The global triumph of Western values means we, as a species, have wandered into a state of prolonged neurosis because of the absence of a connection… - Terence McKenna

" "

The global triumph of Western values means we, as a species, have wandered into a state of prolonged neurosis

because of the absence of a connection to the unconscious. Gaining access to the unconscious through plant

hallucinogen use reaffirms our original bond to the living planet. Our estrangement from nature and the

unconscious became entrenched roughly two thousand years ago, during the shift from the Age of the Great God

Pan to that of Pisces that occurred with the suppression of the pagan mysteries and the rise of Christianity. The

psychological shift that ensued left European civilization staring into two millennia of religious mania and

persecution, warfare, materialism, and rationalism.

The monstrous forces of scientific industrialism and global politics that have been born into modern times were

conceived at the time of the shattering of the symbiotic relationships with the plants that had bound us to nature

from our dim beginnings. This left each human being frightened, guilt-burdened, and alone. Existential man was