Ren
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I knew that you knew that I knew...but yesterday.
Cheers guys...meditation time!
@Ren @Wyote @John K @Sandie33 @neko @Tin Man @Impact Character @JennyDaniella
Thank you for all the giant numbers of likes!
merry meditation!
Impact Character
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We've reached peak Ni lolol
Skarekrow
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That’s a good meditation!!
Skarekrow
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Pretty good article from a non spiritual perspective.
One could argue that sleep paralysis allows one to see things they normally cannot as they are “in-between” realities so to speak.
I had that one experience with the supposed "old hag” that I could see in an out of body/lucid dream type state coming down my hallway, but I wasn’t paralyzed...I sat up in bed with my eyes closed because I was seeing her in my mind.
When I yelled at her to get the fuck out and pushed her with my energy...that’s when I had the mantle clock incident - it was on the back of a low campaign dressed with folded clothes in front of it - I just felt and heard something hit the end of the bed and then the floor.
Then I opened my eyes and switched on the light to look around and find the clock with absolutely no explanation as to what the hell just happened (I wasn’t sleep walking either as I was still covered in bed).
So...I’m not saying it was the “Old Hag” necessarily...perhaps it was some kind of glitch in the matrix or some kind of psychokinetic outburst following this strange mind-state that interrupted the dream I was having like an alarm going off...very odd experience altogether and difficult to rationalize.
Enjoy!
HOW SLEEP PARALYSIS IS INTERPRETED
BY CULTURES AROUND THE WORLD
There are likely not many experiences more terrifying than an episode of sleep paralysis.
Waking in a darkened bedroom, unable to move, with the feeling that an evil entity is in the room – sometimes even in bed with you.
Sleep paralysis experiences occur across the globe, and are in many cases interpreted as supernatural – and that belief is so powerful in some cultures that it has the power to kill.
Modern science, on the other hand, believes it is all to do with the brain not quite working as it should during the sleep experience.
But plenty of mystery still surrounds sleep paralysis, mainly due to the lack of serious study that has been undertaken to better understand the phenomenon.
As a recent paper notes, sleep paralysis continues to receive “more attention from the unscientific world”, and furthermore, the stigma associated with it “has also prevented sufferers from reporting at medical institutions”.
As such, researchers note, “most sufferers revert to other confidential means such as herbalists, religious leaders, and traditional priests for a solution”.
The short paper, “Sleep Paralysis, a Medical Condition with a Diverse Cultural Interpretation“, therefore concludes that “it is important to sensitize the public on what sleep paralysis is and how it should be approached.”
It begins by outlining modern science’s view of the terrifying aspects of the phenomenon:
The phenomenon of a dream happens in the REM phase of sleep, where there is no motion or muscle activity.
We tend to have our most emotional dreams during REM sleep, and to stop us from acting out these dreams, the brain keeps us temporarily paralyzed.
In REM dreams, another structure that has a major role to play is the limbic system.
The limbic system consists of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate, different thalamic nuclei and portions of the reticular activating systems, orbital frontal lobe, certain cerebellar nuclei, among others.
Amygdaloid complexes according to research have shown to process memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions.
The lateral amygdala sends impulses to the rest of the basolateral complexes.
This is preceded by the activation of the amygdala through projections from the thalamus, anterior cingulate, and structures in the pons.
This gives the individual the idea that an intruder is in the room.
This complex pathway (subthalamo–amygdala pathway) is responsible for ensuring that in moments of danger there is an appropriate response in the body without the need for in-depth analysis by the sensory cortex.
The paper then goes on to point out the varying ways that sleep paralysis is experienced, and interpreted, across the globe.
It notes that while the occurrence of sleep paralysis in the general population is about 8%, in some cultures it appears to be much higher.
For instance, a study in Japan found that 40% of the general population experiences sleep paralysis.
And there is a wide variation in how it the phenomenon is interpreted in different locations.
The researchers list a number of culture-specific interpetations in a table attached to the paper: in Newfoundland, they know it as the ‘Old Hag’, while in Egypt it is thought to be a Jinn attack.
In Korea it is Ha-wi-nulia, which means “being squeezed by scissors”, and in Japan it is kanashibari, interpreted as a person feeling helpless in coping with external forces.
The paper also notes that the different interpretations of sleep paralysis also result in different ways of coping with it.
For example:
Chinese people usually approach SP by employing the help of a spiritualist.
Italians, on the other hand, believe sleeping facedown and placing a broom by the door with a pile of sand on the bed will help prevent SP.
