Terence McKenna
E98717
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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Terence McKenna canonical | 18 |
| Terence Kemp McKenna | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T837493 — 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: Terence McKenna Context triple: [Terence, notableBearer, Terence McKenna]
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A.
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.
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B.
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow was an American poet, essayist, and digital rights activist best known as a lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
-
C.
Ted Barrett
Ted Barrett is a veteran Major League Baseball umpire known for working numerous postseason games and serving as a crew chief in multiple World Series.
-
D.
Ralph Leighton
Ralph Leighton is an American author and longtime friend of physicist Richard Feynman, known for co-authoring books such as "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?".
-
E.
R. Luke Concanen
R. Luke Concanen was an Irish Dominican priest who became the first bishop appointed to lead the Roman Catholic community of New York in the early 19th century.
- 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: Terence McKenna Target entity description: 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.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow was an American poet, essayist, and digital rights activist best known as a lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
-
C.
Ted Barrett
Ted Barrett is a veteran Major League Baseball umpire known for working numerous postseason games and serving as a crew chief in multiple World Series.
-
D.
Ralph Leighton
Ralph Leighton is an American author and longtime friend of physicist Richard Feynman, known for co-authoring books such as "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?".
-
E.
R. Luke Concanen
R. Luke Concanen was an Irish Dominican priest who became the first bishop appointed to lead the Roman Catholic community of New York in the early 19th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (58)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ethnobotanist
ⓘ
human ⓘ lecturer ⓘ mystic ⓘ writer ⓘ |
| advocated |
exploration of consciousness
ⓘ
preservation of indigenous knowledge about plant medicines ⓘ responsible use of psychedelic substances ⓘ |
| almaMater | University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | brain tumor ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1946-11-16 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2000-04-03 ⓘ |
| educatedAt | University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
| familyName | McKenna ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
consciousness studies
ⓘ
ethnobotany ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ psychedelics ⓘ shamanism ⓘ |
| fullName |
Terence Kemp McKenna
ⓘ
linked to:
Terence McKenna
|
| genre |
esotericism
ⓘ
philosophy ⓘ psychedelic literature ⓘ |
| givenName | Terence ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary psychonauts
ⓘ
countercultural movements ⓘ psychedelic culture ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Carl Jung
ⓘ
James Joyce ⓘ Marshall McLuhan ⓘ shamanic traditions ⓘ |
| knownFor |
lectures on psychedelics and consciousness
ⓘ
public advocacy of psilocybin mushrooms ⓘ writings on shamanism and plant teachers ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| notableIdea |
Timewave Zero hypothesis
ⓘ
advocacy of psychedelic substances ⓘ archaic revival ⓘ novelty theory ⓘ stoned ape hypothesis ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness
ⓘ
Food of the Gods ⓘ The Archaic Revival ⓘ The Invisible Landscape ⓘ True Hallucinations ⓘ |
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
ethnobotanist ⓘ lecturer ⓘ mystic ⓘ philosopher ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Paonia, Colorado, United States ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath |
San Rafael, California, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
San Rafael
|
| religiousOrPhilosophicalView |
mysticism
ⓘ
psychedelic spirituality ⓘ |
| residence |
Hawaii, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Hawaii
|
| sibling | Dennis McKenna ⓘ |
| spouse | Kathleen Harrison ⓘ |
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: Terence McKenna Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (19)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.