Do Drugs Bring you Closer to God?

[crimsonlung]

So Bob Marley was quoted to say:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When You smoke herb it reveals you to yourself. All the wickedness you do is revealed by the herb --- it's you conscience and gives you an honest picture of yourself ;[/FONT]

Many spiritual leaders have been known to use LSD to bring themselves closer to god.

Many Priests drink wine to further there communion with God.

Have a read at this article:

From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the tribe of North America, the Egyptians, and the Maya, religious sacraments have included euphorics and hallucinogens. These are called "entheogens" ("God inside us," en εν- "in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates").

Entheogens have been used in a ritualized context for thousands of years; their religious significance is well established in anthropological and modern evidences. Examples of traditional entheogens include: kykeon, ambrosia, iboga, soma, peyote, bufotenine, and ayahuasca. Other traditional entheogens include cannabis, ethanol, ergine, psilocybe mushrooms, and opium, to name only a few.



So what do you think? Is this a spiritual cognition or purely a physical chemical reaction?

 

[BruceDLimber]

>Do drugs bring you closer to God?

Clearly not, which is why the Baha'i Faith (among others) explicitly prohibits drug use other than for explicitly medical reasons!

Anything that interferes with the clear functioning of the conscious mind is mere interference and therefore condemned.

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Nerthus]

If one feels that getting high is a spiritual thing and can bring them closer to God, who can say it isn't?

 

[waitasec]

So Bob Marley was quoted to say:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When You smoke herb it reveals you to yourself. All the wickedness you do is revealed by the herb --- it's you conscience and gives you an honest picture of yourself ;[/FONT]

Many spiritual leaders have been known to use LSD to bring themselves closer to god.

Many Priests drink wine to further there communion with God.

Have a read at this article:

From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the tribe of North America, the Egyptians, and the Maya, religious sacraments have included euphorics and hallucinogens. These are called "entheogens" ("God inside us," en εν- "in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates").

Entheogens have been used in a ritualized context for thousands of years; their religious significance is well established in anthropological and modern evidences. Examples of traditional entheogens include: kykeon, ambrosia, iboga, soma, peyote, bufotenine, and ayahuasca. Other traditional entheogens include cannabis, ethanol, ergine, psilocybe mushrooms, and opium, to name only a few.



So what do you think? Is this a spiritual cognition or purely a physical chemical reaction?

i love that quote from bob marley
if i am right, with the very limited knowledge i have of the brain (anyone please correct me if i'm wrong) but when on drugs, doesn't it affect your left hemisphere (the ego side) if that part of your brain is hindered, the right side of our brain takes over which takes in our surroundings as a whole. there is no other choice but to be honest with ourselves with whatever is on our mind at the time...so i would think it's a chemical reaction...

 

[crimsonlung]

>Do drugs bring you closer to God?

Clearly not, which is why the Baha'i Faith (among others) explicitly prohibits drug use other than for explicitly medical reasons!

Anything that interferes with the clear functioning of the conscious mind is mere interference and therefore condemned.

Peace,

Bruce

But what about caffeine? I know Buddhist drink tea to cleanse, are they drinking decaff? What about Marijuana, its naturally grown from the ground and wasn't considered a drug until the last century, clearly past the Bahai' scriptures.

 

[verklingen]

chemical substances that elicit different modes of thought and perception within us are tools placed here by god to use as we wish. i believe the purpose of these tools is to render themselves obsolete by teaching us that the perceptions they generate come from within and are therefor accessible at all times.

 

[outhouse]

So Bob Marley was quoted to say:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When You smoke herb it reveals you to yourself. All the wickedness you do is revealed by the herb --- it's you conscience and gives you an honest picture of yourself ;[/FONT]

Many spiritual leaders have been known to use LSD to bring themselves closer to god.

Many Priests drink wine to further there communion with God.

Have a read at this article:

From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the tribe of North America, the Egyptians, and the Maya, religious sacraments have included euphorics and hallucinogens. These are called "entheogens" ("God inside us," en εν- "in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates").

Entheogens have been used in a ritualized context for thousands of years; their religious significance is well established in anthropological and modern evidences. Examples of traditional entheogens include: kykeon, ambrosia, iboga, soma, peyote, bufotenine, and ayahuasca. Other traditional entheogens include cannabis, ethanol, ergine, psilocybe mushrooms, and opium, to name only a few.



So what do you think? Is this a spiritual cognition or purely a physical chemical reaction?

if you think expanding ones imagination get's you closer to one of the many god's, then by all manner follow that belief.

I think its phyco babble.

