this human organism is responding to the challenges, or to the stimuli, if I may put it that way. So, there is nobody here who is translating these sensations in terms of past experiences. But there is a living contact with the things around.”
“There are many futures and there are many pasts. The thing to do is to realize that you’re not being borne along on the current of some kind of inevitable thing where you’re embedded in it like a raisin in bread.
You’re able to steer. You’re able to steer away from things that are bringing you down, and you’re able to make alliances and relationships with things that support you.
It’s all about personal empowerment.
Personal empowerment means deconditioning yourself from the values and the programs of the society, and putting your own values and programs in place.
The thing to shoot for is what I call extra-environmentalism.
You know how people sometimes say, “I feel like a person from outerspace”? That doesn’t sound like such a bad way to feel. That means that you see what’s goin’ down. You see the game that’s being run, and you don’t buy in. They can’t buy you with a Mercedes or business trips to Paris. You’re smarter than that. It’s a kind of controlled alienation where you actually cultivate extra-environmentalism.
The great thing about an extra-environmental is that you’re at home everywhere. Every place is your home.
Therefore you’re always comfortable, and you don’t have to be with people of your class or your colour or your earning capacity to feel all right.
My namesake is the Roman poet Terence, and he wrote these really trashy little social commentary plays, but one quote of his has come down as fairly memorable. He said, “I am a human being, therefore nothing human is alien to me.”
You see? And that’s this thing where you accept the human. You become the extra-environmental. But when you’re with the Japanese, you’re perfectly able to accommodate yourself to their values and style. When you’re with folks from Lawrence, Kansas you can come up to that measure.
It’s a magical thing. It’s a shamanic thing. You’re a performer. You always move through these things with a sense that “This is not who I am, this is not what I am. This is merely a response to the demands of the moment.”
Attribution
From Terence McKenna: Exploring The Hermetic Tradition available on Spotify courtesy of Better Listen, who host a number of archival recordings of McKenna, James Hillman, Robert Bly, Marion Woodman and other favourite renegade philosophers and psychologists.
The Vale is a compilation of writing and research by Brian James.
Brian James is a depth counsellor, archetypal coach and host of the Howl in the Wilderness podcast, living in the wilds of Vancouver Island, Canada with his wife, astrologer Debra Stapleton and rescue mutt Suki. Learn more at http://brianjames.ca
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A beautiful reminding resonance this morning Baba. Thank you. Peace. Om.