Books like Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

The book covers a very wide range of topics, from the description of legal and illegal synthesized drugs, natural drugs, history of drug use, and it´s influence on human evolution and history. Alternative ideas of how something might have developed are always interesting and in this case, two interesting questions come to mind. First how the whole human and before primate evolution, biochemistry, neurological functions, brain development, etc., might have been shaped by coincidence or by consciously consuming certain herbs, plants, berries, mushrooms, etc and second, how this might have influenced the development of all kind of faiths and beliefs. You are what you eat, even if you are just a tiny rodent. That gets more interesting with bigger mammals and very exciting with primates, because a few hundred or thousands of years of consuming, especially during pregnancy, might have some impact. Much fresh seafood mixed with some vegetables and barely any red meat is something different than much carbohydrates, etc. That´s just the normal food and as everyone interested in what is the best fuel for ones´ engine knows, much depends on it. And now take ten thousand or even more years in which apes and human ancestors consume certain mushrooms, herbs, fruits, weed, etc., just because of its effects on the mood or the hallucinations or, most probably, as many animals do, instinctively with a not understood sense or if certain health problems occur and they have memorized the cure. Or just because they wanna get high, probably it´s one of the many reasons why we are so weird.A key element of faith might be that both, drugged shaman, witch doctor, god-emperor, whatever, and the believers experience real hallucinations, highs or, in the case of not so hard stuff, euphory and extreme happiness. No matter if they get secretly drugged by the shamans before a session or the witch doctor floats the room with psychoactive smoke, if they take it together in a ritual, they get welded together by this experience. Founders of sects could find many inspirations by getting high and getting in contact with whatever their already damaged, possibly already mentally ill and sober voice-hearing and vision seeing, minds wanted to imagine. This was often combined with climbing very high mountains, which gives extra weakening to the brain by a lack of oxygen so that the sh** can kick in like hell.The future development can be used for boosting health and longevity by improving the nourishment of the body with as much precious and not hallucinogenic elements of all holy and healthy herbs from around the world, a kind of organic wonder powder from dozens or even hundreds of everything the planet can provide. The options for pimping epigenetics and brain development are the bigger topic, because they may lead to different brain evolutions, depending on what a culture, nation or government prefers to feed to its citizens. Of course, that´s already happening with each traditional diet.Some questions kept rotating in my drug hating mind (works best when sober, although the brain is a vicious traitor who intrigues against us, look, a beer commercial, damn it ):Did some civilizations destroy themselves by overuse of drugs?How do natural substances and all those new food chemicals react with each other, let´s say a dietary mix of natural food with many ingredients, pure industry food with many additives and chemicals and some psychoactive substances out of both categories?What could genetic engineering make possible, like combining the positive or mind-altering aspects in one single plant? A cancer-preventing superweed that makes the memory better, helps to stay slim, growing muscles without exercising, hulking out,…What surprising results may the interdisciplinary field of ethnobiology find in the future both about our past development and the coming influences of what we are consuming right now, looking at you, eating or high reader. What about medical and therapeutical applications?A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicin...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...