Short summary: McKenna proposed an evolutionary theory stating that the reason humans evolved from apes, have doubled their brain size in small period of time, and work and live in communities is because of psychedelic mushrooms. As the jungles of Africa retreated to grassland that were populated with bovine, our ancestors left the trees in search of food which they found by flipping cow patties in search of bugs. When they found that well below threshold doses of the mushrooms improved eyesight well it became an evolutionary advantage and the mushroom taking continued. Another effect of the mushroom is the feeling of one with everything which may have fostered communities and quite possibly free love and orgies.


Where I'm coming from: well I want to see this theory in action, and I want to know your educated opinion from your own experiences. The experiment will be to take miniscule doses of medicinal mushrooms everyday give or take and to see if it leads to any advantages in our concrete jungles. One thing from my own experience is that mushrooms give me a heightened ability to hear to where I can almost see what is said when a person is talking. I'd like to experience that at a dose I can go to school at without effecting people with the mushrooms vibrations.

If anyone has heard of a similar experiment please provide any links to journals or research, as I like to do my homework since I have time before I find enough medicine. Any research into the future of human evolution in general is my passion, please share it with me.

Love and Peace,

Simba

I could see how they could be advantageous in small doses in a primal environment. I've always thought that McKenna's theory was perfectly plausible. On the flipside, in a modern complex urban environment, I think you would run into situations where the opposite was true, and that the effects of even a low dose in a high-intensity street traffic situation, for example, could result in disorientation rather than increased focus. I think you'd also find that in school, there are situations where they'd be helpful, and others where they'd be a hindrance, and that in this modern world you'd be transitioning from one kind of situation to another pretty frequently. Long story short, I believe you'd get mixed results.

On the other hand, if you can accurately identify the kinds of situations where that low dose would be helpful, and only take them during those times, then you've got a very helpful tool, potentially.

I haven't listened to his speeches fully, but I do believe that the theory was based on long-term evolution and you wouldn't see such results in a single lifetime. Granted mushrooms still have those initial effects and you can bring lessons learned back with you.

Personally, I don't feel micro-dosing or mini-dosing are safe practices but I don't know if this is fact. My personal experience shows some negative effects after continued dosing, even light doses.

As for using mushrooms as school I know people in the past who have done this, but did not perform as well and one had a major increase in anxiety. I also can't say this is fact.

Personally I get HUGE on learning for a good month after a good mushroom trip. The afterglow from mushrooms meshes very well with my studies. If I were to suggest a route for school use it would be to have a deep journey on a weekend and let the afterglow carry you through school for a while.

I'm not sure of any research articles or journals but I'm sure there are some blogs or scientific publications online for futurists and other scientific types that would have up to date information for you.

edit:
I agree with Guyomech.

For instance say that the situation is communication and the one who partakes wants to connect with others when they are talking. One way to experience this is to take the threshold dose of about 5g, trip balls, experience the love first hand, and then project unconditional love to those you meet.
The problems with this are none too few, because once the feeling fades it becomes almost impossible to sincerely project. Also there's the nausea side effect and the wild side where the mushrooms get to make the decisions for a while; which is always pretty random.
What I'm suggesting is one looong drawn out trip that barely reaches the perceived sensations to get the Gaia consciousness and connectedness over time instead of the quick hop on and hop off. Basically put another way I bought the ticket and rode the roller coaster and I liked the view from the top so much that I want to build a house up there.

After hundreds of trips and decades of integration, I'd say that some of that universal bond with everyone does become a semipermanent part of the background. Disappears while angry, of course... But by and large I think you can bend yourself in that direction. Build a house there, one board at a time.

I personally think it's risky in multiple ways to take threshold doses- or anything in that ballpark- in public.

5 grams you consider a threshold dose?

I absolutely agree with that, the mushrooms are way to alien to be introduced to the public.




Yes, well 5g dry is certainly foot in the door. What is it you consider to be threshold? Would you eat less?

Most people would have trouble functioning in an evolution-accelerating manner on 5 grams of dried magic.

