Mushrooms as probes sent by an ETI/UTI

Fungal Monoliths and the Space Porn of Panspermia

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.

Fungal Monoliths and the Space Porn of Panspermia

I thought mushrooms fed on any decaying matter, not just mammalian poo?

I was thinking about cave art, which is one of the few clues we have to the inner mental state of humans thousands of years ago. Worldwide, there are certainly some peculiar and hard to explain images. But on the other hand, and certainly in Europe, much of it is close to naturalistic, as well as of a high quality - with a bit of artistic licence in some cases. That to me doesn't suggest anything too much like trippy experiences were playing a role in their creation. What is remarkable too is the wide timescale of thousands of years during which such images were produced - suggesting a stable and long-lasting culture which very probably far outlasted our own present-day culture which is characterised by change rather than stability.

(Yes there are human/animal combined in some art such as the Lion Man, which does give food for thought. )

I thought mushrooms fed on any decaying matter, not just mammalian poo?

Coprophilous fungi grow in herbivore poo, 'magic' mushrooms included.

I was thinking about cave art, which is one of the few clues we have to the inner mental state of humans thousands of years ago. Worldwide, there are certainly some peculiar and hard to explain images. But on the other hand, and certainly in Europe, much of it is close to naturalistic, as well as of a high quality - with a bit of artistic licence in some cases. That to me doesn't suggest anything too much like trippy experiences were playing a role in their creation. What is remarkable too is the wide timescale of thousands of years during which such images were produced - suggesting a stable and long-lasting culture which very probably far outlasted our own present-day culture which is characterised by change rather than stability.

(Yes there are human/animal combined in some art such as the Lion Man, which does give food for thought. )

Actually, I reckon cave art kinda backs McKenna up on the psychedelic angle.... Ok, like you said, check out the hybrid figures.... then there's the ubiquitous appearance in ancient art of depictions of entoptic phenomena. Entoptics are visual disturbances (I get them from ocular migraines), like squiggles and zig-zags,  that mark the onset of an extended hallucination. 

Tying cave-art in with visionary experiences (drug or trance induced) is actually a respectable theory in caveartology or whatever.... It was first put on the map by my fellow countryman, David Lewis-Williams.

Here's a look at entoptic phenomena and their representations in cave-art:

 

Regards the title of the post:

I love the whole mushrooms from space idea.... apparently, they're equipped for interstellar travel, with electron dense spores that can survive in space's vacuum and deflect ultraviolet light. Source.

Fungi are also just very strange and rather sci-fi... single cell fungal hyphae can join together to form larger organisms.... like this one that catches and eats microscopic worms (the fungi is the thread looping over the worm):



And it's through fungi that forest plants function as a single super-organism:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/208...d-network/

If you take planets as conscious-in-some-way self organising systems (Gaia-theory style), then fungal spores could be the consciousness conserving device of a distant planet, released into space when the planet got whacked by a meteor, sent to drift along inter-stellar winds until finding its way to a suitable planet, like Earth. 

Ok, enough!

Here's the wee Mc on shrooms from space:

Nevertheless, the article linked in my previous post (in case you missed it) is entitled Spotted Horses in Cave Art Weren’t Just a Figment, DNA Shows and addresses the question, "These spotty horses, were they magical or real?".

My feeling has always been that there is some sort of magical or visionary experiences associated with these paintings. However the very life-like qualities suggest a more focussed, intention-based journey. This very act of focus and mental concentration may be more what I'm getting at.

I think there may be different types of record that we're considering here. Though nowadays such sites are kept highly secure, in the past it seems probable that they were also kept separate from daily life , they were not places of habitation where people lived, ate and slept. It played a different role, what I cannot say.

I should add also that the spirals and abstract designs found at such places as Newgrange in Ireland are also fascinating, though these in the scheme of things are relatively recent and seem to represent a more formalised approach to design, rather than direct from the imagination.

Nevertheless, the article linked in my previous post (in case you missed it) is entitled Spotted Horses in Cave Art Weren’t Just a Figment, DNA Shows and addresses the question, "These spotty horses, were they magical or real?".

My feeling has always been that there is some sort of magical or visionary experiences associated with these paintings. However the very life-like qualities suggest a more focussed, intention-based journey. This very act of focus and mental concentration may be more what I'm getting at.

I think there may be different types of record that we're considering here. Though nowadays such sites are kept highly secure, in the past it seems probable that they were also kept separate from daily life , they were not places of habitation where people lived, ate and slept. It played a different role, what I cannot say.

Yes, I did miss the link, very interesting. Now I'm just waiting for someone to dig up a unicorn skull.  

I agree completely that cave paintings, and their sites, look to have played a focused role in ancient life. Pictures like the following definitely present like a purposeful journey (as opposed to getting ripped and daubing on the wall).... the act of recording it probably also had a specific purpose.....

[Image: Scannen0046.jpg?template=generic]

Is that a horned snake? Magical.

I should add also that the spirals and abstract designs found at such places as Newgrange in Ireland are also fascinating, though these in the scheme of things are relatively recent and seem to represent a more formalised approach to design, rather than direct from the imagination.

Beautiful! I hadn't seen these before, thanks. You gotta love spirals.

Ok, not sure if this fits, but I think it sorta does (and doesn't deserve its own thread)........

Spiders can apparently detect, and possibly / probably ride, magnetic fields high-up into the sky:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brie...ic-fields/

It made me wonder what life forms (or  forms of manufacture) may be able to ride inter-stellar magnetic fields.

Anyway, field surfing spiders, wow.