First i heard of this was the Stoned Ape theory proposed by Terrance McKenna. I always thought it made a compelling argument in explaining the evolutionary leap. I’d thought it had been debunked, so this is pretty cool to see.

Kinda makes sense to me. Psychedelics can change the way people think, so a trip could’ve changed early peoples. Not to mention doing drugs back then means you’d have to be somewhat disciplined in order to get drugs.

i guess i liked this theory when i was in college eating mushrooms on the regular, but isn’t it kind of weird? like, is a dog not conscious? or did they suddenly become conscious from mushrooms too? to me it feels like tool usage that enables written language is by far the biggest differentiator between humans and “lower” species. i mean, dolphins may be as smart as humans but they have no fuckin clue what their great great grandmother’s name was and have little hope of solving differential equations trying to draw in the sand with their flippers.

maybe this is just my belief system, but i don’t think eating a mushroom gave anyone a “soul”. i know the feeling of coming down and feeling like you’ve left the cave and everyone else is just looking at shadows on the wall, but those people are conscious of the shadows at least.