Customer Reviews

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

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Terence McKenna (Food of the Gods), Julian Jaynes (Evolution of Consciousness ...), Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae), and Ruth Eisner (Chalice & the Blade) all look at the same evidence, and come to radically different, but equally radical, conclusions about the origins of what we call civilization (while trying to keep a straight face). Reading all three is an interesting, fun, and maybe useful exercise in juggling different world views. Ask yourself: why did each of them see the same evidence differently?

Or, perhaps, it's just a matter of trying to make too much soup from too little stock. The reason we CALL prehistory "pre-history" is that there's so little history to work from, so each brilliant (or not) author gets to project their own interpretation of what they'd LIKE the evidence to mean. In McKenna's case, by the end of the book, it is obvious what he wants the evidence to mean. Terry McKenna wants us all to get off of what the Church of the SubGenius calls "Conspiracy Drugs," the ones that America got rich off of, like tobacco, caffeine, white sugar, distilled alcohol, and television. If we need to get high or drunk or trashed or whatever, he says that we need to go back to the drugs that first made human beings strong, fast, smart, sexy, and spiritual: organic psychedelics.

Of COURSE this is a weird and controversial view point. That's half the fun of this book. You know that only the trippers and the stoners are going to come out of the back end of this book fully convinced. But even if you're not one, you just mind find yourself a teensy bit convinced, and that, my friend, is a strange sensation. Besides, it's a rollicking fun read.

Food of the Gods explores mankind's connection with the Earth as an organism. The author's speculations on our long lost mutualist relationship with plants has deep implications in science and offers sound insight into modern conditions of human iniquity.

To give you an idea, McKenna postulates that:

- The loss of the feminine in today's 'dominator' cultures
has been further catalyzed by our abuse of plants, drugs,
and nature as a whole

- The psychedelic experience, with its ego dissolving effects
represents an important component of the symbiosis of man
on Earth

- The striking similarities in the chemical structures of
neurotransmitters in the brain and indole compounds in
hallucinogenic plants are no coincidence

Despite the exhaustively researched and largely scholarly presentation of this work, unfounded criticism ensues when the subject matter stands as evidence in the indictment of many commonly held belief systems. However, most often the tone of McKenna's opponents caries the confident smirk of one safely distanced from his fierce intelligence, by their lack of experience with psychedelics.

Terrence McKenna didn't write for the amusement of those unfamiliar with the psychedelic experience. It was well within his mental capacity and scholarly abilities to legitimize his work for an audience of intellectual indifference. I wont say it's easier, but it certainly displays less integrity and truth of cause for one to cater to the lowest common denominator when attempting to relate ideas of this scope, even if they are only speculative.

Neither was it that the uninitiated were intentionally ignored and his priceless intellectual contribution was meant to be out of reach from common people, in an extension of Huxley's philosophy which he is often mistaken for representing.

Rather, his weakness seems to be his naivety in assuming that people inexperienced with psychedelics would approach his work with the unbiased mindfulness due of a reader of any great work of cultural and spiritual diagnosis.

The fact is that any intelligent, honest approach to this work will inevitably lead one to an intersection with a reality that cannot be negated.
Those who are experienced with psychedelics are likely to find in this book truths which they will integrate without hesitance - truths with implications profound enough to dissolve many of the illusions that largely pass as fact.

This book is a powerful catalyst of intellectual growth for anyone engaged in the pursuit to understand this world.

_Food of the Gods_ by Terence Mckenna is an excellent addition to anyone's "alternative anthropology" library. New ideas regarding the origins of intellegent life are always very interesting. Mckenna also has some valuble sociological insights regarding the history of drug abuse, and reminds us that sugar, coffee, and chocolate are potent psychoactive substances that are just as addictive and just as unhealthful as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or psilocybin. It is refreshing to see someone try to level the playing field with regards to drug use, and finally admit that almost every adult in the entire western world is highly dependent on a variety of different drugs. It seems that Mckenna is taking a step in the right direction from a civil rights standpoint by lessening the taboos associated with certain drugs that are associated with the counter-culture, while reminding us of the caffeine and sugar addiction epedemic that is going on right under our noses. This book made me realize that drugs which are widely accepted and advocated by civilized society are not that much different from those which are outlawed. Overall, this is a fascinating anthropological and counter-cultural manifesto. Highly recommended.

