Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
by Terence McKenna
View on GoodreadsTerence McKenna's argument that psychoactive plants — particularly psilocybin mushrooms — played a central role in human cognitive evolution, and that the suppression of psychedelics in modern culture severs us from a foundational relationship.
Core ideas
- The "Stoned Ape" hypothesis: psilocybin in the diet of early hominids sharpened visual acuity at low doses, with the larger claims about language and social behavior as its more speculative extension — this is the book's through-line.
- Drug history is partition history: which substances a culture sanctifies (alcohol, caffeine) vs. demonizes (psilocybin, cannabis) tracks power, not pharmacology.
- Modernity's relationship with consciousness-altering substances — sugar, coffee, alcohol on one side; LSD, mushrooms on the other — is incoherent and politically driven.
Published1992
Pages311
ISBN9780553371307
ReadApr 2023
