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LifeIsSweet
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"Stoner-ape" human evolution theory
#5084715 - 12/20/05 03:18 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/theory.html
The theory seems to suggest, among other "interesting" theories, that proto-humans in North Africa followed a bunch of ungulates and therefore had a diet of psylocibin mushrooms in their diet, which allowed them to develop new abilities (i.e. synesthesia in the development of words and language).
The theory is highly speculative at best but I find it intruiging since I have thought about a similar theory myself. Perhaps we came to be because our ancestors ate from the fungus of knowledge of good and evil...
P.S. If you were to feed an ape psylocibin mushrooms, just what would happen? Has this been done before? To a dog?
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TheAntiSatan
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: LifeIsSweet]
#5084990 - 12/20/05 07:10 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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I've heard that one, they maybe played a part in our development but for mushrooms to be responcible for the changes everyone, if not most, would have to have taken the shrooms. On top of that I don't know how the changes shrooms may have caused in the people who took them would have been passed onto their children, sure behaviours are thought but you can't teach a chimp to be human.
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redgreenvines
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: TheAntiSatan]
#5085165 - 12/20/05 08:43 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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well there has always been anthropomorphic deification and now stonerpomorphic evolutition.
both seem like stubbing one's brain on a rock in a hard place
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Vvellum
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: TheAntiSatan]
#5085261 - 12/20/05 09:19 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
TheAntiSatan said: I've heard that one, they maybe played a part in our development but for mushrooms to be responcible for the changes everyone, if not most, would have to have taken the shrooms. On top of that I don't know how the changes shrooms may have caused in the people who took them would have been passed onto their children, sure behaviours are thought but you can't teach a chimp to be human.
culture is passed down.
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Viveka
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Vvellum]
#5090406 - 12/21/05 03:22 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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If the proto-human is a more apt hunter because of his psilocin heightened senses, or if he enters a new level of awareness of his surrounding, predators, threats to his mortality, then he is more likely to survive, and teach his offspring to be mycophiles as well. I like this theory and that's an adequate explanation for how the practice would be transmitted. Let's not even get into Lamarckism...or should we? Maybe it's time to rethink genetic legacy...
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Deviate
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Viveka]
#5092124 - 12/21/05 11:51 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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i personally don't buy into this theory.
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TheAntiSatan
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Deviate]
#5161981 - 01/10/06 09:50 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Culture and alot of human behaviour is passed on, sure. Chimps can be thought alot of human behaviour but if the brain doesn't have the right hardware it can't understand what it's doing. I don't see how could have been the cause of our mental leap but they could have been respocibile for an aceliration of art and deep thought.
Language isn't the massive leap it's made out to be IMO, all animals communicate and neanderthals more than likely had a simplistic language.
I just don't think it's possible for shrooms to make the physical changes that make us human.
I still go with the theory that says a change to our enviorment and what we eat chaused the change. When we didn't need a large gut like chimps have for digesting fruit and veg the added poteen from our meat diet and the extra proteen boost given from a smaller gut (guts use up a massive amount of energy) went straight to developing a bigger brain which is what saved us from extinction.
-------------------- Guinness is good for you. So are multivitamins.
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Gomp
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: TheAntiSatan]
#5162017 - 01/10/06 10:02 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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""P.S. If you were to feed an ape psylocibin mushrooms, just what would happen? Has this been done before?""
I wonder that myself..
now, If only I had an (willingly-shroom-eating) ape, a few years, and a ton of shrooms! ..
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Silversoul
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: LifeIsSweet]
#5162309 - 01/10/06 11:29 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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I've always been fascinated with this theory. I think it's a shame that Terrence McKenna stained his scientific credibility with his Timewave Zero theory, as it prevented the "Stoner-ape" theory, which I believe is much more legitimate, from being taken seriously. Of course, this theory is in conflict with the Neo-Darwinian assertion that natural selection is entirely reducable to genes, and that intentional behavior plays no role in the evolutionary process. But I also think that that assertion is baseless, which is why I think the "Stoner-ape" theory holds some promise.
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pschumach
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Silversoul]
#5162331 - 01/10/06 11:35 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Mckenna used his imagination to great effect.
I deeply admire his spirit.
