The FELT presence of immediate experience with
The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo and UnTerry McCanny
Studying psychedelics is perhaps one of the most essential skills one may have, from the standpoint of being safe whenever buying these compounds, knowing what to expect, and being able to educate others. However, to people who were never too interested in science, these compounds may be rather dull to study since you’d need to go over endless pages of reports and scientific studies and even learn other subjects like neurochemistry and biochemistry, and the list is nearly infinite.
I firmly remember when studying these compounds and entering the realm of psychedelics, for the longest time, I thought, ‘Man… There should be a more fun way to be studying these compounds.’ This was before falling in love with the logic puzzles behind organic chemistry and pharmacology, but unfortunately, these subjects aren’t that fun for everyone.
The concept of having someone teach these subjects in a humorous way has stuck with me since then. Until, out of the blue, I came across a page called @psychedelic_assembly and saw an exquisite puppet named UnTerry McCanny, presenting Terence McKenna Monday. On this day, The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo brings UnTerry McCanny to life to share a piece of his and McKenna’s mind and communicate with us through his amazing Terence McKenna impersonation.
We decided to reach out to have a Q&A with The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo about his art, philosophy, and much more in the Q&A below!
Additionally, Michaelangelo is currently accepting donations to bring other puppets to life like William S. Burroughs (PS. Let me tell you, the impersonation of Burroughs is amazing), you can reach out to him directly via Instagram, becoming a Patron or donating directly on his website.
We hope you enjoy the Q&A!
How were you introduced to psychedelics?
Well, I’m from The Netherlands, where magic mushrooms are decriminalized, so growing up they were always around. However, I wasn’t really interested in them. There really was no lore surrounding them at the time, no larger context, other than they were known as “smart drugs,” a term I’d love to see resurge in the modern culture. I had friends who would sometimes trip, and would come back, puzzled and at a loss for words. Their muted revelations came across to me as unimpressive, drug-induced hallucinations, with no deeper, intrinsic meaning attached to them.
By the time I was 18 and had moved to the US, I rediscovered marijuana. In the past it had been a trivial, occasional indulgence, but now, paired with my coming-of-age and coming-into-artistry, it was a truly mind-expanding, magical substance. Naturally, I became curious about what other altered states were available. It was the film Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas that inspired me to try psychedelics. The derangement of the senses looked like fun. I had no idea the rabbit hole I would tumble town. My maiden voyage into “psilocyber-space” is documented in detail in a piece I wrote titled “The Trip Before The Fall,” which you can read on Medium or listen to in narrated form on my podcast Self Portraits As Other People.
I took 28 grams of fresh Psilocybe Mexicana (roughly the equivalent of 5 dried grams) on an empty stomach in the middle of Amsterdam, and though it started out fun, it exponentially unhinged me from reality, culminating in a rather cinematic out of body experience. As it turns out Fear and Loathing were not desirable values to pursue, and over time I traded them for Set & Setting. However unsettling the experience may have been, I was unable to shake the profundity of the ontologically transformative effect it had on me. I carefully mapped further entry into these spaces in the years to come. My introduction to Ayahuasca in 2003 took things to the next level.
Is there any psychedelic research that currently interests you? If so, which? Or is there a specific topic that you believe people should research more?
I find the extended-state DMT trials peripherally interesting, but to be honest I don’t really follow much of the literature as it pertains to scientific research, as it mostly leans towards the medicalization and clinicalization of psychedelics. The psychedelic research that interests me most is my own, which leans more towards the philosophical and creative mapping of what I term “the department of the interior,” and how what I encounter in those spaces relates to my unfolding biographical, personal mythology, and the lore-at-large.
When did you find your love for using puppets? And what triggered that love?
Puppetry, in my experience, is proto-animation. I have always loved The Muppets, and especially Jim Henson’s collaborations with Brian Froud (The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth) and the mythological explorations of his series The Storyteller. Coming to think if it, Being John Malkovich is one of my favorite films, and puppetry is a central theme there as well.
I’ve always loved puppetry as a metaphor. As a filmmaker I approach operating a camera with animistic zeal, referring to it as “puppeteering a perspective,” because you must completely forego seeing through any lens other than the camera’s, moving the instrument like it has its own personhood, suspending or extending your own agency into it. In my 2022 music video for artist Alexa Melo’s song San Pedro, I used masks and costumes to turn my actors into what you could call puppets.
I must admit I’m new to being a puppeteer in the traditional sense. I first slid my hand into UnTerry McCanny’s penetralia in April of 2024. The first time I brought him to life it freaked me out a little, the way he moved and looked at me, with such seeming autonomy. I liken it to that scene from Evil Dead 2, when Ash’s hand becomes possessed and he decides to lop it off. My version of lopping it off is allowing UnTerry to take over.
What is the typical response or feedback you receive when you appear as UnTerry McCanny?
