Well, I agree with you threeblindmice, that not a lot would be accomplished without an ego to drive you around, and to that I might add, judgement doesn't make a bad driving companion. Shiva dances in Creation, and I consider my own activity in the fight to free the herb is an expression of that very dance. But I also think that in this Age, the Age of Information, the big dissolve which is expereinced through meditation, can also be expereinced intellectually by analyzing in scientific terms what is taking place. We are just Sandmen walking in sand.... for me pot makes that breakdown of egocentric consciousness, so much easier to take.
Threeblindmice, if you knew a Rasta Brother, or a Indian Sadhu smoking cannabis profuseley day in and day out, would you worry about there addiction. Curiously, such individuals are some of the fittest people I have seen. Sounds like your projecting your own concerns about your personell use and placing them on others, in a rather patronizing manner.
How Ganja effects one, has a lot to do with how one feels about ganja. Is the thirteen year old gangster smoking a blunt with his rapper pals smoking the same stuff that the Sadhu lifts to his head in honor of Shiva. Yes and No. I started smoking weed when I was 12, and did not start using it with spiritual intent untill I was 27, and recieved a profound relgious expereince while using it, and when that took place I began to be effected differently by the herb. That expereince changed me, and it was almost as if I were a different person before it took place. The drive to explain that experience to the doubting Thomas of my left hemisphere resulted in the ten plus years of reasearch into the cultural and religious use of the herb, which verified it. To you, threeblindmice, ganja may in fact be a pernicous drug of addiction, to me its the Holy Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the healing of the nations and whose fruits befit its partakers.
I am also curious on one other matter, what makes you so sure you have a soul? Where is it? If we took a way the chemistry which makes up your physical body could you offer us any proof of its existence. No brother, all that you have is an idea of a soul.... an idea that was developed by ancient shamans ingesting powerful entheogens and then interpeting the dreamlike states they recieved from them in the chemical soup of their brains, as actual expereinces that somehow took place out-of-the-body. The Christian concept of the soul, Heaven and Hell, are not Jewish beliefs, but came via the Zoroastrian religion. The Zoroastrian's came to there own conclusions about the soul and Heaven and Hell through the revelations recieved by Zoroaster, Hystapes, Ardu Viraf and others, after drinking powerful preperations of bhanga, a cannabis drink.
Quit worrying about it and start Enjoying it!

Hey Clearasday, where on Earth do you get the idea that cannabis smoking is as bad as tobacco, the DARE program? Give us one example of documentation of a person who just smokes weed getting lung cancer.... if you can. There are Zero death attributed to marijuana. Educate yourself brother the information is out there.

Thank you, Chris, for your reply. I think we're getting closer to resolving this issue.

The 13-year old who smokes in the ghetto and sells to get by during the summer months certainly has a different experience with pot than more fortunate people. I think the social climate can bring out the good and the bad that cannabis use entails. That's undeniable. But there are good and bad aspects to use. We want to bring out the good and inform abou the bad. And I respect your fighting for me and everyone else who believes that cannabis should be legal. But neither one of us appears to be that kid in the ghetto. I'm not a victim but I've been persecuted because of pot. I'm not a Minister and I don't worship pot. I love smoking it. And I'm a pothead. I don't know where I would be without it. I'll never quit it. But I know that there is such a thing as too much of even a good thing. No, I won't worry about a Rasta or a Sadhu smoking day in and day out, but that's what they do. They don't do much of anything else. I really hope that those models of being don't spread to Canada, especially among professionals who are accountable to many people (like airline pilots). If your day consists of worship and smoking then you won't be harmed by using all day. But you, Chris, are a special person because you work for Pot-TV. You are, in essence, the example of a professional dope-smoker. I don't think that everyone is like you either.

You contradict yourself by saying that scientific investigation helps us in our cause and then say that science has nothing to do with beliefs, as I had just stated. Paraphrasing from Kierkegaard, no one who really believes anything needs proof of their beliefs. The people who see a vague apprehension of the future or of the truth at the end of the tunnel but cannot reach it are the people whose lives are plagued by doubt. Doubt is the biggest reason for scientifc investigation, as you have stated.

