Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna

An intellectual biography of one of the most celebrated and yet least understood figures of the late twentieth century, Terence McKenna.


A stand-up philosopher who made a unique contribution to science, humanism, and the hidden arts, Terence McKenna (1946-2000) was the twentieth century’s psychedelic Renaissance man. Perfecting his rugged philosophy on the role of psychedelics in evolution, consciousness, and time, McKenna was a riotous charmer who stalked the shadows, but also sought the iridescence. More than twenty years since his untimely passing, McKenna has an enduring magnetism across the virtual pop stream, in pervasive digitization, and within social media networks. In the first biography of this enigmatic figure Strange Attractor, with a foreword by Erik Davis, Graham St John detects the signal behind the noise.

This book is an engaging chronicle of the life, works, and legacy of this brazen adventurer of the inner and outer dimensions, whose weird intelligence affected multitudes and who continues to haunt the present. St John gathers previously unpublished materials (including McKenna’s journal, letters, and ephemera) and over 70 interviews with his friends, family, and co-conspirators, as well as a magnificent gallery of 52 photographs and artworks. Neither glorifying nor disparaging its subject, Strange Attractor will appeal to those interested in the evolution of a psychedelic intellectual, and to those for whom McKenna’s wisdom endures.