True Hallucinations: A Terence McKenna Psychedelic Book (Audiobook)

True Hallucinations: A Terence McKenna Psychedelic Book (Audiobook) | Third Monk image 3

true_hallucinations_final

Hearing Terence talk about his ideas is even better than reading them.

His eloquent passion drips with every spoken word, and his emphasis on certain words reveals glimpses into his mind-set when he was writing.

True Hallucinations is, well, perhaps Publishers Weekly’s hilarious review said it best:

In 1971 ethnobotanist McKenna ( The Archaic Revival ), his brother Dennis and three friends boated to a town in Amazonian Colombia, seeking a hallucinogenic plant that enables the Witoto tribe to talk to elf-like “little men.” In psychedelicized ravings interspersed with diary excerpts, McKenna records their experiences after ingesting mind-altering mushrooms and other psychoactive plants.

A flying saucer slowly flew over McKenna’s head; he calls it a “holographic mirage” of a future technology. Dennis had a revelation about a “psychofluid” that pervades the universe. McKenna flashes forward to Hawaii in 1975 where mantis-like creatures from hyperspace attack his lover, and flashes back to his tantric lovemaking in Tibet and to Indonesia where unrepentant Nazi scientists tried to recruit him in 1970. He posits the existence of a particle of time, the chronon , which conditions matter. A bizarre book. – Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc

True Hallucinations Audiobook

Prefer reading: True Hallucinations PDF

Our self discoveries make us each a microcosm of the larger pattern of history. The inertia of introspection leads toward recollection, for only through memory is the past recaptured and understood. In the fact of experiencing and making the present, we are all actors. – Terrence McKenna

terence_mckenna True Hallucinations

Psychonauts Library – 4 Essential Books About Psychedelics (KJ Book Rec)

Psychonauts Library - 4 Essential Books About Psychedelics (KJ Book Rec) | Third Monk image 4

Psychedelic_Vomit_Explosion_by_Maneshi

Psychedelic agents, when properly understood, are probably one of the most valuable, useful, and powerful tools available to humanity. Yet, their use is extremely complex, which means that they are widely misunderstood and often abused.

It is not psychedelics that are complex. In their most useful application, they play a rather straightforward role. In my observation one of the outstanding actions of psychedelics is permitting the dissolving of minds sets. One of the most powerful mind set humans employ is the hiding of undesirable material from consciousness. Thus, a very important function of psychedelic substances is to permit access to the unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind is enormously complex and possesses an extremely wide range of attributes, from repressed, painful material to the sublime realization of universal love. With such variance in experience, learning more about psychedelics is essential for safe, sustained benefit.

These 4 books about psychedelics are an amazing foundational base for Psychedelic Knowledge.

Doors of Perception - Books About Psychedelics

The Doors of Perception PDF

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern. – William Blake from the poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Beyond essential reading, Huxley’s recount of his afternoon trip with mescaline tops many psychonauts list for psychedelic themed reading. Aldous is well known for his love of psychedelics, and his narrative ability is undeniable.

To pierce the veil and gain insight into reality and ourselves, yet still bring back a semblance of those insights once rigid mind sets again solidify is the hope of many psychedelic users.

That within sameness there is difference, although that difference is not different from sameness. – Aldous Huxley

The Doors of Perception Audiobook

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Books About Psychedelics

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test PDF

What do you mean, blindly? That baby is a very sentient creature… That baby sees the world with a completeness that you and I will never know again. His doors of perception have not yet been closed. He still experiences the moment he lives in. – Tom Wolfe

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is known as the quintessential book that first documented the rise and growth of the burgeoning hippie movement.

Wolfe’s account of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters brought psychedelic use to the mainstream. This was a time before it was perverted by hedonistic tendencies, but more importantly, before both sides of the coin knew the other even existed.

The world was simply and sheerly divided into ‘the aware’, those who had the experience of being vessels of the divine, and a great mass of ‘the unaware’, ‘the unmusical’, the unattuned. – Tom Wolfe

TIME Interviews Author Tom Wolfe

godel-escher-bach- Books About Psychedelics

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid PDF

A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.

