Terence McKenna was the stand‑up philosopher of the apocalypse. A cognitive libertarian. The anti‑guru who rejected authority—even his own. Twenty‑five years after his passing, the “Tryptamine Elf King” still haunts the present, reverberating through the sensorium of a new generation.

Inspired by Graham St John’s definitive magnum opus, Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna, the inner circle—the family, the friends, and the co‑conspirators who knew the man behind the myth—came together for an extraordinary online conversation.

PANELISTS BIOGRAPHIES:

Dennis McKenna and his brother Terence first came to S. America in 1971. Their unexpected adventures in pursuit of exotic psychedelics led to some surprising discoveries recounted in Terence’s book, True Hallucinations, and Dennis’ 2012 memoir, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. In 1981, Dennis returned to Peru, this time as a graduate student, and began his scientific investigations of ayahuasca. In 2019 he founded the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy.

Graham St John, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and historian of transformational events, movements, and figures. His new book Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press, Oct 7, 2025) is the latest among his ten books, which also include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books 2015). Graham is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

Tama Starr is an acclaimed author and former president of Artkraft Strauss, the historic company behind Times Square's iconic signs and the New Year’s Eve Ball. A pioneering psychedelic yogi, she is connected to Terence McKenna’s circle and recorded one of his earliest talks. Starr’s work spans literature, business, and psychedelic culture.

R.U. Sirius is a cultural icon best known as founder and editor-in-chief of the influential 1990s cyberdelic magazine Mondo 2000. He authored multiple books including collaborations with Timothy Leary and is also a lyricist and vocalist, currently active with the album The Smarter Kings of Deliria by R.U. Sirius & Phriendz.

Dr. Bruce Damer is an astrobiologist and Chief Scientist at the BIOTA Institute, UC Santa Cruz, known for co-authoring a leading origin-of-life hypothesis. He also pioneers psychedelic insight research through the Center for MINDS and has designed innovative spacecraft concepts for NASA. Damer collaborated with Terence McKenna on early virtual worlds and explores humanity’s cosmic future.

Dan Levy, New York-based since 1988, edited Terence McKenna’s key books: The Archaic Revival, True Hallucinations, and The Invisible Landscape (2nd ed.). An early WELL member, he built pioneering websites for McKenna, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and more. He taught programming to kids and serves on The Jazz Gallery board.

Lorenzo Hagerty is a former Navy officer turned cyber-lawyer and storyteller, known for founding the Psychedelic Salon podcast. With decades at the crossroads of technology, culture, and consciousness, he explores AI's connection to Terence McKenna’s TimeWave theory through his fiction and public talks.

Sharon McKenna is the director and producer of the forthcoming feature documentary, “It’s Going to Get Weirder: The Terence McKenna Story.”

Sharon  is a writer, film director, and journalist whose work has appeared in a range of outlets, from several alternative weeklies to MSNBC digital, among others. Her career spans three-plus decades of network news production, investigative reporting, corporate creative work and screenwriting. Her screenplays have been optioned and won numerous awards, and she has worked as a script reader and consultant for several film production companies.

She is a member of the International Documentary Association, Film Independent, Women in Film, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several other organizations dedicated to filmmaking, the arts, and freedom of speech. Sharon has various projects in the works; to learn more about her, visit her creative hub: seanchaistudio.com and you can learn more about the Terence McKenna documentary project at goingtogetweirder.com

Nissan started his career as a medical doctor and began his work as a general practitioner in an urban community clinic system. He then specialized in ophthalmology and practiced in a small town for 36 years. He became dissatisfied working strictly on the physical level and received training in Gestalt psychotherapy and had a small private practice. He became interested in the field of Natural Vision Improvement which combined his interest in vision with present moment, embodied presence. A reading from a tarot card reading psychic suggested the need for working in and with the spiritual realm to facilitate the Natural Vision work and suggested there were some gifts for him in shamanism. His wife had had a powerful experience in a ceremony with Don José Campos and encouraged him to explore Ayahuasca as a method to open himself spiritually. He had two very different , but powerful experiences with Don José and participated in a plant dieta in the Amazon in 2005 with Don José. He received what he interpreted as an initiatory experience and felt called to be trained as a vegetalista. He embarked on the training under Don José and Don Lucho’s guidance and began leading ceremonies in the US in 2009 and in 2011 began leading plant dietas in the Amazon. He continues to lead ceremonies in various locations in the US and occasionally Canada and leads dietas in the Amazon twice a year.

Nissan started his career as a medical doctor and began his work as a general practitioner in an urban community clinic system. He then specialized in ophthalmology and practiced in a small town for 36 years. He became dissatisfied working strictly on the physical level and received training in Gestalt psychotherapy and had a small private practice. He became interested in the field of Natural Vision Improvement which combined his interest in vision with present moment, embodied presence. A reading from a tarot card reading psychic suggested the need for working in and with the spiritual realm to facilitate the Natural Vision work and suggested there were some gifts for him in shamanism. His wife had had a powerful experience in a ceremony with Don José Campos and encouraged him to explore Ayahuasca as a method to open himself spiritually. He had two very different , but powerful experiences with Don José and participated in a plant dieta in the Amazon in 2005 with Don José. He received what he interpreted as an initiatory experience and felt called to be trained as a vegetalista. He embarked on the training under Don José and Don Lucho’s guidance and began leading ceremonies in the US in 2009 and in 2011 began leading plant dietas in the Amazon. He continues to lead ceremonies in various locations in the US and occasionally Canada and leads dietas in the Amazon twice a year.

