Step XIV of My Spiritual Journey: In Which I Talk Drugs

I know I'm a day late on this, but hey - my posts go up on Wednesdays.

But first, before I begin, let me state for the record, for posterity, for my mom, and for all future employers, that I do not do drugs. Nor did I do drugs for any part of Step XIV in My Spiritual Journey. In fact, as you'll see once we get a little further along, I actually dislike drugs, especially in regards to spirituality.

So, yesterday there was a bit of a to-do, if you will, about a researcher who claims Moses was high on psychedelic drugs. I'm going to go ahead and leave that alone, as I have no idea what happened however many bajillion years ago, nor do I have any business pretending I do.

Regardless of whatever drugs Moses did or did not do, I firmly believe that there is a strong connection between spirituality and drugs. And the more I think about this, the more I realize that the relationship between spirituality and drugs is something that really annoys me about spirituality in general.

I guess I'm picturing those shaggy-haired, stoner hippies playing the bongos at some full-moon tropical isle beach party. (Well, that or Matthew McConaughey, naked, and in his own home, but that's neither here nor there.) And while I know that the stoner, bongo playing, hippie is a ridiculously stereotypical example, I, for one, believe that stereotypes exist for a reason. (Case in point: Matthew McConaughey.)

Anyway, back to my actual point. When I think of religion, I think of straitlaced, commandment-abiding, God-fearing citizens. Or, less stereotypically, I think of someone who obeys the rules / was the goody-goody always raising their hand in high-school. (No, wait. That was no less stereotypical, and well, that was me. Minus the religion part.) Whatever, the point I'm trying to make is that when I think of religion, whatever religion, I think of a specific set of beliefs and rules. And when I think of spirituality, I think of a sort of do-it-yourself holiness. And I think that sometimes this DIY spirituality leads people to search, well, externally (read: chemically) for some sort of guidance.

Look, I get it. I've asked for a guru, but I think that sometimes people confuse spiritual awakenings with psychedelic trips. For example, and to highlight the specific psychotropic drug mentioned by said researcher, Libet Johnson, heir to the ridiculously large Johnson & Johnson fortune, discusses her love for the Amazonian tree-vine drug ayahuasca in this week's New York Magazine. According to Wikipedia, "ayahuasca is used largely as a religious sacrament," and those who use it in a "non-traditional context...often align themselves with shamanism." Now, can't you just picture Matthew McConaughey jaunting off to the Amazon for his spiritual awakening? (Sorry. I'll leave him alone now.)

Honestly, there's just too much ground to cover on this topic, like peyote, which is legal to use for ritual purposes within the Native American Church, or that Simpsons episode where Homer goes to the chili cook-off and eats some crazy habanero pepper, which causes him to hallucinate and set off on a spiritual journey guided by a coyote voiced by Johnny Cash.

At the end of the day, I suppose spiritual drug-use, besides being illegal (except for peyote, dammit), is one of those "to each their own" things. Which is fine by me, but I guess my point is that how can any hallucinated journey that existed solely as a result of ingesting a psychotropic and/or psychedelic drug be considered spiritual? (I would define that as chemical. I'm just sayin'.)

The bottom line? When you find yourself in spiritual alignment with Matthew McConaughey and/or The Simpsons (see: Bonus Clip at bottom) starts making fun of you, you've got to admit that you're not only a stereotype, you're also a little absurd.

Happy Trails!

Comments

[momorune]

Which is fine by me, but I guess my point is that how can any hallucinated journey that existed solely as a result of ingesting a psychotropic and/or psychedelic drug be considered spiritual? (I would define that as chemical. I'm just sayin'.)

Why don't you just try the drugs and let us know?

[oldpotsmuggler]

Honey, not only are you composed only of chemcial building blocks, you only know what you know, of the physical world or otherwise, because of chemical reactions happening in your brain.

(Who's Matthew McConaughey?)

[rini]

Exactly. People don't understand that the spiritual is made up of the physical.....dopamine, serotonin etc.

[VerenaVonPfetten]

I guess this is my problem. If all this "spirituality" is physical, if all these experiences can happen on their own, why do we need an external substance (however natural) to experience them?
How is ingesting a foreign (again - however natural) substance which affects your brain's performance considered a natural, spiritual experience?

[tbone99]

There's a saying in Buddhism -Once you get to the other side of the river- you no longer need the boat.

In the materialistic speed charged world we live in ,many people wouldn't even have known there was a river, without drugs.True, too many decide to stay in the boat ,but that's just another form of attachment to the boat, just ike believing in a Big Daddy in the Sky who will give you a pass into heaven if you beg him.

I think once you have a true spiritual experience it gives one the confidence that spirituality is the undergirth of all life, so there;s no point in having to go to special places , talk to special people or eat special things to find it- it's in us and we're in it.

Unfortunately we been led to believe everything can be bartered for,with our money , our thoughts or
our lifestyle, including spirituality..

[WilliePilgrim]

From the burning bush to Joseph Smith's flamin' angel, from the very first hunter gatherer plucking a mushroom from a pile of their prey's dung to Timothy Leary, cosmic awareness and the feeling that we are part of a grand and frequently colorful transcendent reality, owes a lot to the effects of psychogenic foods: enthoegens. When the foods like mushrooms or tree bark or frog skins or well whatever worked, were prohibited or kept solely for the use of the shamans themselves, people would generate these states through repetition in prayer, self denial of sleep or nutrition until they were delirious. Unless that part of the brain which hoggs our attention is somehow repressed or kept occupied on other ways, we cannot expereince the fascinating and compelling sense of cosmic awareness ordinarily blocked.
Instead of being proud that you didn't use drugs, I should think you would feel somewhat deprived of that wonderful experience that the venerable founders of all great spiritual movements had and that you would realize that the biggest threat to the shamans, popes and mullahs is in fact the possibility that the people will take matters into their own hands on matters of faith and sprituality and no longer obey the supposed divinely delivered message to kill the heathen, stone the foreigner and fail to render unto the almighty all that is good, by proxy in the form of the religous leader themselves...coincidentally. So....why not pull the wool away from your eyes and get a clue?

[oldpotsmuggler]

Alcohol, as you are undoubtedly aware and while clearly an inferior drug, occurs in nature also. Another drug that humans discovered rather than invented.

[confusedandinfuriated]

Right on. Why must Miss Von Pfetten ridicule what she doesn't understand? Isn't the point of a spiritual quest some kind of experiential understanding? I've been following this series of hers with a morbid fascination usually reserved for peaking through my fingers as I pass car crashes on the highway. I had honestly hoped that by step 14 of her journey she would have had a better appreciation for the unmitigated disaster that is organized religion. Instead she pokes fun at "those shaggy-haired, stoner hippies playing the bongos at some full-moon tropical isle beach party". What the hell? It seems she has missed the point all along.

[VerenaVonPfetten]

If you've been following my journey, you'd notice that I've been no kinder to organized religion. And I'm sorry my spiritual appreciation doesn't match yours.

All I can say is that I've tried to be honest, and really, my goal more than anything else is to create discussions about all of this. So I'm happy when people disagree with me. Heck, you SHOULD disagree with me. I'm the first to admit that I don't know what I'm talking about. i barely have time to shower and do my laundry, let alone dedicate a week to taking mushrooms with a shaman in the Amazon and posting about it. Also, I feel like being high would severely impair my posting / thinking / writing / manual capabilities. Just sayin'.