Theory: Mushrooms are an intergalactic intelligence that created consciousness in our ape ancestors.
How life on Earth came to be is an unanswered question that has been theorized for centuries.
The existing hypothesis of ‘Panspermia’, first proposed in the 5th century BC by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, suggests that life exists throughout the universe and is distributed by space dust, meteoroids and asteroids carrying microorganisms from planet to planet.
Psychonaut Terence McKenna builds on the Panspermia hypothesis and suggests that the mushroom came from space. It is a “galactic intelligence” capable of communicating and presenting itself in many ways, and ‘aliens’ use mushrooms as a tool to develop consciousness in other beings.
Mushroom spores are durable, resilient and well-suited for interplanetary travel, lending some support to this controversial theory.
McKenna’s most well-known theory is the “Stoned Ape Theory”. He suggests that proto-humans consumed magic mushrooms they found in the wild and that act could have profoundly changed their brains.
The psilocybin in the mushrooms caused the primitive brain’s information-processing capabilities to rapidly reorganise, which kick-started the rapid evolution of cognition that led to the early art, language and technology in Homo sapiens archeological record.
This article was first published in Nina’s Notes on 12 October 2022 and is republished on Psychedelic Health with permission.
