Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including plant based entheogens, shamanism, divination, metaphysics, alchemy, philosophy, culture, technology, environmentalism and the I Ching. He was called the "Timothy Leary of the 1990s" and "one of the leading authorities on the ontological foundations of shamanism."
I discovered the 1994 edition of Terence and Dennis McKenna's 1975 book The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching while researching my book, I Ching: The Tao of Drumming. McKenna's book explores shamanism, altered states of consciousness and the organic unity of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching. I was fascinated by Terence McKenna's theory that the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams represents a wave model of time. Much of what he learned about the theory is alleged to have come to him during shamanic visionary states while he was living in the Amazon jungle. Many reputable scientists and physicists have embraced it. It has broken the barriers between esoteric philosophy and pragmatism. I spent days trying to decipher the complexities of the time wave theory in order to write about it in my own book.
Prior to writing about the time wave theory, I ingested peyote for the first time. Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, peyote has a long history of divination and medicinal use. The peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) has been used in its native Mexico for healing, divination and magic since pre-Hispanic times. During the late nineteenth century, peyote was adopted by Native American tribes of the southern plains as a medicine and sacrament. Within the Native American Church, the "divine cactus" is used for healing and to facilitate communication with the spirits.
The peyote buttons I ingested were gifted to me by a fellow member of the Native American Church, which fuses Christian doctrine with peyote-eating tribal ritual. Though illegal to sell, possess or ingest, U.S. law exempts members of the Native American Church, who revere peyote as a sacred medicine. The use of peyote is said to produce a mental state that allows celebrants to feel closer to their ancestors and their Creator. Peyote contains the hallucinogen mescaline. The effects last about 10 to 12 hours.
Insights into the King Wen Sequence
On the Winter Solstice, December 22, 1995, I ingested 12 dried peyote buttons, seeking guidance and insight into the time wave theory. Within thirty minutes of ingestion, I experienced some physical discomfort, including nausea and chills. These unpleasant effects subsided within an hour and transitioned into feelings of peace and euphoria. After about two hours around dusk, I began to see colorful visions. Everything in the darkened room was glowing faintly. It was so subtle that it was almost imperceptible. I saw whirly, spirally geometric patterns called form constants. Mescaline and other psychedelics boost the random discharge of neurons in the visual cortex. This neural excitation is thought to induce form constants, the dynamic patterns I saw when I closed my eyes. These shapes may appear on their own or with eyes shut in the form of phosphenes.
Three hours into my peyote journey, I closed my eyes and saw the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams. The entire sequence was illustrated in bright iridescent colors. I had an "aha" moment giving me insight into the underlying basis for the sequence. The King Wen order is the most ancient way of arranging the hexagrams and all of the standard editions use it. This sequence consists of 32 binary pairs in which each hexagram is the polar opposite of its mate. In other words, each odd-numbered hexagram is followed by its opposite or its inverse. The rationale for this arrangement has long been a mystery. Scholars thus far have been unable to crack the code which generates this sequence.
The answer may lie in the cycled order of development that the 64 hexagrams represent. The I Ching hexagrams represent the sequence of development for everything that evolves from the void into a three-dimensional reality. The I Ching functions much like a computer. It's a binary mathematical program of all events, processes and developments of nature as well as a program of the fate of every living thing.
Systems of binary progression underlie the structure of reality. Binary systems develop from two numbers or polar elements. The DNA code, for example, represents a binary progression of two to the sixth power, yielding the 64 codons or six-part structures that constitute the genetic code. The bilateral symmetry of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule consists of a double helix with plus and minus strands which contain the genetic script. Each strand is the inverse of the opposite in terms of polarity and direction of rotation, and each strand is capable of replicating the other. Both strands interconnect at regular intervals, forming binary pairs of molecular building blocks.
The King Wen sequence easily serves to model the structure of DNA and its transformations. The 64 hexagrams, each with its six variants (lines), illustrate a pattern of development that mirrors DNA. Each odd numbered hexagram and its subsequent opposite or inverse represent binary pairs. Each stage of change or development is the result of interaction between conjugate pairs. A given situation would remain forever unchanging were it not for this dynamic interplay that spurs the static hexagram into motion.
More than the symbolic counterpart of DNA, the King Wen sequence is a wave model of time. Some 3000 years ago, the Chinese sages and philosophers looked into the physics of time and discovered that time is actually composed of a repeating pattern of fractals. The 64 hexagrams are the basic fractal patterns in the cyclic structure of time. Hence, the King Wen sequence is a symbolic blueprint of the unfolding continuum of time in which events and situations recur on many different scales of duration. Each hexagram represents a unique yet integral wave cycle within the continuum. As each pattern repeats, it carries the same conditions of previous cycles--fractal patterns that can be known, measured and predicted.
The temporal cycle of time is seen as a vibratory ebb and flow of two opposite kinds of energy. Each cycle within the continuum is the inverse of the one preceding it. This alternating polarity is the moving force of the continuum of time. This energy continuum is regulated and maintained by neural DNA. According to Terence McKenna, "It is this flow of energy that is experienced by organisms as the phenomenon of time itself. Organisms evolved in and became patterned in response to this flow."(1) The flow of time (and consciousness itself) arises from physical neural processes and hence is affected by them. We are not separate from time. Rather time is an integral part of our perceptual experience. It is the vehicle of change, and change ultimately begins within each of us. To change the world, we must first change ourselves.
1. Dennis McKenna and Terence McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching. (HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), p. 151.
