The Dominion Post newspaper of New Zealand published an article in their issue of the 20th of December, 2012….a day before Terence McKenna’s projected eschatological completion of the Timewave that he “discovered” as an artifact of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching in the Amazon with his brother in 1971 (depending on when you were to ask him, at other times he used other dates). The article was a review of a play called ‘Eschaton: The Final Thing, directed by Stella Reid, which was inspired by Terence’s millenarian sensibilities. There’s a teaser trailer available online and the (quite enjoyable) soundtrack is available for streaming.

The article begins by poking at some of the ‘articles of faith’ of certain 2012-believers, namely that Planet X (or Nibiru) would collide with earth and that a small mountain village in France (Bugarach) would be one of (or the only) place of salvation during the ensuing cataclysm before going on to review the play itself. Reviewer Laurie Atkinson suggests that someone looking at the flyer for the performance might have expected these themes to be addressed only to find that it was actually about “the ideas of Terence McKenna.”

In her director’s notes in the programme, Stella Reid, inspired by McKenna’s writings, explores “how an eschaton could affect, and ultimately transform, humanity.” McKenna imagines human existence going through a “gestation process” and that when the end happens we will go through a process of metamorphosis and emerge from our human cocoon with a “human-machine planet-girdling interface capable of releasing the energies that light the stars.”

One hopes that there is a video of one of the performances around somewhere, so that it can be added to the Terence McKenna Archives. If you find (or have) one, please do let us know at: terencemckennaarchives@gmail.com