November 12, 2015. As I write these characters signifying the idea
of 'today' on the page, I remember a few years ago, in November 2012,
wondering if some quantum shift was going to go down before the end of
the year. Then, the moment just passed... like Y2K... and it appears
that it's just more of the same, 'business as usual.' I have not seen
the promised metamorphosis of human consciousness. If anything, I feel
more depressed as the years go by and I get older, watching all the same
(and sometimes even worse) stupid human tricks and wondering why? What
is this life for, anyway? Will we - collectively - EVER wake up? I
have a hard time even going out shopping for things I need, as my
heart's desire to be compassionate and non-judgmental towards every
BEING vies with my observation and absolute loathing of
humanity's collective faults. I find myself saying things like "I love
people - individual ones - but hate humans," and more often than not I
stay home from public events, more of a hermit than I ever thought
possible. And yet there is STILL a spark in me, for example when I am
in line at the grocery store waiting to check out, that inspires me to
want to lift up the energy, to connect, to reach out. Which I
do. Despite everything. Confirming, for me, that the world is not
completely devoid of hope. Even if it feels that way sometimes.
Interesting
way to start this all up again! Just wanting to be real, I guess, and
speak to my current moment. I started writing this blog last week
(November 5th), thinking I was ready to be back in blogging mode, but
instead I got caught up reading about fragmentation and dislocation, a
subject worthy of attention here, as exploring the roots of addiction
and 'how we got here' as a society is part of the larger conversation of
what to do about the enormous problems besetting humanity and the array
of solutions offered by the spiritually-motivated use of entheogens.
According to Bruce K. Alexander, author of The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit,
the fragmentation of existing societies has been escalating for the
last five centuries. The basic definition of this term is hard to
determine, as it has seemingly become a 'catch-all' word to describe
many different aspects of the ills of modern society. What I can glean
from sifting through many diverse definitions is that fragmentation
means dividing into smaller and smaller parts, a move away and apart
from the concepts of unity and cohesiveness. A fragmented society will
not identify as a collective and will not share values, beliefs, social
norms, etc, although each particular fragment will share these
with intensity (ie white supremacists, religious sects, political
parties, etc). The ultimate fragmentation is to strip all other
groupings away till we just have individuals and everyone is 'doing
their own thing' for their own betterment. This is pretty much
glorified by the 'me first' attitude of our culture, by the concept of
'rugged individualism' and even the 'American Dream,' and pointedly
exemplified by corporations (run by individuals) who continue to destroy
our Earth home for short-term financial gain at the expense of, well,
everyone and everything else.
This fragmentation of
society has extreme costs to the individual, creating psychological
devastation such as alienation, disconnection, and dislocation. The
first two terms seem self-explanatory. Mr. Alexander goes on to write
the following abut the third term: "Dislocation refers to the experience
of a void that can be
described on many levels. On a social level it is the absence of
enduring and sustaining connections between individuals and their
families and/or local societies, nations, traditions, and natural
environments. In existential terms, it is the absence of vital feelings
of belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose. In spiritual terms it can
be called poverty of the spirit, lack of spiritual strength,
homelessness of the soul, or feeling forgotten by God." (1)
"Alexander sees this as an age of '...unprecedented, worldwide collapse of psychosocial integration.”' (2) "However,
prolonged, severe dislocation has a high price, because it eventually
undermines the normal societal bases of belonging, identity, meaning,
and purpose, leaving a unbearably empty and powerless experience of the
world." (3)
I resonate with this. I feel the lack of
meaningful traditions, the lack of connection to 'place,' the lack of
belonging to and sharing a deep connection with my extended family and
community; I also feel outside of and at odds with this society,
antagonistic to what I see our culture stands for. In fact I feel our culture
stands for 'no culture,' as evidenced by the gentrification of every
region of America into Wal-Mart- and McDonald-Land. Cheap, poorly made
goods, with little to no aesthetic value; or cheap, poorly made 'food',
with little to no nutritional value: this is how I view these hallmarks
of American culture.
In addition, I connect to the
feeling of lack of meaning, especially when looking at life from my
children's point of view. They are young adults, recently out of the
home - and what are they supposed to do now? Go to college and get
themselves $80,000 in debt? Somehow find a way to pay rent and other
bills while working a minimum wage job? Not motivated by making money,
they have also apparently inherited my lack of motivation to be
identified by a career. So what is the meaning of an 'undefined' life?
Does one have to have a career to find life meaningful? What does my life
even mean? I have had a lot of labels over the years: homemaker,
teacher, choir director, singer, performer, house-cleaner, office
assistant - and not one of them defines me, really. Is that what makes our lives meaningful, the labels we use
to describe ourselves?
Obviously I don't think so, or I would have worked on having at least a more consistent one!
