Rating: 
Summary: Provocative, Solidly Supported and Well Reasoned
Review: It's not necessary to be a fan of illegal narcotics to find this speculative investigation into the origins of human consciousness both provocative and convincing. I might be described as a moderate drinker at worst, and yet found this argument into the origins of human consciousness utterly plausible. However, if you're anything like the editorial writer from Kirkus review, and obviously uneasy with challenges to your established notions and beliefs, you will probably be resistant to the implications of the author's in-depth research and painstakingly well reasoned speculations. Indeed, you should be resistant to all speculation. The thesis always begs the anti-thesis. It is, however, disingenuous to compile a list of the most extraordinary implications of the divergent views presented by an author and then formally dismiss the work merely as "unconvincing." I was not convinced by the work. But I could not honestly state that the argument was unconvincing. What makes this book so extraordinary is its ability to lead you to seemingly improbable and impossible conclusions, while rendering you incapable of denying either its sound logic or a better explanation of the facts, which brilliantly supported the thesis.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, Solidly Supported and Well Reasoned
Review: It's not necessary to be a fan of illegal narcotics to find this speculative investigation into the origins of human consciousness both provocative and convincing. I might be described as a moderate drinker at worst, and yet found this argument into the origins of human consciousness utterly plausible. However, if you're anything like the editorial writer from Kirkus review, and obviously uneasy with challenges to your established notions and beliefs, you will probably be resistant to the implications of the author's in-depth research and painstakingly well reasoned speculations. Indeed, you should be resistant to all speculation. The thesis always begs the anti-thesis. It is, however, disingenuous to compile a list of the most extraordinary implications of the divergent views presented by an author and then formally dismiss the work merely as "unconvincing." I was not convinced by the work. But I could not honestly state that the argument was unconvincing. What makes this book so extraordinary is its ability to lead you to seemingly improbable and impossible conclusions, while rendering you incapable of denying either its sound logic or a better explanation of the facts, which brilliantly supported the thesis.
Rating: 
Summary: Revolutionary!!..well, sort of.
Review: Mckenna definetly has some thoughts to share. Thoughts awakened in the midst of a psilocybin-induced state of euphoria and terror. I think Hunter S. Thompson said it best--you can't buy enlightenment. You can't pick it in the forest either... The idea that a mushroom (or any other psycedelic) is some kind of extraordinary gateway to another dimension or key to the underlying nature of the universe violates the nature of what we see around us everyday. Its just not that simple, and its apparent that those who buy this book still wishes it were. but I must say in its defense that the stories are fascinating, mystical and nearly-convincing to the uninitiated. its an interesting idea that most of us would like to beleive. But insight comes from struggle.
Rating: 
Summary: The easiest way to sell books is by making outrageous claims
Review: McKenna is one of the most misinformed writers I have ever read. He has no grasp on the evolutionary process. He makes assumptions on important subjects with little or no scientific evidence. I'm not complaining that he tries to qualify the use of hallucinogens, I'm all for it if that is what you want to do, I only wish that he would not mislead the reader by simplify what are very complex ideas. McKenna has built is argument on sand as anyone who looks into the subject will find.
Rating: 
Summary: provocative, quick read; a watershed waiting for academics
Review: my first mckenna experience: a sheer delight for anyone who's been bored, confused, disheartened, or annoyed by leary's verbose ramblings! mckenna's clear, laconic prose reads much closer to huxley. 'food of the gods' is in 4 sections with subchapters organized succintly around coherent themes, which make skimming and leaping possible - even on the first read - to parts of personal interest. mckenna sets out to demonstrate, or at least make plausible, the theory that an archaic relationship with psychoactive plants - namely mushrooms - stimulated the evolutionary leap that in 1-2 million years tripled our brain size from that of our then contemporaraneous hominoids. this is more or less an elaboration for mushrooms of carl sagan's proposition for cannabis - that a precultural relationship between hominid and psychoactive plant affected our brain chemistry significantly. mckenna goes on to apply the consequences to culture of this historic theoretical marriage, concluding primarily that a reacknowledgement of a lost link is needed urgently today. mckenna gives some potent evidence, but it is for the most part scant and open-ended. mckenna is not a scientist. this is where academia at large could enter with data stacks and studies - even to disagree. a wealth of possibilities for disciplines as diverse/related as linguistics, visual/social/cultural anthropology, archaeology, art history, religious studies, biology, neurochemistry, and philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Read the review
Review: Read this book if you don't see how plants have effected society, if you think mushrooms are bad. Do not read this book if you want to try mushrooms or if you've read Mckenna's stuff elsewhere. If you have, you've read this stuff already. If you never had mushrooms, you will want to have them. You probably are better served by reading Whitman or Lorca. You are too eager. Read this book with Schultes "Plants of the Gods". The two books will inform each other. This book is a wonderful overview of plant philosophy. Schulte's book has lovely pictures and he will back up Mckenna. Better still, read this book to understand why relegion is empty for so many people, how God truly is in the details, embedded so deep, we must wedge our way into molecules to find it, how we must shake off the painkillers and SEE! the world. God bless anyone who is so in touch with the force of God that he/she doesn't start the process this way but for myself there was no other way in and Terence has illuminated the path just fine. Sure he's a kook. God bless kooks. Mushrooms aren't the way. They aren't even the map. They are the bench we sit on to relax midway and figure out where we will go next.