Do you suffer from night terrors?
If so, what do you do to cope with it?
One could argue that sleep paralysis allows one to see things they normally cannot as they are “in-between” realities so to speak.
I had that one experience with the supposed "old hag” that I could see in an out of body/lucid dream type state coming down my hallway, but I wasn’t paralyzed...I sat up in bed with my eyes closed because I was seeing her in my mind.
When I yelled at her to get the fuck out and pushed her with my energy...that’s when I had the mantle clock incident - it was on the back of a low campaign dressed with folded clothes in front of it - I just felt and heard something hit the end of the bed and then the floor.
Then I opened my eyes and switched on the light to look around and find the clock with absolutely no explanation as to what the hell just happened (I wasn’t sleep walking either as I was still covered in bed).
So...I’m not saying it was the “Old Hag” necessarily...perhaps it was some kind of glitch in the matrix or some kind of psychokinetic outburst following this strange mind-state that interrupted the dream I was having like an alarm going off...very odd experience altogether and difficult to rationalize.
Enjoy!
HOW SLEEP PARALYSIS IS INTERPRETED
BY CULTURES AROUND THE WORLD
There are likely not many experiences more terrifying than an episode of sleep paralysis.
Waking in a darkened bedroom, unable to move, with the feeling that an evil entity is in the room – sometimes even in bed with you.
Sleep paralysis experiences occur across the globe, and are in many cases interpreted as supernatural – and that belief is so powerful in some cultures that it has the power to kill.
Modern science, on the other hand, believes it is all to do with the brain not quite working as it should during the sleep experience.
But plenty of mystery still surrounds sleep paralysis, mainly due to the lack of serious study that has been undertaken to better understand the phenomenon.
As a recent paper notes, sleep paralysis continues to receive “more attention from the unscientific world”, and furthermore, the stigma associated with it “has also prevented sufferers from reporting at medical institutions”.
As such, researchers note, “most sufferers revert to other confidential means such as herbalists, religious leaders, and traditional priests for a solution”.
The short paper, “Sleep Paralysis, a Medical Condition with a Diverse Cultural Interpretation“, therefore concludes that “it is important to sensitize the public on what sleep paralysis is and how it should be approached.”
It begins by outlining modern science’s view of the terrifying aspects of the phenomenon:
The phenomenon of a dream happens in the REM phase of sleep, where there is no motion or muscle activity.
We tend to have our most emotional dreams during REM sleep, and to stop us from acting out these dreams, the brain keeps us temporarily paralyzed.
In REM dreams, another structure that has a major role to play is the limbic system.
The limbic system consists of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate, different thalamic nuclei and portions of the reticular activating systems, orbital frontal lobe, certain cerebellar nuclei, among others.
Amygdaloid complexes according to research have shown to process memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions.
The lateral amygdala sends impulses to the rest of the basolateral complexes.
This is preceded by the activation of the amygdala through projections from the thalamus, anterior cingulate, and structures in the pons.
This gives the individual the idea that an intruder is in the room.
This complex pathway (subthalamo–amygdala pathway) is responsible for ensuring that in moments of danger there is an appropriate response in the body without the need for in-depth analysis by the sensory cortex.
The paper then goes on to point out the varying ways that sleep paralysis is experienced, and interpreted, across the globe.
It notes that while the occurrence of sleep paralysis in the general population is about 8%, in some cultures it appears to be much higher.
For instance, a study in Japan found that 40% of the general population experiences sleep paralysis.
And there is a wide variation in how it the phenomenon is interpreted in different locations.
The researchers list a number of culture-specific interpetations in a table attached to the paper: in Newfoundland, they know it as the ‘Old Hag’, while in Egypt it is thought to be a Jinn attack.
In Korea it is Ha-wi-nulia, which means “being squeezed by scissors”, and in Japan it is kanashibari, interpreted as a person feeling helpless in coping with external forces.
The paper also notes that the different interpretations of sleep paralysis also result in different ways of coping with it.
For example:
Chinese people usually approach SP by employing the help of a spiritualist.
Italians, on the other hand, believe sleeping facedown and placing a broom by the door with a pile of sand on the bed will help prevent SP.
Do you suffer from night terrors?
If so, what do you do to cope with it?
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Top notch
John K
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I wonder if this experience is related to what I call threshold paralysis. The context is completely different - my father as his dementia progressed and a friend of mine with developing Parkinson’s. They freeze at doorways and cannot move - my friend’s wife told me it took her over an hour to get him through a door recently. They describe the experience in very similar ways to sleep paralysis though it isn’t a complete lockdown.Pretty good article from a non spiritual perspective.
