I smoke marijuana a few times a month because I love both the blissful feelings it evokes and the wonderful visions I experience. I often feel like I’m being shown real places and people around the world, and also really cool stuff in other dimensions. I’m wondering if you have a spiritual explanation for what is happening when one gets “high.” I mean, even the word “high” makes me think of vibration – are we lifting our spiritual vibration way above what is normal? Do you think the visions and blissful feelings of being high are spiritual in nature? I know there is a lot of stigma attached to drug use, but didn’t native peoples use marijuana and mushrooms for spiritual purposes for thousands of years? Thanks!
– Brian
Dreamchaser:
I think when it comes to illegal drug use, each person has to make up his or her own mind. As for my personal opinion, I believe the greatest spiritual experiences can be achieved without any chemical help at all.
You are right, however: There are cultures around the world that use drugs such as peyote and mushrooms for spiritual purposes. I’m assuming that you, however, are not a shaman of a Native American tribe. Were you born and raised in the kind of culture that uses drugs to achieve visions? When you are high, do you actually use that time to experience spirit, or are you just tripping and enjoying the blissful feeling of marijuana?
Trust me, Brian, I have been on both sides of the fence on this one. I have stated many times in this column that I am a recovering drug addict and drinker. I have been clean from everything (including marijuana) for quite some time now, and I can truly say that my experiences are much higher and deeper now that I do not use chemical enhancers.
When someone is high, they have a foggy or surreal viewpoint. When someone has a spiritual experience because of deep breathing exercises, meditation, or any other natural form of spiritual practice, things are much clearer and more realistic.
Drug trips are just that – trips away from the here and now. We may think we are having this huge spiritual experience and awakening, but it really is just a mental fantasy. I do not believe we are lifting our vibration way above normal; instead, we’re just checking out.
The blissful feeling comes from the physical effects of the drug. That bliss was not there before you got high, and it is not there after you come down. True spirituality is maintaining that natural bliss every day, all day long.
I want you to try a little experiment: Go to a place that is comforting and peaceful for you, and then get comfortable by either sitting or lying down. Take a deep breath in for four counts, hold that breath for four counts, and then exhale for four counts. Repeat that at least twenty times.
Focus on how your breath feels going into your body and filling up your chest. Focus on how it feels as you hold it and it moves around your body. Then focus on how your body feels as you exhale and the breath leaves your body. Feel how at peace and open your body feels after the twentieth time. Then open your mind and allow your spirit to flow free.
I wish you real, true spiritual experiences that are not chemically induced.
*****
Astrea:
Native people have long used certain hallucinogens for inducing visions, but this practice is always very closely monitored by other people who have experience with this sort of thing. Drugs have been used to heighten spiritual experiences for thousands of years.
Time and time again, however, you will find this excuse as a rationalization for recreational drug abuse. What those native people do and what people who use drugs recreationally to get high is totally different.
I think if the U.S. government could figure out how to regulate marijuana in order to make a bunch of money from it, it would be legalized like alcohol and become available to everyone. However, I doubt that during our lifetimes we’ll see the government and drug companies get together so that anyone who needs it can have it. They haven’t figured out a way to regulate a plant that will grow just about anywhere, in any weather and in plentiful quantities. If they could, they would!
Though marijuana has been strongly stigmatized, people who use it aren’t like alcoholics, because it can really help with depression. I personally think it could replace many of the anti-depressants on the market now, and with fewer side effects too.
Certainly there have been hundreds of studies showing the medicinal benefits of this plant. Many thousands of people who have cancer would benefit from using marijuana as an appetite enhancer. People with glaucoma and arthritis would benefit in other ways. Anorexics would eat, and insomniacs would find an easy way to Dreamland.
Unlike nicotine, which acts as a stimulant, cannabis is a muscle relaxer, and makes people feel calm, happy and right. I shake my head when I hear reports that people commit crimes because of pot use, or that pot is a gateway drug to other drugs like cocaine or methamphetamines. Ridiculous! Real potheads know better than that. People smoke dope to relax and enjoy themselves, and to get away from their daily grind.
All that said, it’s important to remember that no one performs better when they are using recreational drugs. I don’t want my airline pilot or my surgeon smoking pot while my life is in their hands! I certainly would never try to do a reading while under the influence of any mind-altering substance.
People need to be clear-headed in order to do a good job. While it’s true that you might have psychic visions on dope, that is probably not the case, and that excuse won’t hold water with the cops either.
Besides, smoking anything isn’t good for you; there are healthier ways to achieve bliss!