1 (edited by tenetnosce 2006-04-13 00:32:43)

Topic: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

OK I'm going to keep this one to a mini-rant, cause I'm starting to get tired of my own ranting.  Not to worry though, Karen says it's just a symptom of ascension.  Funny. . I didn't know ascension was a disease.

I'm just wondering where all these spiritual authors get off saying that smoking pot interferes with spiritual growth.  The trigger in this particular case is from Stuart Wilde's "The End Run"

Stuie wrote:

Let’s talk about escape from the Sphere. . .

. . .If you smoke pot you’ve got no chance. It makes you docile and it tears your etheric; but its worse feature is that it gradually poisons your brain making you paranoid. You’ll lack the courage and impetus to run.

Excuse me?  It "makes me" what?  It doesn't make me anything.  I'm using it.  It's not using me.  IT'S A PLANT!  It "tears my etheric"?  What the hell does that mean?  My "etheric" is an energy body. Energy can't be torn.  Hello?  It makes me paranoid?  Sorry, bud, no paranoia here.  It makes me docile?  Do I sound docile to you?

I'm not saying that I think it's beneficial to be a "pothead", or anything like that.  I'm just saying that otherwise free spiritual thinkers all of a sudden get so smugly fundamentalistic when it comes to this kind of thing.  Same goes for meat eating, alcohol, tobacco, or any other "spiritual no-no". 

Pardon me, but I can be staggering down the street drunk beyond all recognition and be negatively greeted by some etheric vampire and STILL be aware of what is going on and STILL deal with the situation appropriately.  Sure, the negs may think that I look like an easy target, but they are in for a surprise.  Trust me, this has happened more than once.

People get so hoity-toity about this kind of crap.  I'm sorry. . but let's talk for a moment about what sitting in front of a computer monitor for hours at a time does to your etheric.  Or how bout when drinking too much chamomile tea makes you overly-docile?  Or how bout the amount of poisonous methane gas that everybody has to inhale when within a 10-foot radius of a staunch raw-foods eater?

Um hello?  Spirituality has to do with this thing called your "spirit".  The body is secondary.  Not even secondary, more like sixth or seventh down the line.

"Hi! I'm here for the ascension party!"

"Oh yes.  Good to see you.  Your works are well admired all across the Universe.  Come on. . wait a minute. . I see here you smoked a doobie back in '98.  Sorry, bud you'll have to stay in 3D for another 75,000 years."

"But. . it was just a joint!"

"Hey man, I don't make the rules.  Sorry you're going to have to leave now before you contaminate any of the other candidates."

That's funny because, you know, I thought I created my own reality. . .

Gimme a friggin break. . .

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.

2 (edited by Sowelu 2006-04-12 23:17:34)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

Hear hear! big_smile

There are a great many beliefs in the mass consciousness around the human body's "frailty", mankind's ineptitude, our "mere" and "small" power to determine our lives for ourselves... I guess it makes sense to those who believe in the less-ness of the human form to also cling tightly to the idea that everything else that makes us who we are is also barely hanging onto a tentative thread of integrity, vitality or inherent power.

My own sense of body and spirit is that it is by far more robust, self-healing and tenacious than anything else we find in nature. What's fragile, it seems, is the human mind. You know... the one that takes on these false beliefs and fervently lives by - or should I say fears - them as truth.

Much of the "bad behavior", "bad substance", "bad person" stuff must have its roots in religion and of course the supplanted predator mind, it seems to me. As I read through your post what popped in is that all of what you objected to in it seems to stem from - archetypally, symbolically, perhaps - the insidious and covert fingers of "original sin" energies. It grabs even the most free thinkers of the population, sadly.

It has simply never been about punishment/reward, right/wrong, good/bad... but it's a tough nut to crack for most human minds (and hyperdimensional ones, I'd wager), it seems. Do/go/try what/where you're drawn, there is nothing outside a divine life. That... is... the... point.

You will naturally move away from what's not for you and stick with what is, provided - and it's a huge proviso, apparently - you face life with the awareness that it's yours. You're here exploring. You have the inherent right and power to make choices, change your mind, detour, accelerate or whatever you deem appropriate for you.

