Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss - My Life with Terence McKenna

There are a number of reasons why this project had to be crowdfunded instead of supported by a legitimate publisher. It's just not very good. It's going to be interesting only to people who are already big "fans" of Terrance McKenna to the point that they're interested in a lot of minutiae about the relationship between the two brothers. Otherwise. really not interesting or well written.

The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss will certainly be long remembered as a classic in psychedelic literature for its first hand discussion of Terence and Dennis McKenna's life long interest in exploring the boundaries of alternative and higher consciousness. Their encounters in the the store are inspiring Indiana Jones style adventures that thrill our imaginations and keep us on the edge of our seats. Their early life relationships, experiences and influences are certainly the juicy material many of us have been waiting for. But beyond all the obvious, I found the book to be a tender love story as well. As much as they may have had discrepancies and disagreements with each other and their paths and often on separate tracks, Dennis also expresses the love of one brother to another on deeper levels. They were able to accept their differences and at the same time support the individuality of each other. Together they brought a fuller picture of what these realms of higher consciousness mean as ongoing road maps for navigation as well as historic documents for the archives of experiences. Dennis's account of his childhood and coming of age in mainstream America in the 1950's is also a gem in itself which paints familiar images, experiences and challenges many of our generation faced. And together with his brother's legacy, we have our attention highlighting the future which is looking back at the steps we take towards the journey ahead. I feel it an honor to have been friends with both of these remarkable people and strongly recommend your purchasing a copy of this book.

Reading this fraternal autobiography was for me both fascinating and moving, as I was and remain close friends with both the brothers, have shared stimulating conversations and psychedelic explorations with them, and was deeply saddened by Terence's early death. Terence became known for his scintillating eloquence and Irish gift of the gab, like my old friend from an earlier generation Timothy Leary. His scintillating flights of the imagination, mixing far-out speculative science and arcane scholarship, delivered in his characteristic dead-pan nasally inflected voice - have astonished and delighted thousands - and remain in disembodied recordings circulating worldwide on the internet.

As his brother Dennis writes "Terence channeled the logos of the age. Silver-tongued and a riveting speaker, he articulated the concepts that his fans groped for but could not express, and did so in a witty, disarming way. He was the gnomic trickster and bard, an elfin comedian delivering the cosmic punch line, even as he assured us we were all in on the cosmic joke." Especially, one might add, if you followed his advice and continued to take what he liked to call "heroic doses" of psychoactive mushrooms and DMT.

Dennis, who was close to and admired his eloquent and imaginative older brother, took on a different role in society, after the two intrepid explorers returned from the shamanic-alchemical-cosmic folie-a-deux described as "the experiment at La Chorerra," in their joint autobiography "The Invisible Landscape." Dennis went back to school, got a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry and embarked on a career as research scientist in botanical medicine. His writing, in this dual autobiography, is enormously engaging, brilliantly articulating complex issues of natural history, while dealing honestly and humbly with the personal, familial and professional challenges with which he was confronted.

Terence once commented to me in a conversation, that while he was known as the more eloquent speaker and captivating story-teller, his brother Dennis, in his view, was the more profound thinker and scientist. "His mind goes deep into matter," he said with obvious admiration. Indeed, Dennis has carved out a significant career as a consultant in the development of new botanical medicines, with a slew of research publications to his credit. I've always loved listening to his lucid and articulate explanations of complex concepts in molecular biology and entheobotany.

One of the most exciting passages in Dennis's book, to my mind, is in the chapter where he describes the research work he and two colleagues did on the chemistry and pharmacology of ayahuasca for the Brazilian UDV church and subsequently participated in a large group session with ayahuasca (a ceremony I also attended). With the help of a concoction of the visionary vine, Dennis found himself identified as a sentient water molecule and was shown and actually subjectively experienced the entire process of photosynthesis, step by step. As a trained plant biochemist, he was able to identify and name the different processes he had come to understand objectively, as he was experiencing them subjectively, from the point of view of a single drop of water. "I knew that I had been give an inestimable gift, a piece of gnosis and wisdom straight from the heart-mind of planetary intelligence, conveyed in visions and thought by an infinitely wise, incredibly ancient, and enormously compassionate `ambassador' to the human community."

This was perhaps a core vision of Dennis' life as a scientist, presaging, like the work of Jeremy Narby, a time when the instrumental external observations of material and natural scientists will be supplemented by and compared with the interior observations of those same scientists in sensitized and expanded states of consciousness.

