CHAPTER 4 * SPIRITUAL BENEFITS

THE THIRD DIMENSION

It is relatively easy to demonstrate that marijuana is healthy for the body, since its physiological benefits can be tested objectively as well as subjectively by marijuana users. Psychological stability, although not quite so readily measurable, depends on an integration between the conscious and unconscious flow of ideas. Again, the effect of marijuana corresponds to the acceptable framework of healthy awareness. However, when we address the benefits of marijuana upon the inner fabric of humanness, we begin to tread on thin ice. Since this inner world cannot be seen or measured, the materialistic perspective tends to ignore its existence.

In many societies, experimentation with growth beyond this level (of an effective ego) is not encouraged. In fact, if it involves an investment of energy that detracts even temporarily from one’s material productivity, it may be actually discouraged. Investing time or energy into developing oneself beyond the ego level may be better understood or appreciated by a society where economic success and material possessions are not the major criteria by which one is judged. Experimentation with higher states of consciousness may be regarded with suspicion or considered wasteful nonsense. (Ajaya 1977)

In the area of private values, marijuana may offer benefits beyond the personal ego, which reach the dimension referred to by mystics and saints as the ever- present “now.” The experience addresses states on consciousness not common to the common man, and resembles Maslow’s “peak experience.” Rather than being a concrete, stable reality, this realm approaches intuition and ecstasy; and apprehends an unusual connectedness with the whole of life. Daily existence becomes but an invisible script where what matters is the attitude by which one lives. In the world of thought and relationship, honesty and compassion are the prime motivators, while material gain and loss are secondary. This is really an ascension to religious values, not familiar or even welcomed within the context of modern society, but certainly containing great benefit for individual happiness. Our culture has become anti-religious. Our society is based on getting, not giving, and even though our words uphold virtue and love as worthy goals, hardly anyone even tries to live by such a philosophy. The regular use of marijuana, however, can often set the stage for receptivity to this higher knowledge or level of being.

HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS

To ascent the ladder of consciousness, human beings need as much help as they can get. States of consciousness above the concerns of personal survival and power are neither necessary for human life, no even visible from ordinary states of mind. (Because these states of consciousness threaten the power structure, all means to them are often outlawed.) If we are not taught by some older, wiser person that deep and timeless perceptions really exist (or unless we ourselves fortuitously catch a glimpse of these subjective realities), we remain ignorant of their existence, and thus are easily molded into the lower social goals of materialism, competition, and power. This less enlightened state of consciousness is expressed by a gnawing dissatisfaction unable to be eliminated. It is the dimension of perennial desire where, with each fulfillment of a goal/need/want another void erupts. In Buddhism, it is the realm of nightmarish, insatiable hunger, which cannot be resolved unless, and until, the beinghood attains to a less self-centered level. Deep within each of us, an essential need for a higher meaning of life waits to be awakened. Because of its ability to unlock this yearning and allow us a glimpse of the deeper reality, marijuana is both feared by the establishment and loved by the user. Speaking about the personality change that some people undergo as a result of introduction to Cannabis, Inglis says that it does not intoxicate...is not addictive...But (it) confronts society with an issue that it has been unwilling to face. People may need (this) not it (its) own right, but as a preliminary to restoration of the link, largely, lost, between man’s (and woman’s) consciousness, and all that lies beyond it. The personality change may be for their benefit! (Inglis 1975:229) Quoting from the La Dain Committee, he continues, The positive values people find in the...experience bear a striking similarity to traditional religious values, including the concern with soul, or inner self. The Spirit of renunciation, the emphasis on openness and the close-knit community are part of it, but this is definitely a sense of identification with something larger, something to which one belongs as part of the human race. (ibid:229)

It is mainly because spiritual values are abandoned during eras of materialism that marijuana is banned today. And, ironically, it is because these values are so absent in the modern culture that the marijuana experience is so ardently sought. Despite all the pressures brought against, Cannabis use rose until today (it) may well be America’s single largest agricultural product...the innate drive to restore the psychological balance typifying (a)partnership society, once it finds a suitable vehicle, is not easily deterred (McKenna 1992:165)

The regular use of marijuana is a sane attempt at adaptation that occurs spontaneously among certain marginal members of a group. Without an “evolutionary leap” in human priorities, the danger of extinction is real. Evolution for human beings is toward an expansion of consciousness, or cooperation, in response to present day alienation.

