Given that taking drugs is a choice, an overdose is a choice that threats one's life.
Usually this is due to ignorance about toxicology of a drug. And the myth that a drug makes you "high" perpetuates this ignorance.
If the aim is to get "high", then that is not recreational drug use; that's potential abuse. Depending on the drug, it either makes you see life in a new life or relieves pain, psychic or physical.
Anti-drug education does nothing to enlighten people, especially at-risk youth.
A proper drug education program should go through toxicology in a simple manner. In most cases, the least amount of a drug does the least amount of harm.
For the less of a drug you use, the more likely you will benefit from its use within the appropriate set and setting.
20090326
Intimacy (poem)
What is intimacy but sharing?
It's all about the sharing of life.
Intimacy celebrates life,
yet satisfaction blows out the candle of desire.
For desire is but the yearning for intimacy.
It's all about the sharing of life.
Intimacy celebrates life,
yet satisfaction blows out the candle of desire.
For desire is but the yearning for intimacy.
20090322
Entheogenic Psychotherapy
Introduction: definition and origins
Before going into depth about entheogenic psychotherapy, I will define the root word of entheogenic, "entheogen", as being derived from the Latin: "en" means "within, inside"; "theo" is from "theos" or "God, the divine"; and "gen" is originally derived from Indo-European "gen-", "to give birth, beget - referring to procreation, the family and the tribe."
However, within the context of entheogenic psychotherapy, based on their original use as agents to talk to God and to reach a higher spiritual consciousness, the meaning is clear: entheogens help one reach a higher level of conscious, possibly moral development and to pass from a lower stage of moral development into a higher one.
Before the moralistic teetotaller seeks to condemn me for what amounts to pushing illegal drugs on psychiatric patients, I will point out that prior to the 19th century and the reforms made in regard to mental illness since then, along with the development of psychotropic pharmaceutical drug to relieve the symptoms of such illnesses, the attendant medical opinion that such illnesses are incurable, and, like legislated poverty, the establishment of legislated mental illness, mentally ill people who were originally highly esteemed as shamans and visionaries, are today relegated to the same status as the poor by citizens of the State who consider themselves to be normal.
Indeed, the mentally ill had an integral part in proto-historical communities as figurehead of pagan cults. In those unsophisticated days, the shaman would become possessed by spirits, often by ingesting entheogens. While under possession, they would help in diagnosing illness, find game, and predict where to hunt best.
Thus, entheogens were used to alter consciousness in the shaman so s/he could become a passive agent for a spiritual deity whose presence could effect a change in illness, access information based on life experience whose content would not normally be relied upon by the tribe, and bring spiritual meaning to the lives of her/his tribe.
It wasn't until the establishment of the Church in the 4th century CE that the mentally ill were demonized as agents of Satan, when in actual fact, their bizarre behavior may be due to disease, injury, or malnutrition.
After 1500 years of marginalization, human civilization degraded to the point where the mentally ill were treated as though they were subhuman.
Proposal of the Term Entheogenic Psychotherapy Based on Interest by Neurologists and Psychiatrists
According to the New York Times ("Scientists Test Hallucinogens for Mental Ills", Tue, 13 Mar 2001), correspondent Sandra Blakeslee wrote that:
"Hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and peyote - derided as toys of the hippie generation - are
increasingly drawing the interest of neurologists and psychiatrists who want to test the
idea that they may be valuable tools in treating a range of mental disorders.
"Although there are anecdotal reports that psychedelic drugs can help some people with mental illness, the idea has never been substantiated by mainstream psychiatry and remains highly controversial -- some would say outlandish.
"And even the researchers involved in the new work are not suggesting that people start medicating themselves with hallucinogens..."
If you substitute "entheogen" for "hallucinogen", then psychotherapy that substitutes often dangerous psychoactive pharmaceutical drugs with entheogens may augment, or replace when necessary, faiths, philosophies and religions that provide relief from boredom, pain, and stresses of modern life.
If this therapy made exclusive use of entheogens, then I would call this kind of psychotherapy entheogenic.
However, just as orthomolecular therapy is considered by orthodox medical doctors and associations as quackery, it is possible that without a change in the public's awareness of the safety issues involved with entheogens, entheogenic psychotherapy will not go beyond what I will try to expound in this article.
Get Back... to the Psychedelic Era: Recreational Use Versus Sacred Use
It should be noted that quite possibly, the neurologists and psychiatrists quoted in Blakeslee's article may have grown up in the Psychedelic era (1969-1979), after the Beatles blew the minds of Americans through John Lennon's flip remark that they're "just as popular as Jesus."
