I have used marijuana a small number of times years ago (mostly at college parties and once on a vacation to Colorado). It was nice, but its not something I would want to do regularly.
Other drugs do not interest me really. Maybe something like peyote would be cool if I did the full religious ceremony with it and whatnot, but I am not going to actively pursue it.
In regards to religion, not to bust anyone's bubble, but I'm pretty sure a certain man who lived a very long time ago encouraged use of substances at his gatherings.
Come on. "Feeding of the 4,000", with seven loaves of bread and fish? They were smoking something. Even the priests I know (family friends) agree, but they have to stick to the doctrine when up in the pulpit.
That was their expectation which set an intention...that’s what they got.
If you expect it to be wonderful, your chances of it being so are exponentially increased and vice-versa.
I know hardcore atheists who became spiritual or religious and I’ve also seen the reverse...though it’s usually more a movement away from organized religion per say and more into the realm of spirituality as more of a holistic type perspective.
I think that's the point of what they were saying. The experience moves people away from Christ.
Typically, a new age perspective is experienced and down the rabbit hole we go.
I have never been interested in drugs or anything, but I was given a piece of brownie that ended up having marijuana in it.
Unfortunately, because I was not aware of what or how much was in this brownie, my experience was horrible.
Never again.
I had visions or memories you could say of my childhood but then it kept going further back and I seeing myself in past lives then it kept going back further and I saw the physical realm broken down into microscopic particles or atoms. I was so distraught after the experience, that I started researching past lives and became confused about Christianity and it's validity.
While researching it, I found this video below and decided to keep researching other people's experiences with new age and/or drug usage. I feel like for anyone who believes in Christ or the bible, drugs are much like the apple Eve was deceived into eating to obtain knowledge and higher consciousness.
Sometimes I do meth. Its hardly worth it though. The high isn't very strong and you can't go to fucking sleep.
I LOVE Acid. I've had such beautiful experiences on that stuff. It's one of those drugs that blows my imagination wide open.
Marijuana is kind of boring. The only thing that stuff does is make me sleepy. If not that, then I zone out and can't think.
Heroine is dumb. The euphoria can be intense, but can be disabling as well. You can't do anything when you're in it. I like engaging with the world, not detaching from it.
I think that's the point of what they were saying. The experience moves people away from Christ.
Typically, a new age perspective is experienced and down the rabbit hole we go.
I have never been interested in drugs or anything, but I was given a piece of brownie that ended up having marijuana in it.
Unfortunately, because I was not aware of what or how much was in this brownie, my experience was horrible.
Never again.
I had visions or memories you could say of my childhood but then it kept going further back and I seeing myself in past lives then it kept going back further and I saw the physical realm broken down into microscopic particles or atoms. I was so distraught after the experience, that I started researching past lives and became confused about Christianity and it's validity.
While researching it, I found this video below and decided to keep researching other people's experiences with new age and/or drug usage. I feel like for anyone who believes in Christ or the bible, drugs are much like the apple Eve was deceived into eating to obtain knowledge and higher consciousness.
Sorry you had such a negative reaction to pot...those hit on several brain receptors that aren’t my favorite, lol.
Hmmm...I can see some of the more evangelical or orthodox type religions having this type of reaction.
I don’t think it moves people away from Christ at all...but that is my opinion.
For me...it helped to solidify my faith in regards to certain things.
Overall, I would say that if anything, it shows you the true beauty of this world and humanity and there is nothing inherently evil in any such substance - only in the minds of those who probably shouldn’t take them.
I was literally born depressed...and have suffered from it my entire life...nothing has ever worked...nothing.
When the chronic pain took over it got exponentially worse and anxiety popped up in my life for the first time ever.
After help from mushrooms, both of them...gone the next day.
People can paint them any way they wish...you can demonize anything...and western religions especially like to demonize anything that makes one asks questions about the nature of their beliefs.
Mushrooms are not created by Satan to brainwash people into leaving organized religious institutions...it’s a very simple chemical compound found in many natural plants, which are created by God as is everything if that is how you see things.
