Food of the Gods. Terence Mckenna on Lingustics, psychedelics, and Lingustics.

[Political_Chucky]

I just bought his book and itsa really interesting take on how shrooms and other psychedelics may have pushed our brain into a "hyperdrive" of evolution. He also discusses how these plants can and should be used for the further development of the human race. Here is a book signing he spoke at in which he pretty much summarizes the book. Thoughts please :)

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[Political_Chucky]

lol can a mod change that second linguistics to human evolution? And delete this post? :)

[The Vegan Marxist]

Interesting. Shrooms seemed to have only benefited in making a very stressful day unstressful, but I'm not sure about what this guy is advocating. I'd have to read the book myself as well.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I've vaguely heard of this idea - that human evolution was somehow bootstrapped by psychedelic substances. We might be able to confirm this by examining the genomes of the various relevant plants and fungi that would have been available to our ancestors, and comparing them to our evolutionary history to see if there is any meaningful overlap.

I mean, it seems unlikely that a fungus or plant would evolve the ability to develop complex psychedelic compounds merely as a form of self-defence - simpler substances such as alkaloids would be easier to synthesise and just as effective, would they not? It seems more likely that some kind of selection process would have been occurring with such organisms, whereby specific plants and fungi are cultivated and/or propagated by humans for their psychedelic potential.

[Delirium]

Well it makes sense if mushrooms are really aliens from outerspace, here to guide our evolution until 2012 when we all transcend our bodies when the planet nibaru comes around and we collect all 12 crystal skulls.

[Luís Henrique]

So Darwin was wrong, and acquired characteristics can actually passed down through genetic inheritance?

... didn't think so. To be honest, still don't.

Luís Henrique

[Political_Chucky]

So Darwin was wrong, and acquired characteristics can actually passed down through genetic inheritance?

... didn't think so. To be honest, still don't.

Luís Henrique

Well then isn't what Mckenna is saying. He is discussing what wasn't talked much about back in '92 when this came out, trying to help explain why our brain, which is the fastest evolutionary growth in any animal, has developed so fast by introducing theories on what we ate as archaic beings. That's where he introduces the idea that because we are omnivores, it grew our meals too all different types of metabolites that were psychedelic or had active ingredients that may have sped up the process.

He also connects linguistics to this theory and how some cultures don't have a past tense, and some don't have a future or present tense of any kind in their language. The use of shamans in the archaic world and how their influence had a a profound affect on our language as early humans is where the book delves into.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

So Darwin was wrong, and acquired characteristics can actually passed down through genetic inheritance?

... didn't think so. To be honest, still don't.

Luís Henrique

Lamarckism isn't required (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism_%28biology%29).

[Political_Chucky]

I've vaguely heard of this idea - that human evolution was somehow bootstrapped by psychedelic substances. We might be able to confirm this by examining the genomes of the various relevant plants and fungi that would have been available to our ancestors, and comparing them to our evolutionary history to see if there is any meaningful overlap.

I mean, it seems unlikely that a fungus or plant would evolve the ability to develop complex psychedelic compounds merely as a form of self-defence - simpler substances such as alkaloids would be easier to synthesise and just as effective, would they not? It seems more likely that some kind of selection process would have been occurring with such organisms, whereby specific plants and fungi are cultivated and/or propagated by humans for their psychedelic potential.

Exactly. Mckenna isn't neccessarily saying only these types of Metabolites are what has caused a evolutionary boost, but in combination with other factors, psychedelics, specifically in certain Amazonian, indian, and american tribe cultures, have significantly changed them. It doesn't just stop a shrooms, but even with DMT and other plant-derived drugs. I'm really starting to believe that maybe because of how we have used tools of many kinds as humans, drugs are only another tool that we have overlooked tremendously for our way to progress mentally.

[Bardo]

I read this a few years ago and its still sitting on my shelf.




He talks about how things like language and creative innovation progressed very slowly for hundreds of thousands of years until the domestication of cattle became common. After cattle started to become domesticated, cave paintings of mushrooms started popping up along with rapid development in society and technology.

One interesting story in the book is about a group of chimps that travel many miles every so often to a patch of psychoactive grass. The grass is a certain kind of species which is closely related to several highly toxic and deadly grasses which are avoided by the chimps. So they're seeking out the psychoactives, remembering where they are and learning how to tell them from the similar but poisonous ones.