I'd just like to note that the implication Ace Backwords made in his review is very misleading.
As "Ace" so eloquently stated: "Then one day, McKenna was suddenly hit by a massive brain tumor from "a rare and strange form of brain cancer," and died shortly thereafter at age 53. And suddenly people weren't quite as excited about McKenna's theories regarding the injesting of exotic psychedelic drugs."

However, the doctors were asked at point blank about McKenna's drug use in relation to his tumor. The doctors reply was that they were in NO WAY related. In fact, they said, the marijuana he smoked should have actually shrunk the tumor! Furthermore, it has been proven scientifically that psychedlic mushrooms are safer than over the counter aspirin! In studies of LD50/ED50 (lethal dose in 50%/effective dose in 50%) in mice aspirin proved to be over 6 times more toxic to the body/brain than psilocybin, the active component in magic mushrooms.

The doctors said the tumor had nothing to do with the psychedelic drugs.

Also note that this book is absolutely astounding. A must read.
:)

Before reading Food of the Gods, I thought that I was paranoid concerning western civilization. After I finished it, I became aware of all these little and big things which McKenna ties to the ego-dominator complex. McKenna has a way of putting things which describes human civilization as no one else I have read has. He does not write about the psylocybin experience, its effects on the human mind, but the impact of its effects on our civilization, across millions of years. I expected this to be a book of his theories about the Stropharia cubensis species being part of the cosmic gateway of data and consciousness transference, but this is about us, humanity, and what we have done with our minds, our bodies and our planet. This book kind of brings it all back home. I enjoyed it immensely. Get it :)

This is a fascinating world history told through the eyes of the last leader of the psychedelic community. McKenna argues that, before the onslaught of the current dominator-model of society, humans lived in happy partnership, united in their love for mother earth. The key to this society was the ingestion of magic mushrooms, a psychedelic plant that offers its eater a view of a benevolent, beautiful and inherently vegetable mind -- the necessary vision for life in a partnership model.

McKenna makes a valid argument and the book is filled with very interesting ideas, though the middle section is bogged down with shred after shred of "evidence" pointing towards ancient mushroom use. This is a truly great book, though Archaic Revival is a much easier and enjoyable introduction to Terence McKenna and his outrageous yet convincing ideas.

If you are looking for a thought provoking book that is a bit left field, but well written, this book is for you. The main premise of the book is that due to climate changes homonids were forced to adapt eating habits to include previously untried foods, such as psychoactive plants and mushrooms, and that this led to an evolutionary jump for the species. McKenna then shows historically how and why certain drugs have become dominant and what this could mean for humanity. McKenna's idea concerning the origin of the human species is an interesting conjecture but the evidence seems too thin to me, but on the other hand his analysis of the effects of drugs on western civilization hits the nail on the head. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee, chocolate, sugar and television (yes, television) are all promoted or are tolerated by society. McKenna shows you why this is and what it could mean for our future. A previous reviewer said that McKenna promotes the annihilation of the mind, which is patently false. I can hardly believe he read the book. Whether you agree or disagree with the theories presented in this book it will make you think and entertain you in the process. The mind is what got humanity to this point in history and it is the key to our collective future. That is what this book represents, being responsible for our own consciousness and the world that we create.

Human evolution depended on psychedelic mushrooms? Mushrooms came from outer space? Whoa! Any lunatic could have made some of the assertions Terrance McKenna makes in Food of the Gods and some probably already have.

The difference between brilliance and lunacy is the ability to back up those wild statements with fascinating insights that make people think.

McKenna's scholarship is not bound by controlled studies or data in the conventional sense. Unlike most scientists, McKenna is happy to speculate about the possibilities contained in his daydreams about the direction of the human race. Instead of pretending to be the academic expert, the sole arbiter of truth, instead passing off his speculations as conclusive McKenna assumes a tone that invites rather than commands. Though he had plenty of academic credentials to play with (a Ph.D. and decades of research) McKenna doesn't ask you to believe him so much as he asks you to listen. In some ways, this tone makes the wild assertions McKenna makes so much more digestible then so much conventional scientific writing propelled by less ambitious theses. One never need be on guard against the B.S., poorly defended arguments, psuedo reasoning and all the other tradecraft of scientists who care more about establishing their own authority than exploring ideas openly. Indeed, there is no way McKeena could have hid, tamed or toned down his speculations so wisely, he didn't even try to. His work suceeds at a high level because of it.

