The name evolution might sound like it implies a kind of biological progress, but that's not what it is.

An eloquent proposal for recovering something vital--a sense of the sacred, the transcendent, the Absolute--before it's too late.Reissued because of the current interest in Ecstasy, this is McKenna's extraordinary quest to discover the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Some of the points are spot on, he includes television as one of the drugs invented in the 20th century. Ritual, isolation, and sensory deprivation are the techniques used by the Archaic shaman seeking to journey in the world of the spirits and ancestors. It isn't about the drugs, it's about our society, humanity, our history and most importantly, our mindset.

Alternative ideas of how something might have developed are always interesting and in this case, two interesting questions come to mind. The antiseptic properties of honey have made it a preferred medium among many peoples for the reservation of delicate foods.When you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but you want to sound like modern biology is on your side, and you want to develop a transcendent philosophy, it's tempting to assume that evolution means progress.