About six years back I did my own low-dose experimentation, where I'd eat miniscule amounts(less than half a gram) about every five hours. I kept to that regimen for about a week, with some pretty amazing results. I loved the slight enhancement of all of my senses, an overall energy boost, and passion for experiencing and learning new things. One thing I did was take a bunch of I.Q. tests online, as I was sure I was getting smarter. I had taken the same types of tests before, so I did have something to compare with. My eyesight was better, and I could process information faster and retain it better, so I knew I was going to score higher as soon as I started them. Low and behold, I scored about 20 points higher on average, which is a pretty significant jump. I was planning on retaking the ACT while on my super vitamins, and was sure I could ace it , but I didn't go through with it.

On about the third night in, for a good couple of hours, I had photographic memory. I could pick random pages from books I hadn't read before, look at them for a few seconds, then close my eyes and still see the page clear enough to read through all the paragraphs perfectly. I played the best online poker I've every played, pretty much knowing what everybody had and which cards were gonna hit. Things were beautiful and exciting, but eventually the seemingly enhanced abilities led to deeper thinking than proving I was smart and making easy money. I turned inward, exploring myself, my purpose, and the meaning of life. It was somewhere I needed to push myself, and the mushrooms were a huge catalyst for the whole process. This all eventually led to my first "spiritual" experience, awareness of an infinite, god-like presence, healing powers(totally erased a dog's throat tumor), ever-flowing creativity, and some rash and somewhat psychotic actions that pretty much made me slow down and end the experiments.

I've talked about it at the nexus before, but I feel like I have a reverse tolerance to mushrooms, and I've heard of others who experience the same thing. A little bit starts to go a long way if I take them fairly regularly. I 100% believe that they can be huge catalysts for the evolution of humans and other species, but I think we can only advance as far as we're each ready to go. I believe(like McKenna often talked about) that mushrooms are actually a more advanced species than us, and when we eat them, we get tuned in to the magical way that they experience this universe on a permanent basis, and they also get a taste of the human perspective. The trick is that you have to live at a higher level than usual when you're on them to enjoy them. You have to be more open, friendlier, more creative, intelligent, driven, etc. Otherwise, their flame is too hot and you'll get burned if you're not awesome enough.

So if you're in a good, positive place in life, have a strong focus, and are ready for some transformation, then low-dose mushrooms can be a very powerful tool, although they're not everybody's cup of tea. I personally wasn't ready for all the blessings they tried to bestow upon me, and am still integrating things I learned through the experience so that next time I'm in tune with that kind of power and beauty I'll know how to handle it and the best things to do with it. Sorry for the long rant, but I'm pretty obsessed with evolution and the possibilities for our planet in the future, and I think that mushrooms and ayahuasca(and various other things) can be huge catalysts for advancements in communication, like telepathy and such.

Back to the drawing board. We'll have to compare notes.

I thought the definition of threshold was the "minimum amount to achieve effects"

Ok I'm kind of confused. You say minuscule amounts, threshold, and 5g. What kind of mushrooms are you talking about here? What is your experience?

I don't have any experience with micro-dosing so I can't speak to that side of things but I do want to mention that quotes like this:



bring out the scientist in me. I think McKenna occasionally has some interesting things to say, but this statement contains an inherent misunderstanding of the process of evolution. Essentially, if you doing something in your life was passed down to your children, then Lamark would be who we associate with evolution, not Darwin. A baby giraffe does not have a long neck because its mom spent her life stretching to reach higher branches. It has a long neck because the moms with longer necks were able to reach more food and produce more offspring. Even if mushrooms increase your cognitive functioning, that doesn't mean you pass a larger brain to your children.

That being said, I do see it having the ability to affect the social aspects of a community, which are not strictly genetic.

McKenna's theory specifically stated that the mushroom- eating proto humans were more successful, and therefore reproduced more, than their non-mushroom eating counterparts. That's still in Darwin's jurisdiction, not Lamarck's.

To settle any confusion I want to be clear and say I have not decided on the doses. At this point I’m just proposing a hypothesis. I will do more research and come up with a experimental dose take weight into consideration. There is still plenty to take into consideration but I will keep a research journal.

Enlightened ones, 5g+ dose experience have revealed powers and understandings that are only temporary while in that state. My thesis is that there are there are at-least two psychedelic roads to permanent enlightenment, the road commonly taken is done in high doses with long intervals to integrate the experiences. The road less traveled includes long periods of low doses. My theory is that through daily consumption integration works better than trying to integrate from memory.

