Dennis Jon McKenna (born December 17, 1950, in Paonia, Colorado) 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 Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1979. He received his doctorate in botanical sciences in 1984 from the University of British Columbia,

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 DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

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

  • Lo scenario invisibile. Mente, allucinogeni e I Ching, Rome, Italy: Spazio Interiore (2024)
  • The Incense Bible: Plant Scents That Transcend World Culture, Medicine, and Spirituality (2007)
  • The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss (2012); La confraternita dell'abisso urlante, Rome, Italy: Delufa Press (2025)
  • Aya Awakenings: A Shamanic Odyssey (2013)
  • Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness (2014)

References

  • Biography and publications list at Heffter Research Institute
  • Erowid's Dennis McKenna Vault
  • 2009 – Cognition Factor (2009)