It is ironic that the same era saw the disintegration of major rock bands and the tragedy of rock stars fighting substance abuse from Jerry Lee Lewis' battle with the bottle and other illegal drugs, Janis Joplin's death due to heroin overdose, John and Yoko's week-long drug binges, Paul McCartney's bust for marijuana in Japan, Ringo Starr's ill-advised Hollywood days, the Who losing band members due to drug overdoses, and other musical legends like Elvis dying from an aneurysm due top being constipated from pharmaceutical drug abuse.
Obviously, such celebrities, treated like new gods, are as human as their adoring fans, many of whom also may suffer from lack of self-esteem and quite possibly, a mild to incapacitating inability to handle stress well in their mundane lives.
Celebrity Excesses, Recreational Abuse
Likewise, the typical celebrity, once a nobody, may undergo plenty of stress from the pressures attendant to success. As a result of such stress, it is possible that family issues that were never properly resolved with closure may come back to haunt them. They may choose alcoholic beverages on the mistaken belief that the intoxication helps them to decompress from stress, and thus begin the spiral into substance abuse, buoyed by the delusion that "everybody does it."
When any drug abused, and used with the intent to make oneself happy and to please others, it's like looking for the Buddha in a temple in Dharamsala rather than seeing God in the beauty in the world as the result of self-reflection. Even if the intent of drug use is as simplistic as "having fun" or "a night out with the girls", then its potential for abuse is present.
For what happens when life is no longer fun? Does one drink more? And, does one go on to try another drug at a party because, so far, no one has died or "freaked out?"
I am not saying all of this to rant about substance abuse, but to demonstrate that the abuse of controlled substances, namely illegal drugs, is a maladaptive way of coping with stress and the attendant loss of self-esteem.
Usually, the user has exhibited maladaptive behavior prior to drug use and his/her behavior has either attracted her/him (to) "the wrong crowd." In the end, substance abuse becomes a daily ritual done alone by a lonely person lost in his/her world, a delusion of her/his own making, made of choices that will never guarantee any long-lasting success based on the depth of his/her happiness.
Country and Rock Music: Recreational Use Figures Prominently
Just as Elvis is an example of such a person, so too is Elvis' early life an example of the kind of upbringing that would lead to such a tragic end. For the King of Rock and Roll loved his mother dearly, and missed his other half as dearly, the twin that died at his birth. One could imagine what it was like growing up wondering what might have happened if one's twin lived and one was dead. Being from a multiracial family, humbled by poverty, may have also played a minor role in Elvis Aaron Priesley's life. However, the largest influence on his life was his mother as nurturer and reflection of his self-image growing up around Memphis, Tennessee - the Deep South, home of country music, and jazz and its brother, blues.
It is interesting that, since its popularization in the 1920s, country music tends to create a world of broken hearts and broken homes in its lyrics, the bitter-sweetness that may drive the foolish to a lifetime battle with "booze." In contrast, jazz was hated by the director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (now Drug Enforcement Agency) who demonized marijuana, Mr. Anslinger.
Elvis' choice of combining elements from blues with antics that rivaled Jerry Lee Lewis' certainly legitimized rock music since he represented the status quo where alcoholic beverages, tobacco and firearms were considered necessary to "the pursuit of happiness" and "the right to bear arms" as protected by the First Amendment.
Punk, Grunge and Today's New Music Fueled by Recreational Drug Abuse
In contrast, the woman who became Wendy O Williams, of the Plasmatics, grew up on the East Coast and while she certainly exercised her First Amendment right to free speech, she did so to shock her audience's parents. A mother of all American punk bands to come, Wendy had also starred in pornography as part of being a performance artist.
Punk music is anti-music in the sense that the artist does not sing so much as scream, and the musical instrument is a tool of subverting the mind through a full-frontal assault of the ear. This should explain why Wendy once sported a Mohawk haircut and often performed with her breasts exposed by ripping out holes in her black T-shirt with electrician's tape obscuring her nipples. Often she paraded around topless on stage, tape still in place with the lights shining hotly on her as she stood there screaming profanities into the microphone while sweating profusely. At one concert that I saw on TV, she took a chainsaw and sawed a television in half, an anti-consumerist act that probably scared a lot of TV executives when they got wind of it.
Courtney Love of Hole is another performance artist who went from stripper at the Number Five Orange in Vancouver to rock musician. She hooked up with grunge rock musician Kurt Cobain of the now-defunct band Nirvana and began a love-hate relationship that ended with Kurt's brains splattered on a wall in their bedroom in the suburbs of Seattle. At the time, Courtney was on tour with her band, which was getting rave reviews while Nirvana's fame was overshadowed by often violent antics on the stage. Sometimes fights would break out between band members onstage, with Cobain aggravating retaliatory assaults from them. At a recent girls only festival put on by Sarah McLachlan's company in Vancouver, Courtney Love punched out a rival girl band member for critiquing her performance.
