The Sheldrake - McKenna - Abraham Trialogues

These trialogues are from a series of lively, far-reaching discussions between Rupert and his close friends Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna, that took place between 1989 and 1998, in America and England.

These three-way conversations began in private after their first meeting in 1982. Encouraged by their similar fascinations and complimentary views, and inspired by the synergy of their ideas and styles and the input of differing areas of expertise, the three friends continued to meet and explore new areas of thought. Throughout their public trialogues, which began in 1989, they maintained the spontaneous, playful and intrepid spirit of their private talks, and were thrilled that these explorations inspired further discussions amongst their audiences. Their trialogues and friendship have been a source of great inspiration and stimulation for their own lives and work.

In their first set of public trialogues, held as a workshop at Esalen in 1989, they explored aspects of the world soul from the perspectives of chaos, creativity and imagination, and discussed many topics including: light and vision; the psilocybin mushroom; the unconscious; entities; the resacralization of the world; the reform of the educational system and the Apocalypse.

Their second series of trialogues examined evolution in all its forms, through new topics that included: grassroots science; psychedelics, computers and mathematics; psychic animals; the World Wide Web; celestial intelligences; the nature of time and the evolving mind.

Edited transcripts of many of their first series of trialogues are published in the book Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness (originally published as Trialogues at the Edge of the West), and many of those from their second series can be found in The Evolutionary Mind.



Terence McKenna was an ethnopharmacologist, shamanologist, and author, known for his theories on plant hallucinogens and the novelty wave, and the bardic skill with which he conveyed his ideas. Sadly Terence died aged 53 on April 3, 2000.

Ralph Abraham, PhD, is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, author, and pioneer in the fields of Chaos theory, computer graphics, visual mathematics and dynamical systems.

Latest Conversation Between Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham A conversation with Ralph Abraham in London in December 2015. We discuss recent consciousness research, and in particular a conference in India at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, and a symposium in England on psychedelics, focussing on the visionary effects of DMT and ayahuasca.

Paddy Rose Price was the trialogues editor.

The Trialogues