2: Freedom of Consciousness in Western Culture. The "drug war" and "Drug Education".

Why are we allowed to watch TV with, literally, 24 hour "programming", while there This is probably my most important topic... Which is why it's like 50 pages long! but it's worth the read if this is what you're into!

2: Freedom of Consciousness in Western Culture. The "drug war" and "Drug Education".

Why are we allowed to watch TV with, literally, 24 hour "programming", while there is proven harm from watching excess television? Why is gambling, a drug that has destroyed families and relationships still legal? Why is the media allowed to flush the airwaves with useless advertising in order to bring the masses to shopping centers filled with more advertising? And of course, Alcohol and tobacco. Why on Earth are Alcohol and tobacco, drugs that destroy your mouth, eyes, throat, lungs, stomach, liver, kidneys, immune system, brain(the list goes on), destroys relationships, careers and families, AND THAT IS ALL INFORMATION FROM THE PACKAGING, still legal? All of these are altered states of consciousness, they are harming us and in some cases we have no choice to be in this altered state or not.

So why is it so important that we get into altered states? Perhaps its an evolutionary hangup from the 1000s of years of psychoactive plant/fungi use which suddenly stopped? Perhaps the reason we have withdrawals after stopping a habit/addiction is that our minds NEED some form of altered state of consciousness? Regardless of why the modern human brain/mind is so eager to get high, we need to accept that some people want to embrace this feeling by taking drugs and entering these altered states.

Should people who seek these altered states be allowed to choose other forms of consciousness altering "drugs" so that our minds don't get destroyed by the media, tobacco, alcohol, coffee, sugar and common street drugs? "But wait, the media told us that "drugs are bad" so maybe I should only take the legal drugs...?" We need to free our minds of this false "truth" and start anew. We have been getting high via psychoactive plants/fungi for 1000s of years and now I think it's time the intelligent people in Western Culture, who wish to get high from something other than media, should be free to do so and have the rights in place protecting them, just as has been done with feminism and the gay/lesbian movement.(ct) It's time for all of us to "Come out of the greenhouse" and fight for the "Freedom Of Consciousness"!

African tribes, Australian Aborigines, Native Indians in the Americas, Amazonian Shamans, the list goes on, for 1000s of years have used psychoactive plants/fungi for pleasure, spiritual guidance, information about healing and many other things one might need to learn when living in a jungle, rainforest, desert et cetra. Even rock art in Pech Merle, France, from 17,000-35,000 years old shows evidence that the images created were done so under the influence of some form of psychoactive plant/fungi, most likely Psilocybin containing mushrooms.
There is evidence which proves psilocybin containing mushrooms have been in the modern human's diet for well over 20,000 years. The Shaman in the Amazon Rainforest have been taking Ayahuasca for 100s of years(that we know of) for spiritual and healing purposes. The Aborigines in Australia have 50,000 years of "dreamtime" art history which is clearly visions from a psychoactive plant/fungi experience, seeing as cows(being the carriers of the most common Psilocybin containing mushrooms) were introduced to Australia in the late 1700s when the settlers brought them, my guess would be that they were eating Amanita Muscaria(Red and white specked mushroom), or Psilocibe Subaeruginosa, which is very abundant in pine forests in Australia(During the right season). The Bwiti tribe in Africa drink a brew, from a root bark, called "Iboga" (which is very similar to Ayahuasca's effects), which they use for spiritual and healing purposes and have done so for 100s of years(that we know of).

If you and your tribe found a mushroom or made a brew from a plant mixture and it had a negative short term impact on your culture, would you add them to your diet? If they had long term impacts on your health and physical body would you continue to add them to your diet? Of course not! You would have to be pretty stupid! So for 1000s of years natives have been taking psychoactive plants and fungi for several different reasons, the major reason is to heal each other, eventually build a society based around these plants/fungi, then passing it all down to their children and their children's children and so forth until the present date... Why? Because it is good for them! Spiritual, religious, sexual and emotional needs are all met by adding the mentioned psychoactive plants/fungi into their cultures.
I think this is a pretty good standard to look up to seeing as Western Culture is generally depressed and very disconnected.
Furthermore, (ct) people like the FDA(Food and Drug Administration USA) take about 10 years to develop and approve a drug and even then, they are still unsure and sometimes have to recall. These have numerous side effects from drug to drug which will greatly affect us as we get older in a lot of cases. Also, certain drugs which are approved for a specific reason are prescribed to people, by their doctors, for reasons unapproved by the FDA. For example, Asprin can be recommended by doctors for people with a risk of heart attack or to slow the growth of blood vessels in possible stroke victims(Thins your blood). We are letting the FDA feed us these random, unnatural drugs, that they aren't even sure will work! Why can't we take a page from a shaman's "book" and try something new to Western Culture but ancient to the natives who have been using psychoactive plants/fungi for 1000s of years.

