McKenna was a great thinker and linguist, with a deep understanding of philosophy, science, technology, mathematics, and history. His intelligence and eloquence made me wonder for while whether psychedelics might be the key to unlocking the potential of the brain. And maybe there is something to that, but when I’ve listened to his brother, Dennis, speak I realized that Terence had unique gifts that would have been evident with or without his experiences with those drugs.
One of his many famous quotes puts your observation about language this way:
“The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.”
Thanks for reminding me about “Arrival”. When I watched it I was greatly distracted and missed so much that I always intended to go back and watch it again. I’m going to make a point to do that.
You may be interested in this podcast if you have not heard it—most people had no clue what McLuhan was talking about—McKenna explains what is was and why it was and is so important:
https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-560-mckennas-thoughts-about-marshall-mcluhan/