Read The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss Online
Authors: Dennis McKenna
Torres CM, DB Repke, K Chan, DJ Mckenna, A Llagostera, RE Schultes. 1992. “Botanical, chemical, and contextual analysis of archaeological snuff powders from San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile.”
Current Anthropology
32: 640–649.
Mathis CA, JM Gerdes, JD Enas, JM Whitney, SE Taylor, Y Zhang, DJ McKenna, S Havlik, SJ Peroutka. 1992. “Binding potency of paroxetine analogues for the serotonin uptake complex.”
Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
44: 801–805.
McKenna DJ, XM Guan, AT Shulgin. 1991. “3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) analogues exhibit differential effects on synaptosomal release of
3
H -dopamine and
3
H -5-hydroxytryptamine.”
Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior
38: 505–512.
Nichols DE, R Oberlender, DJ McKenna. 1991. “Stereochemical aspects of hallucinogenesis.” Chapter 1, pp. 1–39 in
Biochemistry and Physiology of Substance Abuse, Vol. III,
edited by R. R. Watson. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
McKenna DJ, and SJ Peroutka. 1990. “Serotonin neurotoxins: Focus on MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, “ecstasy”)” in
Serotonin Receptor Subtypes: Basic and Clinical Aspects,
edited by S. J. Peroutka. New York: Alan R. Liss Publishers.
McKenna DJ, DB Repke, L Lo, SJ Peroutka. 1990. “Differential interactions of indolealkylamines with 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor subtypes.”
Neuropharmacology
29: 193–198.
McKenna DJ, and SJ Peroutka. 1990. “The neurochemistry and neurotoxicity of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “ecstasy”).”
Journal of Neurochemistry
54: 14–22.
Hekmatpanah CR, DJ McKenna, SJ Peroutka. 1989. “Reserpine does not prevent 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-induced neurotoxicity.”
Neuroscience Letters
104: 178–182.
McKenna DJ, DB Repke, SJ Peroutka. 1989. “Hallucinogenic indolealkylamines are selective for 5HT
2A
binding sites.”
Neuroscience Abstracts
15: 485.
McKenna DJ, and SJ Peroutka. 1989. “Differentiation of 5-hydroxytryptamine
2
receptor subtypes using
125
I-R-(-)-2,5,-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamine (
125
I-R-(-)-DOI) and
3
H-ketanserin.”
Journal of Neuroscience
9: 3482–3490.
McKenna DJ, AJ Nazarali, AJ Hoffman, DE Nichols, CA Mathis, JM Saavedra. 1989. “Common receptors for hallucinogens in rat brain: a comparative autoradiographic study using
125
I-LSD and
125
I-DOI, a new psychotomimetic radioligand.”
Brain Research
476: 45–56.
McKenna DJ, AJ Nazarali, A Himeno, JM Saavedra. 1989. “Chronic treatment with (±)DOI, a psychotomimetic 5HT
2
agonist, downregulates 5HT
2
receptors in rat brain.”
Neuropsychopharmacology
2: 81–87.
Nazarali AJ, DJ McKenna, JM Saavedra. 1989. “Autoradiographic localization of 5HT
2
receptors in rat brain using
125
I-DOI, a selective psychotomimetic radioligand.”
Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
13: 573–581.
McKenna DJ, CA Mathis, SJ Peroutka. 1988. “Characterization of
125
I-DOI binding sites in rat brain.”
Neuroscience Abstracts
14: 247.12.
Himeno A, DJ McKenna, AJ Nazarali, JM Saavedra. 1988. “(±)DOI, a hallucinogenic phenylalkylamine, downregulates 5HT
2
receptors in rat brain.”
Neuroscience Abstracts
14: 229.2.
McKenna DJ, and JM Saavedra. 1987. “Autoradiography of LSD and 2,5-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamine psychotomimetics demonstrates regional, specific cross-displacement in the rat brain.”
European Journal of Pharmacology
142: 313–315.
McKenna DJ, CA Mathis, AT Shulgin, JM Saavedra. 1987. “Hallucinogens bind to common receptors in the rat forebrain: a comparative study using
125
I-LSD and
125
I-DOI, a new psychotomimetic radioligand.”
Neuroscience Abstracts
13: 311.14.
McKenna DJ, CA Mathis, AT Shulgin, Sargent Thornton III, JM Saavedra. 1987. “Autoradiographic localization of binding sites for
125
I-(-)DOI, a new psychotomimetic radioligand, in the rat brain.”
European Journal of Pharmacology
137: 289–290.
McKenna DJ, LE Luna, GHN Towers. 1986. “Ingredientes biodinamicos en las plantas que se meszclan al ayahausca. Una farmacopea tradicional no investigada.”
America Indigena
46: 73–101. (Spanish with English abstract).
McKenna DJ, and GHN Towers. 1985. “On the comparative ethnopharmacology of the malpighiaceous and myristicaceous hallucinogens.”
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
17: 35–39.
