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Ayahuasca: 41,599Ayahuasca Social Club: 5,418
Entheogens for a More Enlightened World: 393
Entheogenic Anthropology: 2,126
The Terence McKenna Experience: 15,877
Terence McKenna Community: 6,900
Acid Math: 41,599 (I am suspicious because this is the exact number on the Ayahuasca site, but...?)
Acid Math Arts: 5,694
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Anyway, you get the idea - entheogens are quite popular subjects these days!
I specifically wanted to pose this question on these forums, for my book research: does the human species have an innate, biological drive towards altering consciousness? Is there proof, and if so, what is it?
I received a wonderful variety of responses, which were informative, humorous, and helpful.
How We Got Here
Here is the first (and I apologize, but I do not have a source listed for this, except for Facebook!):
I love this picture because it takes a complex idea and makes it instantly understandable - and funny, which is a huge bonus! Of course, this theory had been suggested by many (see Entheogens, Myth and Human Consciousness, by Carl Ruck and Mark Hoffman, or The Entheogenic Evolution: Psychedelics, Consciousness, and Awakening the Human Spirit, by Martin Ball, or Brain and Belief, by John McGraw, just to pick a few off the tip of the iceberg!). Basically, the evolution of our species from primate into the Christ-consciousness of which we are capable (chakras fully activated, a bridge between God and Earth) was assisted over time by entheogenic plant medicines (subtext and may never have happened without them, or may have happened at an excruciatingly slower pace). In a separate post I have written on the topic of historical examples of entheogen use, such as Soma, Manna, and the sacrament used as part of the Greek mystery schools, and more. (Please see Wikipedia (1) for more information on this topic.) So yeah, no need to re-write this part of the story!
However, I will add that all of the religious and world traditions of meditation, austerity practices, mortification, fasting, vision quests, and trance dance, all have the same effect of altering consciousness, just without the use of plants. However, the brain mechanisms are the same, and the drive throughout history of the seeker using a practice to get out of ordinary consciousness is the point.
The Fourth Drive
I was not surprised to find that there is a lot of writing about this particular aspect of the subject, that there is an INNATE human drive towards altering our consciousness. But how can you prove that the drive to alter consciousness is actually, in the words of Ronald Seigal, the fourth drive (after hunger, thirst, and sex, but not necessarily in that order, at least according to my boyfriend (LOL))? This drive is found in both in humans and in animals throughout history. (2) Seigal theorizes that early humans most likely learned about these consciousness-altering plants from animals, as in a scene depicted on a shard of pottery in the Andes, showing a lama eating leaves from a coca plant and a human on the side, reaching for them. Maybe the lama herder saw the lama eating from the plant and then acting especially frisky? At any rate, this is just one of many examples. As we can see from the example of qigong, historically humans have looked to animals for instruction in how to move effortlessly and be in better balance. The first place to look at is our physical system. If we were inherently meant to interact with these plant medicines, then there would probably be...
Biology
On a biological level, our nervous system, like those of rodents and primates, is arranged to respond to chemical intoxicants just as it is to rewards of food, drink and sex. Our brain is wired to be able to interact and communicate (on a chemical level) with these consciousness-altering plants. Why? Why is there a built in mechanism in humans that makes these altered states accessible - possible? This chemical relationship is just another example of how altering our consciousness is natural and part of our innate nature. See Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and God, edited by J Harold Ellens, for more information (although this is a college textbook, and therefore costly!).
Andrew Weil, when talking (3a) about his book The Natural Mind(3b), states that even further, "...the experiences people have (on entheogens) come from within, they come from the nervous system. The drug, or whatever other external thing is done, is a trigger or releaser of that innate experience." In other words, the experiences we have are already part of us, part of our biology!
Naturally Occuring
Weil also co-authored a book with Wilfred Rosen, From Chocolate to Morphine (3b), where they affirm that that humans are born with a need to vary their consciousness. Basing this statement on the cross-cultural example of children spinning or whirling, Weil, in The Natural Mind, demonstrates an important truth: that all children, regardless of race, culture, socio-economic status, or geographical location, engage in behaviors that alter their consciousness, including spinning or whirling, hyperventilating, getting tickled and laughing until they are in near paroxysms, and more. They do this even when their are negative consequences such as nausea or dizziness. I can remember timing my daughter's spinning sessions when she was about 4 years old - I remember the longest she went was 42 minutes, straight. No kidding. She was completely blissed out afterwards, too! I kept wondering if she was a reincarnated Sufi or Whirling Dervish...