Dennis McKenna's contribution and introduction of plant medicine to occidental culture is immeasurable. Co-authorship (with brother Terence) of "The Invisible Landscape" (1975) and "Psilocybin, Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts" (initially published in 1976, a 2nd edition in 1986 and again in 1991) laid the foundation for a career path as educator, scientist and a voice of the (visionary) plant world. His articles published as early as the mid-eighties were some of the few I could find on ayahuasca in 2006 via my university's exhaustive database during my own academic research. He continues to produce important and relevant work based on scientific research and personal experience.

With great anticipation anchored with no expectations, I was delighted by McKenna's recount of his colorful life. He writes like he interviews - I love the words he chooses in the order he delivers. As I read, I heard his voice telling the story. The pace (for me) gradually built up and once it got going, I didn't want to put the book down. I resorted to reading more slowly in order to prolong the ride.

I admire McKenna's courage in `laying it all out there' and telling his side of the story: Agreeing to give up a substantial degree of privacy to satisfy the curiosity of a cult following is a sacrifice. Navigating the waters of family dynamics can be tricky. I appreciate the breadth, depth and clarity of his narrative. I loved this story.

My wife and I have been utterly engrossed in this book since it arrived in the mail about a week and a half ago. It is a touching, personal story told by Dennis McKenna, brother, confidant, and comrade of the beloved Terence McKenna. It is told an intimate style full of love, wisdom, truth and meaning. I was so very pleased to find that this isn't only a story about Terence; rather it is an intimate look into the life of two very unique brothers, and is as much about Dennis as it is Terence. Dennis delves deep into their story, from their upbringing, to their coming into adulthood, and on into the many adventures that are now well known by many; though never in the way they will be after you read this book.

This book isn't only a story, a familial memoir. It is also filled with deep insights on life, spirituality, entheogens, the Other, our Earth mother, and imperfect humanity. You will laugh (boy, will you laugh), be surprised, learn new things, maybe cry, and you will feel that you have known these two irreplaceable souls in ways you never have before.

This book will take an esteemed place on my bookshelf forevermore and will surely be read again. For me it is at once the foundation, and the pinnacle, of the fascinating life story of the Brothers McKenna.

One great mistake I made was in not backing this book on Kickstarter; I had intended to, but failed to turn on the notification and was too late to the party by the time it ended. I will regret that for a long time, but made up for it a bit by ordering a signed copy directly from Dennis, which I will forever cherish.

I see many negative reviews from those who expected a T. McKenna biography; I'm very confused as to how they could have expected that. There is a ton of great insight into Terence here as well, you just have to read between the lines a bit, which is just the way I expected it would be. I'd have been quite disappointed if this book wasn't as much about Dennis as it was Terence, as for me they are both personal heroes.