Sometimes it helps to heed the words of one who has been where you're just embarking. But in this world... more and more I tend to feel you're better off gathering your own experiences and determining what's what for yourself. There are so many sticky beliefs and false causes for caution in so many... we're not that frail, folks. We're not that dumb, either. If we allow ourselves, we know what we know for ourselves, and we often choose it without realizing it. Support your choices.

Sovereign be, tenetnosce!

(huh... would you look at that? Wasn't planning my own rant, honest! LOL!)

"The most important decision you have to make is whether you live in a hostile or friendly universe."
~ Albert Einstein

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. ~Marcel Proust

The evolution of humanity is an evolution of the heart. The path is through the heart.

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

I agree with both of you. We don't need to be "vetted" by some higher spiritual authorities about the substance we use, whether chocolate, coffee, doobies, or whatever, because spirituality works "out" from the inner integrity of a person and their explorations. The scare tactic not only does not work, but it turns people off from the essence of spiritual practices. In my experience, it's the spiritually advanced who are more likely at least to have tried some sort of substance. We are to "try the spirits." Those who build their practice, whatever it is, upon what they feel should not be done, are using a destructive approach. Nothing can ever be built with the constant "tearing down" approach.

I too have had empowering experiences using some of the "bad" substances. I have noticed, however, that if I am expecting the substance itself to lead me to insight or revelation, it doesn't work. But if I have had no expectation, and was headed into a creative or meditative high already, the substance enhanced it. If I've felt pressure to partake from without, then that too has had bad, or mixed, results. It's all going on in oneself. How can others really say?

4 (edited by PleiadianHealer 2006-04-13 00:40:48)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

You have to remember that Stuart's talking about your etheric body being damaged by pot.   And until you can "see" this etheric body you can't say either way, if it does you good or not.    When and if you raise yourself to be able to see this etheric body, THEN you'll be able to decide from a more informed point-of-view.

I know plenty of people that disagree with Stu, not on just this subject but a few other ones of his too, and all those people are not taking into account that they do not see this etheric body.

Ok, I'm done.   I got this strange feeling that everything I just said is going to be completely ignored.   

If you want to smoke pot, smoke it!    Have fun, enjoy life... get high and laugh.... (you see I made you feel better already!).

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

Maybe it's not the marijuana then, but 3/4 of the heavier drug users I know are consistently more vulnerable to functioning as vectors of attack than others. It's as though some part of their being has been split off or displaced and left room for "something else" to share the wheel. Makes them less able to control their reactions, more cranky, more manipulable. Yes, a damaged or weakened etheric would account for that. It takes physical, emotional, or psychological trauma for non-heavy drug users to end up similarly, from what I've seen. But how is chemical trauma any different... Could be too much of the harder stuff like acid rather than pot that does it....who knows.

The other 1/4 handle the drugs fine, and they seem to have had strong souls to begin with, so great for them. So if you are in that 25% (or whatever the percentage it may be) then congratulations. Myself, I experienced the worst nausea and weeks of irrational depression and suicidal thoughts following what would have made anyone else just pleasantly buzzed, so the incompatibility has forced me to stay away. Sitting in front of the computer has weakened my etheric slightly, but not tore gashes in it allowing negs to worm their way to my core.

Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.

6 (edited by tenetnosce 2006-04-13 00:28:28)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

PleiadianHealer wrote:

You have to remember that Stuart's talking about your etheric body being damaged by pot.   And until you can "see" this etheric body you can't say either way, if it does you good or not.    When and if you raise yourself to be able to see this etheric body, THEN you'll be able to decide from a more informed point-of-view.

I think you make a good point, and I'm certainly not going to ignore it. smile

My response is, actually, yes, I can see etheric bodies, but I don't practice much because I haven't found it to be a particulary useful skill.

Secondly, whether or not I can see my etheric body, I can feel my etheric body.  I know what people are referring to.  I can feel it all the time.  Yes, drugs change it's form.  Yes, you can become more vulnerable to negs.  But that is all nullified by awareness

Oops!  My energy feels off!  Why don't I take a moment to ground and clear myself. 

