The New Age is Already Here, Within You
"I always felt that in a way the New Age was a flight from the psychedelic experience, that the New Age was saying - its invisible agenda was - 'we'll try anything as long as we're sure it doesn't work' and that exempts psychedelics. All talk of spiritual advancement is always talk of pushing, trying, practice, concentration, attention. Once you find psychedelics, you're not looking for the accelerator anymore, you're looking for the brakes on your spiritual vehicle. You have suddenly found the means to achieve the stated goal, which is union with the divine, the oneness, or something like that. Now the game becomes a very grown-up game - how are you going to integrate this into your ordinary life? You're no longer a seeker, you're no longer an ingenue. Now you're an insider. Now you can come and go from these transcendental places at will. Now how do you use that to make yourself a better person, a better parent, a better citizen of your community?...Some people have the idea you take a psychedelic drug or substance and the world transforms itself and you watch this happen. That's true to some degree but the person, the watcher is themself transformed." --Terence McKenna, NPR Interview March 1999
