About
Graham St John, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and historian of transformational events, movements, and figures. His forthcoming book Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press, Sep 30, 2025) is the latest among his ten books, which also include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books 2015). Graham is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
Chapters
- (00:00:13) - Introduction(00:01:38) - Early McKenna Brothers’ History(00:06:38) - Terence’s Rejection of Science & Authority(00:09:49) - Timewave Zero Theory(00:18:10) - Limitations & Criticism of Timewave Zero(00:22:35) - Compressionism & Acceleration of History(00:25:59) - Possible Modern ‘Transcendental Object’—AI(00:28:27) - Terence’s Oratory Legacy & Cultural Impact(00:33:01) - AI Simulations of Terence’s Voice(00:40:12) - Research Process & Acknowledgements(00:41:36) - Rick Watson & Early Psychedelic Experiments(00:46:49) - John Parker’s Influence(00:49:03) - Unusual Characters from Paonia(00:52:25) - Telegraph Avenue ‘Salon’(00:55:31) - Neo Etudiant Newsletter(00:59:54) - Morning Glory Seeds & Hawaiian Wood Rose as Psychedelics(01:03:59) - Need for Further Research(01:05:03) - Writing the Biography During COVID(01:06:26) - Closing Remarks