 

[ellenjanuary]

Normal consciousness is the workday self. Altering this state allows one a deeper appreciation of self. Can drugs be used to produce this altered state? Sure, but there's a catch. Often the user comes to believe that the altered state is the true self; and that is an illusion.

Knowing oneself is the key to knowing god. Drugs can aid this journey of self-awareness; but often they are dangerous, and they are not entirely necessary. As verklingen has alluded; no drug exists that does not mimic an extant chemical process of the brain.

 

[ChristineES]

All drugs do is change the takers perception of the world around him or her. I doubt that would bring people closer to God. But you never know.

 

[crimsonlung]

Normal consciousness is the workday self. Altering this state allows one a deeper appreciation of self. Can drugs be used to produce this altered state? Sure, but there's a catch. Often the user comes to believe that the altered state is the true self; and that is an illusion.

Knowing oneself is the key to knowing god. Drugs can aid this journey of self-awareness; but often they are dangerous, and they are not entirely necessary. As verklingen has alluded; no drug exists that does not mimic an extant chemical process of the brain.

Your saying here that there is multiple selves inside of us. What is the difference between true self and regular self, are what are the other selves called?

 

[crimsonlung]

if you think expanding ones imagination get's you closer to one of the many god's, then by all manner follow that belief.

I think its phyco babble.

Have you ever done drugs?

 

[ellenjanuary]

Your saying here that there is multiple selves inside of us. What is the difference between true self and regular self, are what are the other selves called?

It's not so much differences of self but purity of expression. In the world we are often forced to wear a mask, due to culture or occupation. In vino veritas, they used to say. The ripping away of inhibition often shows us a deeper meaning to the question "who am I;" which is a question no one wants to hear at work.

I'm ellen, but I have this thing called "the stupid brain;" that functions on some other level. But when those functions become understandable, they are either discarded or become part of ellen. Of course, some days I'm not myself. There's usually alcohol involved...

 

[Kilgore Trout]

People having religious experiences seemed to be spaced-out and high, so it's certainly possible.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

If they bring you closer to a delusion I am sure they would bring you closer to what "you believe" to be God like any hallucinogen.

 

[Penumbra]

So Bob Marley was quoted to say:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When You smoke herb it reveals you to yourself. All the wickedness you do is revealed by the herb --- it's you conscience and gives you an honest picture of yourself ;[/FONT]

Many spiritual leaders have been known to use LSD to bring themselves closer to god.

Many Priests drink wine to further there communion with God.

Have a read at this article:

From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the tribe of North America, the Egyptians, and the Maya, religious sacraments have included euphorics and hallucinogens. These are called "entheogens" ("God inside us," en εν- "in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates").

Entheogens have been used in a ritualized context for thousands of years; their religious significance is well established in anthropological and modern evidences. Examples of traditional entheogens include: kykeon, ambrosia, iboga, soma, peyote, bufotenine, and ayahuasca. Other traditional entheogens include cannabis, ethanol, ergine, psilocybe mushrooms, and opium, to name only a few.

So what do you think? Is this a spiritual cognition or purely a physical chemical reaction?

I don't think priests use wine to further communication with god. Wine is usually consumed in small amounts so it's not really a factor I think. Other than that, those are solid examples.

My partner became slightly more religious after using cannabis, but it only lasted for a while. Some people that have described experiences with god have sounded like drug experiences. I do think that experiences involving drugs or the brain's natural ability to experience drug-like situations have given religion some fuel to work with.

 

[no-body]

Drugs are just tools. While they can bring you closer to the spiritual they don't have the depth that you would get from having a sober mystical experience, since you are taking a shortcut.

Taking these drugs by themselves accomplishes little, you must have the right mindset before you take them and they assist you as the Native Americans do before they take peyote. If you rely on them alone you are wasting your time.

A good analogy I have heard is... you can be shown how to drive a car but eventually the driver is going to step out and then it's all up to you, no one is going to chauffer you around. This is the failure of the "psychadelic" movement and to quote Hunter Thompson, their failures is ours too.

(I'm rambling a bit but it seemed apropos to the thread)

 

[outhouse]

Have you ever done drugs?

is that relevent?

 

[verklingen]

^about as relevant as asking whether you've been close to god, i suppose

 

[crimsonlung]

is that relevent?

it was a question, don't have to get all defensive, sounds like you need some cannabis yourself.:rainbow1:

 

[Storm]

So what do you think? Is this a spiritual cognition or purely a physical chemical reaction?

I don't know, but I'm not prepared to say they're mutually exclusive.