I don't think that one's intellect can substitute for emotion. I don't think that making appeals to the brain and the anadamide receptor reallly tells us anything important. What is important is the experience, your subjective experience. And there is no science that can verify the authenticity of what you feel. Not yet anyway.

I knew a Buddhist who never used pot at all, yet had the same sensitivities that pot-smokers have. Why? It was already in her culture and she was a sensitive person. Her ancestors smoked enough for many lifetimes. She could smoke if she wanted to, and there would be nothing wrong with that. I'm making an assumption here, but I sincerely doubt that Carl Sagan smoked reef all day long. I doubt he was stoned more than sober. I could be wrong. Maybe in your scientific investigations you'll answer that for us. Smoking 1/2oz a day will not make you stupid, but it will change your life so that you want only to smoke 1/2 oz a day. Ask Brother Brown if he smoked 1/2 oz a day and why or why not that would be a good idea for, say, an airline pilot.

I thought of an even more accepted and perhaps more digestable maxim: "I think therefore I am." Can science prove that you exist at all, let alone your soul, Chris? Of course it can't. By the way, "chemical soup" isn't a scientific term, unless you're referring to the primordial soup that gave rise to the first organic substances. I doubt that any scientist would refer to the brain that way. It's not that simple.

In reply to Clearasday about the carcinogenic side of pot. There is 6 times more pyrobenzene in pot than in tobacco. Pyrobenzene is carcinogenic. And all that pyrobenzene can't be the result of synthetic fertilizers, I don't think. I doubt the point is the number of deaths that can be attributed to pot, but, rather, the general responsibility we have to tell people about the harmful effects of substances, whether they be natural or synthetic.

This is from Michele Kubby about my husband Steve Kubby. Chris wanted me to relate this story to you. Steve is a 26 year pheochromocytoma (adrenal cancer) survivor and only uses medical marijuana to treat his disease. FYI, no one has survived his type of cancer for more than 4 years.

I find your claim very curious that marijuana is full of toxins. Recently Steve was studied by the University of Southern California to determine his health. He had tests on his heart, lungs, brain, and tests to determine if his cancer is still active. It is.

In regards to his lungs, Steve was tested on equipment so sensative that they could tell if he had experimented with cigarettes when he was a kid or if he had grown up in the L.A. basin. What they discovered is that his lungs are absolutely clean even after 26 years of heavy smoking and three bouts with pnuemonia.

His heart was in excellent condition and so was his brain. He scored in the 99% on his cognative tests. So, where are all of the toxins?

Threeblindmice, when did I say science has nothing to do with beliefs?

It's strange you don't even know what you're saying. It shows that you are using someone else's words to justify your pot-smoking, or that you don't fully understand what someone else was trying to say. Let me get the quote... "an idea that was developed by ancient shamans ingesting powerful entheogens and then interpeting the dreamlike states they recieved from them in the chemical soup of their brains, as actual expereinces that somehow took place out-of-the-body." Interpretation of experience is not a scientific process, especially when these people were using long before there was no such concept as positivism, reductionism, objectivism, or any type of scientistic thinking. What you think science is has existed about as long as the United States has existed. Interpretation of experience is called phenomenology, which also didn't exist at that time. So I'm not sure that you know what is going on just like they weren't sure when they were fucking with themselves.

To the Kubbies: I admire you guys, really. And I don't doubt that your husbands lungs and cognition were in perfect shape. But if you've read this whole thread, you'd know that the Native Indians of North America also dealt with cancer. It's nothing new. The cancer epidemic is due to pollution and fast food and pesticides, as far as I can imagine. How much smoke does your husband ingest and how? Is it through a bong or joints or both? You must be more specific. If pot relieves that kind of suffering, I'm glad. I wouldn't know, except by testimony like the kind you're relating. Thank you. But smoking is hard on your lungs and there's no way around that. Can a marathon runner smoke joints all day?

I can already foresee your rebuttle. When say that these concepts didn't exist at the time, it doesn't mean that they weren't engaging in behaviors that could be considered scientific. But the point is that science as it exists TODAY serves progress, and if you're talking about the brain, you should be supporting pharmeceuticals because that's the kind of "interpretation" of science you're going to get by reading reasearch in physiology. Who really cares what the anandamide receptor does? There's no way in hell that its apparent function is isolated to smoking weed, I guarantee you that. And I don't think that any researcher would try to make that claim: the idea that the receptor formed in the brain because of weed. Preposterous. There is an opiod receptor too, but we discovered that endorphins already exist in the person. So how far away is that discovery for the anandamide receptor? There is a synergy between people and pot. But only some people. Certainly not all of them.

