Dennis McKenna
E435013
Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, author, and researcher known for his work on psychoactive plants and his collaborations with his brother Terence McKenna in the study of psychedelics.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Dennis McKenna canonical | 1 |
| Gordon Wasson | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4363595 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dennis McKenna Context triple: [Terence McKenna, sibling, Dennis McKenna]
-
A.
Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist, mystic, and author known for his advocacy of psychedelic substances, exploration of consciousness, and influential lectures on philosophy, shamanism, and the nature of reality.
-
B.
Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner was a German-born American psychologist, writer, and researcher known for his pioneering work on psychedelic therapy and consciousness studies, often in collaboration with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert.
-
C.
Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and writer best known for advocating the therapeutic and spiritual use of psychedelic drugs during the 1960s counterculture movement.
-
D.
Paul Grilley
Paul Grilley is a yoga teacher best known for popularizing Yin Yoga and for his influential work on anatomy and skeletal variation in yoga practice.
-
E.
Randy Alpert
Randy Alpert is an American songwriter and producer best known for co-writing the hit song "Hypnotize," famously sampled by The Notorious B.I.G.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dennis McKenna Target entity description: Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, author, and researcher known for his work on psychoactive plants and his collaborations with his brother Terence McKenna in the study of psychedelics.
-
A.
Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist, mystic, and author known for his advocacy of psychedelic substances, exploration of consciousness, and influential lectures on philosophy, shamanism, and the nature of reality.
-
B.
Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner was a German-born American psychologist, writer, and researcher known for his pioneering work on psychedelic therapy and consciousness studies, often in collaboration with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert.
-
C.
Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and writer best known for advocating the therapeutic and spiritual use of psychedelic drugs during the 1960s counterculture movement.
-
D.
Paul Grilley
Paul Grilley is a yoga teacher best known for popularizing Yin Yoga and for his influential work on anatomy and skeletal variation in yoga practice.
-
E.
Randy Alpert
Randy Alpert is an American songwriter and producer best known for co-writing the hit song "Hypnotize," famously sampled by The Notorious B.I.G.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American
ⓘ
author ⓘ ethnopharmacologist ⓘ person ⓘ researcher ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in botany ⓘ |
| authorOf |
Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangaean Entheogens
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide NERFINISHED ⓘ The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| birthName | Dennis Jon McKenna NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| coAuthorWith | Terence McKenna NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1950-12-17 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
University of Hawaii at Manoa
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
University of Minnesota NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| employer |
Aveda Corporation
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Heffter Research Institute NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
ethnobotany
ⓘ
ethnopharmacology ⓘ pharmacognosy ⓘ psychedelic studies ⓘ |
| founded | McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre | non-fiction ⓘ |
| knownFor |
collaborations with Terence McKenna
ⓘ
research on ayahuasca ⓘ research on psychoactive plants ⓘ work on tryptamine psychedelics ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| nationality |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| notableIdea | integration of indigenous plant knowledge with modern science ⓘ |
| notableWork | The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation |
lecturer
ⓘ
public speaker ⓘ |
| participatedIn | psychedelic science conferences ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Paonia, Colorado, United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
board member of Heffter Research Institute
ⓘ
senior research pharmacognosist at Aveda ⓘ |
| researchInterest |
ayahuasca pharmacology
ⓘ
psychedelic-assisted therapy ⓘ traditional Amazonian medicine ⓘ tryptamine alkaloids ⓘ |
| residence |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| sibling | Terence McKenna NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| website | https://www.mckenna.academy/ ⓘ |
| writingLanguage | English ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Dennis McKenna Description of subject: Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, author, and researcher known for his work on psychoactive plants and his collaborations with his brother Terence McKenna in the study of psychedelics.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Gordon Wasson