Ikonoclast
01-29-2005, 07:52 AM
In this thread I will postulate and answer three specific questions pertaining to the use of drugs in soceity as a global whole.
What are psychedelics for?
What longstanding benefits can be sought from the use of psychedelics?
What is the future of psychedelics in society?
Of course no one can predict the future, or say what might become of the world. There are many obvious possibilities, like every nation becoming a police state and the use of psychedelics suppressed. We may not get even that far, before nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare end society as we know it. I choose to focus on the positive possibilities and make those positives outcomes my goals, and do my part, however minute that may be, to work towards these positive changes.
The decriminalization of all substances worldwide is not a pipedream. It is an inevitability. Not only decriminalization, but legalization as well. This has already begun for Europe, as some of it's countries have already discovered the monetary and cultural benefits of legalizing and taxing the sale of mind altering substances. The reason I call decriminalization and inevitability? Because it is the single logical solution to this mess of scandalous and criminal activity that is "The War on Drugs".
There is no "war on drugs". The American government has created a war on personal freedom through the neglect of revelant information, and the spread of anti-drug propaganda through a politically controlled media. From the hour of it's foundation, the war on drugs has been nothing more than a misinformed vandetta serving one man's (http://www.heartbone.com/no_thugs/hja.htm) thirst for money and power, and a means of control for Governments.
Because of a prohibition on things like psilocybe mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, and other such psychedelics, psychonauts are forced to buy these substances on the same black market as heroin and crack. The violent crimes associated with drugs are in almost every instance never associated with psychedelcis, rahter narcotics. So not only are we psychonauts an unwilling participant in the sales of narcotics, but because all of this is clandestine, things such as the purity and dose of a substance take a backseat in priority to staying out of the prison system.
Please keep in mind at all times, the people who actually profit from the war on drugs are mostly drug dealers and politicians. Because of prohibition, there is no competition for these drug dealers, no reason for them to care about the purity of what they sell, or who they sell to, because in the end it's still illegal. By this same logic, innocent people are caught in the violent crossfire of drug wars on this black market. Remember that political power influences the media, which in turn influences the masses. This is the great irony. CNN reports an innocent person killed in the crossfire between drug dealers, and the public cries out. The politicians respond with a system so full of nonsense that to be a cannabis smoker equates you a terrorist. Whilst the public does not realize that these drug dealers can only exist in a system of prohibition, the government spends millions of public taxes on a War on Drugs which after more than 50 years has amounted to what? Drugs today are purer, more easily obtainable, and more doggedly persecuted by media and law than they were 50 yeras ago. It would seem that substance abuse is inevitable, and "The War on Drugs" is merely a euphemism for a system of consequences designed by archaic moral codes to apply to unconsequential actions from modern man.
But aside from all that for awhile, why does one use drugs? Substances like heroin, crack, and alcohol have but one purpose in their use. That purpose is to escape. To escape pain, to escape reservation, or to escape reality itself for a time is the simultaneous purpose and addiction for these substances and their users. When approaching substance use from this perspective, the individual seldom has an interest in improving him/herself or the state of affairs surrounding them.
Psychedelics are a completely different case. The majority of individuals choosing to use psychedelics use them as a tool for self change. Psychedelics produce a profound state of mind that by its nature has the potential to bring about realization or change in a person. There is no addictive "high" (unless we get more into dissociatives) to substantiate these substances being grouped with narcotics. It is more a shift in perspective. Perspective taking is the most important tool among all in communication, and psychedelics allow bounds to be redefined in a search for perspective, empathy, or understanding. Example, before MDMA was outlawed, it was being used by psychiatrists worldwide to treat PTSD and Manic Dpression. The substance encouraged feelings of openess to repressed issues, acceptance where once was denial, and a deeper connection to your fellow human. Back to 2005, you won't hear that on CNN but you might hear about someone who unwisely took 35 doses of MDMA and died. Even most examples of MDMA overdoses can be attributed to misinformation, which can be attributed once more to the effects of prohibition.
The facet of facination for psychedelics lies in their ability to bring a person to a place he has never been, or to show him something he has never seen, or to tell him something he has never heard. All animals are curious beings. Infants of all species stumble into this world in awe, and never cease to explore and discover untill they die. Humans are just another animal, only one with sentience and the ability to recognize himself as unique in his surroundings. There is an underlying understanding to the workings of the world we have always sought. Psychedelics only expand on this prinicpal.
