Our Man in Nirvana: Terence McKenna, the Gnomic Nomad

Terence McKenna is among the most enigmatic figures in modern intellectual history. As both a hero of cognitive liberty and a persona non grata in the world of psychedelic science, McKenna’s reception has been ambivalent. A phenomenon in the networked underground on the one hand, a preposterous dilettante for serious thinkers on the other. Such a gnomic chameleon wears many hats. Informed by my extensive biographical work, here I will explore a dozen identifications and archetypes that McKenna personified throughout his life: exile, outlaw, heretic, anarchist, bard, shaman, alchemist, scientist, prophet, surrealist, freak, and trickster. McKenna was a composite of these and other identification and their associated traits—traits that make for a dynamic liminal career, a strange orphic métier, and an impossible legacy. This cornucopia assists our understanding of McKenna’s self-defined status as an “edge runner,” a figure disrupting official culture while endearing himself to the psychedelic community, in his life and posthumously over the past quarter of a century.