THE SCIENCE OF VIBRATION

Thousands of years ago, in a non-hostile climate, known today as the cradle of civilization, marijuana was used extensively. Out from this Eden-like existence, a profound spiritual cosmology developed. “The Science of Vibration” is as valid today as it was then, but progression to our modern life- style (and away from inner values) excluded interest in it. Only in the last few decades had the industrialized world paid it any serious attention. Perhaps investigation into the higher human values could not surface in the industrial West until all imaginable physical, psychological, and social dysfunction reached dangerous proportions. Perhaps the farther a culture falls from recognizing the realm of the sacred, the more need exists for it to do so. Whatever the explanation, whatever the impetus, there can be no doubt of the interest that exists today concerning higher consciousness. This interest represents a dynamic tension pulling against the material ethic, for which marijuana has served as an abiding ally.

In the Eastern sciences, the vibrational make-up of creation is evidenced not only in the cosmos, but also through the human form, which is recognized as a miniature representation of the universe. Whatever principles apply to the macrocosm and its processes, apply equally to the functioning of human life. With this logic, and with extensive personal experimentation, it has been discovered that the human body has a containment of powerful energy polarized along the spinal column, divided into a dynamic negative charge (at the base of the spine) and a static positive charge (at the crown of the head) - very much in keeping with the magnetism and repulsion of electro-magnetic fields. Only a minuscule percentage of the total charge is used to maintain the organism, leaving a vast surplus of potential energy untapped. To trigger this dormant energy - to transverse the entire spinal pathway - stands as the highest goal of life in Eastern philosophy. With such a release (likened to the “nuclear energy of the psycho/physical system” Saraswati 1984), the human being is said to fulfill his/her potential.

The ascent of this charge follows the vertical column within the spine in much the same way that electricity is born along a lightening rod. As it flows upward, with the speed of light, it passes through interracial electromagnetic centers of the body that result from congested intersections of major nerves and organs. These centers are called “chakras” in the East, and they correspond to modes of behavior or levels of understanding. (Although chakras are not visible, their fields of energetic congestion are measurable, and in the West are just beginning to be investigated). Dr. Andrew Weil, one of the pioneers of Western Holistic Medicine, explains it this way:

Potential circuits exist for conducting unconscious impulses upward, as anyone knows who is aware of his daydreams and intuitions. The sealing of these channels from above forces unbalanced, unconscious energies down the autonomic nerves to produce negative physical effects...If we never learn to open these channels by disengaging our minds from ordinary consciousness, we condemn ourselves to sickness. (Weil and Rosen 1983:63)

As we have seen, marijuana’s effect on the brain, although surely not as dramatic as total release of this contained psychonuclear charge, offers a similar, if toned down replication. It lends a taste to this intuitive faculty, and for that reason, along with meditation and yoga, marijuana has been consistently employed by Eastern spiritual practices.

When the right hemisphere of the brain is especially stimulated, latent intuitive powers of extrasensory perceptions, such as clairvoyance, telepathy begin to unfold. (Sarswati 1984:67)

The brain has two major modes of systems, which must work together and be harmonized if we are not to lose the essentials of our human existence. Unfortunately, few of us are really balanced and most of us, especially men, tend towards the purely external, materialistic and technological...side rather than the subtle, intuitive, feeling side. (ibid:365)...Most of us fluctuate, according to our inner biological rhythms, moving from left to right brain, right to left nostril, active to receptive mode...From the yogic point of view, this rhythmic, or in the case of disease, arrhythmic swing, indicates that we are unbalanced and that one mode, one side of our nature is constantly becoming predominant. We rarely experience the more desirable state in which both sides become equal and balanced. According to yoga, when both the sad (left) and happy (right) hemispheres are balanced for a certain length of time, a new state arises which unites logic and intuition, transforms our emotions and enables us to power a greater range of neurological activity. (ibid:367)

The Christian mystic, de Chardin, explaining this same process says “physical energy must be mastered and grounded for spiritual energy to move, because physical energy transforms the spirit” (Ferguson 1973). Within the deep recesses of human understanding, the intuitive faculty steers its course. For many who are in tough with this sixth sense, the realm of the spirit is supreme. Anything that demonstrates a possibility for psycho/spiritual uplifting is known to be sacred. Marijuana is so recognized and revered. “Bhang brings union with the Divine Spirit.” (Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1969:491)

