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By Carol Moore
I believe that a prime motivation of those waging the current "war on
drugs"
is to discredit and destroy any" counterculture" before it becomes the
dominant culture. Religious fundamentalists have not forgotten
the
religious upheavals of the 1960s when millions of young people, often
after
using marijuana and other psychedelics, reading Timothy Leary or Alan
Watts,
or listening to "psychedelic" music by the Beatles or the Jefferson
Airplane,
rejected Christianity and Judaism. Even ministers, priests, nuns
and rabbis abandoned their callings! Consciousness, altered
consciousness,
and higher consciousness rather than obedience, duty, and sacrifice
became
the prime concern of the new spirituality.
The response of Catholic, conservative and fundamentalist religious
groups
was to feverishly expand their efforts to enforce more fundamentalist
views
among their members and to gain greater political influence. While
fundamentalists
have lost many battles over abortion, prayer and pornography, they have
found the government a willing ally in the "war on drugs". For
just
as drugs, the counterculture and "consciousness" undermine faith in
hierarchical
religious authority, so do they undermine faith in political authority.
John Lennon's "IMAGINE", an anthem of the counter culture, asks us to
imagine
"no religion" and "no countries". Lennon, a drug use advocate,
was
murdered by a fundamentalist Christian, a former fan, who knew how
subversive
and powerful this message is. In 1990, on Lennon's 50th birthday
radio stations worldwide played "IMAGINE" simultaneously to a
billion
people. All heard Yoko Ono say, "The dream we dream alone is just a
dream,
but the dream we dream together is reality." The message is that
we are not subjects of an authoritarian god or even natural law, but
that
we consciously co-create reality. Implied is the possibility of a
diversity of realities.
Despite the crackdown on drug use, the belief that consciousness is not
only the purpose, but perhaps even the very nature, of reality has
spread
through writings and practices of "new physics" aficionados, humanistic
psychologists, and the new age, eastern religion, wiccan, and
eco-spirituality
movements. Their millions of advocates still lack a coherent and
motivating philosophical synthesis or organizational focus. And
while
many of these individuals have used drugs, and still do,
decriminalization
of drugs is not yet a major focus of their thought or action.
However, as the horrors of the drug war mount and the injustices spread
to all of us, the uneasy feeling that there is some hidden agenda
behind
the "war on drugs" grows among more aware and conscious individuals.
Some
of these agendas are scapegoating drug users for larger ills, excuses
for
racial repression and expanding government power, an outlet for
militarism,
and the desire of tobacco and liquor producers to squash potential
competition.
However, a prime hidden agenda remains the suppression of an alternate
religious view -- that consciousness is the nature and purpose of
reality,
that humans freely create their realities. Because psychoactive
drugs
are a means of quickly and effectively initiating individuals into this
view they must be suppressed -- even if it means punishment,
incarceration
and death for hundreds of thousands of people. But such is the
nature
of all religious wars.
Excerpts from INTOXICATION THE "FOURTH
DRIVE"
by Dr. Ronald K. Siegel. Article in the September/October
1990
HUMANIST magazine. (Later made into a book.)
History shows that we have always used drugs. In every age, in
every
part of this planet, people have pursued intoxication with plant drugs,
alcohol, and other mind-altering substances...Almost every species of
animal
has engaged in the natural pursuit of intoxicants. This behavior
has so much force and persistence that it functions like a drive, just
like our drives of hunger, thirst and sex. This "fourth drive" is
a natural part of biology, creating the irrepressible demand for
drugs.
In a sense, the war on drugs is a war against ourselves, a denial of
our
very nature...
Legalization is a risky proposal that would cut the drug crime
connection
and reduce many social ills, yet it would invite more use and
abuse...Making
some dangerous drugs illegal while keeping others (like alcohol and
cigarettes)
legal is not the solution. Out-lawing drugs in order to solve
drug
problems is much like outlawing sex in order to win the war against
AIDS.
In order to solve the drug problem, we must recognize that intoxicants
are medicines, treatments for the human condition. Then we must make
them
as safe and risk-free and, yes, as healthy as possible.
Dream with me for a moment. What would be wrong if we had
perfectly
safe drugs? It mean drugs that delivered the same effects as our
most popular ones but never caused dependency, disease, dysfunction, or
death?... Such intoxicants are available right now that are far safer
than
the ones we currently use...We must begin by recognizing that there is
a legitimate place in our society for intoxication.
Excerpts from THE NATURAL MIND - An Investigation of Drugs and the Higher Consciousness by Dr. Andrew Weil, 1985.
Human beings are born with a drive to experiment with ways of changing
consciousness...The desire to alter consciousness periodically is an
innate,
normal drive analogous to hunger or the sexual drive...
The root of the drug problem is the failure of our culture to provide
for
a basic human need. Once we recognize the importance and value of
other states of consciousness, we can begin to teach people,
particularly
the young, how to satisfy their needs without drugs. The chief
advantage
of drugs is that they are quick and effective, producing desired
results
without requiring effort. Their chief disadvantage is that they
fail
us over time; used regularly and frequently, they do not maintain the
experiences
sought and, instead, limit our options and freedom...
Altered states of consciousness...appear to be the ways to more
effective
and fuller use of the nervous system, to development of creative and
intellectual
faculties, and to attainment of certain kinds of thought that have been
deemed exalted by all who have experienced them...(They) may even be a
key factor in the present evolution of the human nervous system...To
try
to thwart (their) expression in individuals and society might be
psychologically
crippling for people and evolutionarily suicidal for the species.
Excerpt from book FOOD OF THE GODS by Terence McKenna, 1992.
The suppression of the natural human fascination with altered states of consciousness and the present perilous situation of all life on earth are intimately and causally connected. When we suppress access to shamanic ecstasy, we close off the refreshing waters of emotion that flow from having a deeply bonded, almost symbiotic relationship to the earth. As a consequence, the maladaptive social styles that encourage overpopulation, resource mismanagement, and environmental toxification develop and maintain themselves.
The Lycaeum:
Promoting altered states of consciousness.
Timothy Leary
is dead but his official home page lives on and he's still
communicating
anti-authoritarian wise and witdom!
Robert
Anton Wilson home page Leary's good friend and another famous
anarchist student of consciousness is still with us and challenging our
lazy minds...
Terence
McKenna ontological foundations of Shamanism, Ethnopharmacology of
spiritual transformation, social criticism, new theories of the fractal
dynamics of time.
Copyright 1998 by Carol Moore. Permission to reprint freely granted, provided the article is reprinted in full and that any reprint is accompanied by this copyright statement and the URL http://www.carolmoore.net.
Photo by Ian Goddard, July 4, 1999