My purpose for relating all this dysfunctional behavior exhibited by rock music celebrities is to demonstrate how even celebrities (the new gods of consumer culture) sometimes may become psychologically unstable pursuing game as they risk death by using recreational drugs. Their success often leads to risk-taking behavior that could expose them to cancer, heart attacks, strokes and even death.
You would think that for the amount of money rock musicians could make today at a five thousand person concert at $50 a head, 104 cities a year for a total of $26,000,000 gross that they would have a street-smart manager to keep them on the straight and narrow away from the gritty underbelly of society.
Guess again!
Few rock musicians and performance artists have resisted the temptation to drown their sorrows in booze, only to freebase or light up, toke up, toot up, or what have you, often blowing ten grand in a day to escape the boredom and chase away the ghosts of their misspent youths.
Thus, regarding recreational use of drugs, the user's aim is to "get high", usually as quickly and as often as possible. What usually begins as a tradition of like-minded people communing, and "having fun", soon degenerates into wild parties.
Sacred Use of Drugs: the Key to Entheogenic Psychotherapy
On the other hand, the sacred use of entheogens requires a less hedonistic game plan with a greater emphasis on social responsibility for the participant. The following entheogenic ethical code of conduct carefully outlines such responsibilities:
Individual Code of Conduct for Primary Religious Practices
* DRAFT *
When I engage in spiritual practices designed to bring about profound changes in
consciousness, I will consider my intentions and will choose carefully the occasion
and location for the practice.
I will be well informed about the mental and physical effects, anticipate reasonably
foreseeable risks to myself and others, and employ safeguards to minimize these risks.
Safeguards may include:
Ensuring that my setting is reasonably free of hazards.
Ensuring that I will not operate automobiles or other potentially dangerous machinery.
Taking myself `off duty' from responsibilities.
Arranging for someone to be `on duty' (a `guide' or `sitter') to keep the session safe
and respond appropriately to any exigencies that might arise.
(from http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/entheogens_ethics.shtml)
Any user of entheogens who ignores the spirit contained in this code of conduct is not a serious practitioner. Consequently, recreational use that violates the spirit of this code should be discouraged since its aftermath in the community may be linked to the breakup of the family and the stresses that places on the community itself. Thus, having read the above code of conduct, practitioners are encouraged to incorporate its spirit into their entheogenic activities along with any positive results from such sacred activity.
Of course, the code of conduct for primary religious practices implies by its very nature that recreational drug use be considered a religious activity, despite its secular component and its implicit denial that recreational use is indeed religious. One should not assume that religion is a bad thing, save in excess particularly of the fundamentalism that leads to intolerance and prejudice. However, the code of conduct previously mentioned is necessary to promote a responsible state of mind that balances the hedonism inherent in recreational drug use.
For when one uses drugs for religious practices, the profound changes in consciousness are apt to likewise profoundly transform one's religious life, perhaps one's whole life. Knowing that the set and setting greatly influence by the outcome of a mystical and spiritual trip aided by entheogens, one should prepare the setting so no danger presents itself during such a journey.
Likewise, the consensual use of entheogens in group ritual practice in a religious setting requires the participants to be ever conscious of their obligations to each other. Thus, entheogens can augment a religious experience for the benefit of all people within the religious group.
The Religious Context
Although religion has been superseded by a secular humanism where consumerism is endorsed by commercial media and corporate giants, all catering to the needs of free-market capitalism and endemic globalism with all the suffering that such a crazy lifestyle brings into our lives, it has greater value than what money can buy.
Humanity is not yet so dehumanized that it cannot instinctively feel an echo of spirituality. Given the wide variety of faiths and religions, some very popular and fewer still that are nameless yet deeply spiritual, one is free in most Western nations to worship as one pleases. Even in countries where freedom of worship is severely limited, the people still find religion to be a comfort from abject poverty.
Out in the desert of southwest America and in north-central Mexico, the peyote culture thrives, both within the new Native American Church tradition as rehabilitation from alcoholism and within the web of shamanism in Mexico. Meanwhile, the ayuhuasca culture of Brazil has also reached the shores of America, only to be restricted in use, not so much due to the risk of abuse as due to the militancy of a few of its members. Despite all of this, entheogens have an important part to play in invigorating religious worship.
It has been suspected that entheogens played an important part in ancient religious worship, but became banned by the Catholic Church, in order to keep power within church hierarchy. If each person was responsible for her individual rapport with Jesus, and could immediately worship God, developing an individual oneness with Him, then the Church could not control how the spiritual insights developed during entheogenic rituals. Thus, entheogens stopped being religious sacrament, as various religions cautioned against intoxicating drugs and the abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and even coffee!
Cannabis too, was demonized - at first to consolidate religious power and then later corporate power. In today's post-modern world, the corporate power of the Church has been transferred to multinational corporations. Yet the control over so-called "dangerous" drugs continues. This is also seen in the way the drug industry gets their petrochemical-based pharmaceuticals into market, while natural herbs and alternative therapies are ignored in medical literature. Though, the antipathy towards alternative therapies is now decreasing.
