2018-04-06, 10:36 PM
Fungal Monoliths and the Space Porn of Panspermia
Quote:Regardless of motive, assuming there is one beyond replication, the shroom seems largely benign — it does not constitute an invasive alien species, in other words, and on top of that survives primarily on mammalian poo.
McKenna does find suggestion of a secondary mushroom agenda, however, and it has become known as the Stoned Ape theory. McKenna suggests that at the end of the last ice age, as the jungles of North Africa began to recede and tree-dwelling apes descended from the trees and began hunting and gathering food, the magic mushrooms growing out of the shit spotting the grasslands became introduced into their diet.
His version of the mythical Eden then allegedly bloomed. The increased visual and auditory acuity, he reasoned, would have made them more successful hunters. The effects of synesthesia and glossolalia which may have facilitated the development of language, art, and music. The boundary dissolution and ego death reported at higher doses would have suspended the typical primate social structures. The effects of arousal mixed with the boundary dissolution would have given rise to orgiastic sex, thereby preventing males from determining paternity in cases of pregnancy and, as a consequence, they would have loyalty to all children of the group.
So we roamed around in egalitarian bands, feeding off of hunting, gathering and fishing and enjoying far more leisure time than modern culture typically allows until roughly ten thousand years ago. At that time, additional changes to the climate occurred and we adopted a sedentary lifestyle supported by agriculture. As a consequence, psilocybin was removed from the menu and we reverted back to our old primate social structures — though now within the context of our developed culture. So evolved our egos, our prejudice in the forms of racism, sexism and homophobia, hence our master and slave relations, greed and consumerism, so monogamy and monotheism. By making psychedelics such as psilocybin illegal, McKenna believes, the fuel behind the evolution of our consciousness has become rendered a crime.
Personally I find the Space-Shroom and Stoned Ape Hypothesis intriguing, but the Eden he imagines sounds far too dreamy for reality. Still, I respect its creativity if nothing more.