…back then…
Most people would agree that the needs of a human being are more than simply physical. Our mental and emotional health is just as, if not more, important and we each have our own practices to maintain it. While some of us subscribe to organised religions for emotional and mental support, some of us find this structure elsewhere. It is interesting to note that drug use is condemned by most major religions today as being immoral however, throughout history, drug use has played a major role in mankind’s spiritual practices.
It is easy to forget that prohibition in its current form has actually been around for less than a century and that the legal and upstanding lifestyles we are supposed to lead today have not been the norm in our past.
This was suggested by a project at the University of Chicago which attempted to simulate a hallucinogenic LSD style trip using a computer simulation of the human brain(1). Various specific patterns produced by the computer bore a startlingly accurate resemblance of prehistoric cave paintings. Such an experience wouldn’t seem to serve any direct physical purpose to our ancestors yet they deemed it significant enough to record.
In “Heaven and Hell”(2), Aldous Huxley talks at length about different forms of drug use in religious and spiritual practices of the past and of today. For example at first glance, (ignoring communion wine,) a modern Christian church service would not seem to include people getting high in the physical and intentional sense we associate with drug use. However, as Huxley points out, the act of singing hymns in church entails a lot of controlled breathing, in particular breathing out more than in. This directly alters the levels of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream which can have an intoxicating effect on the brain. Indeed all religions seem to make use of this method be it through singing or chanting mantras.
This is not meant to in any way belittle the spiritual experience people have when practicing their religion or cast doubts on the presence of their god that they claim to feel. Some practicing religious people accept this and simply argue that altering their state of mind makes them more receptive to their god.
The point being made here is that this idea of keeping or brains shrink wrapped and shiny new, of not tampering with the (god-given?) natural state of affairs is not only unfeasible but is not actually practiced by anyone! We’re all at it all the time because it is part of who we are.
Huxley also mentions that medicine and religion used to be closely linked and were studied by the same people. The shaman was both doctor and priest and it was not until more apparently developed civilisations came along that the two were separated.
This separation can still be seen today as art and science are considered polar opposites. This could be seen as explaining the weaknesses of these respective pursuits. Science is often accused of being a soulless profession where scientists are more concerned with what they could do than with what they should, (eg. GM crops); whereas religion provides a moral code to guide its followers in their daily actions. Religion, however, is often seen as being stuck in the past and as being intolerant as it lacks science’s ability to reinvent itself and progress in response the present day, (eg. homosexual clergy).
The history of religion and the disappearance of shamanism also appears to be connected to the root of prohibition. The organised religions that we know today seem to have grown up out of shamanism as shamans became prophets. Writing in High Times magazine Chris Bennet explored the roots of Judaism(3) and the beginnings of Christianity(4). He found that some of the earliest instances in which people were contacted by god involved ceremonies of drug use such as the burning of and anointing with cannabis oils.
He goes on to suggest that speaking directly to god gave these people power within their communities. This power wouldn’t mean much if just anyone could repeat their experience and so the tools of the ceremonies, cannabis being one such tool, had to be denied most people. Prohibition denies us not only medicine, not only potential solutions to many of the worlds problems but it denies us tools invaluable for self exploration and spiritual enlightenment.
Prohibitionists usually dismiss this as an excuse. Nothing constructive or significant can come of drug use, they say, yet the religions they often use to back this arguments up were founded on and are perpetuated by this very practice!
It is true that simply smoking a joint will not lead you to enlightenment and that drug use is certainly not a spiritual shortcut. The point here is that such meditative practices are one potential application of drugs. Such potential can only be utilised via responsible drug use plus mental desire and effort.
So having been denied these opportunities, these tools for almost a century what effect has this had on us? Drug use today is forbidden or ignored but never accepted or justified and through this we attempt to deny a fundamental part of ourselves.
references
1. prehistoric acid:
“A virtual trip… Computer generates ‘LDS images’”
Chris Benfield
Yorkshire Post, Fri 29th June 2001
2. CO2 levels etc
“Heaven & Hell”
Aldous Huxley, 1956
3. early Judasim:
“The Burning Bush”
Chris Bennett
High Times June 2002 #322
4. early Christianity:
“Was Jesus A Stoner?”
Chris Bennett
High Times February 2003 #330
