Magic mushrooms may be the answer to the missing link in the history of evolution, kinda.
This is the general basis of the ‘Stoned Ape Theory’ suggested by a man called Terence McKenna back in 1992.
His theory is a little out-there but it’s a very interesting theory nonetheless.
The stoned ape ‘theory’ isn’t actually a theory at all. McKenna’s claims aren’t backed by any scientific evidence, which technically makes it a hypothesis.
McKenna presented his ideas surrounding the mystery of evolution in his book Food of the gods.
Within this book he covered an important mystery in evolution; How our homo-sapiens ancestors brains evolved so suddenly in such a short period of time.
Around 2 million years ago historical evidence shows our ancestors brains doubled in size. Then, around 500,000 years later our brains doubled in size again!
Scientists have so far been stumped on what could of caused this sudden, evolutionary development.
Around the same time we saw the introduction of early art and language, included things such as cave art and ‘grunts’ in an attempt to communicate.
Something extraordinary excelled us way beyond the animal kingdom and into man-kind.
Mckennas Theory:
Let’s go back 200,00 years ago to when our homo-sapien (the fancy word for humans) first ancestors began migrating outside of Africa.
After the last ice age, the forests that covered Africa and that our ancestors lived in began to recede.
Due to this, our primate like ancestors would of been forced to take to the open grassland in the search of food.
As they ventured out into the open grassland homo-sapiens began standing on two feet instead of using four like a primate. These bi-pidal homo-sapiens are commonly referred to as hunter-gathers as they spent their day to day life hunting herds of prey across the plains.
Left behind by these large herds of wild animals would be huge amounts of dung and manure. But, from this dung, beautiful Psyliyben Cubensis, mushrooms would grow.
Mckenna suggested that our curious and hungry ancestors would of harvested and eaten these magic mushrooms, kick-starting the leap in evolution and human intelligence
“We ate our way to a higher consciousness” Terrance Mckenna
In small doses psyclioben (the chemical found in magic mushroom that produces the psychoactive effects) has been proven to aid us in certain areas of life.
Those of our ancestors who happily munched magic mushrooms would of done so because of the many positive benefits claimed McKenna. Their brains were ultimately kicked into overdrive allowing them an advantage.
McKenna pointed out three effects we know are produce by magic mushrooms that would of allowed our ancestors to evolve. They are;
Increased visual acuity 👁
Increased sex drive 👩🏼🤝👨🏽
Increase in language 💬
Psilocybin has been proven to increase our visual acuity (which is the technical name for how clearly we can see). Being able to see more clearly and defined would of greatly increased our ancestors chances of a successful hunt.
Alongside increased clarity, as many of us are most likely aware, magic mushrooms make us more creative. McKenna suggested this is how early art such as cave drawings appeared.
Psilocybin in small quantities is good at reducing conflict bringing our primate ancestors together in communities where McKenna suggested language would of been born.
Lastly, psilocybin known to increase sex drive. This would mean higher reproduction rates allowing us to evolve and grow as a species.
The verdict?
Mckenna’s theory hasn’t been given much attention over the years. The science community laughed in his face. And honestly, there are a lot of holes in the stoned ape theory. The main and important one being there is no evidence to back up any of Mckenna’s claims.
The calculations provided by McKenna are about a thousand years off. History records also show magic mushrooms have been consumed for many many years before our brains evolved mysteriously.
I don’t think it’s as simple as saying we ate magic mushrooms and our brains magically transformed, but over time external factors can have an influence on our evolutionary development. So I believe Mckenna’s theory could be slightly true.
Magic mushrooms are known to help us self-reflect and improve our consciousness, so it could very well be that they also helped transform our ancestors from animal like state to a more complex, conscious like being.
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