I know that I'm gonna get a little tipsy tonight, so I am going to be extra vigilant for negative greetings and I am going to watch my words carefully. 

Drunkeness can be a meditation, just like any other experience.

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.

7 (edited by tenetnosce 2006-04-13 01:08:59)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

montalk wrote:

Maybe it's not the marijuana then, but 3/4 of the heavier drug users I know are consistently more vulnerable to functioning as vectors of attack than others. It's as though some part of their being has been split off or displaced and left room for "something else" to share the wheel. Makes them less able to control their reactions, more cranky, more manipulable. Yes, a damaged or weakened etheric would account for that. It takes physical, emotional, or psychological trauma for non-heavy drug users to end up similarly, from what I've seen. But how is chemical trauma any different... Could be too much of the harder stuff like acid rather than pot that does it....who knows.

I think that your ideas represent a much more balanced approach to the matter.  You are offering actual facts, not just expecting me to believe in your supernatural powers that I (supposedly) don't have.

I know first-hand what can happen when people open themselves up to negs with drug use.  One of my closest friends, who happened to also be living with me at the time, totally threw himself wide open using crythal meth and there was some nasty, nasty stuff coming through.  At certain times he was completely possessed by dark energies.  Of course the docs labeled him schizophrenic.

As well, I got to benefit from an advanced course in psychic defense and learned a whole lot about how to deal with negative greetings.  And I learned a massive, massive, lesson about overcoming fear.

I'm not saying it's a great thing.  I'm not saying its for everybody.  I'm not even saying that true spiritual growth wouldn't generally result in less drug use.

It's just these blanket statements that get me going.

I'm not the biggest proponent of AA, but I really think they've got something going for them there.  And, it works.  Don't focus on the drinking.  Don't try to stop.  Focus instead on your spirituality and the drinking will take care of itself.

True change happens from the inside out.

Should most people smoke pot?  Probably not the best idea for most. But the reason a Master doesn't smoke a joint is because it is pointless to them, not because it is bad.  I'm sure they could puff away all night and not be affected in the least. . .

I know a man who is also a Shaolin.  He drinks coffee like it's water and smokes cigarettes like there's no tomorrow.  Perhaps not the best choice for his body, but I don't think he is aiming for longevity, and it doesn't stop him from seeing auras in the least.  It doesn't stop him from being a spiritual man.

That's all I'm trying to say. .

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

Hi tenetnosce,

My feeling is that if you are sensitive enough to see, feel, or be aware of the health of the etheric body and can manage it on your own, that's pretty neat and amazing to me.   So if you're sure that really in a position of control like that, do what you like! 

Personally, I'm not quite there myself, and my own gut instinct is that I need to stay away from pot and certain other drugs for now.   And if other people who also are not able to see the etheric or whatever-other bodies may be involved ask whether they should smoke pot, I would think unless they really feel a need to do it for some reason, chances are they're better off without it.  But that's just based on practical considerations: my own research indicates that there IS such a thing as an etheric and it CAN be damaged.   So why chance it?     

This is NOT to say it's "unspiritual" or any of that nonsense.   Anyone who presumes to cast judgement on someone ELSE'S spiritual progress is probably pretty far off the path themselves!  Spirituality is about your relationship to the divine ... period.  No one else's business.

Whether or not to smoke pot is a practical and physical decision.  The only potential spiritual problem I can see with it is that if you know or have good reason to believe that you are damaging yourself and do it anyway, well maybe that's no good.  But again, that's between you and the divine, and not for anyone else on Earth to comment on.

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

morningsun76 wrote:

My feeling is that if you are sensitive enough to see, feel, or be aware of the health of the etheric body and can manage it on your own, that's pretty neat and amazing to me.   So if you're sure that really in a position of control like that, do what you like! 

Personally, I'm not quite there myself, and my own gut instinct is that I need to stay away from pot and certain other drugs for now.

