Sad News – Terrence McKenna’s Notes Destroyed In A Fire

Terrence McKenna’s library was apparently destroyed by an accidental fire, this struck me as really sad news. Rare books were destroyed, and that’s sad enough, but so were Terrence’s notes, which is a real shame, because it was certainly possible that future researchers might really have learned some useful things by having his notes to study.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/22/terence_mckennas_lib.html

I think this quote was originally written by Erik Davis…

“Terence’s brother Dennis owns an index of Terence’s collection, which will at least give us an overview of his library—sorta like a playlist without the MP3s. But even this valuable document will not replace the body of knowledge itself—a body that had become, in the weird ways of the memetic world, a kind of second body for Terence’s fabulous and fascinating mind. No budding head will ever be able to poke through this collection again, with its faintly perfumed volumes on Chinese alchemy and butterflies and hash. And the world has one fewer 1659 folio of Isaac Casaubon’s A True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and some spirits, and one fewer old-school copy of Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which Terence swapped for a pound or two of yummies back in the day.”

From Tech Gnosis – there’s more good stuff here – check it out.

http://www.techgnosis.com/chunks.php?sec=journal&cat=&file=chunkfrom-2007-02-13-2307-0.txt

“February 7, a 5-alarm blaze erupted in an old building in downtown Monterey. The fire started in a Quizno’s sub shop, … and went on to thoroughly destroy a number of joints, including … some storage offices belonging to Big Sur’s Esalen Institute…. Esalen lost little of their own archives, the vast bulk of their books, photos, audio and videotapes residing elsewhere. Unfortunately, the institute was also using the offices to store the amazing library of Terence McKenna, the visionary psychedelic bard who passed away in 2000. ”

I hope there are some other storehouses of his notes and private writing. Terrence was a brave writer and thinker, who tried to talk about one of the most difficult areas of the study of the mind – psychedelic drugs and the biochemistry of consciousness. I’d like to think the time will come when his contribution can really be appreciated.