So Near, Yet so Far
I have not perused Terence McKenna’s web offerings yet, but from his other writing I gather that his cosmology consists of Big Bang mysticism. He is a mystic and shaman about everything except the Big Bang. I know of only one contemporary intellect who has gone up against the Big Bang and that is Owen Barfield, and even with him you have to pay attention to get that point. You can see that Owen is anxious to avoid open antagonism with all the other intellects in the world.
It is politically correct these days to deconstruct everything except the Big Bang and Barney the dinosaur. It is somewhat academic, but I am curious to know if Terence and his many followers are also just trying to be politically correct, or if they actually don't get it. The answer is, I suspect, a bit more subtle. Getting Freudian, or actually Jungian, I would say that on some level these people must be aware that if you let go of the Big Bang, then you are only a step away from becoming Christocentric. Why that should be such an anathema is also not clear, but it probably has a lot to do with the vagaries of history, and with little things like the Inquisition, and, of course, with the collective unconscious.
I have known a number of Fundamentalists in my day. Knowing them, it is easy to see why so many intellectuals are positively Christophobic. But I wonder if they ever have second thoughts about their phobia. The only time I can remember crying over a book, it was not about Old Yaller, it was in reading the 'Greatest Story Ever Told', by whomever, when I was about ten or twelve. That was my pre-born-again experience, I guess, in retrospect. Tears of joy, of course. There is that knowingness of total victory that is absolutely unforgettable, life changing. But I did forget until I was about thirty-five. I had become mesmerized by the Big Bang. My father was a staunch, but quiet atheist. He despised our Unitarian minister! Not having Christian parents can make Christianity easier to swallow, but that is far from being the whole story, IMHO.
rev. 4/26/97