Rating:
Summary: Dedicated to those who would again be children of the Earth
Review: SOMA is talking to you. Yes, you! Liberate the ripeness:
Word->Image Associations abound. Pervert the subversive paradigm. Coin new language before it coins you. ¿Who stole your imagination? Re-coginize purity of serendipity.
Few people will over-stand this book. . .
¿Seen? True.
Rating:
Summary: Drugs are bad....Mkay!
Review: Terence gives a history of mans use and interaction with drugs. He sheds light on why in today's society certain drugs are taboo, while other drugs like Alcohol, Caffeine and Nicotine are accepted. Terence makes a good argument that psychedelics have had a major role in the evolution of the human brain and by making them illegal we may have unwittingly closed the door on future evolution.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, Whether It's True or Not
Review: Terence McKenna (Food of the Gods), Julian Jaynes (Evolution of Consciousness ...), Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae), and Ruth Eisner (Chalice & the Blade) all look at the same evidence, and come to radically different, but equally radical, conclusions about the origins of what we call civilization (while trying to keep a straight face). Reading all three is an interesting, fun, and maybe useful exercise in juggling different world views. Ask yourself: why did each of them see the same evidence differently? Or, perhaps, it's just a matter of trying to make too much soup from too little stock. The reason we CALL prehistory "pre-history" is that there's so little history to work from, so each brilliant (or not) author gets to project their own interpretation of what they'd LIKE the evidence to mean. In McKenna's case, by the end of the book, it is obvious what he wants the evidence to mean. Terry McKenna wants us all to get off of what the Church of the SubGenius calls "Conspiracy Drugs," the ones that America got rich off of, like tobacco, caffeine, white sugar, distilled alcohol, and television. If we need to get high or drunk or trashed or whatever, he says that we need to go back to the drugs that first made human beings strong, fast, smart, sexy, and spiritual: organic psychedelics. Of COURSE this is a weird and controversial view point. That's half the fun of this book. You know that only the trippers and the stoners are going to come out of the back end of this book fully convinced. But even if you're not one, you just mind find yourself a teensy bit convinced, and that, my friend, is a strange sensation. Besides, it's a rollicking fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, Whether It's True or Not
Review: Terence McKenna (Food of the Gods), Julian Jaynes (Evolution of Consciousness ...), Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae), and Ruth Eisner (Chalice & the Blade) all look at the same evidence, and come to radically different, but equally radical, conclusions about the origins of what we call civilization (while trying to keep a straight face). Reading all three is an interesting, fun, and maybe useful exercise in juggling different world views. Ask yourself: why did each of them see the same evidence differently?
Or, perhaps, it's just a matter of trying to make too much soup from too little stock. The reason we CALL prehistory "pre-history" is that there's so little history to work from, so each brilliant (or not) author gets to project their own interpretation of what they'd LIKE the evidence to mean.
In McKenna's case, by the end of the book, it is obvious what he wants the evidence to mean. Terry McKenna wants us all to get off of what the Church of the SubGenius calls "Conspiracy Drugs," the ones that America got rich off of, like tobacco, caffeine, white sugar, distilled alcohol, and television. If we need to get high or drunk or trashed or whatever, he says that we need to go back to the drugs that first made human beings strong, fast, smart, sexy, and spiritual: organic psychedelics.
Of COURSE this is a weird and controversial view point. That's half the fun of this book. You know that only the trippers and the stoners are going to come out of the back end of this book fully convinced. But even if you're not one, you just mind find yourself a teensy bit convinced, and that, my friend, is a strange sensation.
Besides, it's a rollicking fun read.
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