Evolution of a person is demarcated by stages in all esoteric teachings. “The Theory of Vibration” is a seven-fold ascension that originates in the lowest human emotion of instinctive survival, situated at the base of the spine, and rises to the highest experience of pure awareness, above the crown of the head (as a halo). (Seven is a mystical number in all esoteric religions, as it represents the stages of possible human evolution. Its meaning has, for the most part, been forgotten.) In this model, each level of psycho-spiritual evolvement has a corresponding energetic density, and a geographical site (“chakra”) in the body. Each person displays a certain attitude, a predominant way of perceiving both inner and outer world, and also a type of action depending upon his/her stage of evolution. At the lower levels, which Freud studied extensively, there is an animal-like nature (‘id’) that is concerned solely with personal survival. This is an accurate account of the qualities of the low, second “level” (chakra) attitude. Freud’s investigations were not concerned with demonstrating the evolutionary possibilities of humanness. His patients were limited by their extreme pathologies, and his own intellectual model did not envision development beyond an ego, driven always, only by primal desire.

CONSCIENCE

With marijuana, we uncover the unconscious creative understanding that is usually hidden, since as we have seen, right brain energizing brings an expansion in awareness (or witness). It is not the right hemisphere’s increases activity alone that expands awareness. It is the balancing mode that is born with additional activity in the right hemisphere - responsible for heightened consciousness. Balance is the stage of human development from which the “objective witness” is born. It implies harmony in all areas of life, so that no distraction or restriction interferes with growth toward the fullness of human potential. The difference between consciousness with a ‘witness’ and ordinary consciousness is not other than the difference between operating with a conscience or without one. In ordinary life, we are all bound by Freud’s superego, which maintains our behavior according to the social ideals we have been taught. This is the (internalized) repressive element of civilization, which restrains our animal natures from actions considered harmful to society, our church, our parents, and our peers. Without it, normal social life could not continue.

The Ten Commandments were presented to a social group that no longer functioned conscientiously, and therefore needed mandatory direction. Within the deeper levels of human nature, however, an objective, timeless, universal sense of right and wrong exists. This is conscience. Unfortunately, the rules of our world are far removed from this inherent, eternal, inner understanding of right action. Our inner world can know, but our imbalanced way of life does not allow for its fruition. From a vibrational perspective this can be understood as a lack of energy, excessive resistance, or low charge - all due to disharmony. Through balance, with time and interest, marijuana can enliven the “Cent of Knowing.” In the Theory of Vibration, this is the sixth level of development know as the “Knowledge Center.” What re refer to as the sixth sense, or intuition, derives from this esoteric symbol, which very often is depicted as a third eye, located at the middlebrow:

Where the mind perceives knowledge directly, via a sixth or intuitive sense, which comes into operation as the sixth (knowledge) chakra awakens...where one becomes the detached observer of all events, including those within the body and mind...often, the experience one has when awakening takes place in the Ajna Chakra (Knowledge Center) is similar to that induced by marijuana. (Sarawati 1984:138)

Jesus Christ referred to this very same awakening that is evidenced within the body: “If therefore thine eye be single, they whole body shall be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22)

CONSEQUENCES OF CONSCIENCE

As we have seen, many an argument against marijuana refers to the non- competitive nature it engenders. During the Vietnam War, one of the major problems of our soldiers was their inability to accept the brutality of their own actions. Our young men encountered marijuana at every turn in Asia (the Vietnam War was the beginning of marijuana use in this country, after half a century of repression. It was the first time a status and education cross-section of America was exposed to it), and their reaction was often not in keeping with the insensitivity necessary for war. Their conscience bothered them. Gaining higher values, such as compassion, cooperation, and consideration, is a function of balance and a threat to a militaristic society. If we all became aware of our conscience, who would be left to maintain the indifference of the social order? The more we uncover the spiritual element in our natures, the more sensitive we become. Scrooge had no conscience until he experienced the spirit. He was surely happier and healthier after his vision, but not wealthier, for his conscience dictated that he share. His new-felt sensitivity did not result from rules, fear, or his superego. It overflowed joyfully as an expression of his higher state of being.

