|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Psychedelic Mindview: An Alternative Point of View By Bruce Sewick These societies view these plants as gifts of the gods, if not the gods themselves When you hear the term “psychedelic” or “hallucinogen,” an image of flower children tripping to seventies music may come to mind. If you hear the term “entheogen” you might not be aware of the etymological transformation that has occurred philosophically regarding psychedelic terminology and use in the decades since then. This new term, which translates as “the god within,” acknowledges the possible spiritual/healing potential of these substances. To put this transformation in perspective, it is useful to explore the role of psychedelic substances throughout history including their use by indigenous cultures, in religious contexts, psychotherapy, art, and in the political context of the sixties. Psychedelic research may be the field with the greatest gap between information scholars and scientists have discovered and what the general public knows. The use of psychedelic plant substances in a spiritual context goes back so far into prehistory that the whole idea of a deity could have arisen as a result of the effects of these agents. The difference between the use of these substances in our culture and their use in pre-industrial societies lies in the difference concerning their purpose and origin. These societies view these plants as gifts of the gods, if not the gods themselves. The sacred mushrooms, for example, have a long history in religion and were ceremonially ingested in Mesoamerica more than three thousand years ago (Schultes & Hoffman, 1979). Psychedelics also had a history as a therapeutic tool starting in 1949 with the use of LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. A decade of intense LSD research resulted in several international conferences and over a thousand papers describing research focused on alcoholics, narcotic-drug addicts, subjects with various character/emotional disorders, and sexual deviations. LSD was seen as a catalyst that activated the unconscious process in an unspecific way. It was also found to be useful in the care of patients dying of cancer and other incurable diseases. The concept of mental illness as a chemical imbalance also came about as a result of early psychedelic research. The fact that LSD could cause a transitory psychotic disturbance offered a possible biochemical explanation for mental dillness. Attempts to alleviate this “lysergic psychosis” could point to a cure for schizophrenia. The “cure” didn’t happen, but Thorazine was found to mollify the LSD reaction, and was eventually used to treat psychosis in the mentally ill. Prior to this research, mental illness was thought to be caused by environmental factors such as poor parenting. This research essentially stopped when LSD was classified as a Schedule I drug according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. In our society, based on the Western medical paradigm, anything called a “drug” must be simple medicine or substance of abuse. No distinction is made between substances such as marijuana, psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, cocaine, or methamphetamine; they are all considered drugs of abuse by the DEA. The war on drugs, which makes drug use a police problem, continues to fuel the jail industrial complex as a result. The United States has 5% of the world’s population, but has 25% of the world’s prison population, due mostly to the current drug laws. These laws disproportionately affect people of color. Although African Americans comprise 12.2% of the population and are 13% of drug users, they make up 38% of those arrested for drug offenses and 59% of those convicted of drug offenses. At this rate, more African American children will go to prison than to college! The inequality in sentencing is illustrated in the disparity between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine sentences. Although 1 gram of powdered cocaine produces .89 grams of crack cocaine, it only takes 5 grams of crack to trigger a mandatory minimum sentence versus 500 grams of powdered cocaine. This results in greater arrests/incarceration in the black community. Felony convictions, including those as a result of the drug laws, have resulted in 1.4 million African American men permanently losing their right to vote. As of this year 1 out of every 31 Americans are under adult correctional supervision including persons on probation or parole or incarcerated in a local jail or a State or Federal prison. Let’s look at some of the annual causes of death in the United States as a way to gauge the effect of lifestyles and put things in perspective. Tobacco 435,000 Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000 Alcohol (does not include motor vehicle deaths as a result of drinking) 85,000 Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000 Sexual Behaviors 20,000 Illicit Use of Drugs 17,000 Anti-Inflammatory Drugs such as Aspirin 7,600 Marijuana 0 Looking at these statistics, which are updated yearly on the Common Sense for Drug Policy website (www.csdp.org), one wonders, for instance, why marijuana arrests are the centerpiece of the War on Drugs. According to the Marijuana Policy Project, one person is arrested for marijuana every 42 seconds, with 88% of all arrests for possession alone. The civil forfeiture laws allow police to seize money and property of suspected marijuana offenders, even if charges are not filed. In the Netherlands, where adult possession and purchase of small amounts of marijuana are allowed under a regulated system, the rate of marijuana use by teenagers is far lower than in the US. Government funding favors research focusing on the dangers of drug use rather than any possible medicinal/therapeutic use. A good example of this is illustrated by the research done in 2002 by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers led by Dr. George Ricaurte. This research announced dramatic, frightening findings about the effects of the drug ecstasy (MDMA) on the human brain. The research results suggested that a single recreational dose of ecstasy could lead to brain damage and Parkinson’s disease, and was widely touted by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and helped create the panicked atmosphere in which the repressive RAVE (Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstacy) Act became law. This legislation created new civil penalties for owners or users of property upon which illegal drug trafficking activities are conducted; they could be fined up to $250,000, or double their gross receipts, whichever is greater. As it turns out, it was methamphetamine mistakenly labeled as ecstasy that was being tested. Despite this travesty, the RAVE law still stands. On the medical marijuana front, the FDA still insists there is no medicinal use of marijuana despite evidence to the contrary. In June, 2001, with support from the Multi-Disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Professor Lyle Craker, Director of the Medicinal Plant Program at the Umass-Amherst Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, applied to the DEA for a license to manufacture marijuana for federally-approved research. The DEA refused, resulting in a lawsuit being filed against the DEA on the grounds that their rationale for rejecting this request was flawed. It is clear that the government does not condone scientific research around the use of medical marijuana. It is to be hoped that the tide is beginning to shift, allowing legitimate research into the medicinal/therapeutic and religious use of certain substances for the benefit of mankind. There are some encouraging developments on this front. The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a religious group’s (UDV) use of a sacramental plant (ayahuasca) that contains DMT, a Schedule I substance. There is also approved research investigating the use of MDMA as an adjunct to therapy in the treatment of PTSD and anxiety associated with Advanced-Stage Cancer. Other countries such as Israel and Switzerland are interested in exploring the use of MDMA therapeutically What is clearly needed is research that is not influenced by a political agenda, and the education of the public about the healing properties of some of these psychedelic substances. Unlike the use of these “drugs” in the sixties, we now have a context with which they may be used safely in a controlled environment. This environment may be in a religious ceremony or in a therapeutic paradigm. As the baby boomers of my generation age and face their life’s ultimate challenge in death, they might want the freedom to legitimately access the potential of psychedelic/entheogenic substances without fear of arrest and incarceration. Timothy Leary used to say: “Just say know.”
Psychedelic Mindview Class. This course is offered for one credit hour at the |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
All content and articles copyright ©2006 by Lightworks Inc except where noted. All rights reserved.