After a generous foreword by Luis Eduardo Luna with an ending so sad it moved me to tears, it soon became clear that Dennis McKenna could not have written a biography of the Terence McKenna we knew and loved by abstracting the role he played in his brother's life. Dennis had to be true to himself, not only as an important participant but also as the hero of his own movie with its scientific achievements, mainly in the realm of ayahuasca research.
Moreover, it was Dennis who suffered - or enjoyed - one of the core events of the McKenna saga, the "psychotic breakdown" - or shamanic initiation - in La Chorrera (Colombia) in 1971. Terence helped him through it, showing great faith and a strong spirit, as he so eloquently reports in True Hallucinations, the most readable of his books. "To date", I am tempted to say, but Terence is no more. He left us in the year 2000, without finding out whether the other mainstay of his extraordinary intellectual life, Timewave Zero, had been able to forecast important collective changes in accordance with the end of the 13th baktun of the Mayan Calendar, on 12.21.12.
In Chapter II, Dennis hones in on his number one subject: telling the tale of where Terence and Dennis McKenna hail from, their family background, where they grew up, what values they lived by, what the parents and the relatives were like, who their local friends and rivals were and many other wonderful idiosyncracies. Family man Dennis speaks of his parents and his great aunts and uncles with much affection but Terence rather mistrusted his folks, though one of his ancient aunts helped take care of him while he was dying, at age fifty-three. He called her "the old battle ax", and I believe it was a term of endearment. Terence and his kid brother grew up in Paonia, the Latin name of the peony, settled in the 1880s and incorporated in 1902 in Western Colorado, a five-hour drive away from Denver. Fruit, coal and climate formed the economic underpinnings of Paonia and of the entire North Fork Valley of the Gunnison River. When Terence and Dennis were growing up, its population numbered about a thousand souls; the total population has almost doubled since, and the demographics of the town have changed markedly. Since the Rainbow Gathering of 1992, a good number of New Agers and members of the psychedelic community have settled there; some came in honor of Terence, but most put down roots because it was and remains a nice place to live, the perfect small town in which to raise children and enjoy the good life.
Despite the bullying Dennis experienced for a while at the hands of his brother, as they matured into adulthood they became good friends. Dennis may have resented Terence more than the other way round, but the latter had a cruel streak, like those unreservedly admired often do. Dennis was the younger of the two by four years, and while he looked up to his brother, like little brothers do, he also hated Terence. They were Mama's boys, especially Terence who disliked his father intensely for disciplining him over something he had done when he was too young to know better. Like so many fathers, Joe McKenna was often absent, flying all over Colorado in a small plane that played a big role in the life of the McKenna family. With it, they had some of their best times together, regularly flying to popular as well as more obscure destinations for weekends and vacations.
The McKenna brothers enjoyed a well-protected childhood typical of the 1950s. Their mother was home when they came home, their father whenever he could, and despite their many conflicts he stuck with his boys all his life, no matter how difficult, esoteric or hard to understand they proved to be. Their early years came to an end as Terence managed to get permission to finish high school in California; he had already become too hard to handle back home. Dennis desperately wanted to follow suit but had to continue living in pastoral Paonia for another few years, while Terence was studying in Berkeley. Terence liked to collect things, a habit that stemmed from his interest in fossils, in those days still easy to find in the deserts and mountains close to Paonia. He had a minute handwriting and categorized his finds with great accuracy, a trait that won him a job mounting butterfly specimens further down the line - another somewhat cruel pursuit. Thus he financed the first of his many travels. When butterfly collecting no longer provided the necessary funds, he turned to hashish smuggling, a relatively easy business at the end of the sixties when security was low. One of the parcels he sent from abroad got caught, however, meaning Terence felt he could not enter the USA for a while. This is why he didn't make it back to Paonia in time for his mother's untimely death, a sad fact that haunted him for the rest of his life.
Of the interests the brothers shared, consciousness expansion with psychedelics was the foremost. Throughout their lives, they experimented and researched The Invisible Landscape (the title of their common book) of the mind and the otherworld, including shamanism, DMT or ayahuasca, the I Ching and the DNA double helix. Both eventually settled down, Dennis with a wife and daughter Caitlin, Terence with a wife and two kids, Finn and Klea. Dennis is still with his family; Terence went through a painful divorce in the nineties.
While he liked to smoke dope like nobody's business, Terence consumed psychedelics less frequently after the initial years. Like Timothy Leary or Albert Hofmann, he was much too busy doing other things to find the time. Dennis indulged more often but, as an accredited scientist working for NIMH and other renowned laboratories, he had an intact reputation whereas his psychotropically more abstinent brother was definitely the wilder of the two for as far as the world was concerned. It is no secret that the two McKenna brothers started the mushroom craze of the eighties and nineties by developing and then publishing a simple method for cultivation that put mushrooms within reach of millions, thus originating the biggest turn-on since Leary exhorted a generation to 'turn on, tune in and drop out' with LSD. Only this time it wasn't flaunted in anyone's face. And when shrooming didn't seem opportune any longer, because too many people knew about him and it, Terence turned his books, talks and tapes, and speaking fees into a modest living that kept him and his family going and travelling.
He had always suffered from migraines; after his divorce, they got worse, and this, together with other setbacks contributed to a dark period in Terence's life. In 1999, after suffering a seizure, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most malignant and aggressive type of brain tumor known. He tried all he could: laser surgery, chemotherapy, alternative medicine, a risky operation, but it was to no avail. And so, this book ends the same as it began, in sadness and with tears. Of course there is much more, but since I have always deplored that to review a book you have to give away part of its story, enough is enough. Thank you, Dennis, for writing this eloquent, outspoken and moving account of two lives that have deeply influenced so many of ours.
Susanne G. Seiler

What an excellent portal into the lives of people that I always admired. I learned so much about the silent brother and how his life actually intertwined with Terrance which displayed much of each other's true nature. Thank you Dennis for such an awesome undertaking. Feeling such a kinship to both of you, the ending, though I was somewhat familiar with how the general event went down, was still quite a melincholy event for me. I appreciate you doing it, I know that it was probably quite difficult, but thousands including myself know that Terrance full heartedly appreciated it and approved of your job, as we did. PEACE SPACETIME .