What they do is silence the ego...if your ego was lying to you about your faith in God then maybe you would be a bit upset about that being revealed.
But conversely, if you truly have faith then it has been shown to reinforce that in the majority of people.
If you want to boil it down and leave out spirituality, with psilocybin your brain is hyperconnected while the default mode network (overactive in anxiety/depression/PTSD/pain/etc.) is quieted, allowing new connections to be made that bypass the pathways corrupted for years by depression or anxiety or whatever - eventually those pathways become wired physically into the brain and it’s like viewing the world through a lens of sadness all the time as all your input is processed through those pathways that have been altered.
This allows those pathways to be bypassed and also a reset of sorts is made within the DMN keeping it calmer for 6 months to a year or more at a time.
It just so happens that the process it takes to accomplish this “reset” is uncomfortable to the ego itself and it will fight against losing control even when in the best interest of the person.
Not to mention that many of the genes that get turned off in the brain by such chronic disorders are once again turned on again and people regain more neuroplasticity or ability to learn new or change behaviors.
IMHO, if anything, it’s a most kind gift from God to help us be more loving and compassionate people...as they also show you and let you feel how connected to everything (and everyone) you really are!
But everyone is entitled to believe what they will...I just don’t want you to have one-sided, subjective opinions without hearing the other side as well.
Many religious scholars have partaken of psychedelics...and most found insight...I can think of none that called such an experience evil.
"Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. One of the participants in the experiment was religious scholar Huston Smith, who would become an author of several textbooks on comparative religion. He later described his experience as "the most powerful cosmic homecoming I have ever experienced".[4]"
People who fall into the idea of “new age” this or that are usually just substituting one religion for another...and that is missing the point entirely.
Mushrooms won’t make you lose your faith, and they are not gateways for demons.
In regards to religion, not to bust anyone's bubble, but I'm pretty sure a certain man who lived a very long time ago encouraged use of substances at his gatherings.
Come on. "Feeding of the 4,000", with seven loaves of bread and fish? They were smoking something. Even the priests I know (family friends) agree, but they have to stick to the doctrine when up in the pulpit.
I gave thumbs to that because it does take some balls to put that out there in the midst of most people saying that they have never done any drugs whatsoever and would never want to. I felt kind of nervous even in my vague references to the past. I never did acid, partly because of my worrying about how long it lasted. Shrooms were very cool in sensible doses and the right environment, but I have had too much, which was overwhelming and caused me to pass out. I believe in the potential therapeutic benefit of low/micro dose hallucinogens. Stims and narcs are the devil.
I gave thumbs to that because it does take some balls to put that out there in the midst of most people saying that they have never done any drugs whatsoever and would never want to. I felt kind of nervous even in my vague references to the past. I never did acid, partly because of my worrying about how long it lasted. Shrooms were very cool in sensible doses and the right environment, but I have had too much, which was overwhelming and caused me to pass out. I believe in the potential therapeutic benefit of low/micro dose hallucinogens. Stims and narcs are the devil.
I feel like I need to admit something, some opinion I had/have. However, maybe it's offensive and will undoubtedly make me look bad, so I should preface this by saying that it's just a 'gut reaction', I'm not saying it's a rational thought.
So, I've always had a certain lip-curling disdain for people who take drugs, smoke or drink to excess; for people who like to 'lose control' I guess, though I find that 'control' doesn't quite capture the feeling I have.
For me these things, and these types of people, are all rolled together with a lot of negative stereotypes (stereotypes for me), such as: sensor, crowd-follower, weak, shallow, one who submits to peer pressure and needs group validation, whore, thrill-seeker, someone who lacks committment, flake, vapid, adulterer, sheep.
I used to have this feeling a lot when I was younger, but now I think I'm either more accepting, or I've just given it the old hard repression. The feeling could be very strong, like 'you're a fucking pathetic loser and I hate every fibre of your being; you and I are completely dissimilar and we will fundamentally never understand each other'.
I could speculate about the causes of this feeling, but I think they're quite obvious... I think it essentially boils down to a fear that those who live in what we might call that 'extroverted sensing' world are who society regards as 'normal', but also who are completely alien to myself, and it could relate to that alienation felt by Introverted Intuitives manifesting as a rejection of hedonist values.
