The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss (78 page)

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