psychedelic drugs evolutionary leap forward or fall back?

[thujone]

there are a lot of different ways to define what being human is, aside from the obvious physical observations. for the most part, we all look the same and most of us tend to think more or less similarly. but when we take psychedelics, we're reaching so far out of normal passages of thought that is it even possible to consider ourselves as contemporary humans for the duration of a trip?

i mean, we see people with severe psychological issues and consider them human more out of pity for their dignity than for their actual intellectual capacity. they're often incapable of being on the same level of thought as the rest of the sober society, but so are people five hours into a five tab acid trip.

although the sensors themselves don't evolve or devolve, the brain calculates time, space and thought entirely differently from sober thinking. i'm sure anyone who has been yanked back to earth from a huge trip by anti-psychs will be really aware of how big the difference in thinking really is, even though we may rehash a lot of stuff floating around our subconscious previously for analysis while tripping.

so what do you make of this? do you think that in another ten thousand years, humans may have the capacity to switch their minds to these patterns of experiencing the world without even the need for drugs? or do you think that these pathways are a step backwards in a world that is moving faster every day in a different direction?

 

[w01fg4ng]

Allow me to promptly digress. Evolution cannot be properly defined when talking about psychedelics without discussing the human consciousness first.

Psychedelics have been used as long as written history knows man himself. I could not argue that they do not play a role in modern human consciousness. They make who we are today. Our bodies are already accustomed to most psychedelics by the day we are born. Some psychedelics are naturally occurring in the human body (such as DMT). That should be proof enough, that these plants are not exactly alien, or alien to us that is.

Will these new/experimental phsyscedilics change the human consciousness for future generations? I would bet on it.

Now, the wheel has been around for a long time no? But we still use it. Does it mean that when we drive cars or use any wheels we are now taking a step back in evolution? It simply means we are using what we already are educated about.

The human consumption of psychedelics is a step forward in evolution, just as much as any other tangible substance known exposed to human kind is.


But then what is evolution?

 

[nearjat]

Speaking solely in terms of how psychedelics effect individuals, I'd definitely say the consumption of these drugs brings human kind forward. Assuming forward has to do with equilibrium with the environment, communication and support within the species, and generally keeping us in touch with the reality we reside in. Humans have put up completely imaginary barriers within our universe, and they're quickly turning humans into a kind of disease on this planet. I think finding some way for people as a whole to experience the insights of a psychedelic experience is one of the only ways we can at least postpone inevitable doom. Lol.

Evolution doesn't automatically mean improvement as far as I know, any progressive change in a group is evolution, even if it brings us to extinction.

 

[helium-4]

IMO psychedelics aren't consumed by any significant amount of people to actually contribute to evolution. 1-5% percent of the population spread through out the world isn't going to be able to alter the population/species as a whole.

 

[jamaica0535]

I consider them to be more beneficial to the human experiment than say opiates or benzos....

Or as shulgin put it....

If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.