PROGRESS > persecution
Timeless Garden
SEEDS : Religious persecution has made it difficult to collect accurate data on entheogen use.
under
SIEGE : For example, Federal drug policy requires severe penalties for traffickers of even one low dose of LSD [ergot rye] : “not less than 5 years, and not more than 40 years” for a first offense and “not less than 20 years, and not more than life” for a second offense.
under
SIEGE : For example, Federal drug policy requires severe penalties for traffickers of even one low dose of LSD [ergot rye] : “not less than 5 years, and not more than 40 years” for a first offense and “not less than 20 years, and not more than life” for a second offense.
SACRAMENT : In entheogenic churches, clergy would be the likely “traffickers.”
seized by
STRENGTH? : Will a country that prides itself in religious liberty stop persecuting entheogenists?
seized by
STRENGTH? : Will a country that prides itself in religious liberty stop persecuting entheogenists?
SENSE : "Far from trying to avoid the law, Mr Kasarik's preparedness for repeat offending is based on wanting the drug LSD regulated by the state government, so he and others can buy and use it safely." An LSD user for a decade, Mr Kasarik has been so open about his"tripping" that he outed himself online, and has five times taken tabs on the steps of Parliament House - each time accompanied by supporters and a sandwich board advertising the fact. It was the fifth time, in April last year, that Mr Kasarik was arrested, and so got to advance his cause before a magistrate.
towards
SENSIBILITY : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
towards
SENSIBILITY : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
above artwork by Steve Kubby from The Politics of Consciousness : Life Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Ancient - Modern
Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece
Eight Fold Path of Ethnobotany
Scientific Spirituality & Religious Rights
The main issue here is: Does psychedelic use lead to harming others?
Does it lead to carelessness and heedlessness? Do we start disrespecting others through having altered our mind in this way? So if we do use psychedelics, this would be the bottom line: Is it harmful to others or harmful to ourselves?
Does it lead to carelessness and heedlessness? Do we start disrespecting others through having altered our mind in this way? So if we do use psychedelics, this would be the bottom line: Is it harmful to others or harmful to ourselves?
The Religion That Has No Name: The Persecution of Psychedelic Spirituality
This ‘spiritual movement’ has community meeting spaces, with their own rituals, traditions, codes and conventions. At these gatherings there is a very strong sense of this community – people care for one another and help one another to have an enjoyable time, there is a sense of shared purpose and unity that is enjoyed by many when the psychedelic community meet...the psychedelic community needs to consider how it can go about becoming recognised for the legitimate spiritual movement that it is so that it can enjoy the same acceptance and according protections that are afforded to other religious communities.
This ‘spiritual movement’ has community meeting spaces, with their own rituals, traditions, codes and conventions. At these gatherings there is a very strong sense of this community – people care for one another and help one another to have an enjoyable time, there is a sense of shared purpose and unity that is enjoyed by many when the psychedelic community meet...the psychedelic community needs to consider how it can go about becoming recognised for the legitimate spiritual movement that it is so that it can enjoy the same acceptance and according protections that are afforded to other religious communities.
Can psychedelics make us more moral?
In truth, the ban [on psychedelics] has been brief ... it has always been about marketing. What about extending this idea of moral neuroenhancement to people with depression? Anger management issues? Excessive anxiety? This does not imply that a person needs a daily dose. Research has shown that psilocybin has an effect even after one episode.
In truth, the ban [on psychedelics] has been brief ... it has always been about marketing. What about extending this idea of moral neuroenhancement to people with depression? Anger management issues? Excessive anxiety? This does not imply that a person needs a daily dose. Research has shown that psilocybin has an effect even after one episode.
Psychedelics can deepen religious experiences
They have attracted serious scholarly attention. William Richards, who holds several graduate degrees in religion, leads legal psychedelic therapy sessions and is helping to monitor volunteers in the Johns Hopkins study, has written Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences. J.H. Ellens’ two-volume anthology, Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and to God, is the most thorough recent study. These scholars’ research refutes the claim that entheogenists are merely leftover hippies from the 1960s.
They have attracted serious scholarly attention. William Richards, who holds several graduate degrees in religion, leads legal psychedelic therapy sessions and is helping to monitor volunteers in the Johns Hopkins study, has written Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences. J.H. Ellens’ two-volume anthology, Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and to God, is the most thorough recent study. These scholars’ research refutes the claim that entheogenists are merely leftover hippies from the 1960s.
The spirituality of psychedelic users
There does seem to be evidence that there may be a two-way relationship between psychedelic drug use and having spiritual and mystical beliefs. A study on psilocybin by Griffiths et al. (2011) found that people who had never used psychedelic drugs before [participating in a psilocybin study] reported long-term (assessed over a period of 14 months) increases in “death transcendence”. That is, participants expressed an increased belief that there is continuity after death, e.g. belief that death is not an ending but a transition to something even greater than this life. One of the core features of mystical experience is “an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality”.
There does seem to be evidence that there may be a two-way relationship between psychedelic drug use and having spiritual and mystical beliefs. A study on psilocybin by Griffiths et al. (2011) found that people who had never used psychedelic drugs before [participating in a psilocybin study] reported long-term (assessed over a period of 14 months) increases in “death transcendence”. That is, participants expressed an increased belief that there is continuity after death, e.g. belief that death is not an ending but a transition to something even greater than this life. One of the core features of mystical experience is “an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality”.
Reference Quotes
*The situation has degraded to such a point that the late federal Judge J.G. Burciaga, in ruling against the United States government in a criminal case involving drug law stated, "The tattered Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the now frail Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or deprivation of liberty without due process have fallen as casualties in this 'war on drugs' ... today, the 'war' targets one of the most deeply held fundamental rights - the First Amendment right to freely exercise one's religion. [774 F> Supp. 1333 (D.N.M. 1991)]. -Jonathan Ott in The Age of Entheogens & The Angels' Dictionary
As Fang ethnographer James W. Fernandez [1972, 1982] noted : - "We have in the eating of eboka (iboga) eucharistic experience with similarities to Christian communion ... for not only do members of Bwiti practice communion, employing eboka (iboga) instead of bread, but they also boast of the efficacy of eboka (iboga) over bread in its power... Some of the more Christian branches of Bwiti ... speak of eboka (iboga) as a more perfect and God-given representation of the body of Christ. -Jonathan Ott in The Age of Entheogens & The Angels' Dictionary