Food of the Gods

The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge : A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

By: Terence McKenna

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Terence McKenna hypothesizes that as the North African jungles receded, giving way to savannas and grasslands near the end of the most recent ice age, a branch of our arboreal primate ancestors left the forest canopy and began living in the open areas beyond. There they experimented with new varieties of foods as they adapted, physically and mentally, to the environment. Among the new foods found in this environment were psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing near dung of ungulate herds occupying the savannas and grasslands.

Referencing the research of Roland L. Fisher, McKenna claims the enhancement of visual acuity was an effect of psilocybin at low doses and suggests this would confer adaptive advantage. He argues that the effects of slightly larger doses, including sexual arousal, and in larger doses, ecstatic hallucinations & glossolalia - gave selective evolutionary advantages to members of those tribes who partook of it. There were many changes caused by the introduction of this psychoactive to primate diets. He hypothesizes, for instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of sensory boundaries) caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language: the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the use of vocal sounds.

About 12,000 years ago, further climate changes removed psilocybin-containing mushrooms from human diets. He argues that this event resulted in a new set of profound changes in our species as we reverted to the previous brutal primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed by frequent consumption of psilocybin.

©1992 Terrence McKenna (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs and hallucinogens." ( The Washington Post)

psilo sigh bin

narrator should study unfamiliar verbiage within the text before taking up narration... continually says syllo sybin ... alas it is fluid and a great read/ listen, highly recommended!

This man was a true genius. Well researched and

Well written and extremely detailed research give us hope for the future of freedom, the self and spiritual beliefs.

Worthy of our consideration

I approached this work with caution, expecting a variation on T. Leary, but no, many of the ideas TMcK discusses are ideas important to think about these days and his emphasis on the important symbiotic link between us humans and plants and fungi, these are ideas aee at the forefront of today's scientific interest.

someone passed the ayahuasca

An amazing book that should be mandatory reading in high schools across the United States and any other Western culture.

Great listen

Worth the time for the listen, I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation, and learned a lot

Classic McKenna

I’ve listened to this as an Audible three times and read it twice. Highly recommended! McKenna was decades ahead of our times.

Mushrooms and food

Awesome and eye opening. Cannot begin to describe how this book impacts and makes questions of who we are and where we are going .

The answer for humanity

A refreshing take on the reality of our nature and the brutality of dominator culture. We need to do better

Wild.

I was not expecting this to be so much a treatise on class and culture war as it turned out to be, but I’m good with it. There were a few instances that felt like we were drifting into Chariots of the Gods territory (no thanks) and several more that I found myself saying “We get it, my dude. You like to get high.” out loud but it in no way diminishes what a deep dive on this subject the book is.

Everyone should

Everyone should read or listen to this book multiple times until it sinks in, without the TV on in the background