I deeply respect Terrance McKenna's insights because of his approach, his bravery in dealing with subjects and asking questions that automatically made him an academic outsider and because I share his deep, abiding belief that nothing much good has come from Western civillization. He asked the questions he wanted to ask, motivated only by an enthusiasm for discovery.

All that said, I have to admit that the central theme of Food of the Gods, that human evolution and mushrooms are intricately linked, somewhat tenuous. One needs to understand that McKenna doesn't deal in "probabilities" but possibilities and frankly, even though there is not enough evidence to support his primary claims, his corollary evidence and his ruminations about drugs, drug use and modern society and nothing short of brilliant and full of truth.

Big picture: This book is the lifelong work of a genius at the pinnacle of his intelligence, clarity of mind, and bravery of spirit. It is a masterpiece. The insights contained in Food of the Gods tower over even luminaries like Aldous Huxley and Richard Schultes.

If anything, McKenna denies such a concept as intangible as enlightment-that was Leary's ego-trip. He's drawing attention to the fact that we are an evolving species that has, up till now at least, made some very selfish and destructive decisions. He claims that psilocybin is a mutagen proven to be capable of aiding in our collective evolution toward balance with each other and with nature. Anyone who claims that psilocybin is not a mutagen that puts man in contact with the vegetable-mind-the "mama matrix most mysterious" -and catalyses the realization that we are a part of magnificant nature, not something seperate from or stuggling against it, is to put it nicely, completely misinformed. As is anyone who claims that abuse of sugar, coffee, tobacco, chocalate, automobiles & television are not addictions that push us further from nature & away from balance, understanding and integration. People who view their "sober," selfish, game-playing, costume-wearing, coffee-drinking existences as productive and meaningful have a little waking up to do.

McKenna is far from braindead. Read the book and you may be impressed, as I was, with his daring conjecture, botanical, historical & anthropological knowledge, prose and literary savoir-faire in discussing a topic which society has branded evil, immoral, degenerative or, at the very least, highly controversial. Remember when you claim that his radical viewpoint lacks scientific credulity that our lawmakers are responsible for fanatically denying all access to the subject-matter by legitimate researchers, forcing the study and the knowledge underground.

People acting from a basis of profound paranoia are not helpful guides and their insights should be taken with a grain of salt. Unfortunatly, to watch the news or to listen to our politicians speak, this paranoia about things mysterious, supressed or unexplored seems to be omnipresent in our society, which is thoroughly based upon male-ego/dominator values-talk about building your house on the sand!

This world is incredibly screwed up. To dream of progress and productivity in a time when we can see that all that these false idols have led us to is disorder and eminent doom is a dangerous delusion. The goal is to keep this planet intact for ourselves, for each other, for our children and for our children's children. Following Christ or whichever pathological egotist claims to be His representative has not been enough, so far, to awaken people to the fact that we are riding a runaway train in which the conductor has hidden from himself the emergency brake. We are living in a time when corporate bigshots and good-ole-boy politicians are seen as the good guys, while spiritual explorers, environmentalists and even Nature herself are perceived by docile masses of egotists, each living in the darkest of personal ignorance, to be pawns of the Devil.

We must search for a viable catalyst of selfless thought. To my mind, religion seems only to reinforce selfishness and inequality. Mushrooms, while less than a panacea, are definately a transcendental doorway beyond the restrictions that one's ego asserts over one's consciousness. About this subject, McKenna was far more qualified to speak than am I. If his claim was that mushrooms equal instant enlightenment, then I would be the first to attack his premise. Read the book and take from it what you like & try not to get hysterical or defensive. Paranoia, automatic nay-say and denial will get us no-place. This is just a theory, a stimulating one at that, and it is not inteded to be viewed as dogma or doctrine.

This was my first glimpse into the theories of Terence McKenna, and I will certainly be coming back for more. Organic hallucinogens are extremely special and important to humans, whether we know it or not. McKenna brings it all together in Food of the Gods, in a surprising, enlightening, and shocking way. "Food of the Gods" is not light reading. It is a tough and challenging book, but extremely rewarding. I always knew that the accepted version of human history was either wrong, inaccurate, or incomplete. McKenna proves it in stunning fashion in "Food of the Gods". I could not recommend a book any more than this one.