While medical marijuana is being dispensed in Canada, it is subject to restrictions. In contrast, the entheogenic use of marijuana is discouraged with the legal community not distinguishing between religious and recreational use. Indeed, they cannot make any discrimination at all between them, due to the drugs laws in Canada regarding marijuana. The law courts will throw out any challenges to the Canadian Charter of Right and Freedoms that attempt to define the entheogenic use of marijuana, despite the right to freedom of religion.
Thus, the State has control over just what is religious practice, and restricts religious practice to rituals that do not involve entheogens. It is quite possible that there is an overwhelming fear that entheogenic use, by cutting out a human intercessor such as a priest to communicate with God, will place control over religious practice in the hands of the people. A people-centred religious practice that encourages the use of entheogens is a threat to people in control of many religions today because they are not in control of that process. It could lead to less money into the church coffers, and more money into the illegal network of marijuana cultivation, a network that was forced underground by draconian drug laws which are destroying a culture.
Before going into depth about entheogenic psychotherapy, I will define the root word of entheogenic, "entheogen", as being derived from the Latin: "en" means "within, inside"; "theo" is from "theos" or "God, the divine"; and "gen" is originally derived from Indo-European "gen-", "to give birth, beget - referring to procreation, the family and the tribe."
However, within the context of entheogenic psychotherapy, based on their original use as agents to talk to God and to reach a higher spiritual consciousness, the meaning is clear: entheogens help one reach a higher level of conscious, possibly moral development and to pass from a lower stage of moral development into a higher one.
Before the moralistic teetotaller seeks to condemn me for what amounts to pushing illegal drugs on psychiatric patients, I will point out that prior to the 19th century and the reforms made in regard to mental illness since then, along with the development of psychotropic pharmaceutical drug to relieve the symptoms of such illnesses, the attendant medical opinion that such illnesses are incurable, and, like legislated poverty, the establishment of legislated mental illness, mentally ill people who were originally highly esteemed as shamans and visionaries, are today relegated to the same status as the poor by citizens of the State who consider themselves to be normal.
Indeed, the mentally ill had an integral part in proto-historical communities as figurehead of pagan cults. In those unsophisticated days, the shaman would become possessed by spirits, often by ingesting entheogens. While under possession, they would help in diagnosing illness, find game, and predict where to hunt best.
Thus, entheogens were used to alter consciousness in the shaman so s/he could become a passive agent for a spiritual deity whose presence could effect a change in illness, access information based on life experience whose content would not normally be relied upon by the tribe, and bring spiritual meaning to the lives of her/his tribe.
It wasn't until the establishment of the Church in the 4th century CE that the mentally ill were demonized as agents of Satan, when in actual fact, their bizarre behavior may be due to disease, injury, or malnutrition.
After 1500 years of marginalization, human civilization degraded to the point where the mentally ill were treated as though they were subhuman.
Proposal of the Term Entheogenic Psychotherapy Based on Interest by Neurologists and Psychiatrists
According to the New York Times ("Scientists Test Hallucinogens for Mental Ills", Tue, 13 Mar 2001), correspondent Sandra Blakeslee wrote that:
"Hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and peyote - derided as toys of the hippie generation - are
increasingly drawing the interest of neurologists and psychiatrists who want to test the
idea that they may be valuable tools in treating a range of mental disorders.
"Although there are anecdotal reports that psychedelic drugs can help some people with mental illness, the idea has never been substantiated by mainstream psychiatry and remains highly controversial -- some would say outlandish.
"And even the researchers involved in the new work are not suggesting that people start medicating themselves with hallucinogens..."
If you substitute "entheogen" for "hallucinogen", then psychotherapy that substitutes often dangerous psychoactive pharmaceutical drugs with entheogens may augment, or replace when necessary, faiths, philosophies and religions that provide relief from boredom, pain, and stresses of modern life.
If this therapy made exclusive use of entheogens, then I would call this kind of psychotherapy entheogenic.
However, just as orthomolecular therapy is considered by orthodox medical doctors and associations as quackery, it is possible that without a change in the public's awareness of the safety issues involved with entheogens, entheogenic psychotherapy will not go beyond what I will try to expound in this article.
Get Back... to the Psychedelic Era: Recreational Use Versus Sacred Use
It should be noted that quite possibly, the neurologists and psychiatrists quoted in Blakeslee's article may have grown up in the Psychedelic era (1969-1979), after the Beatles blew the minds of Americans through John Lennon's flip remark that they're "just as popular as Jesus."