But would apes tripping on mushrooms REALLY have a better chance of survival and reproduction than sober apes?
My guess is no, but I don't know shit.
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Silversoul
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: pschumach]
#5162449 - 01/10/06 12:09 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
pschumach said: Mckenna used his imagination to great effect.
I deeply admire his spirit.
But would apes tripping on mushrooms REALLY have a better chance of survival and reproduction than sober apes?
My guess is no, but I don't know shit.
You should listen to some of his lectures on the subject. He explains fairly explicitly how hallucinogens would have given an evolutionary advantage to early man.
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pschumach
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Silversoul]
#5162452 - 01/10/06 12:12 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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If you have a link to one of these lectures, I'd love to hear it.
I just think that if I was tripping in the stone age, I'd probly be a little too intoxicated to do things like hunting or staying away from saber tooth tigers.
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pschumach
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: pschumach]
#5162461 - 01/10/06 12:14 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Granted, I could probably perform these tasks to some degree. But I would think that the sober cavemen would have quicker reflexes.
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Revelation
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: pschumach]
#5162481 - 01/10/06 12:21 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Silversoul
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: pschumach]
#5162491 - 01/10/06 12:23 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
pschumach said: Granted, I could probably perform these tasks to some degree. But I would think that the sober cavemen would have quicker reflexes.
I think you'd be wrong. Shrooms have the ability to enhance one's perceptions. Even in low quantities, they increase one's visual ability for edge detection, helping one better see through tall grass and spot both predators and prey, while being able to spot nuts and berries in the bushes, thus making people on mushrooms more efficient at hunting, gathering, and safety.
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Revelation
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Silversoul]
#5163217 - 01/10/06 03:32 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Definitely. I also think mushrooms tend to increase things like creativity, empathy and awareness. All traits which are central to being human. It makes sense that if mushrooms enhance these traits in the individual, they might have had something to do with bringing them out of (or into) the human species as a whole.
When I'm on mushrooms it doesn't feel like a drug, it feels like being extra human (super ape).
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Penguarky Tunguin
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: pschumach]
#5169289 - 01/11/06 09:03 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Apes who ate hallucinogenic mushrooms were given these advantages from the mushrooms.
1. Increased visual acuity. 2. Increased sexual arousal. 3. Awareness of the Other.
Read McKenna's book Food of the Gods. Its all about this theory.
McDMT
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natu
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Silversoul]
#5169627 - 01/11/06 10:04 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Paradigm said:
Quote:
pschumach said: Mckenna used his imagination to great effect.
I deeply admire his spirit.
But would apes tripping on mushrooms REALLY have a better chance of survival and reproduction than sober apes?
My guess is no, but I don't know shit.
You should listen to some of his lectures on the subject. He explains fairly explicitly how hallucinogens would have given an evolutionary advantage to early man.
Id thinkk that the tripping apes would have a better chance. and they probably would learn to help the other apes and feed them shrooms.
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Metasyn
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: Silversoul]
#5174605 - 01/12/06 10:24 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Paradigm said:
Shrooms have the ability to enhance one's perceptions. Even in low quantities, they increase one's visual ability for edge detection, helping one better see through tall grass and spot both predators and prey, while being able to spot nuts and berries in the bushes, thus making people on mushrooms more efficient at hunting, gathering, and safety.
But to get the correct dose of psilocybin mushrooms that would confer a survival advantage rather than disadvantage is difficult. It's very easy to start dissolving reality and leave yourself very vulnerable to death from a cruel natural world, like wandering off a cliff or lying in the grass contemplating your eyelids while a lion sneaks up on you.
I think the long-term cognitive and emotional changes the psychedelic experience can have on an ape/human would be even more important. It would increase empathy among members of the tribe and make them more effective at cooperating and sharing a common goal. Psychedelics may have been the catalyst for spirituality and primitive religion in early man, which (for the in-group at least) had a very positive effect on social functioning and dynamics. This part of the theory that makes a lot of sense to me.
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MushmanTheManic
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Re: "Stoner-ape" human evolution theory [Re: LifeIsSweet]
#5174747 - 01/12/06 11:07 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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"Stoner-ape" human evolution hypothesis*
(Please don't ban me!)
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