Cave murals in Spain show man may have used magic mushrooms 6,000 years ago

Sou rce

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For all those who thought hallucinogenic drugs took off in the 1960s, think again: scientists believe they have found evidence of magic mushroom use 6,000 years ago.

Cave murals found in Spain appear to depict them in religious rituals - which would be the oldest evidence of their use in Europe.

The Selva Pascuala cave mural near the town of Villar del Humo has a bull in the centre, but researchers from America and Mexico are focussing on a row of 13 small mushroom-like objects.

Brian Akers at Pasco-Hernando Community College in Florida, and Gaston Guzman at the Ecological Institute of Xalapa in Mexico say they believe the objects are Psilocybe hispanica, a local funghi with hallucinogenic properties.

The mushroom has a bell-shaped cap with a dome and lacks a ring around the stalk, just like the objects in the 6,000 year-old mural, they say.

I had to share this because it is actually quite amusing.

If you have never read "food of the gods" then I definitely recommend it, as it goes through our evolution and how magic mushrooms might have been the reason for our brain enlargement.

Interesting mural and I can see how they think they would be mushrooms.

Well, at least we know the ancients used to party.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

I highly suggest reading 'Food of the Gods', great book. I'm sure these people 6,000 years ago actually did ingest the powerful shroom.

Shamans still have contact with the magical world that has long been forgotten or covered up by most common cultures.

some have said the mushroom was the forbidden fruit from the garden of eden.

www.alien-ufos.com...

not the best story on this topic i have heard, but i was lazy in my google search. ( for me)

and another theory that mushroom spores can survive the vacuum of space.

fusionanomaly.net...

again, not the best example.

and even that chimps + mushrooms = evolution (even i'm not too sure of this one... though i do know animals do get loco on substance: www.cracked.com...)


(cracked is a funny and informative site, but with some racy language.)

chimps evolution discussion:
forums.randi.org...




anyhow... i do not doubt hallucinogenics have played (and still do) an important role in the evolution / spirituality of humanity. it is modern societies abuse and misunderstanding of psychotropics that has led to their severely taboo nature.


PS sorry about the weak links, but... well, if you wanna find it, it's out there. hurray for the internet. boo for my internet savvy efforts.

reply to post by predator0187


I will tell you, it is very interesting.

Man has a history of probing his consciousness, as do other animals. Like the monkeys that eat over ripe fruit to get intoxicated from the alcohol that is fermenting, or children who spin round and round to get dizzy. It seems that altered consciousness is a desire of creatures who possess a consciousness.

Another angle that is interesting in consideration of this is the theory of the bicameral mind. At the very least, it warns us to not take for granted that ancient mans mind was even remotely similar to ours.

"the mushroom is a transdimensional doorway left slightly ajar by sly faries" lol terrence mckenna, i woulda loved to havemet him while he was alive. his book food of the gods and true halucinations are highly reccomended.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


While I do agree, there have been very little changes is the anatomy of the brain since stone age times. As for our consciousness I'm not really sure if that could even be addressed as no one really knows about it. Although we had many similar customs and rituals our predecessors our thoughts could have been quite different.

It would have been much easier if they all had written diaries on stones.

Pred...

reply to post by predator0187


Love the animated tesseract avi. That image really helps me contemplate a 4th spatial dimension.

One thing that stands out at me is that the brain and the mind are different. The brain is like a modem, while the mind is the software. "Things" like the ego and the psyche can exist in many forms. Much of our current mindset controls the way the mind works.

But beyond that, basic differences can have some pretty widely varying end results.

Anyway, like i said...this is a very interesting topic.

I thought it was probably discovered by chance.
I could imagine some guys out there starving and find some shrooms and had nothing else to eat at the time and decided to chance a possible new food source. They probably went for one hell of a ride their first time out.

No wonder they painted so well in colors...

I'm having a hard time imagining a society that's eating a lot of shrooms getting much done

reply to post by Versa


actually it depends on dosage

a small dose of psylocybin mushroom actually enhances the senses [great for hunting]

a slightly higer dose will have aphrodisiac properties[communal orgies]

the shamanistic/ego dissolution requires a very high dose

also remember that consumerism hadn't been invented yet

the ancients tended to treat this stuff with caution and respect.

The Stoned Ape hypothesis of human evolution

Terrence Mckennaland

The Archaic Revival
nndmt.com...

i find that if you append James Demeo's Saharasia hypothesis to Mckenna's you wind up with a very good idea about the origins of the so called Nightmare of History: as the mushrooms became rarer it became easier for the Psychopaths to go unoticed until they took over.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


thanks for the links I think I might buy the book 'Food of the Gods' as it seems interesting

reply to post by predator0187

yes the thing is were they magic or just normal? It would explain the artistic interest which in many cases was extremely beautiful.Also trauma can trigger a new kind of consciousness, sometimes it leads in a negative direction and other times in a beneficial direction. Also to travel was always awe inspiring and lead humans to look for a deeper meaning in to life. I feel that life offers many catalysts to enable a kind of leap out of 3 dimensional reality and at the same time twice as many traps.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Thanks buddy, I always stop and look at my avatar and can almost go into a daze. The fact that the inside cube is the same size as the outside cube really gets my brain going.

I agree with the brain being a modem, but as we have seen lately modems affect the software as well. I think all brains, including animals, have some sort of consciousness, it may not be the same as ours but it's there. I think that is humans biggest problem is that we continuously try and compare everything else to us.

I think our minds are a big reflection of society as it shapes our perceptions of reality. So in that sense I think that yes we have changed a lot. Whether it is for the better or worse is a different story.

I also think when it comes to these natural drugs, they seem to be completely non violent. You never see someone tripping on mushrooms starting fights or involved in conflicts, well no one that I have ever been around anyways. So maybe that is why we are so much more dosile than other creatures out there.

Geez, I could probably talk for weeks about this subject.

Pred...