The goal is to maximize our human potential using psychedelics which maybe a goal we share in common. I predict that with constant ordinary effort we will soon achieve extraordinary results. Between us my purpose is to reach the highest of highs, which as many might have realized can’t be reached by simply trying to overdose. I’d like to work on a proper proposal and anyone who has experiences with something similar or knowledge they would like to share, please do. I’d love to read any options or experiences regarding these topics and encourage your cooperation.

P.S. Many who are reading this are much more experienced that me so please consider their opinions before considering my own.

Well I would say that if you continually micro dose over several days you are going to get burnt out eventually. Even at small doses it takes a sober mind to integrate. You also have to consider strain. Certain strains would be more advantageous in your efforts than others. Different strains have slightly different aspects. Also with different strains you have to consider different doses. One strain will be manageable at 1.5 grams while in public or around people. Another strain however, you won't be able to keep a straight face and things will breathe and vibrate. You also have to adjust accordingly per person. 1.5 grams will generally effect a wide group of people in a similiar manner, while some people it will be too weak to achieve anything and others it will blast them off.

5 grams is a strong dose. Usually this dose isn't recommended in a public setting and most here will recommend a sober sitter at that amount. A threshold dose for psilocybin mushrooms could be anywhere between 1/2 a gram to 1.5 grams. But you need to KNOW all these variables in order to know for sure.

Anrchy thanks for clarifying, these are things I will put into consideration. Because there are different strains I may just have to start with a trial and error period to get things right. I'm going to start using more personal terms and define them to get my meaning across better because I was using the word threshold incorrectly. There is a term I like to use for the basic level of the trip, where one is noticeably high but not really under the microscope or exploring the cosmos. That term is "space station", it is the plane of trips that didn't quite make it. There is a rush and one does feel higher but it kind of hangs there.

Any dose I might be considering is will well below space station, so essentially unnoticeable effects. If I had to range it I might say in the .1 to .3 gram range and this might be taken one or twice daily without any change to diet. I don't want to lose sleep over this and hopefully I will feel sober but insightful. I will be alert for burnouts because that could be a possible coincidence of this pep pill.

This is a DMT forum so I will describe the term I use "space station" in the context of DMT.
Any hit that does not break through to hyperspace is space station. Where it is possible to see geometry but one knows that even if they packed the pipe again, even though one might not want to hit it again, they can't possibly breakthrough. That is space station.

You know, that notion of being "permanently enlightened"... I think this could be compared to wanting to be permanently physically fit. Work hard enough and you can achieve a high level of fitness... But the minute the work stops, the backslide begins.

Maybe work hard maybe just keep at it. The important things I got from enlightened mode are simplicity' and positivity' which are things that can always be improved. It's sometimes difficult to see clearly with all the distractions of the daily experience. It was nature that taught me to be patient and wait, the storm always passes.

Simba, I know from experience about the tolerance when it comes to trying to trip multiple days in a row, but I can't say I've ever experimented with microdosing like you propose.

One thing I have learned, is that expectations can be important. Sometimes it is best to just go ahead where your heart points you, as long as you feel you'll be reasonably safe. Then again, there is an amount of subjectivity to that and in this society of fingerpointing, I want to absolve myself and say the decision ultimately rests with you. We now live in a society which part unintentionally, and part purposefully has stopped evolving not only physically, but mentally/spiritually(or psychologically, whichever you prefer). Some would say we are devolving. Then again that would be for the majority, whereas the internet has helped the minority of Westerners interested in progressing to do so, at least in some areas.

I like experimenting myself, although it's been awhile for me when it comes to substances other than food(or lack thereof). I admire your spirit and think we have something in common. Ask around, and search google too. If you get to the point where the worst thing is that it will be a waste and you still feel compelled, remember that the sperm that made you beat many millions of other sperm whose efforts were in vain. Maybe that mentality mostly meets a bad ending, but on the other hand it stands a chance of being remembered. I'm only speaking in general and don't know about your experiment specifically. I'd be interested in hearing how it goes if you decide to undertake it.