The Stoned Apes Of Today

Whether you resonate Terrence McKenna or not, the man is undeniable, whether his words stand up or not is not the point, he has some things to say and he delivers them in his beautifully odd way. The stoned ape theory is gaining some legs and its just plain cool to see, now I don’t want to get stuck in the detail but the fact still remains that we experienced a significant uptick in the size of our brains that did not follow previous trends. The stoned ape theory is basically the assumption that canopy dwelling hominids would only come down to the ground level in search of psilocybin mushrooms to get absolutely pinned to the ground a mushroom trip stupor. Upon their return to their normative state it is said that they quickly assimilated more efficient ways to hunt, mate and climb the hierarchy setting a new trajectory for evolution. That is a gross generalisation
but you get the picture, this means that non mushroom eating apes only evolved indirectly and much slower, eventually being phased out and left behind in the great chain of evolution.

At first the non mushroom eating apes would have been having a right old laugh at there pals passed out on the ground with big smiles on their face thinking ‘look at these idiots, bunch of fools’ . They most likely would have looked like the first apes lining up for hominid unemployment.

At one time being completely paralysed and In another dimension, the next thing you know they are constructing leveraged tools, getting things done in half the time and spending the rest of the day throwing excrement at each other for fun. You can almost imagine the stubbornness of the sober apes refusing to take the leap and clinging to their old ways compactly unaware it was going to be their demise.

If something similar was to happen now what do you think it would be?

I don’t think it can come from anything exogenous or drug like because there is too much of a debt to repay on the back end. My prediction is that our rationality, cause and effect, temporal world space has a used by date and that date is approaching faster than what most think. That way of life is jam packed with such obvious contradictions that get universally swept under the rug ‘No body saw that’ just continue on.

If you actually sat with the contradictions of typical Western thought you begin to notice it’s an impasse and if you continue on what looks like ‘progress’ it’s just more technical granular versions of the same impasse. It’s so clunky, slow, mechanical, and its need to know everything all the time is painfully predictable.

Let’s give the pot a stir and see who grips tighter and who ‘lets Jesus take the wheel’ not actual Jesus but like a cool shaman wizard whisky connoisseur jesus.

The modern rational type of mind places incredible amount of weight on certainty, consistency and knowing in the name of progress.

“Isn’t it stupidly obvious that so much certainty will just replicate the past over and over itself ?

The content may alter and change but the fundamental assumptions must stay the same otherwise we break the heuristic of consistency?”

Lets use this as an analogy- on our creative advance into novelty as whitehead called it we reach raging rivers that look destined to stop us in our tracks yet every time we humans devise the perfect boat to cross that river. Modernity looks to me like our latest boat that certainly got over some rough sees and avoided many scurvy pirates but when we got to land on the other side it’s like we picked up damn HMAS Rational and tried to carry it across fresh land. Not only carry it but
deconstruct everything it was made of trying to cure our anxiety of the next river.

If we get to the next river and launch HMAS Rational it doesn’t sink because of a design fault it explodes when touching water yet we still look for design faults.
We should have let go of HMAS Rational at the previous shore line, this river is a new beast and requires ‘new thinking’ this river is a new world space with new referents, new features, new forces that are much more subtle, much faster and much less obvious but much more powerful.

This river is not be conquered but to be trusted to take you to the other side in its own fashion.

Any construction is not suitable.

What I’m talking about here is the introduction of states of mind, internal contemplative technologies that once were separated from our externally focused Western thought are now being willed and called to be integrated. Not instead of or separated but integrated to cross the next river, hence our Shaman wizard whisky Jesus. What if todays mushroom apes are the meditators, the contemplators, the ones who bravely let go of the weight of HMAS rational and
are finding new subtle leveraged tools in the space between the sluggishness of thought.

Instead of wining and dining ladies, showing hard earned rewards and purchasing them gifts of modernity. The meditators can throw a look with perfect timing that says a thousands words and makes her feel showered in a thousand gifts and thats the job done.

Instead of climbing the tower, slugging away for 12 hours a day and convincing the boss of your status. The meditator gets a single insight that when is shared catapults him to General Manager
Instead of having a 5 year business strategy and cute business cards that say your name on it and all you talk about is business with your business buddies at business brunches discussing your 5 year strategies. The meditator wakes up and on the way to his business decides to keep driving to the beach where he bumps into an old friend that opens up business for him for 5 years.

But thats all just luck right ?

So with a final hit tip to our ancestors are you going to cling to the top of the trees in rational contradiction sniggering at those who explore states of mind? What happens when they steal your girl, take your promotion, win your business? Are you going to throw rocks at them and fade into history because you couldn’t sit on a mat and take a breath. Or are you going to venture down and see what it’s all about?

If Nietzsche said god is dead and we must go on to create our own values, Im here to say thought is dead and we must go on to uncover our subtle mind