So I'm currently reading The Archaic revival/True Hallucinations by Mckenna and I just read the chapter Mushrooms and Evolution and was just talking about this subject in someones introduction thread here a few weeks ago. Talk about Synchronicity. To me it's a very interesting subject and at the end of the chapter he sites an entire book he wrote on this subject called.
Food of the gods: The search for the original tree of knowledge and I'm curious is anyone here has read this book and what they think about it.
What I'm reading now is my first book by Mckenna and I do enjoy it but there sometimes is a great deal of stuff that is WAY over my head. I lack a college education and even with that I still think a lot of what he talks about is just on to high of a level for me. SO Im curious as to how difficult a read Food of the gods is and I didn't see any posts in this forum about it.

I read true hall. and food of the gods, both years ago, so cant say I remember much about it.. In my brain it all goes into one 'mckenna' box, together with all the talks I downloaded and heard from him...

Dont worry about some stuff seeming 'way over your head', because thats just mckenna's style. He read loads, so he had an extensive vocabulary, used fancy words and made connections between various subjects (though sometimes only superficially), as well as having a certain rythm of thought that sometimes is hard to follow. But you should get the overall picture and his general attitude, so you will comprehend his general world-view

Remember not to take things literally, and know that he said himself many times that he had several thoughts but that no matter how convincing he seems its not meant to always be taken at face value, but rather just to give people ideas, to make people think. Also, in different times of his life he gave more attention to different ideas and changed what he said about certain subjects (like for example 'what happens in 2012' he had several scenarios he mentioned at different points, or the 'stoned ape' theory, or the 'mushroom as an alien' which he stopped giving much interest to at some point, etc)

One thing I did with mckenna was to write down some words he mentioned that caught my interest, names of characters I didnt know, etc, and later research on the internet and make my own conclusions about it. He's a great starting point for more research, and also wonderful to just laugh with, such a psychedelic weird character he was

I read this book while I was traveling in the tropics. Reading a few chapters of this book was a good way for me to end the day.
Yann Martel: Life of Pi

Latest Reads :

Hidden Messages in Water : Masaru Emoto
Supernatural : Graham Hancock
DMT The Spirit Molecule : Strassman
2012 The Year of the Mayan Prophecy : Daniel Pinchbeck


Current read :

The Secret History of the World : Jonathan Black

I have read/watched/experienced 90% of the below media.

Please approve this post, it will be edited and more added, but I'm sick right now and don't feel like typing to much...



Books-

Aldous Huxley's works
Fantastic (4) & Iron Man ~ Big in Japan (Comic Book)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit by J. R. Tolken
*Food of the Gods
*Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, and Christian Rätsch
*The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications by Christian Ratsch
*Pharmacotheon: Ethnogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History by Jonathan Ott
*Trout's Notes (All Works)
*Ethnobotany: The Evolution of a Discipline- Richard Evans Schultes
*Mad Jesus: The Final Testament of a Huichol Messiah from Northwest Mexico- Timothy Knab
*Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti- Adam G.
*Fruit Hunters- ?
*The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching by Terence Mckenna
*The Archaic Revival by T. Mckenna
*True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradis by Terence Mckenna
*The Yage Letters by William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg




Ethnobotany/Entheogen-


Ethnobotany by Richard Evans Schultes
Trout's Notes on San Pedro Part A & B (As well as Mr.Trout's other works)
A Cactus Oddessy
Sacremental and Medicinal Cacti by M. S. Smith
Food of the Gods By T. Mckenna (As well as Mr.Mckenna's other works)
Fruit Hunters by Adam
Peyote and other Psychoactive Cacti by Adam
Cactus Coloring Book by Stefen Bernath
Botany of Desire by Micheal Pollan
A Cactus Odyssey
Pihkal & Tihkal by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin
Cactus Lexicon (Next Edition)
DMT- The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman
Breaking Open the Head & Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck
Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Ratsch
One River by Wade Davis (As well as Mr.Davis's other works)
Plants of the Gods by Richard Evans Schultes (As well as Mr.Schultes's other works)
Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda
Pharmacotheon- Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History by Jonathan Ott (As well as Mr.Ott's other works)