One could argue that sleep paralysis allows one to see things they normally cannot as they are “in-between” realities so to speak.
I had that one experience with the supposed "old hag” that I could see in an out of body/lucid dream type state coming down my hallway, but I wasn’t paralyzed...I sat up in bed with my eyes closed because I was seeing her in my mind.
When I yelled at her to get the fuck out and pushed her with my energy...that’s when I had the mantle clock incident - it was on the back of a low campaign dressed with folded clothes in front of it - I just felt and heard something hit the end of the bed and then the floor.
Then I opened my eyes and switched on the light to look around and find the clock with absolutely no explanation as to what the hell just happened (I wasn’t sleep walking either as I was still covered in bed).
So...I’m not saying it was the “Old Hag” necessarily...perhaps it was some kind of glitch in the matrix or some kind of psychokinetic outburst following this strange mind-state that interrupted the dream I was having like an alarm going off...very odd experience altogether and difficult to rationalize.
Enjoy!
HOW SLEEP PARALYSIS IS INTERPRETED
BY CULTURES AROUND THE WORLD
There are likely not many experiences more terrifying than an episode of sleep paralysis.
Waking in a darkened bedroom, unable to move, with the feeling that an evil entity is in the room – sometimes even in bed with you.
Sleep paralysis experiences occur across the globe, and are in many cases interpreted as supernatural – and that belief is so powerful in some cultures that it has the power to kill.
Modern science, on the other hand, believes it is all to do with the brain not quite working as it should during the sleep experience.
But plenty of mystery still surrounds sleep paralysis, mainly due to the lack of serious study that has been undertaken to better understand the phenomenon.
As a recent paper notes, sleep paralysis continues to receive “more attention from the unscientific world”, and furthermore, the stigma associated with it “has also prevented sufferers from reporting at medical institutions”.
As such, researchers note, “most sufferers revert to other confidential means such as herbalists, religious leaders, and traditional priests for a solution”.
The short paper, “Sleep Paralysis, a Medical Condition with a Diverse Cultural Interpretation“, therefore concludes that “it is important to sensitize the public on what sleep paralysis is and how it should be approached.”
It begins by outlining modern science’s view of the terrifying aspects of the phenomenon:
The phenomenon of a dream happens in the REM phase of sleep, where there is no motion or muscle activity.
We tend to have our most emotional dreams during REM sleep, and to stop us from acting out these dreams, the brain keeps us temporarily paralyzed.
In REM dreams, another structure that has a major role to play is the limbic system.
The limbic system consists of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate, different thalamic nuclei and portions of the reticular activating systems, orbital frontal lobe, certain cerebellar nuclei, among others.
Amygdaloid complexes according to research have shown to process memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions.
The lateral amygdala sends impulses to the rest of the basolateral complexes.
This is preceded by the activation of the amygdala through projections from the thalamus, anterior cingulate, and structures in the pons.
This gives the individual the idea that an intruder is in the room.
This complex pathway (subthalamo–amygdala pathway) is responsible for ensuring that in moments of danger there is an appropriate response in the body without the need for in-depth analysis by the sensory cortex.
The paper then goes on to point out the varying ways that sleep paralysis is experienced, and interpreted, across the globe.
It notes that while the occurrence of sleep paralysis in the general population is about 8%, in some cultures it appears to be much higher.
For instance, a study in Japan found that 40% of the general population experiences sleep paralysis.
And there is a wide variation in how it the phenomenon is interpreted in different locations.
The researchers list a number of culture-specific interpetations in a table attached to the paper: in Newfoundland, they know it as the ‘Old Hag’, while in Egypt it is thought to be a Jinn attack.
In Korea it is Ha-wi-nulia, which means “being squeezed by scissors”, and in Japan it is kanashibari, interpreted as a person feeling helpless in coping with external forces.
The paper also notes that the different interpretations of sleep paralysis also result in different ways of coping with it.
For example:
Chinese people usually approach SP by employing the help of a spiritualist.
Italians, on the other hand, believe sleeping facedown and placing a broom by the door with a pile of sand on the bed will help prevent SP.
Do you suffer from night terrors?
If so, what do you do to cope with it?
It suggests there is a very great significance in thresholds whether internal or external. Not very surprising, pondering it a bit.
