“The Words of McKenna”: Healing, Political Critique, and the Evolution of Psychonaut Religion since the 1960s Counterculture
Journal of the American Academy of Religion March 31, 2016 Andrew Monteith 4 citations
Terence McKenna's advocacy for the religious use of hallucinogens shaped a countercultural movement called Psychonauts, who see humanity as undergoing rapid evolutionary change aided by substances and other entities. This American Psychonaut religion evolved in opposition to the Drug War, which treated these sacraments as illegal, thereby catalyzing the movement's anarchist and anticapitalist ideology that idealizes archaic society over modern 'dominator' society. The Drug War also hindered scholarly study of substance use as religious practice.