I
think it all has to do with a person's sense of purpose. Partly it is
the programming we receive from parents, family and community: the
values we are taught and whether or not we ascribe to them. In my case,
I 'bought' the necessity of getting a college degree, even to the point
of getting my Master's in Education - only to have the Federal laws
change, making my teaching degree invalid (but not, unfortunately,
invalidating my debt). My children, despite being brought up to value
education, are not making the same choices. But honestly, their lack of choice is also a choice, and I have concerns about their futures (how mom-ish, I know - but true).
In my
recent work with other youth, my children's' peers, I have been increasingly aware of a sense of lack of purpose. These young people just don't seem to
know what to do with their lives, apart from the present moment. They know they need money to live but
resent having to go do some meaningless job for low pay (don't blame them there). From my point of view, they seem to
exist for one reason only: to entertain themselves. Feeling no
connection to any tradition, alienated from this society as a whole
(which to them is complete bullshit), and oftentimes not connected to
their parents or family, or to any extended family, the youth turn to
each other, making their social group their family, just to feel they
belong somewhere. It works, to some extent, to help them get by. But in my opinion, and
experience, the presence of - and prevalence of - addiction in the youth I know, and youth in
general, speaks to the lack of purpose, connection and meaning they are
experiencing.
As mentioned before, the frequency of
addiction in our modern world is increasing exponentially. According to
one statistic,"...the addiction treatment industry in the US alone has
been estimated to
have a $35 billion market, and to be “poised for accelerated growth”
[Munro, 2015, quoted in (1)]. (I will admit to being shocked at that
statistic. Really, wow.) Now comes along a researcher like Bruce
Alexander who feels that addictions are not just some chemical imbalance or genetic pre-disposition, but the result of a person's
grasping to fill the gaping psychological void of dislocation. "Addiction can provide dislocated people with some much needed relief and
compensation for their bleak existence, at least for the short term." (3) This
would be considered an 'adaptive function' of an addiction, in
psych-speak.
"The adaptive function of addiction is often hidden. Many addicted
people deny that they live in a state of dislocation, because they feel
ashamed of their inability to find a secure social life, a sense of who
they are, some values they can believe in, a place they can call their
own, or a reason to get up in the morning, even though they live in a
fragmented society that makes filling these needs problematic for
everybody. They may deny their dislocation because it feels like an
unbearable personal failure and they may be only dimly aware of the
adaptive function of their addiction. (1)
So,
how does all of this relate to using entheogens in a spiritual
context? Well, first of all, and most obviously, entheogens have been
shown to generate the Divine within - otherwise engendering what is known as Unitive Experiences: the experience of everything being ONE and all of it being LOVE. "Unitive Experience historically was seen as the experience of becoming one with the Divine. It is an experience which usually leads to a sense of clarity, inner quiet, and a new sense of being which transcends our usual experience of being a separate self." (4)
A person experiencing this state would feel immediate relief from feelings of alienation, disconnection and dislocation.
If in fact these feelings play into addictions, then the relief of such
feelings should help reduce addiction. This is, in fact, supported by
research, and by my own experience.
To take it to the personal, for me, the feeling of being connected to everything inspired in me a renewed sense of purpose, and a re-commitment to living my own life, something that was not 100% before then. Sometimes I used to wonder why I was alive, and why I should even stay here (ie stay alive). Since I started praying with the medicine, I have been able to quit smoking tobacco, a habit of over twenty nine years, almost six years ago, and I also was able to finally quit drinking alcohol two and a half years ago. I still have some addictions, compulsions, and other weird trips - but those two were the worst - and I view my experiences with the medicine as vitally important in supporting me to evolve past these addictions.
If dislocation
is the experience of the absence of belonging, identity, meaning, and
purpose, and it is possible to safely and with intention have an experience of belonging, an expanded sense
of connection to something greater than your small self, resulting in a renewed sense of meaning and purpose, wouldn't that be, like, the best thing, ever? Too bad it is (for now) against the law! THAT is just one more reason why I am writing this book!
OK
well it has been most of the day already. Amazing how the time goes
by! I am excited about the next steps for this book project. Please stay tuned for more, and share if you feel inspired!
(1)
Alexander, Bruce K. "Healing Addiction Through Community: A Much Longer
Road Than it Seems."
http://www.brucekalexander.com/articles-speeches/healing-addiction-through-community-a-much-longer-road-than-it-seems2
(2) Skinner, Wayne. "Homeless Souls: Addiction as Adaptation to Psychosocial Dislocation. Crosscurrents: The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health,
2010, Volume 14, Number 2.
http://www.brucekalexander.com/my-books/reviews-of-my-books/265-homeless-souls-addiction-as-adaptation-to-psychosocial-dislocation
(3)
Alexander, Bruce K. "Addiction, Environmental Crisis, and Global
Capitalism."
http://www.brucekalexander.com/articles-speeches/283-addiction,-environmental-crisis,-and-global-capitalism
(4) http://www.jflory.org/contemplative_quaker/mys_eng.htm
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