The Bad Trip Hypothesis: A Unified Framework for the Dietary Origin of Civilization

Introduction: Various disciplines have their own domains of expertise and typically search for any under-
lying principles within their respective boundaries only. Therefore, a unified framework to explain various
observations from these disparate domains has so far been lacking. We propose a framework connecting
these multiple disciplines in a novel way to provide a multidisciplinary prism to reinterpret human history,
psychology, and various other domains by introducing a chronic dietary trigger spanning ten millennia as
the underlying causal factor.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature review spanning medicine, gastroenterology, neurol-
ogy, psychology, history, political science, mathematics, and artificial intelligence. We synthesized these data
to trace the impact of a specific dietary irritant (wheat) through the gut-brain axis and map its psychological
manifestations onto historical societal development.

Results: Our findings reveal an underlying principle of chronically increased levels of baseline anxiety
manifesting as a "Civilizational Fractal" across different scales of our society. At the individual level, this
leads to various physical and mental health issues including narcissistic personality disorder. At a societal
level, the increased anxiety and related never-enough mentality manifest in increased violence, expansion,
and overall progress of civilization.

Conclusions: This explanation has not been proposed previously because data regarding the highly variable
manifestations of wheat sensitivity only recently became available. These unpredictable effects rendered a
systemic diagnosis difficult due to the omnipresent compartmentalization of medical and other scientific
disciplines. The proposed hypothesis has a profound impact on the physical and mental health of Homo
sapiens on a global scale. Considering the potentially straightforward dietary treatment, there is substan-
tial potential for reducing conflicts, warfare and violence. In addition, the hypothesis provides a novel
explanation for the human-mimicking behaviors of artificial intelligence large language models.