why are we "The Story telling apes?"

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, it's important to remember that things like magic and other-worlds don't have to be the result of some hallucinogen, complicated cons, etc. Some very simple explanations have been put forward. These sorts of things could easily find their genesis in dreams of a fallen comrade, who needed his tools, the observation that there are superficial similarities between sleep and death, and the conclusions that may be drawn armed with just these three ideas. That death is like permanent sleep. That when dreaming the divide can be crossed, and that once crossed the world one finds is alot like this one, and the dead are there (friend and foe alike) and that they need tools same as ourselves. That the dead can watch our world from theirs, perhaps even predict this or that, or that in this dreaming world "others" exist. There are tribes of people who have/had shamans and supernatural narratives with no access to hallucinogens. Some use hyperventilation. People would spin around in circles and beat their heads against rocks to get high if there was no other alternative (and they've done exactly that). It's probably more accurate to discuss the origins of these concepts, rather than the origin.

(there is a theory that language and the desire or need to comminucate complex ideas helped to form and shape our beliefs btw, yeah. In part based upon the largely discredited theories of a gentleman named Whorf, and a study that was done by MIT, which has since been revised. Just so happens that native tongues do have an effect on the way we think, though it isn't controlling, or impossible to circumvent.)