A psychedelic trip up the ladder of evolution A psychedelic trip up the ladder of evolution This article culled from The Independent On Sunday, a 'quality paper'. Read, be entertained and enlightened, or whatever. 11th July 1993 Alix Sharkey I think we should deal only with the facts when we talk of Terence McKenna, don't you? I mean the Californian scholar with the theory about psilocybin mushrooms and the development of human consciousness - that the psychedelic experience triggered sentience in foraging, omnivorous apes and led them, in the evolutionary wink of an eye, to put rockets on the moon. Mr. McKenna contends that hallucinogenic fungi inspired our pr imate forbears to develop language, boot- strapping us up the evolutionary ladder to the brink of self-realization, and that this humble mushroom is now ready and waiting for us to complete our ontological correspondence course, if we would only tear ourselves away from smack, crack, coke, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, cocoa, uppers, downers and all the other bad substances we are addicted to. He believes that hallucinogenic-plant gnosis is the lost key to our intellectual, moral and spiritual development as a race; that all subsequent drug abuse is merely an attempt to satisfy our primeval urge for psychedelic union with nature ('an itch we cannot scratch'); and that cataclysmic change or certain extinction awaits us. His theory states : 'No perception without hallucination.' We are in a small house in west London. There are 40 people sitting on cushions around the room, which is large and airy, full of plants, and dominated by a huge skylight. We all face McKenna, who sits cross- legged on a black leather armchair, wearing a pair of baggy no-brand jeans and a T-shirt that says 'DMT'. This stands for dimethyltriptamine, the strongest and fastest-acting organic hallucinogen known to man (Mr. McKenna will defend only DMT, psilocybin and marijuana - nothing man-made). His Birkenstock sandals are placed neatly nearby, and he wears black woollen socks. A bearded academic type, Mr. McKenna does not need fashion to prop up his arguments. His learning and powers of language slowly unwind and coil around us, until eventually we are mesmerised, our token resistance crushed by the irresistible force of his rationale. History and nature; the psychedelic experience; prohibition of same by religion and capitalism; human proclivity for 'altered states'; Oriental and Western philosophies; it is everything you have ever r ead and more. Botany, biology, mathematics, quantum and Newtonian physics, chemistry - if you had trouble with it at school, he is sure to be au fait - all trip lightly off his tongue, along with classical quotations. This is the McKenna 'rap', the reason why people have paid $30 a head to be here. 'Hallucinogens are data about reality,' he says. 'They are as dependable and as 'true' as any other source.' 'We have to recognise that the world is not something sculptured and finished, which we as perceivers http://www.bluehoney.org/Ladder.htm (1 of 3)4/15/2004 10:46:24 PM