Tin Man
"a respectable amount of screaming"
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I knew that you knew that I knew...but yesterday.
Cheers guys...meditation time!
@Ren @Wyote @John K @Sandie33 @neko @Tin Man @Impact Character @JennyDaniella
Thank you for all the giant numbers of likes!
Well there's no dislike option, so what else can I do?
Remember how much bitchier this place was when there was a dislike option. Ah, the drama.
Skarekrow
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Hmmmm...I’m not sure.
I’ve never really had an issue with sleep paralysis...in fact I’ve purposefully induced it on quite a few occasions while reaching that hypnogogic state on the way to attempting to go out of body (which worked several times).
But even that...I can break myself out of...
That goes back to when I was a child and learning to force myself awake on cue when shit started to go badly while I was asleep.
I may have been frozen were it not for that learned ability, not sure?
The image of the “old hag” can be dismissed quite easily as anything from a dream to a hallucination...but the clock still to this day boggles my mind.
There is no way it could have fallen off the back of the dresser and magically flew the 5 ft to the foot of my bed...it’s impossible by all reasonable explanations.
Totally!
The thumb down button...that and the Rep button were nice...you could leave a short private note about a particular post without starting a PM session.
Man did this place have some drama...
John K
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Ah - I wasn't really thinking of your very deep experiences - lucid dreaming, purposely generated sleep paralysis, or your paranormal and OOB experiences. I was thinking of the more ordinary experience that I think many people have of waking up but finding they just can't move, then panicking for a few moments before they get control back - perhaps the lowest end of the spectrum of these phenomena. It's happened to me occasionally when I've been disturbed in the middle of a deep dream. As my dad's dementia progressed, it seemed to me that some of the false memories he was getting were because he couldn't distinguish his dreams from reality so I think he must have been in a borderline state between dream and waking a lot of the time. For several months he'd go into lockdown in doorways and just couldn't move - I had to get him into a wheelchair to get him through sometimes. But maybe I'm just seeing superficially similar things with very different roots? What struck me very much was the parallel between doorway thresholds and the threshold between asleep and awake.
Skarekrow
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Yes...I can picture that.
As a child who had night terrors ever single night (some I would classify as OOBEs, others just lucid nightmares), the line between awake and asleep was very often blurred...where something would chase me as I ran back to my bed for example and at the moment I reached it I would wake and start seeing things in the dark and scream my fucking head off.
But then I figured out how to just jump back to my body and force my eyes open even while the dream was fading.
That’s when it all stopped.
At least as a nightly occurrence.
But that wasn’t until after several years of this BS.
You would think I would have more of an aversion to reaching out to certain states of mind after those kind of traumatic childhood experiences but it seemed to only deepen my interest - I was the only 2nd grade child checking out one of the four paranormal books the school library had and asking my parents about ghosts (who of course said - of course they aren’t real)
(But our church says we have a spirit...so?)
I had no one to really discuss it with or get answers of any sort from...which made me withdrawn.
But yes...some very significant dreams have involved doorways.
I wonder what he is seeing...what is the glitch?
Or is he seeing something we normally don’t...or forget how to see as we stop being children?
Either way...I’m sorry...I know how difficult it is.
My own father had brain tumors that affected what he perceived sometimes...he could usually tell the difference but he would let you know what he was seeing - “Looks like the bed is covered in blue flames....that’s trippy.” type stuff.
Much love John, take care.
Skarekrow
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Worth a read...
(I find it funny that I was just reading and then talking about “doing” and “being” and then I randomly come across this article with similar references...interesting.)
Enjoy!
From the point of view of psychedelic enthusiasts, the prohibitionist stance is farcically weak.
The moral imperative could not be more obvious: give up the ghost, stop jailing non-violent consciousness explorers, and give us back our tax dollars.
But let’s consider how we got here to begin with.
I don’t want to talk about Nixon and the Controlled Substance Act, or the DEA, or how America has exported its neurotic drug policy to the rest of the world.
I won’t even present data revealing how ineffective and dehumanizing the War on Drugs really is.
That’s all been covered before.
Today, I want to examine the psychology of a culture that gives lip service to human rights, yet imprisons people for experiencing unsanctioned forms of consciousness.
Why would we cage our brothers and sisters this way?
Why do we put up with it, especially in a nation that paradoxically prides itself on freedoms?
This kind of questioning is so uncommon, so far removed from the everyday rhetoric of “Just say no” and other drug war propaganda, that I must make a detour to address common objections.