Agriculture/Farming/Gardening/Enviromentalism-

Self-Sufficent Gardener
Organic Gardening




Philosophy/Spirituality-

The Universe in a Single Atom by the Dalia Lama
Zen and the Mind
Karma Sutra
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
The G.O.D. Experiments
Tales from the Tao by Solala Towler
Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
Taoism by Wong
Friedrich Nietzsche's works
Carl Jung's works
Karl Marx's works
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Tibetan Book of the Living & Dying


Classic Literature-

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Animal Farm by George Orwell





Ancient or Religious Texts-

Plato's works
Socrates's works
Archimedes's works
Aristotle's works
Olmec, Toltec and Mayan texts
Taoist texts
Jainist texts
Tao Te' Ching


Children's Books-

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (And related works)
Jack Tales ~ Appalachian Folk Legend
Dr. Seuss's works
Lord Brocktree, Martin the Warrior, Mossflower, The Legend of Luke, Outcast of Redwall, Mariel of Redwall, The Bellmaker, Salamandastron, Redwall, Mattimeo, The Pearls of Lutra, The Long Patrol, Marlfox by Brian Jacques
Charlotte's Web
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Harriet Tubman Children's books






Movies-

Kill Bill 1 & 2
What The *BLEEP* Do We Know?!
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Kung Fu Hustle
Braveheart
The Matrix Trilogy
Pulp Fiction
Quarantine



Music-

Allman Brothers
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Doobie Brothers
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Grateful Dead
Jimi Hendrix
Led Zepplin
AC/DC
Pink Floyd
Smashing Pumpkins
Wallflowers
Death Cab for Cutie (Ben Gibbard)
Aesop Rock
Bob Dylan
Jack Johnson
Modest Mouse

Latest read:
Supernatural, by Graham Hancock.

About the role of dmt (and other psychedelics) in the development and evolution of early modern man (~50.000BC), art, religion, biochemistry, UFO's etc. Some interesting stuff in there for sure. And it is a nice simple read.

Otherwise search Graham Hancock on you tube.
There you can find more about his ideas.

I had the chance to write a paper about archetypes and Campbel is sure an interesting source.

My last book was "the electric cool-aid acid test" by Tom Wolfe

I have read all of mckenna's books and Food of the gods is a fascinating proposal and alot easier to read than his others imo

I too have also just finnished reading this book. I found the ideas on ancient codes/stories programmed into our junk DNA mindblowing

Just received this for Christmas.

Please read Joseph Campbell

My brothers gf bought me food of the gods, only mckenna book I didnt have
and my sister got me The cosmic serpent...can't wait to read them!

Tom Robbins - Still life with woodpecker. A favorite of mine.

Got Tom Robbins half asleep in frog pajamas today, along with The Holographic Universe and the other Cosmic Trigger volumes i didn't have.

If you've read Prometheus Rising and Wilson's books you should check out Antero Alli's Angel Tech.(art of being light).Im reading it now. he's a former friend of Leary and Wilsons and goes deep into great detail about personal application of the models they describe.

Half asleep in frog pajamas was my least favorite of Robbins' novels (friend of T. McKenna) but it was still good in it's own way...
R.A.Wilson is the man...

Hahahha dam i just picked one randomly but it's all good, I enjoy almost any novel i read anyway. I discovered RAW just this fall but i can confidently say that he really is the fucking man.

You'll LOVE the connections he makes with mushrooms....brilliantly hilarious...

Sounds like my cup a tea

*drools in anticipation*

i am definitely gonna get still life with woodpecker as soon as i have some spare cash i need a good book to dissolve into

If I had to name one book it should be the book that had the greatest impact on my life.

That book is 14 Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism by Yogi Ramacharaka

http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/YogiPhilosophy.pdf