Dennis Jon McKenna (born December 17, 1950, in Paonia, Colorado)[Solomon, Avi (June 9, 2011). Interview: Dennis McKenna. BoingBoing.net. Retrieved April 20, 2015.] is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer and author. He is the brother of well-known psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna and is a founding board member and the director of ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines.
Education
McKenna received his Master's degree in botany at the University of Hawaii in 1979.
He received his doctorate in botanical sciences in 1984 from the University of British Columbia,
where he wrote a dissertation titled
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in Amazonian hallucinogenic plants: ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological investigations. McKenna then received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Career
McKenna's research led to the development of natural products for Aveda Corporation as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored numerous scientific articles and books. He co-authored
The Invisible Landscape with his brother Terence and
Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements with Kenneth Jones and Kerry Hughes. McKenna spent a number of years as a senior lecturer for the Center for Spirituality and Healing, part of the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He became a senior research scientist for the Natural Health Products Research Group at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in the
Vancouver area.
His research has included the pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-hé, the subjects of his master's thesis. He has also conducted extensive fieldwork in the , , and Amazon.
Psilocybin mushroom cultivation
During the early 1970s McKenna along with his brother Terence, developed a technique for
cultivating psilocybin mushrooms and they published what they had learned in a book titled
Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide. McKenna and his brother were the first to come up with a reliable method for cultivating
psilocybin mushrooms at home.
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Other
McKenna's memoir,
The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss, about his and his brother Terence's life and journeys together, was published in 2012.
He is featured in the documentary .
McKenna participated in the first Evolver Convergence 2012 in Pittsburgh, June 1–4.
He has been the main guest several times on the popular radio show Coast to Coast AM. His last appearance on the show was the Sunday March 23, 2014, episode.
On December 16, 2012, April 17, 2017, and June 21, 2018, McKenna was the guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Dennis was also a key guest on The Cosmic Echo Podcast on September 18, 2018.
Bibliography
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Lo scenario invisibile. Mente, allucinogeni e I Ching, Rome, Italy: Spazio Interiore (2024)
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The Incense Bible: Plant Scents That Transcend World Culture, Medicine, and Spirituality (2007)
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The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss (2012); La confraternita dell'abisso urlante, Rome, Italy: Delufa Press (2025)
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Aya Awakenings: A Shamanic Odyssey (2013)
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Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness (2014)
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External links