These substances aren’t outlawed with the intent of oppressing people, argues the prohibitionist, but to protect us! The point is to reduce harm. Don’t get your hippy-dippy bell-bottoms in a bunch over this imagined “oppression of the mind.”
This argument actually has some merit—drugs get banned, at least officially, for their harms and not for the mental states they induce.
And harm reduction is certainly a worthy goal of drug policy.
Harm reduction may even justify outright prohibition of some chemicals, just as the anti-drug champions argue.
Imagine, for instance, a hypothetical drug which turns a user a bloodthirsty zombie, devoid of empathy and intent on murdering everybody in sight.
Presumably we may be justified in banning such a dangerous drug.
Although even in this extreme case, prohibition is probably still a bad policy for the simple reason that it is ineffective.
I’m not some starry-eyed idealist; I recognize that individuals must make concessions to ensure the safety and freedom of their fellow citizens.
No right is truly absolute, and one of the toughest tasks of government is to balance the rights of all individuals.
Even our dear freedom of speech has its limits—you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, right?
The thrust of cognitive liberty is not that all drugs are good for society, nor that substances can never be legitimately banned.
It’s that the desire to prohibit any drug must be weighed against the fundamental right of individuals to control their own consciousness.
We have to at least recognize this right before violating it so casually.
In a democratic society, the only legitimate laws are those that make us all more free.
Yet most drugs barely move the needle when weighed upon the scales of liberty.
At the very least, respect for human dignity requires legalizing the psychedelics, a relatively non-toxic, non-addictive class of chemical catalysts.
Individual sovereignty over our minds and bodies is fundamental. Our courts should guard freedom of consciousness as fiercely as they guard the freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly.
Today we do not give any consideration whatsoever to the right of cognitive liberty.
Most of us don’t even acknowledge that we should have a say in our own conscious experience, except for the use of sanctioned chemicals like alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and pharmaceuticals prescribed by authorities.
We don’t realize that we are handing the keys of consciousness over to Big Brother, and for the most part, we don’t really care.
When it comes to consciousness, our default position is not respect for liberty, but imprisonment—of bodies and minds.
That is the cultural attitude I wish to address.
To know the nation, you must know the citizen.
Consider how psychedelics affect the individual—they upend our assumptions, causing great personal transformations and periods of profound questioning.
These are not the ego’s favorite activities.
It’s important to qualify the word “ego.”
I use it in a mainly Freudian sense: “the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions” (Wiki).
It is a vital but often dishonest part of Self.
Many of our problems stem from the ego’s preference for defense mechanisms over honest conflict resolution.
Its job is to maintain stability and structure, not to tell the truth.
Psychedelics disassemble the machinery of self and put it back together anew.
Ego is also a timid and stubborn creature, quick to categorize opposing views and ideas as threats.
Wanting to be reassured that our model of the world is an accurate one, we tend to dismiss evidence for other perspectives.
This is called confirmation bias.
Psychedelics do the exact opposite, poking holes in the foundations of identity, disassembling the machinery of self and putting it back together anew. They challenge everything you thought you knew about reality.
Forget upsetting the apple cart, let’s shatter it to bits and eat all the apples!
The ego likes answers—right or wrong, it doesn’t matter, as long as they can be used to reinforce an existing worldview.
It is drawn to order and structure, and grows more rigid with age.
The psychedelic mind prefers questions—the deeper and more unsettling, the better.
Its favorite thing to pick apart and analyze may be the ego itself.
Naturally, the ego resists the psychedelic experience.
They are diametrically opposite forces.
It is no different at a cultural level; in fact, the conflict is amplified.
It’s no surprise that our society—a society based on doing rather than being, on productivity and problem-solving, mired in mindless materialism and ruled by vast corporate and governmental powers—should resist these drugs so vehemently.
They show us our true selves.
What could be more frightening?
So why do we permit this Orwellian prohibition of mental states to continue?
In a word, fear.
Psychedelic prohibition is a vast defense mechanism erected by the national ego.
Everyone knows the ego’s voice: cling to what you know. Seek confirmation of all that you believe and collect evidence against all other perspectives. Deny, rationalize, deceive—whatever it takes to maintain the current sense of self!
And we listen.
The age-old pathology of ego worms its way through our personal behaviors and our laws, thwarting our growth as a culture.
The War on Drugs is just a bad habit allowed to linger.
This is what makes prohibition so insidious—that we are not outraged, but accept it as the most natural and necessary thing in the world.
