Food Of The Gods: The Search For The Original Tree Of Knowledge : A Radical History Of Plants, Drugs, And Human Evolution
by Terence Mckenna /
2012 / English / PDF
216.9 MB Download
Terence McKenna hypothesizes that as the North African jungles
receded, giving way to savannas and grasslands near the end of
the most recent ice age, a branch of our arboreal primate
ancestors left the forest canopy and began living in the open
areas beyond. There they experimented with new varieties of foods
as they adapted, physically and mentally, to the environment.
Among the new foods found in this environment were
psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing near dung of ungulate
herds occupying the savannas and grasslands. Referencing the
research of Roland L. Fisher, McKenna claims the enhancement of
visual acuity was an effect of psilocybin at low doses and
suggests this would confer adaptive advantage. He argues that the
effects of slightly larger doses, including sexual arousal, and
in larger doses, ecstatic hallucinations & glossolalia-gave
selective evolutionary advantages to members of those tribes who
partook of it. There were many changes caused by the introduction
of this psychoactive to primate diets. He hypothesizes, for
instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of sensory boundaries)
caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language:
the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the
use of vocal sounds. About 12,000 years ago, further climate
changes removed psilocybin-containing mushrooms from human diets.
He argues that this event resulted in a new set of profound
changes in our species as we reverted to the previous brutal
primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed
by frequent consumption of psilocybin.
Terence McKenna hypothesizes that as the North African jungles
receded, giving way to savannas and grasslands near the end of
the most recent ice age, a branch of our arboreal primate
ancestors left the forest canopy and began living in the open
areas beyond. There they experimented with new varieties of foods
as they adapted, physically and mentally, to the environment.
Among the new foods found in this environment were
psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing near dung of ungulate
herds occupying the savannas and grasslands. Referencing the
research of Roland L. Fisher, McKenna claims the enhancement of
visual acuity was an effect of psilocybin at low doses and
suggests this would confer adaptive advantage. He argues that the
effects of slightly larger doses, including sexual arousal, and
in larger doses, ecstatic hallucinations & glossolalia-gave
selective evolutionary advantages to members of those tribes who
partook of it. There were many changes caused by the introduction
of this psychoactive to primate diets. He hypothesizes, for
instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of sensory boundaries)
caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language:
the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the
use of vocal sounds. About 12,000 years ago, further climate
changes removed psilocybin-containing mushrooms from human diets.
He argues that this event resulted in a new set of profound
changes in our species as we reverted to the previous brutal
primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed
by frequent consumption of psilocybin.