Did Mushroom Spores Come From Outer Space?

According to the original panspermia theory by the likes of Francis Crick, it just may be the case. Theorists say that the Earth was barren before asteroids crashed onto the surface, spreading life. Psychonaut icon Terence McKenna took it one step further by saying that psilocybin spores may have also arrived from outer space… 

Here’s the question. Was McKenna right? Do shrooms and magic truffles actually have an alien origin? Were spores used as probes to detect life in the galaxy? And is this how magic mushrooms eventually came upon our planet… to spark the rapid evolution of our caveman ancestors? 

Psilocybin Panspermia Theory

Terence McKenna made his mark as an American ethnobotanist and mystic. In 1976, he co-wrote the seminal “Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide” with his brother Dennis McKenna, under the pseudonyms OT Oss and ON Oeric. Terence also came up with the Stoned Ape Theory, which proposed that our evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens occurred due to our ancestors eating Psilocybe cubensis for the first time. 

What most people don’t know is that McKenna was a huge proponent of the Psilocybin Panspermia Theory. Terence said that magic mushrooms may be a “highly-intelligent species” that came to Earth as spores migrating through space. A fungal species that is now trying to build a symbiotic relationship with the human race.

Said McKenna:

“The mushroom was somehow more than a plant hallucinogen or even a shamanic ally of the classic sort. [Psilocybin] was in fact a kind of intelligent entity — not of earth…”

He noted how across aeons of time and space, spore-forming life forms float in the vacuum of space for millions of years “until contact is made with a suitable environment”. Turns out our humble planet Earth, with its cattle manure and all manner of damp soil, served as the perfect candidate for such an event. Psychoactive mushrooms soon began to sprout in early farming communities. 

McKenna also argued that each spore is an “artifact of an alien intelligence”, with each mushroom being “engineered” as a vessel of alien information. Hence the philosophical insights one can get during a shroom trip, he said. 

The Most Unique Lifeform

McKenna also pointed out how psilocybin is the only 4-phosphorylated indole known to occur in nature. A molecule so unique to shrooms, it doesn’t have near-relatives spread in other life forms. Not in plants, nor in animals… 

Only psilocybin.

“Now, if you were searching for extraterrestrial thumbprints on the biology of Earth, you would look for molecules that are unique… In psilocybin we have a perfect example of this.

“Nature doesn’t work like that, folks. Nature builds, always, on what has previously been accomplished. So this is a red flag saying that this thing looks like an alien artifact — at a molecular level.”

Spores from Outer Space

McKenna also explained how spores fit the bill perfectly as alien probes sent out in space to detect life. Here’s the process in detail:

“A single mushroom in the sporelization phase can shed up to 3 million spores a minute for up to six weeks. ONE mushroom could do this. 

I maintain, that a strategy for extraterrestrial contact carried on by a super technology would take the following form:

“Build a probe. Give the probe the ability to replicate itself. Start these probes out from your home planet. The probes replicate, so the volume of the probes stays constant as the volume of space increases.”

Who knew spores were this adaptable? And in outer freaking space??

Deep Purple, Ultraviolet

To support his claims of spores being able to survive in outer space, McKenna cited the dark blue or deep purple colour of the Psilocybe cubensis spore. Scientists say it’s the “ideal colour” to protect against ultraviolet radiation, a particularly vicious killer in the vast emptiness of space. McKenna also pointed out the P. Cubensis spore’s liking for a cold, high-vacuum environment. 

Guess what else is terribly cold and high-vacuum? Outer space. 

“If you’re carrying out an exhaustive search of the galaxy for life, it’s very hard to imagine a civilization that could visit and monitor every star over long periods of time.”

Sounds like the ideal job for spores floating around with all the time in the galaxy!

Spores: A Gift From Ancient Aliens?

McKenna’s theory on psilocybin panspermia was built upon the ideas of biologist Francis Crick, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Crick favoured LSD as a psychedelic of choice, doses of which helped him co-discover DNA’s double-helix structure. But he spent much more time researching psilocybin — the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms and magic truffles. 

In his original panspermia theory, Crick said it was very likely that ancient aliens existed. 

Consider it for a moment. Our blue planet is relatively young compared to the massive age of the galaxy. There was enough time, Crick said, for the formation of “technological societies elsewhere” before the Earth even came to be. And if there’s one bit of alien technology that’s sure to exist, it’s got to be interstellar travel. This time with a teeny-tiny twist… 

Ancient aliens may have preferred microorganisms for interstellar travel. Crick said that mushroom spores were the best probes. They could be sent out in large groups at once, and can survive in outer space on their own. 

So why Earth, you ask? 

No particular reason! The entire galaxy was barren by then, and our planet was simply lucky to get “infected” by the spores sent by the aliens. According to Crick, ancient aliens may have sent mushroom spores out to help “blanket the galaxy with life”. 

Happy Birthday, Terence McKenna!

This November 16th marks what would be the 75th birthday of our beloved icon Terence Kemp McKenna: American ethnobotanist, mystic, and hero to psychonauts everywhere. 

So, in honor of Terence McKenna’s birthday, we decided to give you the epic rundown of his Psilocybin Panspermia theory. Why not? ?

Spores as probes? Sent by ancient aliens to inject life into the galaxy? And now changing the world one shroomy dose at a time? ‘Tis been a wild couple of billion years for fungi, indeed!