Reject Authority

What if authority isn’t a source of truth — but a barrier to it?

In the early '90s, Terence McKenna gave a talk where he called authority "an abomination" — a force that leads us into ignorance rather than wisdom.

I’ve listened to this talk many times over the years — but today, these words resonate more strongly than ever.

I'll keep this post quick, but I wanted to explore how Terence’s warning about “the lie of authority” parallels some of the core ideals of Zen — both offering an antidote to the systems that keep us numb, obedient, and quietly dissatisfied.

Authority Is A Lie

Let's start with the idea that knowledge is provisional — a living process, not a fixed product. McKenna warns that the so-called certainties of authority are often just illusions in disguise — "lies dressed up as truth."

Systems of power — political, religious, educational — frequently present themselves as guardians of knowledge, claiming to protect us from error. But in reality, they often exist to maintain control — not to foster understanding.

Authority, in this sense, is not a guide to truth — it’s a barrier to it.

McKenna urged people to take back their minds — to stop outsourcing their sense of truth, meaning, or morality to institutions. His idea was that genuine insight can’t be handed down. It must come from direct, unmediated experience. No one — no teacher, priest, professor, or algorithm — can give this to you.

Zen Buddhism arrives at a similar conclusion — silence reveals more than doctrine.

While Zen does largely rely on teachers, their prerogative isn't to tell you what to think or who to be. The master imparts no knowledge, no doctrine, and no definitive answers to anything. His role is simply to disrupt your conditioning, expose illusions, and force you to question your convictions.

Truth is something you must discover for yourself.

The Liberation of the Individual

True freedom comes from self-reliance. This doesn’t mean blind independence, but in learning to trust your own perception, intuition, and inner compass.

This idea is particularly urgent in an era where individuals are pushed into roles that serve the machine — whether it's through mindless work, mindless consumption, or mindless obedience.

McKenna called it out plainly — “You’ll go to a bullshit job and pour your life and genius into it, for nothing."

The idea is that when we blindly submit to the roles imposed on us, we surrender our potential — trading aliveness for security, and creativity for compliance.

Instead, McKenna advocated for a society where individuals are free to follow their passions, reclaim their creativity, and reject the roles assigned to them by institutions.

Zen Buddhism approaches this same insight through a different path, suggesting that our attachment to fixed identities and societal roles reinforces ego-based thinking and perpetuates suffering. While Zen teaches that the conventional self is ultimately an illusion, it also provides practical guidance for living authentically in the present moment.

Our submission to external systems traps us in an endless cycle of desire and dissatisfaction. The pursuit of social status, wealth, or validation feeds the machine rather than liberate the soul.

Submitting to these institutions leads to a loss of personal autonomy and creativity.

Zen Buddhism suggests that the way out of this predicament is to drop the false identities we’ve built up to please others and to step into a life that's freer, weirder, and more authentic.

Embrace the Chaos

Life is inherently chaotic, impermanent, and unpredictable. Rather than trying to control it, we should learn to flow with it.

The machine wants us to conform and fit neatly into predetermined roles — but it’s only by embracing chaos that we truly discover true self-reliance, true freedom.

Drop the values imposed on you by institutions, corporations, and social expectations. Pull your head out of the sand and reclaim agency over your life.

Don’t let the pursuit of certainty and control — the very things that hold you back — govern your decisions.

Instead, trust your own experience and intuition, find peace in the present moment, and live life your way.

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