Pathway 02 — Psychedelics & Science
Pathway 04 — mycology
Pathway 05 — consciousness & spirituality
Stoned Ape Hypothesis: Psilocybin and the Origins of Consciousness
How did the human mind leap from primate cognition to symbolic language and self-awareness? Dennis McKenna brings Terence’s landmark theory into the 21st century with contemporary mycology, neuro-ecology, and evolutionary genetics.
● 7 modules
● 23 lessons
● 1 hour
● All levels
Dennis McKenna, PhD
Ethnopharmacologist · President & Founder
course overview
“This course doesn’t simply revisit a controversial hypothesis — it asks what the evidence actually demands of us. We examine psilocybin as an eco-neuro-hormone with deep evolutionary significance, and we do it with the rigor the question deserves.”
what you will learn
Understand the botanical and chemical properties of psilocybin and its proposed function as an eco-neuro-hormone
Analyze the fossil record and genetic history of fungi — fungal survival strategies and deep phylogeny
Evaluate horizontal gene transfer and epigenetic regulation as potential drivers of rapid evolutionary change
Critically assess the hypothesis using modern neuroscience — neuroplasticity, synesthesia, neocortical reorganization
Trace plausible ecological pathways for early hominid exposure to psychoactive fungi
Distinguish testable biological mechanisms from historical or speculative claims
course sYllabus
free preview — Module 3 · Lesson 2
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Case Study: Massospora cicadina and Chemical Hijacking
Massospora cicadina is not a mushroom — and yet it independently evolved the ability to synthesize psilocybin. Dennis McKenna examines the metabolomic discovery that this entomopathogenic fungus produces both psilocybin and the amphetamine cathinone inside the bodies of infected periodical cicadas, chemically hijacking their behavior to maximize spore dispersal. The result is grotesque and illuminating in equal measure: cicadas whose abdomens are replaced by spore masses, hopped up on stimulants, attempting to mate with anything in reach. It is a vivid, concrete demonstration of the lesson’s central argument — that psilocybin is not a biochemical accident, but an evolutionary tool with a precise ecological agenda.
aprox: 4 minutes
about the instructor
Dennis McKenna, PhD
Ethnopharmacologist
Dennis McKenna has spent fifty years in the field — the Peruvian Amazon, the Colombian rainforest, the laboratories of UBC — studying the plants and fungi that sit at the boundary of chemistry and consciousness. His doctoral research on ayahuasca pharmacology was among the first rigorous biomedical investigations of an Amazonian hallucinogen. As a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute and key organizer of the Hoasca Project, he has shaped the scientific foundation that modern psychedelic research now builds on. Terence McKenna was his brother. This course is where family legacy meets fifty years of earned scientific scrutiny.
Amazonian ethnopharmacology
Ayahuasca pharmacology
Psychedelic science
this course in context
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“The entire biospheric community of species is conscious, and seeks to advance the evolution of consciousness through collaboration and symbiosis.”
— Dennis McKenna, Ph.D. · President and Principal Founder