Interestingly, animals also search out ways to alter themselves. There have been many documented instances of cows eating a kind of field grass that makes them act 'crazy,' eventually causing them to throw up, after which they go back for more; cats will eat their favorite altering plant and then "trip or spaz out;" birds will eat a kind of berry that makes them fly erratically, even though it makes them much more likely to be caught by predators, and more. The negative consequences don't seem to impact the animals' drive to ingest the substances. Sounds familiar, right?
One teacher even lists mood- or consciousness-altering techniques and/or substances as what he calls "Human Universals," in the same category as dreaming, crying, having different facial expressions for different emotions, joking, language, having different social roles for each gender, and more. (4) These alterant-seeking behaviors are consistent across history, culture, race, social class, and geographical location.
Why Do We Get High?
So, let's take for granted that you agree with all that has been said so far. Still the question remains, WHY do humans want to get high? Several reasons pervade the academic literature. The main ones are that we alter our consciousness for pleasure, for escape (or to avoid pain), for healing, for creativity, and for connection to something larger than the 'small' self (also can be termed 'transcendence'). When looking at the spinning children, we could safely say that their motivation was simple - it is fun to make yourself dizzy!
Unfortunately, in our modern society, many, perhaps even a majority, of people take illegal or recreational drugs to escape their unhappy lives. (Again, I have gone into some of this in previous posts, but never in this context. Bear with me, please! It is kind of tough to sort out how to fit all of this together. Example: I have been writing for about 6 hours today - I have had over 20 reference 'tabs' or pages open, sometimes with as many as 7 at once, and have reorganized the order of subjects in this writing, so far, about 30 times. It is a lot to navigate. And also, really fun! But back to our regularly scheduled program...)
Here are some shocking statistics:
"An estimated 23.1 million Americans need treatment for a problem related to illegal drugs and alcohol, and 18.2 million Americans are diagnosed with a form of mental illness every year... far more than that are suffering from other compulsions and ailments as a result of mass disconnection and social dislocation. Indeed, all life on this planet is threatened by western culture’s dissociation, disembodiment and addiction to consuming, which has now brought us to a mass extinction event, an ecological mega-crisis."(6)
OK, well that just sucks. And, well, is it any wonder that we are the most heavily medicated country in the world? Is it any wonder that in increasingly higher numbers today, our youth are self-medicating in order to forget being dis-empowered, despondent, concerned about the survival of the planet and unsure of the future, and prone to "failure to launch' syndrome?
Of course, an increasing number of people in this country are now turning to entheogens for help in healing from emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, sexual abuse recovery, and more. Some use entheogens for creative insight for their life's work. For example, I was 'shown' this book project, including the title and complete table of contents, during a medicine ceremony.
Why This Matters and What Happens Next
The premise Weil and Rosen had in writing the textbook on mind-altering substances (which, in case you don't know, is a very controversial book in that it was not advising youth to abstain from using the substances it detailed), was to provide information for youth - instead of fear, hype, propaganda, and "Just Say No" rhetoric - so that they can really educate themselves about what is out there and get help in how to go about navigating the innate drive to 'get high.' According to many, at least, those of us who are paying attention, the abstinence model of drug education is not effective, at all; the War on Drugs has failed; and as a result, a growing number of people believe it is time to step up the conversation around how to develop healthy ways to go about satisfying this need. "Individual and group survival depends on the ability to understand and control this basic motivation to seek out and use intoxicants."(2, from the introduction)
Here's another good quote on the subject. "Psychedelics must be globally and indiscriminately reintegrated into the fabric of society, so that their benefits can be reaped and fully scientifically explored." (posted on Facebook from The Beckley Foundation, with this article (6), below:
"When one takes a longer view back through human history, modern western society appears to
be the aberration. Practically every other culture has had carefully prescribed ways of altering
consciousness, often through the use of psychoactive plants or sexual ritual."
The author of this quote claims that sex and drugs saved her life... and she goes on to explain what the two have in common, and why they are such powerful catalysts for change.
"In order to achieve (these) altered states, the final requirement is surrender: a surrender of the
ego, whether through orgasm (la petite mort) or an ego-death experience on psychedelics.
