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The stoned ape theory is a controversial theory first proposed by American ethnobotanist and mystic Terence McKenna in his 1992 book Food of the Gods. The theory claims that that the transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens and the cognitive revolution was caused by the addition of psilocybin mushrooms, specifically the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis, into the human diet around 100 thousand years ago. Using evidence largely based off studies from Roland L. Fischer et. al from the 1960s and 1970s, he attributed much of the mental strides made by humans during the cognitive revolution to the effects of psilocybin intake found by Fischer.
To support his claim, McKenna used studies from the Hungarian-American psychopharmacologist Roland L. Fischer dating back to the 1960s and 1970s to underline the purported effects psychedelics would have had on mankind.
McKenna claimed that minor doses of psilocybin improve visual acuity, including edge detection, which bettered the hunting skills of early primates and thus resulted in greater food supply and reproduction. At higher doses, McKenna contended that the mushrooms would increase libido, attention, and energy, resulting in greater reproductive success. At even higher doses, the psilocybin would promote greater social bonding within early human communities as well as group sex activities, resulting in greater genetic diversity from the mixing of genes. McKenna also theorized that at this level of psilocybin intake, it would trigger activity in "language-forming region of the brain," resulting in the mental development of visions and music and kickstarting the development of language by enriching their troop signals. According to McKenna, psilocybin would also chip away at internal ego and make religious matters the forefront of the mind.
To support his claim, McKenna used studies from the Hungarian-American psychopharmacologist Roland L. Fischer dating back to the 1960s and 1970s to underline the purported effects psychedelics would have had on mankind.
McKenna claimed that minor doses of psilocybin improve visual acuity, including edge detection, which bettered the hunting skills of early primates and thus resulted in greater food supply and reproduction. At higher doses, McKenna contended that the mushrooms would increase libido, attention, and energy, resulting in greater reproductive success. At even higher doses, the psilocybin would promote greater social bonding within early human communities as well as group sex activities, resulting in greater genetic diversity from the mixing of genes. McKenna also theorized that at this level of psilocybin intake, it would trigger activity in "language-forming region of the brain," resulting in the mental development of visions and music and kickstarting the development of language by enriching their troop signals. According to McKenna, psilocybin would also chip away at internal ego and make religious matters the forefront of the mind.