Zina Brown is the writer and director of The Faerie Rings, an upcoming narrative feature film
about the promise of visionary plant medicines, and the cruelty of those who would outlaw
them.
Zina’s unique visual and narrative style has been awarded in film festivals across the world,
including the Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival, Kyiv Film Festival in
Ukraine, Mexico City International Film Festival, Amsterdam International Film Festival, San
Antonio Film Festival, and the Woods Hole Film Festival.
He has over 25 years of writing and directing experience, including numerous music videos
and festival favorite short films. His short film, Dreams of the Last Butterflies, was screened
at 50 Film Festivals in 13 countries, as well as winning many awards.

Kevin Reed, founder and president of the Entheogen Stewardship Project, a vital new nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting culturally significant plant and animal species sacred to indigenous communities worldwide.
Kevin brings a remarkable 45-year journey as a student of psychedelic science and culture to this crucial conservation work. His path began in 1984 under the mentorship of legendary researchers Sasha and Anne Shulgin, followed by profound connections with iconic figures including Wavy Gravy, Jack Herer, Timothy Leary, Rick Strassman, and many others who have shaped the modern psychedelic renaissance.
Kevin's hands-on expertise spans an impressive range of fields: from teaching cannabis extraction in the mountains of Jamaica in 1985, to large-scale indoor cultivation in the Netherlands, to designing and successfully opening a state-of-the-art Type 7 cannabis manufacturing facility in California. His diverse interests encompass mycology, conservation biology, indigenous traditions, accelerated learning, transpersonal psychology, and ethical wildcrafting—principles that now support his conservation philosophy.
The Entheogen Stewardship Project represents the culmination of Kevin's decades-long commitment to both psychedelic wisdom, indigenous rights and environmental protection. The organization combats illegal trafficking and exploitation of endangered entheogenic species while fostering respectful collaboration with all indigenous communities whose ancestral knowledge have safeguarded these sacred plant and animal spirits for millennia.
Kevin's work addresses one of the most pressing issues facing our community today: how do we honor and protect the plant and animal teachers that have guided human consciousness for thousands of years, while ensuring their survival for future generations?

Graham St John, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and historian of transformational events, movements, and figures. His forthcoming book Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press, Oct 7, 2025) is the latest among his ten books, which also include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books 2015). Graham is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

Graham St John, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and historian of transformational events, movements, and figures. His forthcoming book Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press, Sep 30, 2025) is the latest among his ten books, which also include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books 2015). Graham is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

Tony Ācworth (pronounced Ayk-worth) is a visionary herbalist, psychedelic advocate, forest guide, and self-described “wily wizard” living with his wife and five-year-old son amid the coastal rainforests of Brentwood Bay, Vancouver Island.

For 15 plus years, Tony has walked the plant (and mushroom) path, logged over 5,000 clinical hours doing comprehensive intakes with patients, helping them untangle what truly plagues the mind, body, and spirit. Under the mentorship of herbal elder and prolific author and mycologist Robert Rogers, Tony deepened his reverence for the fungal world and its wisdom.

In 2015, he was hired to work in Pacific Rim College’s herbal dispensary. Soon after he created and began teaching their first medicinal mushroom materia medica. From here, Tony began offering herbal clinics, nutrition courses, herbal therapeutics and mycological exploration weekends for students in the community herbalist, nutrition, and permaculture programs at the College. At home, he spent a decade developing his own ritual for psilocybin ceremonies, immersing himself in shamanism from Iquitos to the moss-laden forests of Vancouver Island.
This led to guiding individuals and men’s groups through the ritual experience, facilitating deep
personal explorations for those who participated.

Tony is also the creator behind DelOs, his heart-led line of herbal-supported mushroom microdose blends, with the expressed purpose of supporting the human body and nervous system with herbal medicine to help rewire stagnant, disserving patterns and improve overall well-being.

In 2026, he will expand his offerings by launching a dedicated Psychedelic Therapy Training Program at Pacific Rim College, further bridging ancestral plant wisdom with modern integration practice.
Recently, Tony blends mushroom intelligence with machines as a mycelial-minded systems tinkerer building ethical, living AI ecosystems designed to help people recalibrate and remember who they truly are. His work guides both personal recalibration and scalable AI solutions for human-centered collaboration, ensuring that advanced technology uplifts humanity.

He’s a father, a leatherworker, a Raspberry Pi hobbyist and if he appears in your life, chances are, the mushrooms arranged it.

Tony Ācworth is a techno-mystic wizard: part forest guide, part quantum gardener, part mycelial ambassador – all heart.

Dr Harry Shirley has a PhD in organic chemistry and research experience at the
University of Oxford. His research focussed on the synthesis of biologically active chemicals
of marine origin. Having left academia some years ago, he now holds a deep passion for
Jungian thought. He recently published his paper “the Buddhabrot and the Unus Mundus” in
the International Journal of Jungian Studies, which explores the role of the Mandelbrot set in
mind and matter.