It is ironic that the same era saw the disintegration of major rock bands and the tragedy of rock stars fighting substance abuse from Jerry Lee Lewis' battle with the bottle and other illegal drugs, Janis Joplin's death due to heroin overdose, John and Yoko's week-long drug binges, Paul McCartney's bust for marijuana in Japan, Ringo Starr's ill-advised Hollywood days, the Who losing band members due to drug overdoses, and other musical legends like Elvis dying from an aneurysm due top being constipated from pharmaceutical drug abuse.
Obviously, such celebrities, treated like new gods, are as human as their adoring fans, many of whom also may suffer from lack of self-esteem and quite possibly, a mild to incapacitating inability to handle stress well in their mundane lives.
Celebrity Excesses, Recreational Abuse
Likewise, the typical celebrity, once a nobody, may undergo plenty of stress from the pressures attendant to success. As a result of such stress, it is possible that family issues that were never properly resolved with closure may come back to haunt them. They may choose alcoholic beverages on the mistaken belief that the intoxication helps them to decompress from stress, and thus begin the spiral into substance abuse, buoyed by the delusion that "everybody does it."
When any drug abused, and used with the intent to make oneself happy and to please others, it's like looking for the Buddha in a temple in Dharamsala rather than seeing God in the beauty in the world as the result of self-reflection. Even if the intent of drug use is as simplistic as "having fun" or "a night out with the girls", then its potential for abuse is present.
For what happens when life is no longer fun? Does one drink more? And, does one go on to try another drug at a party because, so far, no one has died or "freaked out?"
I am not saying all of this to rant about substance abuse, but to demonstrate that the abuse of controlled substances, namely illegal drugs, is a maladaptive way of coping with stress and the attendant loss of self-esteem.
Usually, the user has exhibited maladaptive behavior prior to drug use and his/her behavior has either attracted her/him (to) "the wrong crowd." In the end, substance abuse becomes a daily ritual done alone by a lonely person lost in his/her world, a delusion of her/his own making, made of choices that will never guarantee any long-lasting success based on the depth of his/her happiness.
Country and Rock Music: Recreational Use Figures Prominently
Just as Elvis is an example of such a person, so too is Elvis' early life an example of the kind of upbringing that would lead to such a tragic end. For the King of Rock and Roll loved his mother dearly, and missed his other half as dearly, the twin that died at his birth. One could imagine what it was like growing up wondering what might have happened if one's twin lived and one was dead. Being from a multiracial family, humbled by poverty, may have also played a minor role in Elvis Aaron Priesley's life. However, the largest influence on his life was his mother as nurturer and reflection of his self-image growing up around Memphis, Tennessee - the Deep South, home of country music, and jazz and its brother, blues.
It is interesting that, since its popularization in the 1920s, country music tends to create a world of broken hearts and broken homes in its lyrics, the bitter-sweetness that may drive the foolish to a lifetime battle with "booze." In contrast, jazz was hated by the director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (now Drug Enforcement Agency) who demonized marijuana, Mr. Anslinger.
Elvis' choice of combining elements from blues with antics that rivaled Jerry Lee Lewis' certainly legitimized rock music since he represented the status quo where alcoholic beverages, tobacco and firearms were considered necessary to "the pursuit of happiness" and "the right to bear arms" as protected by the First Amendment.
Punk, Grunge and Today's New Music Fueled by Recreational Drug Abuse
In contrast, the woman who became Wendy O Williams, of the Plasmatics, grew up on the East Coast and while she certainly exercised her First Amendment right to free speech, she did so to shock her audience's parents. A mother of all American punk bands to come, Wendy had also starred in pornography as part of being a performance artist.
Punk music is anti-music in the sense that the artist does not sing so much as scream, and the musical instrument is a tool of subverting the mind through a full-frontal assault of the ear. This should explain why Wendy once sported a Mohawk haircut and often performed with her breasts exposed by ripping out holes in her black T-shirt with electrician's tape obscuring her nipples. Often she paraded around topless on stage, tape still in place with the lights shining hotly on her as she stood there screaming profanities into the microphone while sweating profusely. At one concert that I saw on TV, she took a chainsaw and sawed a television in half, an anti-consumerist act that probably scared a lot of TV executives when they got wind of it.
Courtney Love of Hole is another performance artist who went from stripper at the Number Five Orange in Vancouver to rock musician. She hooked up with grunge rock musician Kurt Cobain of the now-defunct band Nirvana and began a love-hate relationship that ended with Kurt's brains splattered on a wall in their bedroom in the suburbs of Seattle. At the time, Courtney was on tour with her band, which was getting rave reviews while Nirvana's fame was overshadowed by often violent antics on the stage. Sometimes fights would break out between band members onstage, with Cobain aggravating retaliatory assaults from them. At a recent girls only festival put on by Sarah McLachlan's company in Vancouver, Courtney Love punched out a rival girl band member for critiquing her performance.