The role psychedelics will play in our species future is up for debate, but I am a firm believer in all aspects of Life regarding the same principal that Life regards: Everything is cyclical. This is another way to say "history repeats itself". Psychedelics have been apart of our evolution since we have existed, some would say they were the pogenitor of sentience. Webster defines Sentience as Awarness. Psychedelics such as the ergot and tryptamine alkaloids have produced profound states of self awarness surpassing description. They have played a role in our evolution since Apes in Africa found Psilocybe Cubenis to be a source of nutrition, shaping the developement of our neural pathways and guiding us to sentience over the course of thousands of years, before any "god" had existed. I believe they will have a roll in our future evolution as well.
I see our future evolution as two murky paths insparable from the variables clouding each. Our species has done something entirely unique to this planet, which is to destroy everthing around us. Admirable, no. Unique, yes. We simultaneously have the ability to take our evolution and the evolution of every other species on this planet to places not even conceivable right now. We are such masters of contradiction! Whilst holding the planet's greatest gift and hope, sentience, we continually destroy the world surrounding.
One of these paths is already coming to be tread without a concious choice being made. Society is speeding headlong to a cement wall. And when we hit, we will claim we never saw it coming and call it a tradgedy, or blame someone or somegod for everything. The social structure we have all come to embrace is deteriorating around us. People foresake each other to such ridiculous extent. "Killing in the name of _____."
The second path is salvation from hatred, from biggotry. Suffering will always exist. Not only is it the condition on which we are born, but the source of our greatest strength as well. But social sufffering does not have to exist. Issues like hatred can be prevented, if not be made extinct. The distinct sense of brotherhood psychedelics produce has demonstrated itself time and again throuhout American history. Psychedelics are once again our means to further evolution. The term "evolutionary agents" is frequently used when discussing psychedelics and I find this to be an appropriate description. If one is willing to entertain the idea that humanity has not reached the ultimate end of evolution, it is easy to see that psychedelics act as catalysts to develop higher abilities in the mind. In summary psychedelics will change humanity into a peaceful, more intelligent fastly evolving society.
These are the only two paths I can imagine resulting from the War on Drugs. Either all drugs become legal and society moves towards evolution, or prohibition continues as countries slowly turn into police states where the drug dealers and politicians wage continual war at the expense of countless innocent peoples, eventual outcome our continual deterioration as a moral species, and with escalation; extinction.
Namaste,
Glenn
What are psychedelics for?
What longstanding benefits can be sought from the use of psychedelics?
What is the future of psychedelics in society?
Of course no one can predict the future, or say what might become of the world. There are many obvious possibilities, like every nation becoming a police state and the use of psychedelics suppressed. We may not get even that far, before nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare end society as we know it. I choose to focus on the positive possibilities and make those positives outcomes my goals, and do my part, however minute that may be, to work towards these positive changes.
The decriminalization of all substances worldwide is not a pipedream. It is an inevitability. Not only decriminalization, but legalization as well. This has already begun for Europe, as some of it's countries have already discovered the monetary and cultural benefits of legalizing and taxing the sale of mind altering substances. The reason I call decriminalization and inevitability? Because it is the single logical solution to this mess of scandalous and criminal activity that is "The War on Drugs".
There is no "war on drugs". The American government has created a war on personal freedom through the neglect of revelant information, and the spread of anti-drug propaganda through a politically controlled media. From the hour of it's foundation, the war on drugs has been nothing more than a misinformed vandetta serving one man's (http://www.heartbone.com/no_thugs/hja.htm) thirst for money and power, and a means of control for Governments.
Because of a prohibition on things like psilocybe mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, and other such psychedelics, psychonauts are forced to buy these substances on the same black market as heroin and crack. The violent crimes associated with drugs are in almost every instance never associated with psychedelcis, rahter narcotics. So not only are we psychonauts an unwilling participant in the sales of narcotics, but because all of this is clandestine, things such as the purity and dose of a substance take a backseat in priority to staying out of the prison system.
Please keep in mind at all times, the people who actually profit from the war on drugs are mostly drug dealers and politicians. Because of prohibition, there is no competition for these drug dealers, no reason for them to care about the purity of what they sell, or who they sell to, because in the end it's still illegal. By this same logic, innocent people are caught in the violent crossfire of drug wars on this black market. Remember that political power influences the media, which in turn influences the masses. This is the great irony. CNN reports an innocent person killed in the crossfire between drug dealers, and the public cries out. The politicians respond with a system so full of nonsense that to be a cannabis smoker equates you a terrorist. Whilst the public does not realize that these drug dealers can only exist in a system of prohibition, the government spends millions of public taxes on a War on Drugs which after more than 50 years has amounted to what? Drugs today are purer, more easily obtainable, and more doggedly persecuted by media and law than they were 50 yeras ago. It would seem that substance abuse is inevitable, and "The War on Drugs" is merely a euphemism for a system of consequences designed by archaic moral codes to apply to unconsequential actions from modern man.