Afterwards people come up to me to express a sense of wonder. The word “uncanny” comes up a lot. They often say that it feels like I’m “channeling” or “invoking” Terence, not only through the approximation of his voice, but also through what I say. They say it feels like he’s there in the room with us.
What made you pick Terence McKenna out of every other psychedelic pioneer?
Well, in my humble o’pineal, when it comes to spellbinding oration on the topic of psychedelic exploration, he was the best to ever do it. I happen to be able to uncannily emulate his nasal tonality, over-annunciating speech pattern, and spellbinding timbre and candence.
Like Terence, I’m also a bard with the gift of gab, so it makes sense.
UnTerry McCanny is kind of a Trojan horse, which, in the familiar guise of McKenna, smuggles my own ideas, into the fortress.
Did you ever get to meet Terence McKenna? If so, what was the experience like, and what did it mean to you?
I wish! I didn’t discover Terence until after his death. However, I did once, during a mushroom trip twenty years ago, have a felt sense of his presence. It felt like I was wearing a crown inside my skull. It conveyed the sense that I was in the presence of psychedelic royalty. Perhaps that’s the moment I was anointed to carry on a homage of his legacy, but that’s neither here nor there. ;-P
How much has Terence McKenna philosophically influenced your life?
A great deal, I’d say. Before his recordings were widely available on YouTube, I mostly read transcripts until I got my hands on a CD of Alien Dreamtime, and listened to it constantly. I found in Terence, like many of us, a kindred thinker who was able to wrestle concepts into language that most people grapple to grasp, but the implications of which they feel intrinsically. In my own writings I often reference or quote Terence, leaning on, analyzing, and occasionally critiquing his words-work.
What are some other psychedelic philosophers or researchers that you look up to?
I used to listen to and read a lot of Alan Watts, Tim Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, William Burroughs, Jeremy Narby, and Osho. Except for Narby, I do impressions of all of them, but they don’t have puppet avatars… yet. Other influences are Julian Jaynes, Eric Wargo, and David Abram. Although they don’t fall directly in the psychedelics category, I find their work pertinently psychedelic, dealing as it does with themes like consciousness, language, ecology, precognition, and hallucination.
If UnTerry McCanny had the chance to ask Terence McKenna a question, what would he ask?
Well, I’ve always been curious whether or not Stoned Ape Theory is a play on Stone Tape Theory, the pseudoscientific notion that ghost sightings occur when historical information is released from the organic storage bank of stones. I’d also love to dialogue with him in-depth about the ways in which Julian Jaynes influenced his thinking.
What is your opinion on the current state of philosophy in psychedelics? Do you think this should be something people should invest more in? Or do you feel like philosophy has no space in the current state of the psychedelic community?
I think philosophy is or should be central to the exploration of psychedelic states. Currently, the narrative seems to lean towards clinicalization and medicalization, which serves its purpose—both in regards to helping people overcome mental health obstacles and paving the way towards legalization and societal acceptance. But for me it is exactly the dimension of weirdness and personal disclosure, and of what happens when something unspeakable pushes upon the organ of language, holding it underwater so that when it resurfaces it takes a more expansive, expressive breath, that is most fascinating. The tagline for my podcast Self Portraits As Other People is “where the limits of language meet the fringes of reality.” That’s the liminal terrain I’m most interested in. I’d like to see and hear more personal and speculative, philosophical lore explored in the culture. It’s through philosophy and storytelling that the experience deepens, takes root, and integrates in both the practical, speculative, and poetic dimensions of lived experience.
How did the idea of crossing over the puppets with the psychedelic world?
For a long time my uncanny impression of the man was limited to making the occasion short-form cameo appearance in my live performances, on my voice-over acting reel, and on podcasts.
It might have made its first recorded appearance during Erik Davis’ Expanding Mind in 2014, then Ramin Nazer heard me do it on Michael Garfield’s Future Fossils and invited me onto his Rainbow Brainskull podcast. It’s in the latter that it began to garner some hype. In 2022 I had some moderate success on YouTube with a series of four impression videos (in order of popularity they were Slavoj Zizek, Jordan Peterson, Werner Herzog, and Terence).
This caught the attention of comedian Shane Mauss who commissioned me to write, narrate, and record an intro and some promo materials for his touring show A Better Trip. People often, to this day, assume it’s AI (shaking my head).
Shane performed at Psychedelic Assembly, a psychedelic library and social club in Midtown Manhattan, where the founder, Kat Lakey, a lifelong Terence fan, heard it and, impressed by its accuracy, inquired how he had managed to raise the dead. Shane replied, “oh, that’s a Dutch artist named The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo, who lives in the jungle in Mexico.” She commissioned me to write, narrate, and record a voice-over for her business, elucidating its origin story and mission statement. It was actually Kat’s sister-in-law, Michelle “Shell” Lakey (IG: @shellmakespuppets) who I commissioned to make the puppet for me in the fall of 2023. And it goes without saying she did an incredible job!