We have no problem exploring some unknowns—we climb mountains, push the boundaries of knowledge with cutting-edge science, and even travel through the jet black void of space.
In many disciplines we enjoy the process of discovery very much.
But when it comes to voyaging through the internal landscape of emotions and assumptions, we grow timid.
Our hearts and minds shrivel up; the ego, sensing a threat, raises its hackles.
We prefer cognitive dissonance to confronting the mysteries inside, even it leads us to cage people in their own minds.
It would be funny if it weren’t tragic: we would rather explore outer space than inner space.
We would rather chain our peers than free ourselves and step outside Plato’s cave.
Some of our greatest fears, such as change, the dark, and death, are just reflections of the One Big Fear—the Unknown.
The War on Drugs is a natural manifestation of that fear, made all the more toxic by its large scale.
We have codified our phobia into law.
You don’t suffer from the paralyzing neurosis of fear?
Well now you do; we’ve made it the official policy.
The worst part is that we’ve outlawed the very tools that can reveal this pathology and help us resolve our childlike fears.
All the medicines that can make us limitless have been shelved.
We embrace our most limiting tendencies—fear, irrationality, coercion—and forsake our best ones—empathy, understanding, and respect.
We cling desperately to the past, to lowly human nature, when we could instead imagine ourselves in a future that transcends these petty shortcomings.
Being constrained to ordinary consciousness is like living in a country that never lets you leave. “You can take a day trip into Drunkenness or Stimulation,” warn the border guards.
“Heck , you can even move there permanently. But don’t even think about visiting Oceanic Boundlessness or Blissful Non-Duality. No, no, you’ll get arrested just for possessing a ticketto those places.”
To reach such enchanting idylls you have to tiptoe across the border, and the path is fraught with danger.
Must we intentionally litter the path to other states of consciousness with hazards like drug impurity and the threat of imprisonment?
Is maximizing the risks associated with drug use a goal worthy of vast public expenditures?
It doesn’t even matter if you love drugs or regard them with absolute contempt; prohibition is the least compassionate, least sensible, and least mature approach towards these tools of consciousness.
Repealing bad laws will resolve our state of cognitive dissonance, but it’s slow and difficult work—the cultural equivalent of admitting fault.
Gosh, I didn’t mean to oppress you all these years.
I really thought it was best.
In order for us to repeal prohibition, we have to admit how colossally stupid it always was.
We have to acknowledge that the whole drug war apparatus, all $50 billion of it spent annually in the US alone, is a product of fear, not reason.
As individuals, we don’t like to apologize; it’s even more difficult as a culture.
The national ego rears its ugly head.
We will do it.
We will learn to respect the basic human right of cognitive liberty.
We will take these medicines off the shelf and begin using them freely to unshackle minds and hearts.
We will put the rights of our fellow citizens before our own irrational fears.
It won’t be easy, because it requires the truly transformative work of confronting ourselves with honesty and integrity.
But we will do it.
Over time, our species always progresses towards freedom.
All signs are pointing toward this psychedelic renaissance.
The only question is how long it will take us.
(I find it funny that I was just reading and then talking about “doing” and “being” and then I randomly come across this article with similar references...interesting.)
Enjoy!
Ego, Fear, and the War on Drugs
“Over one’s mind and over one’s body, the individual is sovereign.”
—John Stuart Mill
“Over one’s mind and over one’s body, the individual is sovereign.”
—John Stuart Mill
From the point of view of psychedelic enthusiasts, the prohibitionist stance is farcically weak.
The moral imperative could not be more obvious: give up the ghost, stop jailing non-violent consciousness explorers, and give us back our tax dollars.
But let’s consider how we got here to begin with.
I don’t want to talk about Nixon and the Controlled Substance Act, or the DEA, or how America has exported its neurotic drug policy to the rest of the world.
I won’t even present data revealing how ineffective and dehumanizing the War on Drugs really is.
That’s all been covered before.
Today, I want to examine the psychology of a culture that gives lip service to human rights, yet imprisons people for experiencing unsanctioned forms of consciousness.
Why would we cage our brothers and sisters this way?
Why do we put up with it, especially in a nation that paradoxically prides itself on freedoms?
This kind of questioning is so uncommon, so far removed from the everyday rhetoric of “Just say no” and other drug war propaganda, that I must make a detour to address common objections.
These substances aren’t outlawed with the intent of oppressing people, argues the prohibitionist, but to protect us! The point is to reduce harm. Don’t get your hippy-dippy bell-bottoms in a bunch over this imagined “oppression of the mind.”
