If you do it right apparently, spirituality is the best drug ever. Never mind getting high, spirituality can get you connected — to everyone and everything in the world. But, if your spirituality needs a boost — we have chemistry. Even before Christianity introduced sacramental wine to its rites (alcohol is as much a drug as anything), humans were using mind-altering substances to enhance their spiritual quests. And why not? We’re all just sacks of chemicals anyway, right? How could a little chemical enhancement hurt a spiritual journey?
As the National Institute of Health puts it: “Priests or shamans have ingested plants for millennia to induce states of dissociative trance … our taste for addictive psychoactive substances is attested to in the earliest human record.”
What do drugs bring to the spirituality table? And, why do the Abrahamic religions (especially Christianity & Islam) look upon drugs as “evil” rather than as a possible enhancement to one’s spiritual journey?
SOURCES & REFERENCES
- Blunt Truths, Introduction — How One Man Turned the Law and Society Against Weed: https://weedmaps.com/news/2018/08/blunt-truths-introduction-how-one-man-turned-the-law-and-society-against-weed/
- Blunt Truths, Chapter 1 – Harry Anslinger, Prohibition Cop With Nothing To Prohibit: https://weedmaps.com/news/2018/08/blunt-truths-chapter-1-harry-anslinger-the-prohibition-cop-with-nothing-to-prohibit/
- Blunt Truths, Chapter 2 – What Stoners Know That Harry Anslinger Didn’t Care To Know: https://weedmaps.com/news/2018/09/blunt-truths-chapter-2-what-stoners-know-that-harry-anslinger-didnt-care-to-know/
- Historical And Cultural Aspects of Man’s Relationship With Addictive Drugs, Marc-Antoine Crocq, MD. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3202501
- Entheogenic Use Of Cannabis (from Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entheogenic_use_of_cannabis
- Oldest Evidence of Marijuana Use Discovered In 2500-Year-Old Cemetery In Peaks Of Western China, Andrew Lawler, Science Magazine Online, Jun. 12, 2019 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/oldest-evidence-marijuana-use-discovered-2500-year-old-cemetery-peaks-western-china
Bible References:
- John 2:1-11 —
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+2%3A1-11u0026version=NIVUK
Amos 9:13-14
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Amos+9%3A13-14u0026version=NIVUK
Acts 2
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2u0026version=NIVUK
Ephesians 5:18-20
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A18-20u0026version=NIVUK