Terence Mckenna fans will be disappointed to find that Terence is rarely mentioned and when he is it is often in a negative light, even referring to him as "my nutty brother" at one point. Of course everyone has their good and bad sides, but wouldn't it, in the very little bit he talks about Terence, make sense to focus mostly on Terence's good sides considering he's the main reason people are buying the book?

Dennis is a very good writer. Personally I'm just a Terence Mckenna fan and this book is about Dennis.

Dennis McKenna has done a very brave thing. He has told us honestly and bluntly what it was to be Terence McKenna's younger brother--and what it was and is to seek the lapis philosophorum or the Holy Grail in an America that is terrified of (and jails people for) psychedelic explorations.

He writes frankly of nightmare trips, rejecting the attractive pose of "expert" for whom communion with a sacred plant confirms, of course, his or her wisdom. And he tells of heavenly trips, perhaps most notably in his description of a conference in Brazil that gathered some five hundred experts in ethnobotany and related fields. They sought (successfully) to dissuade that country from outlawing ayahuasca. The event concluded with hundreds sharing the sacrament together (an astonishingly large number; I might have run for the exits). McKenna writes eloquently of his own profound and moving visionary experience.

Beyond McKenna's personal story and that of his relationship with Terence, he offers valuable first-person history, capturing in fine grain the mood of the Sixties and Seventies and the massive shift in consciousness in America that gave us meditation, yoga, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the freedom rides South, rights for gays and women--and, for many, the courage to throw aside a conventional career, to harbor wildly naïve hopes, and to suffer disappointments leavened with the realization that there are continents in the mind rarely imagined before in the Western tradition.

As one who came of age at that time and had his own life spun upside down, I'm with McKenna. It's a quixotic quest, but it's goddamn worth it! What else matters? The future of the human race seems now to hang in the balance as mother earth spins toward ecological disaster. The visions catalyzed by the sacred plants (and honored by Dennis and Terence McKenna) may be our last best hope of waking up.

Dennis McKenna's recent autobiography, "The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss," is an absorbing account of his relationship to his brother, Terrence McKenna, and of his own search for answers to deep questions. The book was compelling to me because the Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss had a strong influence on my thinking long before it became this book. The stranger than fiction account of the Brotherhood's quest for an escape from time, chronicled in earlier books and tapes, provided my imagination with a significant defense against the insidious conditioning of conventional reality and mass culture. The narrative of the McKenna's adventures, lived with stunning originality and courage, brings the equivalent of pure oxygen to the stifling environs of a flatland world. Their journey has been a gift to us all, and so is this book.

This well written memoir generously gives the reader a glimpse into the deeply human & courageously unique lives of the Mckenna brothers whose shared passion for the exploration of altered states of consciousness has guided their lives. Sepia-toned childhood memories, intriguing tales of psychedelic mis-adventure, & thoughtful insights pepper the timeline of Dennis's life, as Terence weaves in and out..."his mentor & tormentor."

An interesting & compelling read...

BOTSA encapsulates the hopes and fears of growing up in post WWII USA. Dennis captured the feel of the time brilliantly - he saved me the time of writing my own memoir. Cost effective ;-) Now where did I set down that bowl of ayahuasca ?

"The serene nature of this picture captivates the kinship of Terence and Dennis. Together they radiate a sense of knowingness even as young boys, making their dualistic journey into life explode and light up... like the sparkling sky. This beautiful bond of brotherly love bounces off the cover!

the short of it: i read the extensive kindle free sample and won't be buying or reading the rest of the book.

(i fully expect to be criticized for commenting before finishing the book: i plead guilty but it's my m.o. not to finish books i'm not interested in finishing. IMHO, 'early bail out' readers like me are part of the reader population.)

aim and focus: i wasn't interested in all that ancestral family history stuff.

another reviewer's "bait and switch" comment is apt: i was looking for Terrence and got Dennis.

writing talent: the other brother seems to be the only one with a gift for gab.

editing: there ain't any. Everything i read in the free sample should have been edited out or put in an appendix. No editing is a major drawback of self publishing.