UPDATE: The extended broadcast of the Gypsy Scholar’s Terence McKenna program is now available for listening on the “Archived Musical Essays” webpage of the Tower of Song website at revradiotowerofsong.com

Psychedelic compounds are still illegal at the federal level in the United States. (Most psychedelic compounds are illegal and are classified as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, although 2 states have legalized the supervised medical use of psilocybin, and many cities have decriminalized possession.) This despite the fact that scientific research has demonstrated their medical benefits. (For example, LSD therapeutic treatment for alcoholism and The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research leading the way in exploring innovative treatments using psilocybin mushrooms for depression and PTSD.) Even so, private use of psychedelic compounds for consciousness exploration is out of the question. Yet, it’s been 54 years since the major advocate for psychedelic compounds (more properly, plant-based “entheogens” used in a spiritual or religious context) for exploring consciousness, Terence McKenna, went off to the Colombian Amazon to experiment with psilocybin mushrooms in what he called “The Experiment at La Chorrera,” and 32 years since he published this psychedelic experiment as the book True Hallucinations. Over the subsequent years, three more books and a great many talks on entheogens followed. Now, it’s been over 25 years since Terence McKenna passed into the spirit world and for all his erudite, eloquent and ground-breaking work to demonstrate the importance of these mind-altering compounds not only as powerful tools for understanding consciousness and its origins but also offering users a unique lens through which to explore their inner selves and the universe, our government chooses to ignore the truth about entheogens and continues to arrest and prosecute those who seek to explore their own consciousness. Well, you are allowed have “psychedelic music” (as any listener to the great music show “Relics & Psychedelics” knows) but no way can you have what inspired that music!

Again, Terence McKenna is no longer operating in our 3-dimensional space time. However, his words live on in his books and talks. Therefore, the Gypsy Scholar feels that its about time (in this dark time for our species) that McKenna is brought back to the attention of the general public (appropriately enough since McKenna was first made known to the general public via underground and independent radio back in the early ’80s). Therefore, the GS will be devoting radio time to bring his listeners, who may not be aware of what McKenna was about, a sample of his provocative, insightful, and oftentimes hilarious talks on psychedelics.

So, please tune in at 12am, December 1, and hear the Gypsy Scholar present Terence McKenna.