By all means, follow your instincts, but I will challenge you on the idea that you are "not quite there".  You can definitely sense your own etheric body, just as easily as you sense your own emotion or thought.  You are just not aware that you are doing so all the time.

I don't really see it as a special talent.  Some people can develop it more than others.  In my experiences, I have had a handful of occasions where I can feel it much stronger and clearer than I usually can.  But the thought that accompanies the feeling is always something like "Oh that's right.  That's what this is."

Then I can carry my mental understanding with me into every day normal life.  Then whenever I feel off, I know that if I place my attention on my feet it will ground my energy, even if I'm not clearly sensing it in the current moment.

You know a lot more than you know you know.

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.

10 (edited by Risen 2006-04-13 02:56:53)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

tenetnosce wrote:

"Oh yes.  Good to see you.  Your works are well admired all across the Universe.  Come on. . wait a minute. . I see here you smoked a doobie back in '98.  Sorry, bud you'll have to stay in 3D for another 75,000 years."

Amen brother.  Well just look at the logic there and even a blind person could realize its just because that crap is being pushed as yet another religion.  Same back-asswards dogma, different day.  Their logic has all the consistency and solidity of jello, the trademark of any religion.

It ain't the damn pot.  It's when a fool smokes it who doesn't have their **** together.

montalk wrote:

Maybe it's not the marijuana then, but 3/4 of the heavier drug users I know are consistently more vulnerable to functioning as vectors of attack than others. It's as though some part of their being has been split off or displaced and left room for "something else" to share the wheel. Makes them less able to control their reactions, more cranky, more manipulable. Yes, a damaged or weakened etheric would account for that. It takes physical, emotional, or psychological trauma for non-heavy drug users to end up similarly, from what I've seen. But how is chemical trauma any different... Could be too much of the harder stuff like acid rather than pot that does it....who knows.

My belief is that they are vulnerable to begin with.  Any substance like pot/mushrooms opens you up to things you don't normally perceive.  I was once told, the first time I tried LSD, that it's simply going to amplify whatever I'm feeling to begin with.  So thats a perfect example here, can be used with any "drug" really.  If someone is already vulnerable to these sorts of things, of course it'll just amplify that tendency when you do the drug.

Just like some little chicky who goes to a bar, gets sloshed and gets date-raped.  Do I feel sorry for her?  Yeah, sorta.  But don't blame it on the liquor.  If she ever had a drink before, she knew what the possibilities and consequences were.  And if she's ever met a person before, she knows what the possibilities are there too.  So I say either she's a complete fool for putting herself in that position in the first place, or deep down she really wanted to be victimized...

And I don't care what the damn psychologists say.  Thats the way it is.

It ain't the pot.  It ain't the liquor.  It ain't the crack.  ITS YOU.

PS: Montalk that wasnt to debate you.  I'm actually agreeing with you, just taking it a step further.  Those people are more vulnerable on the drugs, as you said.  But it isnt the drugs, is the main point I'm making.

PPS:  The fact that they are heavy drug users indicates to me a huge, gaping hole in their etheric to begin with ;-)

This is no time for the righteous
Only the wicked survive
Bake up a batch of the Yellow Cake
Bake up a batch of the lies
- - - - -[ Yellow Cake - Ministry - Rio Grande Blood (2006)

11

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

I've seen functional crackheads....heroin addicts.....It's not about the drug....

It's about how much heart you've got.

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

wonderful insights as always everyone smile

Montalk wrote:

Maybe it's not the marijuana then, but 3/4 of the heavier drug users I know are consistently more vulnerable to functioning as vectors of attack than others. It's as though some part of their being has been split off or displaced and left room for "something else" to share the wheel. Makes them less able to control their reactions, more cranky, more manipulable. .

Could you explain what you mean by a 'vector' of attack in this context please. Do you mean that by being less in touch with themselves at that moment, another entity is able to manipulate them into acting in some way that causes a disruption in the energy of the room and has a negative impact on other people present.