Surrender is often a dirty word in our control freak and victory-obsessed culture. Perhaps this
surrender, this loss of control, is what’s really so subversive about sex and drugs."
My premise is this: Our society would benefit enormously from the establishment of - and I do mean this in every sense of the word - healthy forms of addressing our innate drive to alter our consciousness. We need to acknowledge this drive as a reality, and as a healthy part of being human - my god, it is the search for God, afterall - and then stop moralizing, judging, and fear-mongering and look at the facts: entheogens are among the least habit-forming substances in the entire pool of mind-altering substances. I have not read of a single case where a person was physically addicted to ayahuasca, mushrooms or peyote. You are more likely to develop an addiction to chocolate (mostly due to the sugar...).
If the establishment of these healthy ways to alter consciousness was accomplished through the use of entheogens, with careful attention to set and setting, the added benefit would be individuals' ability to address some of the root causes of both their personal and the collective insanity, in combination with experiences of Unitive Consciousness.
Educating our youth about these plant medicines, and providing support for their exploration, is a third, and I know, very controversial, but I believe extremely necessary, tenet of this new world vision. I like to liken it to contraception and sex education. We can and do have this policy of teaching abstinence to teens as their only form of sex education in some communities. 'Just deny those surging hormones, it's OK, you will feel so proud on your wedding day that you waited...' blah blah blah. Well, that statement may be true, but studies have shown that there is a much higher incidence of teen pregnancy in communities where they only teach abstinence than in communities where they make contraception available. No brainer, right? Kids are going to have sex, no matter what we (adults) say. Ditto with consciousness altering. Our kids have a strong drive to 'get f**ked up' and they are going to go there. However, our society has chosen to deny this reality, leaving kids no other recourse but to sneak around getting high with other kids, and getting into enormous and potentially damaging situations using stronger and stronger drugs with no guidance, no wisdom, and no container. As I have said before, 'the blind leading the blinder.'
OK, I will say it here, because 'they' all do - and it is true for me too, of course: I don't want to sit on a street corner somewhere giving out peyote to kids. I am not interested in helping kids to trip out or go on a 'journey.' I am not advocating for all teenagers to take entheogens, either - although there are some that are ready to do so and who would greatly benefit from the experience. What I know is that kids need a safe container in which to begin to talk about altering consciousness. It could begin with a kundalini breath class, or a juice fast, or yoga, or tai chi, or even collaging - whatever was found to alter their consciousness, even a small amount. The point is to have open, thoughtful conversations on this topic instead of denial, and a venue for authentic community. And our youth seriously need to be taught about the dangers of the following consciousness-altering substances that our society condones: sugar, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, television, and screen time.
Yes, THIS is what is ultimately the most controversial part of these plant medicines. When we surrender, and step outside of the small ego, we see the bigger picture - we get connected - and we can no longer be content just with keeping up with the Jones's, or with being an addict in an addict-producing society. We can no longer turn a blind eye to the Corporatocracy that is ruling (and ruining) our world. We awaken. We begin to take responsibility, And then shit starts to get real.
We have a moment in history right now to change public perception, policy, and practice surrounding the use of entheogens and the choice to alter one's own consciousness as part of a spiritual practice. Let's get on with it!
(1) "Entheogenic Drugs and the Archeological Record." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entheogenic_drugs_and_the_archaeological_recordfor more information on this topic.(2) Seigal, Ronald. Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances.
(3a) Interview with Andrew Weil. 5/22/98. Academy of Achievement, http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/wei1int-1
(3b) Weil, Andrew. The Natural Mind: A Revolutionary Approach to the Drug Problem. 2004 (first published in 1972); Houghton-Mifflin Company, NY, NY.
Weil, Andrew and Rosen, Wilfred. From Chocolate to Morphine: Understanding Mind-Active Drugs. 1983; Houghton-Mifflin Company, NY, NY.
(4) Brown, D E. "Human Universals." http://condor.depauk.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm
(5) Eisner, Bruce. "Why We Get High." 2/25/95, posted on Erowid, https://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/writings/psychoactives_writings11.shtml
(6) Love, Britta. "How Sex and Drugs Saved My Life (and Could Save the World)." Posted on Alternet, http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/how-sex-and-drugs-saved-my-life-and-could-save-world#.VulAGXfvkB8.facebook