But aside from all that for awhile, why does one use drugs? Substances like heroin, crack, and alcohol have but one purpose in their use. That purpose is to escape. To escape pain, to escape reservation, or to escape reality itself for a time is the simultaneous purpose and addiction for these substances and their users. When approaching substance use from this perspective, the individual seldom has an interest in improving him/herself or the state of affairs surrounding them.
Psychedelics are a completely different case. The majority of individuals choosing to use psychedelics use them as a tool for self change. Psychedelics produce a profound state of mind that by its nature has the potential to bring about realization or change in a person. There is no addictive "high" (unless we get more into dissociatives) to substantiate these substances being grouped with narcotics. It is more a shift in perspective. Perspective taking is the most important tool among all in communication, and psychedelics allow bounds to be redefined in a search for perspective, empathy, or understanding. Example, before MDMA was outlawed, it was being used by psychiatrists worldwide to treat PTSD and Manic Dpression. The substance encouraged feelings of openess to repressed issues, acceptance where once was denial, and a deeper connection to your fellow human. Back to 2005, you won't hear that on CNN but you might hear about someone who unwisely took 35 doses of MDMA and died. Even most examples of MDMA overdoses can be attributed to misinformation, which can be attributed once more to the effects of prohibition.
The facet of facination for psychedelics lies in their ability to bring a person to a place he has never been, or to show him something he has never seen, or to tell him something he has never heard. All animals are curious beings. Infants of all species stumble into this world in awe, and never cease to explore and discover untill they die. Humans are just another animal, only one with sentience and the ability to recognize himself as unique in his surroundings. There is an underlying understanding to the workings of the world we have always sought. Psychedelics only expand on this prinicpal.
The role psychedelics will play in our species future is up for debate, but I am a firm believer in all aspects of Life regarding the same principal that Life regards: Everything is cyclical. This is another way to say "history repeats itself". Psychedelics have been apart of our evolution since we have existed, some would say they were the pogenitor of sentience. Webster defines Sentience as Awarness. Psychedelics such as the ergot and tryptamine alkaloids have produced profound states of self awarness surpassing description. They have played a role in our evolution since Apes in Africa found Psilocybe Cubenis to be a source of nutrition, shaping the developement of our neural pathways and guiding us to sentience over the course of thousands of years, before any "god" had existed. I believe they will have a roll in our future evolution as well.
I see our future evolution as two murky paths insparable from the variables clouding each. Our species has done something entirely unique to this planet, which is to destroy everthing around us. Admirable, no. Unique, yes. We simultaneously have the ability to take our evolution and the evolution of every other species on this planet to places not even conceivable right now. We are such masters of contradiction! Whilst holding the planet's greatest gift and hope, sentience, we continually destroy the world surrounding.
One of these paths is already coming to be tread without a concious choice being made. Society is speeding headlong to a cement wall. And when we hit, we will claim we never saw it coming and call it a tradgedy, or blame someone or somegod for everything. The social structure we have all come to embrace is deteriorating around us. People foresake each other to such ridiculous extent. "Killing in the name of _____."
The second path is salvation from hatred, from biggotry. Suffering will always exist. Not only is it the condition on which we are born, but the source of our greatest strength as well. But social sufffering does not have to exist. Issues like hatred can be prevented, if not be made extinct. The distinct sense of brotherhood psychedelics produce has demonstrated itself time and again throuhout American history. Psychedelics are once again our means to further evolution. The term "evolutionary agents" is frequently used when discussing psychedelics and I find this to be an appropriate description. If one is willing to entertain the idea that humanity has not reached the ultimate end of evolution, it is easy to see that psychedelics act as catalysts to develop higher abilities in the mind. In summary psychedelics will change humanity into a peaceful, more intelligent fastly evolving society.
These are the only two paths I can imagine resulting from the War on Drugs. Either all drugs become legal and society moves towards evolution, or prohibition continues as countries slowly turn into police states where the drug dealers and politicians wage continual war at the expense of countless innocent peoples, eventual outcome our continual deterioration as a moral species, and with escalation; extinction.
Namaste,
Glenn