Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna -- Graham St John, Paperback

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 Strange Attractor, the first biography of this enigmatic figure, 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 has affected multitudes and whose spirit continues to haunt the present. It draws on original documents and letters, features fifty two rare photographs and artworks, and shares previously untold stories from over eighty people. 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.

Author: Graham St John
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 09/30/2025
Pages: 548
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780262049573

About the Author
Graham St John is a cultural anthropologist and a recent recipient of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield where he is a Senior Research Fellow. He is the author of ten books, including Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT, Global Tribe, and Technomad. He is founding Executive Editor of Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture and has published widely on the ethnobiography of transformational events.