A New Perspective on Human Evolution
by Terence McKenna
The first encounter between hominids and psilocybin-containing mushrooms may date back to before the domestication of cattle in Africa, more than a million years ago. During this million-year period, the mushrooms were not only gathered and eaten but possibly attained cult status. The domestication of cattle, a major step in human cultural evolution, brought humans into closer contact with cattle, which in turn brought them into closer contact with the mushrooms, as these only grow in cattle dung. Because of this, human-fungal interspecies codependency increased and improved. It was during this time that religious ritual was born and calendars and natural magic were created. Shortly thereafter, humans became aware of the “visionary” mushrooms of the African grasslands and, much like leaf-cutter ants, we also became dominant species in our area, and we also learned ways to “keep the population safe in underground shelters.” In our case, these shelters were walled cities.
Three million years ago, there were at least three clearly recognizable species of proto-hominids. They were Homo africanus, Homo boisei, and Homo robustus. Also during this time, the omnivorous Homo habilis, the first true hominid, had clearly emerged from a species split that also gave rise to two vegetarian ape-men. The grasslands slowly expanded. The first hominids moved across a mosaic of grasslands and forests. These creatures, with brains only slightly larger than chimpanzees, were already walking upright and probably carrying food and tools. The evolution toward an erect posture and the initial expansion into the grasslands occurred early, in a period ranging from 9 to 5 million years ago. Representatives of the hominid genus expanded their original diet of fruit and small animals by adding underground roots, tubers, and bulbs. A simple digging stick allowed access to this previously hidden food source.
With Homo habilis, a sudden and mysterious expansion of brain size began. The brain of Homo habilis weighed about 770 g (1.7 lbs), compared to the 530 g (1.2 lbs) of the hominids that competed with it.
The True Missing Link
My argument is that the mutation produced by psychoactive components in the early human diet directly influenced the rapid reorganization of the brain’s information-processing capabilities. Plant alkaloids, particularly hallucinogenic compounds like psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and harmaline, may be the chemical factors in the proto-human diet that catalyzed the emergence of human self-awareness. The action of hallucinogens, present in many common plants, improved our faculty for processing information or environmental sensitivity, and therefore contributed to the sudden expansion of human brain size. At a higher stage of this process, hallucinogens acted as catalysts in the development of the imagination, fueling the creation of internal strategies and possibilities that perhaps coincided with the emergence of language and religion.
Three Great Steps for Mankind
First level (low). Small amounts of psilocybin, consumed without awareness of their psychoactivity within the framework of the common act of foraging, produce a significant increase in visual acuity, particularly in edge detection. The discovery of “chemical binoculars” could not fail to have an impact on hunting and gathering success for those individuals who gained such an advantage. Community groups that included individuals who improved their vision would be more successful in feeding their offspring.
Second level (medium). As psilocybin is a central nervous system stimulant, when taken in slightly higher doses, it tends to produce agitation and sexual stimulation. Therefore, at this second level of use, by increasing the possibilities for copulation, the mushroom directly favors human reproduction.
Third level (high). The third level is the level of total opening of shamanic ecstasy. Psilocybin intoxication is an ecstasy whose essence and depth defy description. It is completely Other and no less mysterious to us than it was to our mushroom-eating ancestors. Community bonds and group sexual activities are established, which promoted genetic mixing, a higher birth rate, and a sense of communal responsibility for the group’s offspring.
The Transcendent Other
If hallucinogens function as chemical messengers between species, then the dynamics of the close relationships between primates and hallucinogenic plants is one of information transferred from one species to another. Where hallucinogenic plants are not found, these information transfers take place very slowly, but in their presence, a culture is rapidly introduced to information, and in that way, it projects itself into increasingly higher states of self-reflection. I call this the encounter with the Transcendent Other, but it is only a label, not an explanation. The Transcendent Other is what one discovers in the hallucinogenic process. It is the crucible of the mystery of our being, as a species and as individuals. The Transcendent Other is nature without its reassuring mask of ordinary space, time, and causality.
The main synergistic effect of psilocybin seems to be, ultimately, in the domain of language. It excites vocalization, reinforces articulation, and transmutes language into something visible.
Women and Language
Women, the gatherers of the archaic hunter-gatherer equation, were under greater pressure to develop language than their male counterparts. Hunting, the prerogative of males, stimulated strength, caution, and stoic waiting. The hunter was able to function very well with a very limited number of linguistic signals, as is still the case among hunting peoples like the Kung or the Maku.
For gatherers, the situation was different. These women, with a broader repertoire of communicable images about foods, their sources, and preparation secrets, were in an indisputable position of advantage. Language may have emerged as a mysterious power that primarily concerned women. Women who spent more of their waking time together and “talking” about their discoveries, such as certain plants, their location, description, etc.
“Terence McKenna is the most important, and the most entertaining, of America’s visionary scholars. To be uninformed about these ethnobotanical discoveries is to behave unconsciously toward the fundamental truth of human consciousness, which is not to survive on beetle dung, but to fly at the same height as the gods.”
Tom Robbins