Again, I'm not proud of this gut feeling, because it seems somehow juvenile now, but I can't deny that it's still there everytime people bring up these subjects (and things like casual sex, cheating, &c.)... I am literally disgusted.
@Deleted member 16771 my interpretation of a stereotypical drug user is more of the introverted persuasion because all my introverted friends did drugs and were all sort of depressive/depressed.
I think literally anybody can find themselves at least dabbling in stuff for a minute. Humans are driven towards experimentation, and thank goodness they are!
@Deleted member 16771 my interpretation of a stereotypical drug user is more of the introverted persuasion because all my introverted friends did drugs and were all sort of depressive/depressed.
I think literally anybody can find themselves at least dabbling in stuff for a minute. Humans are driven towards experimentation, and thank goodness they are!
Yeah, I think that it was a long time before I was exposed to the 'Vince the Lovable Stoner' stereotype. We never really had that where I grew up... for me it was always associated with hard Slaaneshi hedonism.
At a deeper level, it's related to my upbringing and the absolute terror of the idea of dissolute behaviours... i.e. those behaviours which destroy families and tear the homes of children asunder, and so my gut rejects it on a level which I can't really control. Adult hedonism is for me indissolubly linked to child suffering.
Again, I'm not saying that I consciously judge people who behave in these ways, but the hard gut distaste is always there, even if most of the time it's imperceptible to me.
I felt similarly about drug addicts for a while, when I was a paramedic and used to pick up junkies.
I had little empathy for them, though still more than most of my peers.
Personally I have never dabbled in any hard drugs because even though I have a relationship with entheogens to help with chronic issues - I see a big difference.
One is that something like mushrooms are not addictive...sure anyone can grow addicted to the sensations if they are enjoyable, but they use them frequently to help people get off of harder drugs like heroin so there is a legit difference when used non-recreationally.
And yeah...I have not, and would not ever try - heroin, meth, cocaine, crack, anything you inject, or horse tranquilizers, etc.
Especially something with a well documented exponentially growing addiction attached to it, like heroin.
My own “treatments" are very seldom...one to three times a year normally.
I DO see addicts differently now...having been on prescription pain meds off and on for decades now and have forced myself to go cold turkey off them several times...I can attest to the hooks they can put in people...things like methadone, fentanyl, etc.
I would rather break both my kneecaps than cold turkey it like that again (didn’t sleep for 4 days!).
So my empathetic feels go out to those now addicted to such things with a far different perspective than I used to have toward such people.
But like you, I still generally look upon those drugs as having no value...or a negative value that outweighs the enjoyment.
As far as pot goes...it’s legal here in my state and statistically is far less dangerous to yourself and others when compared to the socially acceptable poison - alcohol...which is far more harmful to the body and is responsible for countless social woes yet doesn’t have any stigma at all really.
But yeah...it’s been demonized for so long people look at it differently than drinking...as if it has some hidden trap the other doesn’t contain.
It legitimately helps me (when I need it) with the arthritis pain and sleep issues...and mainly I try not to smoke it but usually buy edible oil (RSO oil).
^^^^ Especially having been raised Mormon...I forgot to mention.
Growing up...smoking, drinking, drugs, caffeine, cursing, rated R movies, premarital sex, etc. were all forbidden things in the church.
And generally they are correct imho (except for the moral issues) in regards to substances we ingest in one way or another - you will probably be much healthier than your counterpart that does or has dabbled in all those things.
So that gave me a skewed view of even very “innocent” things like caffeine.
Leaving a religion like that at age 15 or so was kind of fucked...not that I enjoyed going to church or had much faith.
But being raised in such a way only to one day be told - "we no longer believe that" probably has been a driving factor in my own spiritual exploration and search for some semblance of faith...which the INFJ is already predisposed to wander into...haha.
Anyhow...for quite some time I had a VERY conservative view of such things.
Though I did smoke cigarettes for a while:
(Old pic...6 or 7 years ago since I've quit)
)