This argument actually has some merit—drugs get banned, at least officially, for their harms and not for the mental states they induce.
And harm reduction is certainly a worthy goal of drug policy.
Harm reduction may even justify outright prohibition of some chemicals, just as the anti-drug champions argue.
Imagine, for instance, a hypothetical drug which turns a user a bloodthirsty zombie, devoid of empathy and intent on murdering everybody in sight.
Presumably we may be justified in banning such a dangerous drug.
Although even in this extreme case, prohibition is probably still a bad policy for the simple reason that it is ineffective.
“If a drug turns my neighbors into brain-devouring zombies, I’ll be the first to vote for its prohibition.”
I’m not some starry-eyed idealist; I recognize that individuals must make concessions to ensure the safety and freedom of their fellow citizens.
No right is truly absolute, and one of the toughest tasks of government is to balance the rights of all individuals.
Even our dear freedom of speech has its limits—you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, right?
The thrust of cognitive liberty is not that all drugs are good for society, nor that substances can never be legitimately banned.
It’s that the desire to prohibit any drug must be weighed against the fundamental right of individuals to control their own consciousness.
We have to at least recognize this right before violating it so casually.
In a democratic society, the only legitimate laws are those that make us all more free.
Yet most drugs barely move the needle when weighed upon the scales of liberty.
At the very least, respect for human dignity requires legalizing the psychedelics, a relatively non-toxic, non-addictive class of chemical catalysts.
Individual sovereignty over our minds and bodies is fundamental. Our courts should guard freedom of consciousness as fiercely as they guard the freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly.
Today we do not give any consideration whatsoever to the right of cognitive liberty.
Most of us don’t even acknowledge that we should have a say in our own conscious experience, except for the use of sanctioned chemicals like alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and pharmaceuticals prescribed by authorities.
We don’t realize that we are handing the keys of consciousness over to Big Brother, and for the most part, we don’t really care.
When it comes to consciousness, our default position is not respect for liberty, but imprisonment—of bodies and minds.
That is the cultural attitude I wish to address.
Look at the drugs we use.
Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates:
Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society,
and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.
—Bill Hicks
Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates:
Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society,
and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.
—Bill Hicks
To know the nation, you must know the citizen.
Consider how psychedelics affect the individual—they upend our assumptions, causing great personal transformations and periods of profound questioning.
These are not the ego’s favorite activities.
It’s important to qualify the word “ego.”
I use it in a mainly Freudian sense: “the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions” (Wiki).
It is a vital but often dishonest part of Self.
Many of our problems stem from the ego’s preference for defense mechanisms over honest conflict resolution.
Its job is to maintain stability and structure, not to tell the truth.
Psychedelics disassemble the machinery of self and put it back together anew.
Ego is also a timid and stubborn creature, quick to categorize opposing views and ideas as threats.
Wanting to be reassured that our model of the world is an accurate one, we tend to dismiss evidence for other perspectives.
This is called confirmation bias.
Psychedelics do the exact opposite, poking holes in the foundations of identity, disassembling the machinery of self and putting it back together anew. They challenge everything you thought you knew about reality.
Forget upsetting the apple cart, let’s shatter it to bits and eat all the apples!
The ego likes answers—right or wrong, it doesn’t matter, as long as they can be used to reinforce an existing worldview.
It is drawn to order and structure, and grows more rigid with age.
The psychedelic mind prefers questions—the deeper and more unsettling, the better.
Its favorite thing to pick apart and analyze may be the ego itself.
Naturally, the ego resists the psychedelic experience.
They are diametrically opposite forces.
It is no different at a cultural level; in fact, the conflict is amplified.
It’s no surprise that our society—a society based on doing rather than being, on productivity and problem-solving, mired in mindless materialism and ruled by vast corporate and governmental powers—should resist these drugs so vehemently.
They show us our true selves.
What could be more frightening?
So why do we permit this Orwellian prohibition of mental states to continue?
In a word, fear.
Psychedelic prohibition is a vast defense mechanism erected by the national ego.
Everyone knows the ego’s voice: cling to what you know. Seek confirmation of all that you believe and collect evidence against all other perspectives. Deny, rationalize, deceive—whatever it takes to maintain the current sense of self!
And we listen.
The age-old pathology of ego worms its way through our personal behaviors and our laws, thwarting our growth as a culture.
The War on Drugs is just a bad habit allowed to linger.
