Imagine a situation back around 40,000 years ago--a bunch of guys goes into the deep recesses of a cave somewhere in Europe, say, and they want to work some magic before the go on the hunt for some mammoths. They take their firebrands, drums and drugs and whatever they use to paint. They get stoned out of their trees, start drumming and chanting, and call on their ancestors and/or gods to guide the spears truly, etc., etc., and paint their pictures by the flickering light of the firebrands. Well, you can see where the peak experience is going to come in when you've got all that going on as a backdrop. Considering all that, it's no wonder our ancestors were getting all creative about then, cos I'll bet it wasn't just the hunters who were getting wasted. I can see a lot of advantaged in being stoned out of your nut when you're having a baby, or you've been brought back to the cave or the hut with your guts hanging out after an aurochs bull has gored you. You've got have some powerful painkillers to handle shit like that, tough as they were. I'd say that at various times, every member of every tribe must have been stoned on occasion, even the small children. You know what they're like at getting into things and experimenting with new tastes.