On the surface Hofstadter’s book may seem like it is about mathematics, art, and music, but it is actually about how cognition, thinking, and meaning itself arise from well-hidden neurological mechanisms.

Through analogies between mathematics (Godel), art (Escher), and music (Bach), Hofstadter explains how self-referential loops – ‘strange loops‘ – are the foundation for all meaning. Basically how meaning actually comes about from complex interactions between parts which when taken individually, possess none.

It is a wonderful book that will have you reevaluating the way you perceive and interact with your reality. 

Meaning lies as much
in the mind of the reader
as in the Haiku.
– Douglas R. Hofstadter

PiHKAL - Books About Psychedelics

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story PDF (2nd Part only)

How long will this last, this delicious feeling of being alive, of having penetrated the veil which hides beauty and the wonders of celestial vistas? It doesn’t matter, as there can be nothing but gratitude for even a glimpse of what exists for those who can become open to it. – Alexander Shulgin

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is a book by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin. The main title is an acronym that stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved.

Arranged in two parts, the book is considered the Bible of Phenethylamines (a class of chemicals known for their psychoactive and stimulant effects):

1st Part: A fictionalized autobiography of the couple.

2nd Part: Detailed synthesis instructions for 179 different psychedelic compounds, including bioassays, dosages, and commentary.

How he could be a good user of LSD,” I asked, “And know about the spiritual dimension – all that sort of thing – and still be a crook? I don’t understand.”
“Then it’s time you did. Psychedelic drugs don’t change you – they don’t change you character – unless you want to be changed. They enable change; they can’t impose it… – Alexander Shulgin

Ann and Sasha Shulgin – PiHKAL and TiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story

What other psychedelic books have you enjoyed reading?

Flower of Life GIF - Books About Psychedelics

> Are Psychedelics Useful in Buddhist Practice? | College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University

5 Great Books Under 200 Pages (Quick Reads)

5 Great Books Under 200 Pages (Quick Reads) | Third Monk image 4

the_little_prince_by_rinian-d5xkuu4

Still trying to finish that old copy of Lord of the Rings you found wedged beneath the stairs? Who could have known it was keeping up the entire house? Eh, c’est la vie, this too shall pass (or shan’t in the case of Durin’s Bane – don’t worry you’ll get there).

Take your mind off your troubles with any one of these five short novels (alright, alright… a few are novellas), and don’t worry, they’re all a quick read (unlike this introduction).

Find them at your local library (they still exist), or your local book store (read: amazon).

I’ve added the audiobook versions and PDF’s where I could.

Enjoy!

hermann Hesse Siddhartha- great book

Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

It’s a wonderful short read for anyone in need of a little perspective – don’t worry it’s not too much perspective.

Siddhartha PDF

Siddhartha – Herman Hesse (Audiobook)

01 THE SON OF THE BRAHMAN – 00:20:59
02 WITH THE SAMANAS – 00:27:05
03 GOTAMA – 00:23:54
04 AWAKENING – 00:12:24
05 KAMALA – 00:36:32
06 WITH THE CHILDLIKE PEOPLE – 00:22:14
07 SANSARA – 00:24:57
08 BY THE RIVER – 00:30:52
09 THE FERRYMAN – 00:35:07
10 THE SON – 00:24:27
11 OM – 00:18:30
12 GOVINDA – 00:29:07

Little-Prince-great-book

Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects, The Little Prince is a literary masterpiece.

Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote the short novel in the midst of personal upheavals and failing health, it is a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.

The Little Prince PDF

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Audiobook)

Albert-CAMUS-The-Stranger

The Stranger is a great book by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd and existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.

The Stranger PDF

063507-fc50_bham

An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

The Alchemist PDF

The Alchemist – Paolo Coehlo (Audiobook)

71XKpDG3q9L

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by Edwin A. Abbott. 

Writing pseudonymously as “A Square”, the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella’s more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

Flatland PDF

Flatland – Edwin A. Abbott (Audiobook)