The reason i ask, is having been a heavy pot smoker for the last few years i have become increasingly what could be termed as 'paranoid' around others when i smoke. I use the term paranoid with a pinch of bud as it feels more like some higher power somehow shifts the conversation very subtlely to point out my insecurity's. I know that i should stop smoking for a while etc, but what i have been trying to work out is exactly what could be happening metephysicaly. Are my insecurity's going through somesort of mirrored amplicifation(sic) or is there other forces at work.

Thanks for any ideas.

The greatest catalyst to change comes from accepting thyself

13 (edited by oceanchild 2006-04-13 06:55:30)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

i used to smoke pot, now i don't - haven't for over 2 years ...

for me - i stopped 'cause i was doing it too much (smoking a few joints a day) and by the end of it, it had become a serious addiction ... i think i smoked for like 5 years like that, smoking every day, until it got to a point where i felt i really had to stop.

at this point, i get the feeling the that pot ruins the sensitivity of the brain. i don't know any real 'scientific' evidence that would support this - but it's my own feeling. and nevermind the etheric body - what about our physical body? smoke ruins your lungs, period. and your lungs ability to bring oxygen into your blood stream is crucial. why mess with that ?Tenetnosce - for someone who talks about truth as being truth - and to ignore this simple fact - well, what do you say ? you can say anything you like, maybe, "well i've thought about it, but nevermind, i'll ignore it", or "so what?, what i get out of pot is worth the price my lungs have to pay", or "there's no scientific knowledge of pot-smoked being hazardous to the lungs",

EDIT: "or the body is secondary, or further down the line - and spirituality has to do with spirit" ... say what ? 

... sorry, i don't mean to be putting words in your mouth - as in the case with the first few quotes i said myself, or even singling you out - but since you started this thread - obviously you feel uncomfortable with people saying that pot smoking is bad 'cause you smoke pot yourself - right ? well i think this is at least a healthy exploration ... and it's interesting reading people's responses ... to me, anyone who can justify smoking anything has no clarity - anyone who uses drugs for 'spiritual' purposes is really confused ... it's so funny, and so sad at the same time.

but hey - why take my word? i'm just some anonymous character whose words you're reading from behind your monitor ...

a question i posed to myself at some point was - why do i smoke pot in the first place ? and can i live, can i be WHOLE, without pot ? and i feel i've answered those questions without deceiving myself.

smoke all the pot you want, or ast little as you want - it's not doing you any good. that's a simple fact - and not 'cause i or anyone else says/said so. i'm not here to judge people. just last night i was with some friends who were smoking. they offered me, even though they know my position and feeling on pot smoking, and i politely refused - and we had a good time together.

... checking out the mirror of relationship ...

14 (edited by Barefoot Doc 2006-04-13 07:20:03)

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

I think too many have just read from some Guru that pot does damages a persons aura and leaves them vulnerable to outside entities and just repeat the meme without any true knowledge. Of course sometimes that may well be case but as others have said its all about the person not the drug.
When i get drunk i get funny, others get violent, that violence was already in the person the alcohol did not create it. Maybe the demons are already inside us so you wont escape them by not smoking pot.
I have noticed  that many of the people who warn against pot are into channeling or major false beliefs and such which IMO is potentially far more dangerous than pot, you can still be in control when you are stoned.
When you smoke pot you are still you, its where you go and what you do with the experience which is fundamental.

Not smoked it for a few years now but i can say i have not been possesed and my aura feels strong.

Its not like we are fractions of the whole but rather versions of the whole.

Re: Pot Smoking and Other Spiritual Hazards

oceanchild wrote:

Tenetnosce - for someone who talks about truth as being truth - and to ignore this simple fact - well, what do you say ?

I say you are absolutely correct.  I'm not advocating pot use.  I'm not even making a declaration that I use it.  All I'm saying is that making blanket statements like the ones quotes in the original post by Stuart Wilde, are misleading and irresponsible, and hardly the views of a self-proclaimed free-thinker in my opinion.  Especially one who is an author, and who many people look to for guidance on their spiritual path.  Go back and read my words.  I never said that smoking pot was a good thing.  Neither did I say it was a bad thing.  And I certainly never implied that there aren't health concerns that can be associated with its use.

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.