psypressuk | Originally published in 2013 ‘Entheogens and the Development of
Culture: The Anthropology and Neurobiology of Ecstatic Experience’ is a
collection of essays edited by John A. Rush. Rush has previously
authored the books ‘The Mushroom in Christian Art: The Identity of Jesus
in the Development of Christianity’, ‘Failed God: Fractured Myth in a
Fragile World’ and ‘The Twelve Gates: A Spiritual Passage through the
Egyptian Books of the Dead’. This work has been published by North
Atlantic Books.
As a collection, Entheogens and the Development of Culture: The Anthropology and Neurobiology of Ecstatic Experience
proposes that psychoactive substances have been key components in the
development of both human culture and the human brain. The fourteen
essays that are included in the collection are written by a number of
researchers from across various disciplines, including anthropology,
mycology, classics, cultural historians, psychology and biology. While,
academically and perspectively, the writers often appear to be coming
from altogether totally different theoretical places, with a myriad of
intentions laced within them, they do share the common goal of examining
the role of psychoactive substances in the history of human culture.
And, as such, provides an interesting argument when taken in its
totality.
The question regarding the entheogenic effect on the development of
the human brain, while bolstered to some degree by the cultural
chapters, is largely formulated in Michael Winkelman’s essay Altered Consciousness and Drugs in Human Evolution.
Holding the position that our brains have evolved alongside, and as a
result of certain plants and altered states, by way of the serotonergic
and dopaminergic systems that can be stimulated by exogenous
neurotransmitters—such as those found in Psilocybe mushrooms. Winkleman
writes:
“The role of drugs in the evolution of human consciousness must be understood in relationship to effects on the serotonergic system and its roles in overall brain functioning. The alterations of consciousness enhance paleomammilian brain functions and their coordination and integration with the entire brain. Enhanced serotonergic mechanisms contributed to experiences of altered consciousness in humans, embodied in visionary experiences” (Rush 45)
So, the theory goes, the evolution of human consciousness has been,
in part, mediated by the exogenous neurotransmitters that humans have
sought out and consumed, thereby taking a hand in their own evolution.
Taking the theory at face value, for the moment, this leads Winkleman to
postulate that, “this expanded associational area improved the brain’s
capacity to interface with a variety of other neural mechanisms,
including those involved in learning, problem-solving, and memory
function” (ibid.). Here, therefore, is the window into culture.
From these improved brain functions, art, society and, indeed,
organization generally, could develop. However, as we shall see, the
remainder of the essays are less about the role of entheogens generating
the capability for culture-creation in humans, but more about the role
of entheogens within culture itself. Indeed, if entheogens created the
capacity for culture, culture itself embarked on a process of
reintegrating entheogens from the newly evolved perspective.
Entheogen discourse is primarily driven by historical analysis, and
particularly the religious use of mushrooms within human culture, and
while this is also very true of this collection, a number of other
substances are discussed, which are worth mentioning first. Chris
Bennett and Neil McQueen, both having written extensively on drugs and
the bible, offer a chapter entitled Cannabis and the Hebrew Bible, which makes use of Sula Benet’s identification of kaneh bosm—an anointing oil used as an initiatory rite—with cannabis.