McKenna DJ, and GHN Towers. 1984. “Biochemistry and pharmacology of tryptamine and ß-carboline derivatives: A mini review.”
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
16: 347–358.
McKenna DJ, GHN Towers, FS Abbott. 1984. “Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in South American hallucinogenic plants: tryptamine and ß-carboline constituents of Ayahuasca.”
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
10: 195–223.
McKenna DJ, GHN Towers, FS Abbott. 1984. “Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in South American hallucinogenic plants, part II: constituents of orally active myristicaceous hallucinogens.”
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
12: 179–211.
McKenna DJ, and GHN Towers. 1981. “Ultraviolet-mediated cytotoxic activity of ß-carboline alkaloids.”
Phytochemistry
20: 1001–1004.
Appendix
This poem was written by William Patrick Watson, one of Terence’s oldest and best friends from his high school years in Los Altos and later in Berkeley. The date of its composition is not completely clear even in the recollection of the author. What we do know is that it was written at least a year before our departure for La Chorrera, sometime in late 1969 or early 1970. In our discussions of a possible South American adventure at the time, we assumed we would be headed to Peru. Later, we changed our plans in favor of traveling to La Chorrera to seek the fabled
oo-koo-hé.
The poem has not been previously published.
Dennis McKenna
Pursuing To Peru The G’nostic Guru: A Poetic Talisman
For T. McKenna, Irish Shaman By W. Watson, Unauthorized Bard
Pursuing to Peru
The g’nostic guru
Who doesn’t come to you
Out of sunyatic blue.
Questing the star shaman
Hidden in the bindu
Of hyperstellar semen
Whose lore you thought you knew.
In vine-shrouded jungle
Do not your mantras bungle
Lest a god-plant eat you
And into void excrete you.
On peaks both bleak and eerie
Of two-faced gods be leery
Especially if they’re hairy
Of them be most be-wary.
Beware the Incan tangle
And saucer siren jangle
Which may your body dangle
From ridge-pole all amangle.
And dye your beard an umber
Or better, put it under
A green hindu bandana,
Lest a wild head hunter
Make of it a banner
For his jungle manor.
(I know that wouldn’t please you
So please of these hints heed you.)
By shores of Titicaca
Smoke the silver hookah
Erect your star antenna
Broadcast the name McKenna
In acrostics Kabbalistic
And pun it in Mandaean
Then surely crypto-mystic
Will come the alchemic lion.
The demons are of many kinds
Some made of ions, some of mind
The ones of DMT you’ll find
Stutter often and are blind.
While swimming toward galactic isles
Watch out for stellar crocodiles;
They have the most enticing smiles
But nonetheless are full of wiles.
If you be transmogrified
To tiny monads side by side
(of a millimeter wide)
by spiderweb together tied,
Recite the’ Tibetan mantra phat
Which instantly will make you fat;
Tho sitting on Benares ghat,
At least you’ll know the place you’re at.
(You might in transit lose your hat
But mantras can’t account for that.)
If you encounter scorpions
While making transgalactic runs,
Remember they’re immune to puns
But shrivel if near onions.
(By all means you should carry one
Unless you have a garlic gun.
The latter is of effective use
In dealing with the gnostic goose
Who often aeons let run loose
To snatch the shaman seeking nous.)
If you meet a tree toad
At a forking of the road,
Inquire of him yage’s abode
But if he doesn’t speak your mode,
Do not goad the tree toad,
Lest he should explode
Each ganglionic node
Of what you thought you knowed.
Of the moonherb Soma
That puts you into coma
And alters every chromosome
(Disguising you for journey home)
Just say the mantra OM AH
And instantly you’ll start to foam
With elixer of Chandra
Churned from the lunar chakra
(Watch for the evil raksha!)
And thru the star clouds freely roam,
But if you should begin to come
(to hide the seed we are agreed)
Then say the quelling mantra HUM;
(this may attract the cosmic bees
Who drone with Proustian reveries,
Drowning you with memories;
To counteract, it’s best to sneeze).
Of sodomic witch doctors
Who hang heads on their doors
Beware their brew of spores
They’ll rub into your pores.
But witches resembling Kali
Who offer you an ally
Are oftentimes quite lovely,
On them you’d best rely.
If you find at landing ramp
The lake resembles summer camp
With every kind of psychic vamp
Sunning beneath a solar lamp,
And gaudy-dressed and rosy queers
Who greet you with their shouts
and cheers,
Embracing you with smiles and tears
While whispering mantras in your ears;
By no means should you be perplexed
Or any wise outraged or vexed
To find yourself transformed of sex,
(such happenstance you must expect.)
If in dire need you should be
Send an express wire to me
Via telepathic telegraphy
And I’ll cable spells to set you free.
Or if you need a helping hand
Swallow thirteen grains of sand
Raise aloft your crystal wand
And send coordinates whereon to land.
I’ll quickly zip into my ship
And unto Titicaca trip
And track you down by radar blip