A young Homo sapiens, searching for food in a stretch of grassland, spots a cluster of mushrooms emerging from the dark soil. She picks one of the brown caps, examines its darker edges and whitish stem, before timidly eating it. The psilocybine (a psychedelic compound), naturally present in this food, ends up in his bloodstream and eventually enters his brain.
It’s about 300,000 years ago and this practice probably influenced the development of human consciousness, a recent study reveals. as relayed by the magazine Popular Mechanics. Young Homo sapiens is engaging in an activity that their distant ancestors were already doing. There is evidence that early hominids (our extinct primate ancestors) were picking and eating “magic mushrooms” up to six million years ago.
Published in June 2024 by the Miguel Lillo Foundation, an Argentine research organization, the investigation concludes that psilocybin, which is the main psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, has not only influenced the perceptions of the individuals who ingest it, but has shaped human consciousness as a whole. And this, for thousands of generations.
Other studies have recently proven that this compound improves cognitive functions, that is, the set of brain tools that allow us to understand our environment through our experiences, our senses and our thoughts. These include our feelings, our intentions, our beliefs and our desires.
Hunting and gathering skills
This type of chemically assisted brain stimulation occurs because this compound “increases connectivity between networks in the frontal region and elevates the level of conscious states”explains Fatima Calvo, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, biologist and co-author of the scientific article. “From an evolutionary perspective, psilocybin ingestion may have contributed to improved visual abilities and reproductive success in communities that consumed these mushrooms.”the researchers write.
Indeed, ingesting the compound may have increased their hunting and gathering abilities. It may also have acted on sexual stimulation, thus increasing the chances of mating. All of this would logically have favored reproduction rates.
Early hominids probably began to consume such mushrooms after they stopped living in trees, around the time of the Pleistocene –a geological period that includes the last ice age. At this time, the Ardipithecus ramidusour oldest known ancestors, explored the forests of present-day Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Of course, psilocybin is a hallucinogenic compound. But it’s hard to know exactly what mind-expanding impressions magic mushrooms left on our ancestors. The fact that these foods may have been “catalysts of mystical experiences or drivers of cognitive processes raise profound reflections on the ancestral interaction between human beings and their natural environment”scientists note.
Over the next millennia, humans have developed cultural uses for mushrooms. For example, shamanic practices and religious rituals allow those who ingest these foods to have sensory experiences that we would never have known. Another example, health professionals use already psilocybin-assisted therapy for decades, with some success. Another thing we could learn from our ancestors.
Source: www.slate.fr