My purpose for relating all this dysfunctional behavior exhibited by rock music celebrities is to demonstrate how even celebrities (the new gods of consumer culture) sometimes may become psychologically unstable pursuing game as they risk death by using recreational drugs. Their success often leads to risk-taking behavior that could expose them to cancer, heart attacks, strokes and even death.
You would think that for the amount of money rock musicians could make today at a five thousand person concert at $50 a head, 104 cities a year for a total of $26,000,000 gross that they would have a street-smart manager to keep them on the straight and narrow away from the gritty underbelly of society.
Guess again!
Few rock musicians and performance artists have resisted the temptation to drown their sorrows in booze, only to freebase or light up, toke up, toot up, or what have you, often blowing ten grand in a day to escape the boredom and chase away the ghosts of their misspent youths.
Thus, regarding recreational use of drugs, the user's aim is to "get high", usually as quickly and as often as possible. What usually begins as a tradition of like-minded people communing, and "having fun", soon degenerates into wild parties.
Sacred Use of Drugs: the Key to Entheogenic Psychotherapy
On the other hand, the sacred use of entheogens requires a less hedonistic game plan with a greater emphasis on social responsibility for the participant. The following entheogenic ethical code of conduct carefully outlines such responsibilities:
Individual Code of Conduct for Primary Religious Practices
* DRAFT *
When I engage in spiritual practices designed to bring about profound changes in
consciousness, I will consider my intentions and will choose carefully the occasion
and location for the practice.
I will be well informed about the mental and physical effects, anticipate reasonably
foreseeable risks to myself and others, and employ safeguards to minimize these risks.
Safeguards may include:
Ensuring that my setting is reasonably free of hazards.
Ensuring that I will not operate automobiles or other potentially dangerous machinery.
Taking myself `off duty' from responsibilities.
Arranging for someone to be `on duty' (a `guide' or `sitter') to keep the session safe
and respond appropriately to any exigencies that might arise.
(from http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/entheogens_ethics.shtml)
Any user of entheogens who ignores the spirit contained in this code of conduct is not a serious practitioner. Consequently, recreational use that violates the spirit of this code should be discouraged since its aftermath in the community may be linked to the breakup of the family and the stresses that places on the community itself. Thus, having read the above code of conduct, practitioners are encouraged to incorporate its spirit into their entheogenic activities along with any positive results from such sacred activity.
Of course, the code of conduct for primary religious practices implies by its very nature that recreational drug use be considered a religious activity, despite its secular component and its implicit denial that recreational use is indeed religious. One should not assume that religion is a bad thing, save in excess particularly of the fundamentalism that leads to intolerance and prejudice. However, the code of conduct previously mentioned is necessary to promote a responsible state of mind that balances the hedonism inherent in recreational drug use.
For when one uses drugs for religious practices, the profound changes in consciousness are apt to likewise profoundly transform one's religious life, perhaps one's whole life. Knowing that the set and setting greatly influence by the outcome of a mystical and spiritual trip aided by entheogens, one should prepare the setting so no danger presents itself during such a journey.
Likewise, the consensual use of entheogens in group ritual practice in a religious setting requires the participants to be ever conscious of their obligations to each other. Thus, entheogens can augment a religious experience for the benefit of all people within the religious group.
The Religious Context
Although religion has been superseded by a secular humanism where consumerism is endorsed by commercial media and corporate giants, all catering to the needs of free-market capitalism and endemic globalism with all the suffering that such a crazy lifestyle brings into our lives, it has greater value than what money can buy.
Humanity is not yet so dehumanized that it cannot instinctively feel an echo of spirituality. Given the wide variety of faiths and religions, some very popular and fewer still that are nameless yet deeply spiritual, one is free in most Western nations to worship as one pleases. Even in countries where freedom of worship is severely limited, the people still find religion to be a comfort from abject poverty.
Out in the desert of southwest America and in north-central Mexico, the peyote culture thrives, both within the new Native American Church tradition as rehabilitation from alcoholism and within the web of shamanism in Mexico. Meanwhile, the ayuhuasca culture of Brazil has also reached the shores of America, only to be restricted in use, not so much due to the risk of abuse as due to the militancy of a few of its members. Despite all of this, entheogens have an important part to play in invigorating religious worship.
It has been suspected that entheogens played an important part in ancient religious worship, but became banned by the Catholic Church, in order to keep power within church hierarchy. If each person was responsible for her individual rapport with Jesus, and could immediately worship God, developing an individual oneness with Him, then the Church could not control how the spiritual insights developed during entheogenic rituals. Thus, entheogens stopped being religious sacrament, as various religions cautioned against intoxicating drugs and the abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and even coffee!
Cannabis too, was demonized - at first to consolidate religious power and then later corporate power. In today's post-modern world, the corporate power of the Church has been transferred to multinational corporations. Yet the control over so-called "dangerous" drugs continues. This is also seen in the way the drug industry gets their petrochemical-based pharmaceuticals into market, while natural herbs and alternative therapies are ignored in medical literature. Though, the antipathy towards alternative therapies is now decreasing.