Marijuana’s contribution to the developing spirit is cumulative. As bodily tensions are reduced, mental fears dissolve, clearing the way to greater insight. But, until the direct effect (physical balance) of marijuana on the body and the attendant side effect (high) of marijuana in the mind become familiar, the alterations themselves remain the focus of interest. The “getting high” is the end in itself, rather than the understanding and insight that accrues as the changed set becomes more common. People who try marijuana and reject it do so usually because they feel uncomfortable and confused in the altered, fuller consciousness. Instead of life being safely framed by the rigidity of the societal dogma, the world becomes unfamiliarly bigger, brighter, fuller, yet less manageable, more unpredictable and full of mystery. A mind that has been bound and accustomed to a low charge or a setting without light very often finds the expansiveness of reality too highly energized. The light can be blinding and disorienting. Over time, and with regular intake, when these higher states of seeing are no longer the focal point of attention, a restructuring of values may emerge.

HOLISTIC FRAMEWORK OF BODY/MIND/SPIRIT

In the ancient philosophies there was no division between medicine, psychology, or religion. Today’s conventional disciplines split the body from the mind, and only grudgingly acknowledge the possibility of spirit. The medical doctor administers to the body, the psychologist to the mind, and the priest to the somewhat elusive notion of the spirit. In contrast with these divisions, holistic health (integrating psychology, medicine, and spiritual counseling) has gained a foothold in prevailing attitudes. By tapping the wisdom of ancient civilizations, and demonstrating its validity through modern techniques, a new potential for understanding human life is available to this time period. Less restriction, more tolerance, less fear, more compassion, all qualities of higher consciousness, are functions of long term marijuana use.

The three human centers of body/mind/spirit were realized, studied, and suppressed many times over the course of human existence. Evidence supports the notion that esoteric knowledge arrived at the same conclusion from all diverse areas (Suffis, Hopis, Cabalists) of human habitation around the world - only top be lost amid the cyclical ebb and flow of various cultural upheavals. The Gnostic Gospels - long denied existence by the Church Fathers - uphold a less material-bound ethic, closer to the deeper values of true religion. These Gospels are spiritually focused and speak to the higher nature, calling for introspection and subjective interpretation of private experiences, instead of reliance on an outer authority such as the institution of church. Understandably they represented a threat to organized religion. “Their existence was simply denied until the last decade when the truth was finally publicized” (The Gnostic Gospels, Pagels). The Catholic Church still denies their validity.

The timeless, higher values have been submerged over the entire gamut of what is termed “modern” history (six hundred years or so). In their place, religious institutions set forth regulations that serve the organizations, and the pleasure of fellowship, but hold little possibility for personal experiences of joy. The esoteric kernel of merger with the sublime has been lost, and with it the methods to attain to full understanding. Yet, by definition, true religion strives to increase wisdom and compassion. That is why, to many, the marijuana experience is religious. It allows for a more meaningful assessment of the whole of life when unstable elements of the personality are resolved.

All experience, say the mystics, is but one piece of an infinite puzzle. Science continually discovers a piece at a time. This modern practice overlooks the forest for the trees. The cooperation of body/mind/spirit is the ultimate holistic framework of human potential, but generally escapes our modern, materialistic minds. Marijuana, an ancient plant, used for thousands of years, throughout ancient civilizations to benefit this integration, is being used today for this very same reason, by persons who love the effect it has on them and their lives, without exactly understanding its operation. Hopefully, we have lessened that ignorance.

THE QUESTION OF SOUL

The mechanical models of biology had a strong influence on medicine (and all the social sciences) which has come to regard the human body as a machine. Scientists treat matter as dead and completely separate from themselves. (Capra)

Modern psychology has sought to disassociate from religious beliefs...to show itself to have a scientific attitude. (Ajaya)

Above all else, I yearn to display the wonderful and long forgotten healing qualities of marijuana to everyone - from politicians to doctors, from drug counselors to all stressed and sick people, I carefully avoided that the immortal soul orchestrates our every turn; and explained the workings of the body and mind, without being clear that my entire premise is based on this: That directing all human functions is the individual, indivisible, immortal soul.

There is an ancient Hindu narrative that is well-known to students of Yogic Science. It clarifies the posture responsible for the East’s seemingly limitless knowledge of the labyrinthine workings of the Universe (the human organism included) - while at the same time uncovering the disparity between the reductionistic methodology of Western Materialism.

