Humans are not "more" evolved, and we certainly are not on some cosmic path of spiritual enlightenment through evolution. Especially parts about drugs which are not considered so hard core in today's society, or aren't considered drugs at all: tea, coffee, tobacco, sugar, TV. It is important to use only those compounds that do not insult the physical brain; regardless of what the physical brain does or doesn’t have to do with the mind, it certainly has much to do with the metabolism of hallucinogens. There are numerous individual paragraphs that could be excerpted from this book and would be good reading on their own, but the work as a whole is deeply flawed, and ultimately I felt like reading it was a waste of my time. Thus, at this second level of usage, by increasing instances copulation, the mushrooms directly favored human reproduction.

The book covers a very wide range of topics, from the description of legal and illegal synthesized drugs, natural drugs, history of drug use, and it´s influence on human evolution and history. His writing style is reminiscent of Tom Robbins, who led me in McKenna’s direction in the first place.Among his major premises is the theory that the human brain, and higher human consciousness, evolved in large part from early hominids’ use of mind-expanding hallucinogens—primarily magic mushrooms. No matter what subject your into, this book should be mandatory reading for anybody on this planet to become a better, stronger human.

This seems to suggest that Greek wines were more akin to extracts and tinctures of other plant essences than they were to wine as we know it today. He lives in Occidental, California, and is co-manager of a botanical garden in Hawaii for endangered tropical plants.

Some of his ideas are way out there, but if you give him a chance and go there with him, without judgement, the ideas will inspire some pretty interesting questions. The psilocybin mushroom religion, born at the birth of cognition in the grasslands of Africa, may actually be the generic religion of human beings. Ma ciò che ho maggiormente detestato è il pressappochismo con cui McKenna tratta qualsiasi altra prospettiva di vita e sociale che non sia la propria: la seconda parte del saggio è incentrato sulla decadenza e la scomparsa della società sciamanica, e di come l'utilizzo originario di allucinogeni sia stato sostituito dall'utilizzo di sostanze fortemente assuefattive e dannose, diretta conseguenza dell'avvento di una civiltà del dominio incentrata sul controllo della popolazione attraverso suddette sostanze.

I’ve always been somewhat taken in with McKenna’s lectures—he has the cadence of a yogi, and quotes like “People are afraid that things are out of control, but that’s nothing to be afraid of. This book was my choice and it seems to be the best choice for a beginner of Terence McKenna, as the book 'Food Of The Gods' explains a lot of Terence's theories and ideas. The nearest analogy to the addictive power of television and the transformation of values that is wrought in the life of the heavy user is probably heroin. He gets some things hilariously wrong, with regards to the development of language he says that women developed language more than men because men don't need much language to hunt whereas women needed lots of language to describe edible plants (as if men didn't go on days long hunts and didn't also forage for food).Anche in questo caso, oltre per quel che riguarda il suggestivo stimolo all'assunzione di allucinogeni, McKenna si smarrisce continuamente in pensieri fatti e stereotipi: l'ho trovato molto più interessante nelle vesti di scrittore puro, non di saggista. He was noted for his knowledge of the use of psychedelic, plant-based entheogens, and subjects ranging from shamanism, the theoretical origins of human consciousness, and his concept of novelty theory.