So I ask you this, on one hand we have 1000s of years of plant/fungi use and on the other hand, decades of Western Medicine and Pharmacology, which would you prefer in Western Culture? Oh wait, it doesn't matter anyway because we have laws preventing us from taking these substances... as the late Owen Hart used to say "Enough is Enough and it's time for a change!"

Which brings me to my next subject on the matter... and one that is responsible for the masses of drug addictions and deaths every year. I'm talking, of course, about the "Drug War". This war has been affecting the Western Culture since psychoactive plants/fungi became illegal to use and study in the 70s(perhaps even much earlier when agriculture began and alcohol took over the mushrooms!). And what a joke of a reason to make it illegal! (Look up MK ULTRA about the well documented CIA scandal).
In the mid 60s to early 70s, people from the Cia were (and yes I know this seems absurd) looking for a substance that could help them further their studies on "Mind Control"(or Mind Kontrol, hence MK-Ultra). Several experiments were done, (you can read a bit on this on the wiki page), where people were given LSD and Psilocybin containing mushrooms, random people in society and members of the Cia(In most cases without their knowledge or consent!). A few people died, including a doctor, from reasons untold. (More than likely from either heart attacks from not being aware of what was to come after ingesting strong hallucinogens or by acting crazy and running into on coming traffic or something like that). There is plenty of evidence to show that, even in excessive amounts(which is generally how much you take when you want to "enter the spirit realm") aren't actually bad for you and in fact can be good for you! As well as, the amount that it would take to kill you(in psilocybin containing mushroom's case at least) is more than you can fit into your stomach. So when a person from the Cia had a "bad trip", the studies were stopped and psychoactive plants/fungi became illegal to use/study in Majority of Westernized culture. Pathetic. So because a bunch of "Intelligent" people made a mistake(or several it seems), we get to be the ones who suffer from it?
In the 60s and early 70s, while these substances were legal to use personally, we had a burst of art, people started questioning authority and war and our minds were digesting something that has been kept away from us since we last used them in our daily/weekly diet in the bush and had "reopened" a part of our minds that we hadn't used for 100s/1000s of years! Then as fast as it came back it was taken away. Heroin, Speed, Crystal Meth, XTC, all street drugs, were further pushed into society and changed us, they forced us to take these illegal street drugs which then lead to 100s of 1000s of people becoming addicted! This was the intention of the government I believe. Get us high on psychoactive plants/fungi then when we become used to them, take it away from us in order to get us into these dangerous addictions so they could start the "drug war" and benefit from our misfortune.
You would be disgusted at the amount of money rehab clinics make, the amount of funding the Government gives to these anti-drug committees and for what? To keep us in the mind set that we are the bad ones for wanting to be in altered states after THEY re-introduced an amazing experience like "entering the spirit realm"? BAD!! This is not the way to go about things!! If people are interested in Altered states of consciousness, especially after teasing us for 10 years with LSD and psilocybin, and if there is proof that in moderation these plants/fungi can be GOOD for us, then why force us to use such destructive drugs like heroin, speed, meth et cetra, when we could be going for the natural alternative and use plants/fungi to achieve altered states of consciousness? I know of one simple answer... They don't want people to THINK!
We need proper education! Which brings me to my next argument...