“There is a River. It flows with observable rhythm, in harmony with the Celestial Lights. The Eastern student notices this fact, in quietude with absorbed and one-pointed interest. The river’s existence is sustenance to all flora and fauna in its path - all of which the student scrutinizes and registers to memory. The tributaries of the river give life to the crops and allow for the continuation of the (past and present) groupings of civilization, as well as all domesticated and wild animals, all flowers and edible vegetation. This the student studies, learning how and when the river ebbs and flows, down to its most minuscule cause and effect (without any self-serving motive to alter or control this natural process). Because of none other than innate curiosity to understand the Cause of all that is Created, the seeker begins his (her) investigation. The search is slow, encompassing the student’s entire thrust and takes the seeker to ever higher levels up the mountain, where everything becomes finer, purer, or in other words more simple and predictable.

With each ascension to the next higher plateau, less and less baggage may be carried. Less dense forms of eating, thinking and breathing are natural to this learning process which allows for subjective perceptions to become more lucid since less diversions abound as the climb continues to The Single Source of All.

After endless study, always of an experimental nature, the serious seeker reaches to the top of the mountain - from which springs the river in endless profusion. At this point - is the attainment of yogic satisfaction - at the Third Eye - where the individual soul knows itself in direct relationship to the Mystery (since the body and mind have been purified and are no longer hindrances - the goal of yoga).

Atop the rock, sits a Western scientist, having arrived (typically) by helicopter, without benefit of noticing any of the precise workings of the eternal flow. The Westerner has much baggage in the way of apparel and apparatus to aid in breathing the thin air, not having gotten accustomed to such fine oxygen over time (electronic devices and modern communication tools as well - in abundance). The scientist plans to tap the source for profit. S/he notices the yogi(ni), who has shed almost all baggage, attire, and even food stuff, sitting in idle and blissful oblivion.

The scientist asks the typical question that mechanically springs to a grasping, information-filled head: ‘Why and How does the water flow?’

The yogi(ni) departs from silence - astonished that such a question is being asked. s/he answers: ‘Thou are That’ (which is of contemptible disinterest to the scientist).”

This story has many variations, and sometimes is longer or shorter. It serves the listener to realize that the Source is mysterious, to be realized and appreciated as the Blessedness it is - not to be challenged or changed. This “knowing” is the level of being compatible with Marijuana as a Sacrament, where the individual soul is intuitively aided in realization of the Divine by the inherent vibration within the plant. It is said that at the sixth (“Ajna”) chakra, one recognizes unitary consciousness from the perspective of the pureness of the unencumbered soul.

The ultimate state of consciousness in the Eastern understanding of the human possibility for evolution is to realize one’s own true nature as identical with the illimitable, immortal consciousness - Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss (“sat, chit, ananda”). By the grace of the Mystery and through the receptiveness of no division (“advaita”), and absolutely Not under the control of the seeker, the aspirant’s consciousness enters the realm of Unity - joining with the ocean of Unitary Consciousness as all separate waves ultimately do so that the “observer and observed are one.” (Krishnamurti).

And the moral of the story is:

The precision and predictability of the workings of the human organism - physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of our nature, just as in the boundless universe, can be observed and understood, with patience, interest and lack of prejudice to an amazing degree of depth, which the Western mind has not yet comprehended. The magnetism of the desire for knowledge, alone will sustain the seeker, only if all preconceived notions and self-serving motives are considered expendable. This is the purification process of yogic practices. All aids to such purification are valid. Once a method for un- coupling from our baggage of conditioning and possessions is discovered, It is unquestionably to be embraced and even worshipped. This is the teaching of the Tantra, the most profound body of religious thought of all Eastern discipline. The HEMP is one such Holy Aid. The Buddha is often depicted in naked meditation with but one hemp seed for nuturance.

In truth, it is the soul that is impacted most prominently with marijuana, and all the intricate, measurable, observable and subjective bodily and mental effects that I have explained so carefully (and so carefully admitting of no such directorship) are secondary to the conscious impact and omniscience of the source that may be imparted to the true seeker by the mystery within the marijuana plant.

I think if I had to explain - in the fewest words possible - exactly what it is that marijuana does, I would have to steal those words from Guy Mount: “It lifts the spirit” so aptly describes the benefits of marijuana whether we view it from the physical, psychological, or spiritual perspective. If by admitting there is a soul within everything alive on this planet, and that everything, including the planet is alive, I “turn off” the secular, scientifically-bound mindset of anyone - let it be.