While medical marijuana is being dispensed in Canada, it is subject to restrictions. In contrast, the entheogenic use of marijuana is discouraged with the legal community not distinguishing between religious and recreational use. Indeed, they cannot make any discrimination at all between them, due to the drugs laws in Canada regarding marijuana. The law courts will throw out any challenges to the Canadian Charter of Right and Freedoms that attempt to define the entheogenic use of marijuana, despite the right to freedom of religion.
Thus, the State has control over just what is religious practice, and restricts religious practice to rituals that do not involve entheogens. It is quite possible that there is an overwhelming fear that entheogenic use, by cutting out a human intercessor such as a priest to communicate with God, will place control over religious practice in the hands of the people. A people-centred religious practice that encourages the use of entheogens is a threat to people in control of many religions today because they are not in control of that process. It could lead to less money into the church coffers, and more money into the illegal network of marijuana cultivation, a network that was forced underground by draconian drug laws which are destroying a culture.
20090320
Cheap Drunk Episode
Anyway, a recap of this week's events as of Thursday 19 March 2009:
My introspective drunkenness after one 500 mL glass of ale was a buzz, alright.
During and after ONE GLASS of ale, I recall the following:
Announcing to my friend that I was now drunk after 15 minutes, pointing to the 60 percent of the brew still left in the glass.
And then 4 hours later, at his place, getting the almost worst migraine due to tyramines in the raspberry wheat ale I drank 4 hours previously.
This happened about 72 hours ago, and yesterday I am sure the rather lousy sleep I had the night before was all part of the sobering up period.
But then this is me: one drink is a rocky road.
BTW the grill salmon dinner at Central City Pub is excellent!!
My introspective drunkenness after one 500 mL glass of ale was a buzz, alright.
During and after ONE GLASS of ale, I recall the following:
Announcing to my friend that I was now drunk after 15 minutes, pointing to the 60 percent of the brew still left in the glass.
And then 4 hours later, at his place, getting the almost worst migraine due to tyramines in the raspberry wheat ale I drank 4 hours previously.
This happened about 72 hours ago, and yesterday I am sure the rather lousy sleep I had the night before was all part of the sobering up period.
But then this is me: one drink is a rocky road.
BTW the grill salmon dinner at Central City Pub is excellent!!
20090318
Surrey RCMP Manufactures "Attempted Kidnapping"
Statement of Poster for March 17, 2009 between 2230 and 2310 h
At or around 2230 h Tue 17 Mar 2009, between 84th and 80th Ave on King George Highway in Surrey, a late model Honda Civic sped up from behind the van my friend, his business associate driving the van and I were in and continued on at a high speed up until it was boxed in at 80th Avenue.
My friend was prompted to report this to the RCMP, and he gave the dispatcher his information as well as the car's license plate number and description.
His business associate drops us both off at my friend's place, just as he finishes speaking with RCMP dispatch in Surrey.
About 15 minutes later, as we are about to take my friend's dog for a walk, three RCMP officers show up. So my friend puts the dog back in the house, and I watch over her. Both the dog and I wait for my friend.
Approximately two minutes later, my friend puts the dog out in the backyard so the three officers may enter his house.
One officer informs me about a "suspected kidnapping" involving my friend's business associate and us. He then asks me if it is true that my friend called 911 twice from his cell phone that night.
I deny this is the situation, telling him that as my friend was talking with dispatch, his business associate and I were discussing the speeding car and the license plate number with him in the background.
He asks if anyone was yelling or screaming in the background, and I deny this, stating that the background conversation was in a normal tone just as loud as the officer and I are talking. When he asked for confirmation about this, I confirmed that both the driver and I were speaking just as loudly as the officer and I are talking.
He asks me who the business associate is, and I state that she is my friend's business associate. I name the company to the officer.
Then I volunteer the information that I just signed up with this company today, once again mentioning the company name.
Then the officer's demeanor changes. He realizes that there is probably no kidnapping, and that my friend's story is probably true.
Then the two other officers leave with the officer who was questioning me.
Commentary and Summary
Please note that no kidnapping took place, and that Surrey RCMP dispatch manufactured that incident by notifying over radio to the three RCMP officers that my friend called 911 twice and that a woman was screaming in the background. In fact, a false alarm may have originated at Surrey RCMP dispatch circa 2245 h.
At or around 2230 h Tue 17 Mar 2009, between 84th and 80th Ave on King George Highway in Surrey, a late model Honda Civic sped up from behind the van my friend, his business associate driving the van and I were in and continued on at a high speed up until it was boxed in at 80th Avenue.
My friend was prompted to report this to the RCMP, and he gave the dispatcher his information as well as the car's license plate number and description.