This is what makes prohibition so insidious—that we are not outraged, but accept it as the most natural and necessary thing in the world.
We have no problem exploring some unknowns—we climb mountains, push the boundaries of knowledge with cutting-edge science, and even travel through the jet black void of space.
In many disciplines we enjoy the process of discovery very much.
But when it comes to voyaging through the internal landscape of emotions and assumptions, we grow timid.
Our hearts and minds shrivel up; the ego, sensing a threat, raises its hackles.
We prefer cognitive dissonance to confronting the mysteries inside, even it leads us to cage people in their own minds.
It would be funny if it weren’t tragic: we would rather explore outer space than inner space.
We would rather chain our peers than free ourselves and step outside Plato’s cave.
Some of our greatest fears, such as change, the dark, and death, are just reflections of the One Big Fear—the Unknown.
The War on Drugs is a natural manifestation of that fear, made all the more toxic by its large scale.
We have codified our phobia into law.
You don’t suffer from the paralyzing neurosis of fear?
Well now you do; we’ve made it the official policy.
The worst part is that we’ve outlawed the very tools that can reveal this pathology and help us resolve our childlike fears.
All the medicines that can make us limitless have been shelved.
We embrace our most limiting tendencies—fear, irrationality, coercion—and forsake our best ones—empathy, understanding, and respect.
We cling desperately to the past, to lowly human nature, when we could instead imagine ourselves in a future that transcends these petty shortcomings.
Being constrained to ordinary consciousness is like living in a country that never lets you leave. “You can take a day trip into Drunkenness or Stimulation,” warn the border guards.
“Heck , you can even move there permanently. But don’t even think about visiting Oceanic Boundlessness or Blissful Non-Duality. No, no, you’ll get arrested just for possessing a ticketto those places.”
To reach such enchanting idylls you have to tiptoe across the border, and the path is fraught with danger.
Must we intentionally litter the path to other states of consciousness with hazards like drug impurity and the threat of imprisonment?
Is maximizing the risks associated with drug use a goal worthy of vast public expenditures?
It doesn’t even matter if you love drugs or regard them with absolute contempt; prohibition is the least compassionate, least sensible, and least mature approach towards these tools of consciousness.
Repealing bad laws will resolve our state of cognitive dissonance, but it’s slow and difficult work—the cultural equivalent of admitting fault.
Gosh, I didn’t mean to oppress you all these years.
I really thought it was best.
In order for us to repeal prohibition, we have to admit how colossally stupid it always was.
We have to acknowledge that the whole drug war apparatus, all $50 billion of it spent annually in the US alone, is a product of fear, not reason.
As individuals, we don’t like to apologize; it’s even more difficult as a culture.
The national ego rears its ugly head.
We will do it.
We will learn to respect the basic human right of cognitive liberty.
We will take these medicines off the shelf and begin using them freely to unshackle minds and hearts.
We will put the rights of our fellow citizens before our own irrational fears.
It won’t be easy, because it requires the truly transformative work of confronting ourselves with honesty and integrity.
But we will do it.
Over time, our species always progresses towards freedom.
All signs are pointing toward this psychedelic renaissance.
The only question is how long it will take us.
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Skarekrow
~~DEVIL~~
- MBTI
- Ni-INFJ-A
- Enneagram
- Warlock
The next post after this one should be page 400 (unless I counted wrong...20 posts per page right...so maybe the 21st post will be page 400 IDFK?)...someone else can have the honor.
Crazy that this thread has lasted as long as it has and has taken on a life of it’s own in many ways...at least for me.
I know some of it is way out there...but it has always been my intent to push said boundaries both in my personal life and here on this thread.
What I never anticipated was how many people would be interested or had similar thoughts or experiences...I think it’s an INxx thing maybe?
Also...I have to say when I started this thread that I thought I could never have both a rational view of reality, while not dismissing the seemingly irrational...that I could be both an agnostic and still have a strong sense of faith.
A few years ago those would clash in my mind.
I hope you will all call me out if I ever lose my perspective or open-mindedness and start to speak in concrete terms or in a overly egotistic manner.
This thread has been my blog and outlet as well as a place to share ideas and interesting information...it has helped me in a cathartic way many times and that mostly has to do with those who follow along and have always offered kind and supportive words and showed true friendship and compassion when I was at some of my lowest times in my life.
Thank you all for not being judgmental of what I post or of me...thank you for your empathy.
It’s because of your feedback that this has turned into the novel that it has...lol.
Much and love and very humble thank you’s to all!
(almost!)
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