(ct)A big part of the "drug war" being in place relies on the youth and the way they are taught about drugs. When you educate kids early, they will live their life believing what their teachers and parents have taught them. But the problem here is that we are teaching them is the wrong information about these drugs. I will tell you the way my mind reacted when I first tried Marijuana. The same story also applies to an old friend of mine who had his first marijuana experience behind the classroom during school.
When I was 16 I had a bad breakup and, despite my past hatred for substance abuse, I decided to go along with a work mate to meet some other mates in his garage to smoke some Marijuana. The bong went around 3 times before I really started to feel any effects from it but when I felt it I felt amazing! I was laughing uncontrollably and I couldn't stop smiling and laughing at everyone's normal stories. So from that day onward I started smoking marijuana. After several weeks I had a thought... "If they taught me that Marijuana, speed, cocaine, heroin et cetra, are "bad" for you, and smoking this weed makes me feel very good, then maybe the other drugs also make you feel good?" This is a very destructive thought and has lead to so many people becoming addicted to common street drugs. And also why they coined the term, "Marijuana is a gateway drug". It's fucking ridiculous! They educate us into believing that all these drugs are so bad for us, then tell us "Marijuana is a gateway drug".... Anyone who has any interest in altered states of consciousness is going to take this information and say "Let's experiment!"... Which is exactly what I had done. And if it weren't for me being a bit more strong minded and intelligent than some people, I would have gone the wrong way and been heavy into drugs rather than be here typing to you on how we can educate our youth properly so that people don't have to experiment with dangerous drugs, that the government advertises, in order to achieve our "mental goals".
Now lets try our own experiment. Tomorrow when you go to work or do what ever it is you do, I want you to ask as many people as you want/can a couple of questions. Random people. You need to ask them this; 1: Do you know what Heroin, cocaine, speed and XTC are? - 2: Do you know what Psilocybin, Ayahuasca, Iboga, Mescaline are? My bet is that the general answers will be 1: yes and 2: no. "What on Earth are you going on about Eerf?" I'll tell you! If I'm 16 and, for whatever reason, want to experiment with drugs, which drugs do you think I'm going to try? Heroin, cocaine, speed, xtc of course!(Actually I've never done heroin) Why? Because they are highly advertised by the government through schools at about the age of 13-14(Coincidentally the age kids in certain become initiated in most tribal cultures) anti-drug seminars, pamphlets, you name it! They all advertise Heroin, cocaine, speed and XTC. These will be the first drugs people will try. And gee, what a great place to start....
Here is what I suggest.(ct). First and most importantly we need to change our whole drug education system. It needs to inform about the effects/affects the drugs will have on you, mentally and physically, and the negative as well as the positive aspects should be discussed. The reason I suggest this is, people will base their "experimentation period" on not knowing what its effects will be. So if we tell them, then they can decide what to use, if that is the choice they are making. We should also have proper documentation available at all schools and libraries about all these effects/affects of said drugs. As the late Terence McKenna once said, "The first place you should go when taking a new drug is the library". Amen!
Also, we need to educate kids about ALL drugs and plant/fungi and not make such a fuss about a select few, that will be the first they choose to take! Make a database which is easy to read, and easy to distribute as well as creating a proper class about education of drugs and their effects/affects to your mind, body and relationships. If someone read that Heroin will "flood me with warmth, relief, even a pleasurable rush sometimes. I might try to include the overall feeling of anticipation and excitement"-(opiated.wordpress.com), as well as how after only a few days of using it, your new regenerated cells have receptors, then more and more receptors every regeneration until there are so many that, if you had deprived your body of heroin, the cells would not have enough to feed on,(even if you started a new, healthy diet wouldn't help immediately, but is needed), they would die resulting in the deteriorating of the body, like you see with heroin addicts in media and hear about in class.
Stop showing us images or videos of some kid in agony in the corner of a room because he had too much speed and he feels like shit.... Tell us why that happened, how much did he take? tell us what will happen after. Most people feel like this during their first drug experience because they aren't sure what to expect. It's mostly anxiety you feel when you're in the unknown. It's like waiting outside the principle's office when you know you're in trouble, you don't know what will happen next and you're scared of it and your bodies reacts based on these feelings. Most people when experimenting with drugs DON'T know what to expect next, SO EDUCATE THEM ABOUT IT!!!!!! (ct)
To me it is simple. Change the way you teach our youth about drugs, and the experiments will be more knowledge based. They won't so much be experimenting with what it will do, but how they can use it to benefit them mentally, medically or whatever it is they wish to gain from taking drugs. Who knows, most people might not even bother but if they do they will be educated to do so in moderation. There are plenty of people out there who can use Heroin on a daily basis and keep a job, a family with a dog and a cat, hold a mortgaged et cetra, maintain a normal life while being on even a very destructive drug. Using it in moderation of course.
But herein lies a problem... The drugs aren't even legal to use so; 1, you have to obtain said drug illegally and 2, you don't know who is making it and its purity.

