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Spiritual Journal, 2/4/02
Feb. 8th, 2002 03:36 am7:04 a.m.
Every once in a while, my brain reminds me that there are people who consider entheogenic use as cheating, its fruit undeserved. I want to (need to?) respond to this.
You have two people. Person A utilizes traditional methods to engender the ecstatic state. This person may use such time-tested methods as chanting, drumming, dancing, swaying, fasting, or sleep deprivation. (Of course, incidentally, traditional cultures often used entheogenic substances, but I suppose that is neither here nor there....)
Person B ingests a substance that is psychoactive.
Work involved is often brought up by entheogen-use opponents. They'd point to Person A and say, "At least this person did something to bring about this physiological change in perspective. The other person just swallowed something." Person A, also, produces the bases of his/her ecstatic state endogenously; Person B had to rely on something outside the body. It's often assumed that being reliant on an outside substance is bad and should be avoided.
In some way, this whole scenario seems to boil down to the deserving and the undeserving; the person who did the most work and was the more self-reliant is the deserving one. He/she worked hard for that ecstasy; the resultant mindset is his/her reward.
But I am reminded of something in the Bible: the rain falls on both the just and the unjust. Person B may not have put in as much grunt work, but that does not mean that he/she should be denied a similar experience to Person A.
This is eerily reminiscent of the old argument of salvation through works and salvation through faith. Our Puritan morality makes it so that we find inherent goodness in work; and we detest those who "keep their hands idle." But faith is the cornerstone of belief, and (good) works are not enough for salvation.
I'm just saying. The just and the unjust are equally treated by the universe: the sun shines on them both. Those who work for their ecstasy are not necessarily more deserving than those who use "shortcuts" or somatic triggers; they are just perceived that way by us--we, the bystanders, whose powers and levels of perception are skewed, idiosyncratic, and necessarily limited.
LSD, as well as all of the other entheogens, is no respecter of persons. The gods made manifest will do so in anyone who has consumed. The god within will blossom in both the sinner and the saint. And, in my opinion, such egalitarianism can only be positive. Equal access to and opportunity for the deeply ecstatic state is a boon for the whole of mankind. (Whether or not everyone takes part in this opportunity does not diminish the significance of the presentation and availability of that opportunity.)
Every once in a while, my brain reminds me that there are people who consider entheogenic use as cheating, its fruit undeserved. I want to (need to?) respond to this.
You have two people. Person A utilizes traditional methods to engender the ecstatic state. This person may use such time-tested methods as chanting, drumming, dancing, swaying, fasting, or sleep deprivation. (Of course, incidentally, traditional cultures often used entheogenic substances, but I suppose that is neither here nor there....)
Person B ingests a substance that is psychoactive.
Work involved is often brought up by entheogen-use opponents. They'd point to Person A and say, "At least this person did something to bring about this physiological change in perspective. The other person just swallowed something." Person A, also, produces the bases of his/her ecstatic state endogenously; Person B had to rely on something outside the body. It's often assumed that being reliant on an outside substance is bad and should be avoided.
In some way, this whole scenario seems to boil down to the deserving and the undeserving; the person who did the most work and was the more self-reliant is the deserving one. He/she worked hard for that ecstasy; the resultant mindset is his/her reward.
But I am reminded of something in the Bible: the rain falls on both the just and the unjust. Person B may not have put in as much grunt work, but that does not mean that he/she should be denied a similar experience to Person A.
This is eerily reminiscent of the old argument of salvation through works and salvation through faith. Our Puritan morality makes it so that we find inherent goodness in work; and we detest those who "keep their hands idle." But faith is the cornerstone of belief, and (good) works are not enough for salvation.
I'm just saying. The just and the unjust are equally treated by the universe: the sun shines on them both. Those who work for their ecstasy are not necessarily more deserving than those who use "shortcuts" or somatic triggers; they are just perceived that way by us--we, the bystanders, whose powers and levels of perception are skewed, idiosyncratic, and necessarily limited.
LSD, as well as all of the other entheogens, is no respecter of persons. The gods made manifest will do so in anyone who has consumed. The god within will blossom in both the sinner and the saint. And, in my opinion, such egalitarianism can only be positive. Equal access to and opportunity for the deeply ecstatic state is a boon for the whole of mankind. (Whether or not everyone takes part in this opportunity does not diminish the significance of the presentation and availability of that opportunity.)