The first step away from the symbiosis of the human-fungal partnership that characterized the early pastoralist societies was the introduction of other psychoactive plant substitutes for the original mushroom. Because of its subliminally psychedelic effect, cannabis, when pursued as a lifestyle, places a person in intuitive contact with less goal-oriented and less competitive behavior patterns. We tend to rely on public ignorance and fears to drive the drug laws, which would be funny if it wasn't for all the people in jail for no reason or dying in drug wars.

He gets some things hilariously wrong, with regards to the development of language he says that women developed language more than men because men don't need much language to hunt whereas women needed lots of language to describe edible plants (as if men didn't go on days long hunts and didn't also forage for food).Food Of The Gods' breaks boundaries of thinking, and as the legendary comedian Bill Hicks would say ''squeegee you're third eye''. In my country, psychedelics are illegal, but there’s a clear sort of agreement between government and narcos that benefits them both, meanwhile the people suffer. In any case, I've not experienced it as characteristic nor have I seen literature supporting the assertion. In many cases, alcohol literally was slavery as the triangular trade of slaves, sugar, and rum and other practices of European civilization spread over the earth, subjugating other cultures. Maybe it's unfair to judge McKenna on this point, as this book is more than 20 years old, so he didn't have access to the same information we do today.

There are numerous individual paragraphs that could be excerpted from this book and would be good reading on their own, but the work as a whole is deeply flawed, and ultimately I felt like reading it was a waste of my time. In 1906 the Pure Food and Drugs Act was passed; it made Cocaine and Heroin illegal and set the stage for the legally sanctioned suppression of the synthetic and addictive compounds found in the opium poppy and the coca bush. It is an issue concerned with the most basic of human freedoms: religious practice and the privacy of the individual mind.As an odyssey of mind, body and spirit, Food of the Gods is one of the most fascinating and surprising histories of consciousness ever written. I support the legalization of all drugs, and especially cannabis and psychedelics, but those of us who oppose prohibition have to be realistic about the likely benefits and drawbacks of such a policy change. General note from this section: there’s a ton of cool old artwork that at least appears to represent mushroom gods, or mushrooms as a deity.