The last point I'll be making about this issue is the legalization of psychoactive plants/fungi, and even current street drugs for personal medicinal, spiritual use and for study purposes. Just like the confusion and feeling of chaos a lot of people felt when females could work and vote, and when the gay and lesbian movement succeeded, people will feel the same about this subject once it succeeds.
There is only one real way to fix this "drug war" issue. And as drastic as this sounds, I have some points to make which would justify these actions... What I'm talking about is legalizing the current street drugs people are using regularly. You legalize it, add a MASSIVE tax, create clinics where a safe environment with nurses is available and have professionally trained groups of people to make the drugs. Thus, removing most street dealers and assure people that they are receiving a quality product of the highest standards. These things alone would almost wipe out the "drug war". But this is absurd right? Why on Earth would we be so stupid as to legalize substances which are ruining peoples lives and even killing some? Because as I've mentioned, in moderation this can be achieved! With proper education people can understand why they are doing said drug and what it will do and of course, if it is legalized and made by professionals, the product will always be pure with the added benefit of taxing said product so money isn't going to dealers on the streets. Your kids won't have to visit some random dealer at night in an alley way putting them in any danger that may be waiting. They also wont need to visit some random public toilet during the night to hide to shoot up. If we can accept that people want to get high and we give them the resources to do it safely, in a clean environment and getting the drugs from a professional source, then why not? You need to accept the fact that regardless of whether or not these drugs are legal, people are going to take them anyway! Our only solution is to legalize it, tax it, get professionals to make pure drugs and give them the resources and clean environment to do these drugs in.
What I'm talking about isn't so absurd as most people might think! Marijuana and "Magic Mushrooms" are legal, under strict guidelines, in Amsterdam. In Uruguay, Colorado, Washington, Nepal, Marijuana is legal for personal use. In fact there are a lot of US States and European countries that have decriminalized Marijuana and is even supplying it to people! In countries like Peru and Columbia, Cocaine has helped their societies grow and keep them alive because they are able to work longer. Here is a great example of how our authorities will draw the line when it comes to the use of drugs.... and in this case, with school kids!!
Some friends of mine went with their school through a program(I forget the name, and I probably wouldn't mention it anyway), which took a class of students in high school to go to Peru and Bolivia to help build some toilets for a couple of schools. When they landed, after many hours on a plane, they were told they had to climb "that mountain" to a certain point to where the town is. This was to be a 24+ hours walk, after an exhausting flight... So the men and woman from the town made some tea. A "magical" tea that will help them climb the mountain and not get tired! So they drank this tea and were on their merry way. What do you think the tea was? Coca tea! Oh yes, that's right! The teachers knowingly allowed ALL of their students, and themselves, to take cocaine(Well not exactly cocaine, but you get my point, I hope)! So in the Peruvian culture, where it is used productively, we can give coca leaves to 13 year old's from another country without any worries. The law doesn't hassle them and they achieve their goals of hiking a mountain(with no prior training for it) so that the kids they have welcomed to their town can build them a toilet.
Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and any other countries the Amazon Rainforest sits on, allows people to drink Ayahuasca and these people are protected by the law under freedom of religion. This is a schedule/category 1 drug in most western cultures. A drink that makes you hallucinate. In mildly doses you see colours which "aren't there", geometric shapes and colours appear vibrant and luminous. In larger doses, the shaman will drink alone and enter "the spirit realm" where he has exited his body and can be taught by his "ancestors", everything he wishes to learn. Using this knowledge, which is generally based around healing, the shaman will drink the Ayahuasca brew with his patient and both enter the "spirit realm" where the shaman, telepathically it seems, guides him/her through it by chanting specific chants and somehow heals the patient. Now as absurd as that sounds to us, this is their way of life and they have much more fulfilled and live healthier lives than the majority of people living in western culture. Cancer, diabetes, obesity, everything that stems from obesity et cetra, they don't exist in the Amazon because they don't abuse food and they are educated by the shamans so they don't abuse the substance Ayahuasca. They have a healthy mix of food, water and "drugs" and have done this for longer then we know and yet you don't see them going to rehab or drug users anonymous classes. Education, Initiation and moderation... In other words, Educate our kids when High School starts, teach them that if they wish to use drugs, then to do it in moderation(which they will understand because you have educated them properly!)

Once people are educated about drugs, taxes are increased dramatically, drugs are made by professionals and people are given a clean environment to do said drug, this is when you introduce the natural alternative. For people who want to take psychoactive plants/fungi for spiritual or religious purposes, we re-re-introduce "magic mushrooms"(Psilocybin), LSD(Synthesized based on Ergot), DMT and Ayahuasca(from most plants), Iboga/Ibogaine(African root) et cetra.
If we give people a choice and allow them to make educated decisions when purchasing taxed, pure forms of the drugs they are already taking, then we eliminate so many negative aspects of the current drug trade, which makes it safer to acquire any drugs and safer to use because you know they come from a pure source. Everything then can be monitored rather than just reacting to a negative outcome.

We have come a long way as a human race. We really need to take a step back AND forward at the same time though! We need to step back and re-introduce psychoactive/psychedelic/hallucinogenic/entheogenic plants/fungi into culture. Then we need to step forward and educate our kids about these plants/fungi so their curiosity is guided by educated minds rather than propaganda. This way, in the future, their lives wont be as unpleasant and poverty shaken and stupid(Idiocracy?) as ours is now.
We need to stop allowing the government, who have no training in biology, ethnopharmacology, neurophysiology/biology et cetra, to make decisions about how we use our consciousness! Some of us need healing and these plants/fungi can help us achieve this! Open the jail cells and free our consciousness!!!

I think I'll leave it there :)

Just one more thing... Try to achieve this.
Step 1: Coming out of the greenhouse

Thanks for reading! I hope we can discuss!

-hH