His business associate drops us both off at my friend's place, just as he finishes speaking with RCMP dispatch in Surrey.
About 15 minutes later, as we are about to take my friend's dog for a walk, three RCMP officers show up. So my friend puts the dog back in the house, and I watch over her. Both the dog and I wait for my friend.
Approximately two minutes later, my friend puts the dog out in the backyard so the three officers may enter his house.
One officer informs me about a "suspected kidnapping" involving my friend's business associate and us. He then asks me if it is true that my friend called 911 twice from his cell phone that night.
I deny this is the situation, telling him that as my friend was talking with dispatch, his business associate and I were discussing the speeding car and the license plate number with him in the background.
He asks if anyone was yelling or screaming in the background, and I deny this, stating that the background conversation was in a normal tone just as loud as the officer and I are talking. When he asked for confirmation about this, I confirmed that both the driver and I were speaking just as loudly as the officer and I are talking.
He asks me who the business associate is, and I state that she is my friend's business associate. I name the company to the officer.
Then I volunteer the information that I just signed up with this company today, once again mentioning the company name.
Then the officer's demeanor changes. He realizes that there is probably no kidnapping, and that my friend's story is probably true.
Then the two other officers leave with the officer who was questioning me.
Commentary and Summary
Please note that no kidnapping took place, and that Surrey RCMP dispatch manufactured that incident by notifying over radio to the three RCMP officers that my friend called 911 twice and that a woman was screaming in the background. In fact, a false alarm may have originated at Surrey RCMP dispatch circa 2245 h.
20090314
Canadian Drug Prohibition is Naive
"Instead of looking for policies that might minimize the harm flowing from the use of all psychoactive substances, Canada has arbitrarily created a black market for some. In so doing, it has poured billions of dollars into the hands of those willing to milk the prohibition cow and to use violence to do so. And Canada's active support for prohibition is helping to destabilize countries around the world by giving terrorist organizations a lucrative source of revenue." -- Eugene Oscapella, 2000
Politicians who support drug prohibition support gang violence and global terrorism.
Politicians who support tough laws against gang violence but still support drug prohibition are facilitators of said violence.
Drug prohibition is naive, in that it profits all crime done in its name, while pretending to prevent a purported epidemic.
Indeed, gang violence is a more serious epidemic which will not be stopped by tough laws against gang violence but by liberalization of Canada's drug laws.
Politicians who support drug prohibition support gang violence and global terrorism.
Politicians who support tough laws against gang violence but still support drug prohibition are facilitators of said violence.
Drug prohibition is naive, in that it profits all crime done in its name, while pretending to prevent a purported epidemic.
Indeed, gang violence is a more serious epidemic which will not be stopped by tough laws against gang violence but by liberalization of Canada's drug laws.
20090305
Proof that Society Manufactures Mental Illness and School Shooters
In 1999 Todd Cameron Smith was the fellow who murdered a pastor's son and injured another student after being expelled from school.
Five years later, he walked away from a half-way home in Toronto, only to turn himself in the next day.
Yet the demons which haunt him even today began in Grade One in Taber, AB when he was bullied and teased by his fellow students.
His only crime prior to the tragic shooting was being born into poverty.
For that he was teased to the breaking point when he shot Jason Lang to death on April 28, 1999.
And the town of Taber, AB, has to live with the aftermath of that tragedy to this day.
IMHO society has the potential to create a new Todd Cameron Smith just as much as it had to create the dozens of wonderful people of Taber, AB.
As long as society continues to judge the poor, and to ignore bullying and teasing in school and in the workplace, the manufacture of mental illness will go on, unchecked.
Five years later, he walked away from a half-way home in Toronto, only to turn himself in the next day.
Yet the demons which haunt him even today began in Grade One in Taber, AB when he was bullied and teased by his fellow students.
His only crime prior to the tragic shooting was being born into poverty.
For that he was teased to the breaking point when he shot Jason Lang to death on April 28, 1999.
And the town of Taber, AB, has to live with the aftermath of that tragedy to this day.
IMHO society has the potential to create a new Todd Cameron Smith just as much as it had to create the dozens of wonderful people of Taber, AB.
As long as society continues to judge the poor, and to ignore bullying and teasing in school and in the workplace, the manufacture of mental illness will go on, unchecked.
20090303
White Collar Crime Endemic in Canada
These banks do most of it:
BMO, RBC, CIBC, TD, and Scotia Bank
Their facilitator is PwC, and are aided and abetted by crooked lawyers and judges, provincial governments, local police and the RCMP.
Thus it makes sense to choose a Credit Union such as Vancity.
BMO, RBC, CIBC, TD, and Scotia Bank
Their facilitator is PwC, and are aided and abetted by crooked lawyers and judges, provincial governments, local police and the RCMP.
Thus it makes sense to choose a Credit Union such as Vancity.
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