Around 30,000 years ago, humankind, or rather, the Homo species, experienced a leap in conscious and cognitive abilities. this is often evident from the sudden evolution of sophisticated art, language, and enhanced audio-visual perception and creativity from archaeological artefacts gathered from around the world.
This emerging intelligence has baffled scientists since the invention of the phenomenon, and lots of notable names across various scientific fields have did not provide a reason or cause … apart from one man!
INTRODUCING THE SHAMAN
Terrence McKenna
An illustrious scientific career, several publications and books, and hours of audio lectures; this is often the legacy of a person named Terrence McKenna, who spent his entire life studying psychedelic substances and their effects on the mind and body.
His research was increasingly focused on the ethnological and archaeological evidence for the cultural and non-secular use of psychoactive and psychedelic substances by ancient communities worldwide.
His exploration of the Amazon rainforest travels across Asia, and experimentation with various substances reception led him to define and explain various metaphysical and historical phenomena, like the character of your time and space and therefore the limitless capabilities of the human mind, and therefore the emergence of human intelligence.
One of his much-debated and widely appreciated theory is that the stoned ape theory, which is explained intimately below.
HALLUCINATING HUMANS
magic-mushroom
According to the stoned ape theory, early hominid communities adopted a hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyle. Such communities would migrate from one place to subsequent in search of game and edible plants that would sustain their population.
You can imagine such early communities resembling herds during a manner that often experienced environmental and evolutionary pressure thanks to their limited intelligence, communication, and resourcefulness.
This scenario soon took an enormous turn when these wandering communities discovered a sort of mushroom during their travels and incorporated it into their diet.
They didn’t know that this easy mushroom would change the material of their society and therefore the capabilities of their minds … forever.
THE FOOD OF THE GODS
In his book, entitled “Food of the Gods,” McKenny highlights that early hunter-gatherer hominids discovered the Psilocybin genera of mushrooms and made it a part of their regular diet.
This mushroom is understood to supply highly hallucinogenic experiences, even at relatively small doses.
This new paradigm of perception, as McKenny explains, led to the evolution of cognitive understanding and intelligence in early humans and is liable for the looks and development of art, language, music, religion, and culture of the Homo sapiens.
EXPANDING BOUNDARIES
As McKenny explains, the new diet of the first Homo sapiens slowly began to revolve around Psilocybin mushrooms. At small doses, the mushroom led to enhanced spatial perception, specifically the detection of edges and angles. At a touch higher dose, McKenny explains, the fungus would have led to the event of more energetic sexuality and at still higher portions, would have led to a decrease in aversions and inhibitions, resulting in a communal social setup that promoted reproduction, giving rise to the tribal and settled culture of early humans.
McKenny also noted that the mushrooms’ incredibly powerful hallucinations probably led to the event of art, music, and language, as humans began to conceive and understand new rhythms, sounds, and tunes.
AN EMERGING SOCIETY
Psychedelic Society
This new paradigm of culture led to the creation of shamanic societies where the exploration of the self was promoted using mushrooms and other psychedelic substances either ceremoniously, religiously, or freely by participating members of the community.
A more evolved and intelligent race of humans began to emerge that benefitted from more exceptional cognitive abilities and more capable problem-solving skills that probably led to the evolution of tool use, giving Home Sapiens a foothold above the remainder of the Hominoid species that little question concurrently populated the earth during the first period of the species.
As the interaction of various communities increased, this led to the intermingling of diverse populations, causing an exchange of genes, with survival favouring the more intelligent and artistic members of the species.
Soon, a vibrant society emerged from the ranks of the Homo sapiens that have developed into the worldwide culture we are experiencing today.
CONCLUSION
Although met with extreme criticism and objections from various sources, the stoned ape theory has gained many proponents since its inception. It continues to grow in popularity among scientific circles to the present day.
As McKenny once expressed, there’ll soon come a time when humankind will realize that our conceptions regarding the origins of our species and intelligence were misinterpreted entirely which there’s little question that we are yet to explore the hidden potentials of the human mindfully.
Fortunately for us, we have got the advantage of using psychedelics to reinforce our realm of experiences safely and responsibly, as McKenny advocated.
