Jan 28, 2021 04:18 AM
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/e...thesis.htm
EXCERPTS: Psychedelic research has experienced a renaissance in recent years, but as we reconsider psilocybin's potential to treat addiction and psychiatric disturbance, where does that leave the stoned ape hypothesis? Did psychedelics stimulate human consciousness? First proposed by 20th century ethnobotanist Terence McKenna (1946-2000) in his 1992 book "Food of the Gods," the basic concept is that the consumption of psychedelic fungi may have played a crucial role in the development of human mind and culture.
According to the author's younger brother, Dennis McKenna, the idea emerged out of conversations between the two. Dennis is himself an ethnopharmacologist and research pharmacognosist, as well as founder of the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. "For a while I had the idea to write a book that would have been called 'Hallucinogens and Evolution,' but never got around to it," Dennis says via email. "While Terence's approach is different from what I would have written, there are complementarities. Terence's ideas were certainly fertilized by those conversations."
Neither Terence nor Dennis referred to this hypothesis by the name "stoned ape," which Dennis believes misrepresents the idea and dumbs down the concept. Nevertheless, the name has stuck. In essence, the hypothesis suggests we owe the emergence of language and self-reflection to ancient, sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms.
[...] According to Dr. Thomas Falk, a professor of Philosophy and Education at the University of Dayton, the hypothesis also provides an explanation for the so-called "creative explosion" that occurred 40,000 years ago in homo sapiens, prior to their migration from Africa to Europe. It is here that we see an apparent leap in human cognitive ability. "For the first time ever, these humans lived in worlds of their own creation, materially and symbolically," Falk says via email. "Like you and I, these humans were capable of creating worlds in their heads and then re-creating those worlds in the external physical and social environments. Although other homo species may have efficiently exploited nature, they remained its passive subjects. The key to this major distinction between homo sapiens sapiens and all other hominids appears to be language."
Falk, whose areas of study include phenomenology and anthropology, says that while we have no shortage of good evidence and theory regarding the course of human evolution, the leap to self-consciousness remains a mystery. "The stoned ape hypothesis offers a possible keystone that appears to fit together with much of the existing scientific evidence and theory," he says, though he stresses that this is only one possible answer.
[...] Dennis ... stresses that the stoned ape hypothesis is not meant to stand as the lone factor in human evolution. "Obviously there were multiple factors involved," he says. "It's simplistic just to postulate that people ate mushrooms, so they were better equipped. There were many factors that influenced evolution."
[...] In "Food of the Gods," Terence McKenna made his argument based on noted qualities of the psychedelic experience (such as augmented empathy and sensory perception), shamanistic traditions in ancient cultures, and the known and hypothetical range of psychedelic plants and fungi in ancient times.
[...] The stoned ape hypothesis gained little traction in academic circles, but it became a staple of psychedelic culture. ... The stoned ape hypothesis is not likely to leap to the level of scientific theory in the foreseeable future, but the sort of modern psychedelic reconnection that Terence McKenna and others advocated might well come to pass — especially as more studies examine potential therapeutic uses... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: Psychedelic research has experienced a renaissance in recent years, but as we reconsider psilocybin's potential to treat addiction and psychiatric disturbance, where does that leave the stoned ape hypothesis? Did psychedelics stimulate human consciousness? First proposed by 20th century ethnobotanist Terence McKenna (1946-2000) in his 1992 book "Food of the Gods," the basic concept is that the consumption of psychedelic fungi may have played a crucial role in the development of human mind and culture.
According to the author's younger brother, Dennis McKenna, the idea emerged out of conversations between the two. Dennis is himself an ethnopharmacologist and research pharmacognosist, as well as founder of the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. "For a while I had the idea to write a book that would have been called 'Hallucinogens and Evolution,' but never got around to it," Dennis says via email. "While Terence's approach is different from what I would have written, there are complementarities. Terence's ideas were certainly fertilized by those conversations."
Neither Terence nor Dennis referred to this hypothesis by the name "stoned ape," which Dennis believes misrepresents the idea and dumbs down the concept. Nevertheless, the name has stuck. In essence, the hypothesis suggests we owe the emergence of language and self-reflection to ancient, sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms.
[...] According to Dr. Thomas Falk, a professor of Philosophy and Education at the University of Dayton, the hypothesis also provides an explanation for the so-called "creative explosion" that occurred 40,000 years ago in homo sapiens, prior to their migration from Africa to Europe. It is here that we see an apparent leap in human cognitive ability. "For the first time ever, these humans lived in worlds of their own creation, materially and symbolically," Falk says via email. "Like you and I, these humans were capable of creating worlds in their heads and then re-creating those worlds in the external physical and social environments. Although other homo species may have efficiently exploited nature, they remained its passive subjects. The key to this major distinction between homo sapiens sapiens and all other hominids appears to be language."
Falk, whose areas of study include phenomenology and anthropology, says that while we have no shortage of good evidence and theory regarding the course of human evolution, the leap to self-consciousness remains a mystery. "The stoned ape hypothesis offers a possible keystone that appears to fit together with much of the existing scientific evidence and theory," he says, though he stresses that this is only one possible answer.
[...] Dennis ... stresses that the stoned ape hypothesis is not meant to stand as the lone factor in human evolution. "Obviously there were multiple factors involved," he says. "It's simplistic just to postulate that people ate mushrooms, so they were better equipped. There were many factors that influenced evolution."
[...] In "Food of the Gods," Terence McKenna made his argument based on noted qualities of the psychedelic experience (such as augmented empathy and sensory perception), shamanistic traditions in ancient cultures, and the known and hypothetical range of psychedelic plants and fungi in ancient times.
[...] The stoned ape hypothesis gained little traction in academic circles, but it became a staple of psychedelic culture. ... The stoned ape hypothesis is not likely to leap to the level of scientific theory in the foreseeable future, but the sort of modern psychedelic reconnection that Terence McKenna and others advocated might well come to pass — especially as more studies examine potential therapeutic uses... (MORE - details)