This afternoon i am taking my son [20 years old] to the doctor. He quit marijuana [again] 3 weeks ago because after ~ 6 years of smoking and observing a few friends go down in the same way, he was [ and still is ] having paranoia, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. He knows it's the pot doing this to his brain. The increased incidence of these crises among MJ smokers compared to non is medically well documented now and indisputable by hippies. This is my own crises close to home right now but i would write the following regardless due to my own knowledge and experience.
I think windrunner's warnings about the damage to the astral body are important for the spiritual aspirant to consider. [not to mention the damage to the physical brain too.] Khatru, you cannot 'wear out' [badly damage] the asral body and rise any higher in consciousness than the astral plane, whether in life or in death. That bears repeating in capital letters because the reality is worse than the warning. The physical, astral, mental and etheric bodies are vessels for the soul's experience in the material planes. These 4 lower bodies are supposed to be vessels in which the soul unites with the individual spiritual consciousness and gives expression to that Self in the material planes.
If these finer bodies become porous and breached by drug use and or other behavior they cannot be a fitting vessel for the higher spiritual Self. In their vulnerability they can only be vessels for the comparative maelstrom of 'human' consciousness and the lower astral entities. Most people cannot discern the difference between spirit and astral because in spite of their drug taking [and more truly partly because of it] they have not experienced spiritual consciousness in this life. Most people have only experienced the mundane human consciousness only [which is almost totally astral and lower mental] and so any drug induced extreme altered state is automatically assumed to be "spiritual". It is also assumed to lead to spiritual 'growth'.
More realistically they have experienced a gross imbalance of brain chemistry warping chemicals, halucinations which include perceptions of the astral planes only and an emotional ride. This ride always ends, and when resulting in damage to the finer bodies, always makes the goal and possibility of real spiritual consciousness that much more difficult. This is my firm view after trial and error.
In the past i have used a lot of different drugs. eg. Marijuana x years, "magic" mushrooms 3x, LSD 4x, speed occasionally, cocaine occasionally, tobacco x years and alchohol x years. I know all i need to know about halucinogens, psychadelics and other central nervous system stimulants and depressants. Similar claims to 'aya' have been made for some of these drugs at one time or another but the general limitations described above apply to them all... including varying degrees of psychosis.
As most people know, addictive behavior can also begin from the usually deplorable downer effects after the drug has worn off. You have to ride it out ,sometimes for days or more, or use the drug again to quench the 'heeby jeebies' which inevitably appear when the brain is trying to restore the natural chemical balance and detoxify.
Fortunately for me i am healed from the effects of drugs because i stopped taking them years ago when i found the first glimmer of a spiritual Self. Over time i allowed that spirit to penetrate my subtle bodies and to melt my wounds with a fervent heat. I eventually felt it flow into my brain and physical body like fire. It has to be experienced to know the difference between Spirit and a psychadelic high. There is absolutely no comparison. One heals, the other wounds.
I agree that some people will always feel they need a chemical to prove to themselves that other levels of reality exist beyond the physical. And psychadelics can do that. But why poison yourself like that and damage the finer bodies when the spiritual circuitry exists right within you to know yourself as God? Why accept toxic levels of chemicals from the false initiators when the divine Self waits to initiate your soul with spiritual fire by the only lawful and effective means? Why take 'heaven' by force with psychadelics when the path of surrender [to God], sacrifice [of the lower self] and service is the eternal way?
Societies that use these drugs, no matter how long standing the practice, are living in the astral psychic realms and remain enthralled with forces that are not spiritual. They are not preparing the 'temple' for the descent of spirit which would teach them all things. They are not extinguishing ego consciousness at all because that ego springs from recalcitrant ingrained energy patterns that distort the 4 lower bodies. These subconscious distortions can only be transmuted by spiritual fire and not by psychic perception gained from synthetic or plant based psychadelics. These drugs, if not forsaken, can destroy even the opportunity of permanent spiritual attainment.
Jesus said : "You cannot pour new [spiritual] wine into old wineskins."
The wine is the spiritual light of the higher Self and the wineskins are the finer bodies described earlier. So the 'wineskins' must be healed by the inner spirit in order to contain a much greater Spiritual consciousness. That attainment of spiritual Selfhood comes through soul surrender to the true path. That path does not include the latest fashionable psycho- active drug whether or not it's been used for ages. Cultural practices are not neccesarilly beneficial by virtue of their age.
There is no immortality except the soul win that immortality by purifying itself through conscious contact with the spiritual Self. [which is immortal]. The soul can destroy it's opportunity for immortality and self destruct without ascending or it can fulfill it's reason for being in the material planes. That is the sobering truth. Those are the 2 ways our souls can go... ultimate life or ultimate death. Contrary to some new age material, all paths do not lead to the same destination. Only all SPIRITUAL PATHS do.
Lastly, there are no external portals into spiritual consciousness. The only window or access point to spirit is the purified mirror of soul consciousness WITHIN. When healed that mirror will reflect the beauty of the Christ consciousness into the material planes. There are no external portals to higher consciousness and Stuie needs a good shake and a reality check.
