Don't do the GW?
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This thread is about Terence McKenna undoubtedly imo a genius and a meek gentle soul. One of the most articulate men I have ever heard but there's a problem. I don't have the citation but those familiar with his lectures will confirm what I say.
A master I once knew wrote about how drugs are the pits of the Black brother...or more to the point..can be. We have established on this forum that those who try to take away our True Will are basically black magicians. The thing with McKenna was, he obviously induced profound forms of "Samadhi" within himself , psychochemically induced that is, but I heard him argue against spiritual work, yoga etc. This tells me that he was against people doing the GW. In terms of attainment, all he was about was drugs, drugs, mushrooms and drugs. He was obsessed. Yes he was a mathematician and a philosopher and academic and his work on the King Wen sequence is fascinating but when it came to how people can attain, he thought it should be by psycho chemical means only. Was this guy a black brother?
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"We have established on this forum that those who try to take away our True Will are basically black magicians."
There should be no blame. You perceive them as Black but it really just points to your own blackness/blinds that you need to observe. Every situation has a solution. If you can't see it, you just travel/unravel to build a better perception. There is no taking away, hopefully, just continued "building" based on observation of the experience.
Don't do drugs
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I have no reason to think of him as a Black Brother.
There are many alternative ways to attach meaning to the same string of phenomena you cite.
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The Great Work and the A.'.A.'. curriculum aren't the same. The curriculum claims the ability to produce Genius in this lifetime through this method.
So, you've read him. Does he have something to compete with that in terms of the Great Work? Why or why not? That's how I'd look at it.
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I'm fond of McKenna as well.
I think one possible resolution would be that with drugs you are (as it were) shuffling the yarrow sticks of your mind - IOW, drugs are like a kind of divination, therefore to be taken as seriously or as un-seriously as any other form of divination. Also, like divination (or like dreams or astral travel, which are I think closely related, though not identical, to drug experiences, as neither is identical to the other), you are getting an "answer" from the "spirits" in charge of the system you're using (i.e. the brain's systems and sub-systems, considered as semi-autonomous). ("You" being the conscious virtual captain of the crew of brain gadgets - so in a way it's like taking a vote.)
Also, like divination, drugs can be an adjunct or a hindrance to the Great Work - the clue to either being whether the overall effect or result is a joyful/enthusiastic direction or a joyless/weighted-down direction (with the caveat that it's not always obvious at any given moment which way you're going - but nobody said it was going to be easy!
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