Would you see yourself creating other puppets, Alexander Shulgin, Timothy Leary, or Dennis McKenna, perhaps?
Well, to clarify, I didn’t create the puppet, I just bring it to life. I’d love to commission a Tim Leary, Alan Watts, Robert Anton Wilson, William Burroughs and Osho Puppet from Shell! I don’t currently have the budget to do so, but please reach out if you do, and would like to make this dream a reality!
I don’t know Shulgin very well, though I can see that his likeness would translate beautifully to felt.
I can do a Dennis McKenna impression, but first of all, his flesh puppet still walks the earth, so there’s no need for me to emulate his likeness, and secondly, his persona is not as performative as Terence’s.
I have considered the idea of, at some point, cinematically adapting scenes from the book True Hallucinations, to be performed by puppets, as proof of concept for a full length feature film that would combine puppetry, animation, and live action elements. Time and resources are the greatest obstacles towards the realization of such a vision. Again, if an affluent patron of the arts reads this, and would care to invest in such a venture, please reach out!
The one thing I love about your idea with the puppet is the early references we have to the humorous puppeteering made in the early 90’s. Would you say that humor could be a potential way to educate people about these compounds?
Of course! The fact that we forget we’re watching someone’s felt-clad hand talking to us, rather than a flesh-and-blood person, is already hilarious in its own rite. It like to think it makes us all feel more puppet-like.
Humor is the spoonful of sugar that makes bitter pills easier to swallow. Not to mention that laughter is the best medicine, proverbially. You could even apply an Ayahuasca metaphor here, and say that comedy is like an MAOI that brings the defenses down, so that DMT can sneak its medicine past the guardians, hijack the host, and take them on a trip that subverts their wildest expectations.
Plus, so much of the speculative realm is utterly absurd when uttered, so why not twist the tongue to coin silly turns of phrases like they were balloon animals, squeaky noises notwithstanding?
But more than educating people about the “compounds” themselves—which are like the proverbial finger pointing at the moon—I’m interested in exploring their modus operandi, and the ways these can extend into the integrated psychedelia of sober, everyday life.
Many people know you from being UnTerry McCanny, but you are also an artist. What is the creative process behind your abstract paintings? What inspires you?
I wouldn’t call my painting abstract, personally, though the priming starts out that way. I used to fall more in the “visionary art” category, when I would literally map the department of the interior, based on visions, dreams, and reflections.
Nowadays I prefer to think of my work as “divinatory” art, because there is an oracular dimension to their creation.
I utilize pareidolia-as-a-daemonic-interface. “Pareidolia” is the tendency for perception to find meaningful patterns in random stimuli (e.g. faces in the clouds). By “daemonic interface” I mean to say that what appears in the paintings is something that comes from beyond my self-imitating limitations—from The Unconscious, or The Imagination, or whatever you want to call The Unknown. I forego knowing in order to explore and discover, making the mind manifest on the canvas. In other words: a very psychedelic practice, sans substances.
I begin by applying an impulsive, expressive priming of color and texture, letting an algorithm of randomness take the wheel. I consider the result a “psychic teleprompter,” because I scry into the surface and it suggests forms to my mind’s eye. You can think of that textural priming like a web that I use to trap transient forms in the crosshairs of my attention. Usually these appear as a wide range of expressive characters, often including animal-human hybrids. When I see one I like, I outline its form—ghost-busting or dream-catching it—and from there the next one will appear, and the next, and the next. When I’m done entire communities, families, species, and ecologies people the planes of these “Divined Designs” in a display of dynamic inclusivity.
Lastly, where can people find your work at UnTerry McCanny and as an artist? And what can people expect from a McKenna Monday at Psychedelic Assembly?
My website www.theungoogleable.com is a great resource for exploring my multi-faceted expressions in image, sound, and word.
You can find more recent artworks, as well as some clips of UnTerry McCanny, trickling into the feed of my instagram @void_denizen, as well as the occasional “puppet promo” for @psychedelic_assembly.
McKenna Monday is a monthly listening party that takes place at Psychedelic Assembly’s library space in Manhattan, where we play a Terence Lecture, provide pizza, coloring book pages and colored pencils. Afterwards UnTerry & I take to the stage for a Q&A “schmooze & muse” to riff off of and engage the audience in deeper exploration of the lecture’s contents. This is something I feel that has been missing since Terence’s death. Listening to his lectures tends to be a private, solitary affair, and we wanted to reintroduce that in a communal and interactive setting.
My Patreon (www.patreon.com/voiddenizen) has an archive of these Q&A sessions, collectively amounting to over an hour of content, as well as a deep well of other, exclusive Ungoogleable materials. I also offer a service on Cameo, should you want to commission a personal video of UnTerry McCanny answering your question, sending birthday wishes, motivational words or what-have-you to a loved one. We are also available for speaking engagements, MCing, and other kinds of events.