Threeblindmice,
I've kind of lost you and from what you say there I still don't get how you say that I said "science has nothing to do with belief". To some extent, I almost feel like you are arguing with yourself. I would say that all religions started out as explanations for the Universe, and in that sense, early scientific theory. Unfortunateley this stopped at some point, solidified and religion, and continued on with no "soul" (to borrow your expression) as science. Inter spieces relations, like that of the bummble bee to the flower, do exist. We are what we eat, and when we bring that into are relation with cannabis, that may in fact work both ways. The following piece, (which I ended up editing from my new book, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible because I thought it was to hypothetical and I didn't want it to take away from the historical research), explains what I mean more fully, although there may be some stuff that seems a little out of context here. Our relationship with cannabis in my opinion, is as much sexual as mental;
In The Encyclopedia of Erotic Wisdom, which contains a number of entries regarding different preparations and utilizations of hemp, Rufus C. Camphausen notes that, "It is well known among the users of hashish and marijuana that THC, the main active ingredient of cannabis, is--among other things--a strong aphrodisiac, a fact even recognized by the Encylopedia Brittanica."(Camphausen 1991) In fact, so renowned is cannabis for its aphrodisiacal properties, that in his extensive book on aphrodisiacs, PLANTS OF LOVE Christian Ratsch writes "No matter which culture, no matter what time: hemp has been repeatedly deemed the aphrodisiac."(Ratsch 1997).

Indeed, this view has appeared throughout the centuries in literature referring to cannabis, including medical journals, the aphrodisiac potential of the plant is acknowledged. (Mikuriya, M.D. 1973, Grinspoon, M.D., & Bakalar 1993). The ancient shamanistic priestesses and worshippers of Ashera, anointed their bodies with cannabis resins, as well as burning it as an incense. (Emboden 1972) They undoubtedly included it in the orgiastic worship which played such a major role in her cult. (As has been noted earlier, the name Ashera, was sometimes used as a reference to the sacred tree, and possibly deriving from this, in later Moslem times, cannabis was called by some of its users ashira). As Robert Anton Wilson, noted in his ground-breaking study Sex & Drugs: "the cannabis drugs are especially likely to cause [the]... kind of concentration... in which one may... become totally identified with the sex organs and lose all other awareness entirely."(Wilson 1973). A perfect frame of mind for the orgiastic type of worship inferred by the Old Testament narrative.

Tantric worshippers of Kali and Shiva still utilize cannabis, as they have for millennia, in attempts to stimulate the central nervous system energy known as kundalini, and which is strongly related to the sex-drive,(Aldrich 1978). A look at other plant and animal relationships, may indicate that the connection between humans, cannabis and these fertility sex-rites could have arisen out of a primordial symbiotic relationship between man and marijuana. Comparable is the relationship between cat's and catnip. When exposed to catnip, cat's show clear evidence of "central nervous system excitation" (i.e. kundalini arousal), including profound "sexual stimulation":

"Males have spontaneous erections while females adopt mating stances, complete with vocalization and "love biting" of any available object.... The similarity of the catnip response to the normal sexual behavior of cats is striking. The presentation of catnip results in a rolling pattern of behavior that is exhibited by estrous females during the course of normal sexual displays. These displays have prompted naturalist to speculate that catnip once served the evolutionary function in the wild of preparing cats for sex, a natural springtime aphrodisiac."(Siegel 1989)

The association between cat's and catnip holds true for the relationship between humans and cannabis. The spring time aphrodisiac effects of catnip coincided with the animals pregnancy gestation period, making for birth in the summertime, when food is more plentiful. This natural timing also holds true of the release of cannabis resins and pollens in the fall. The human incubation period of nine months would result in a birth at the beginning of summer. Like catnip, the chemicals of which causes "estrous" behavior in females through the estrogen-like chemical released each spring, the aphrodisiac effect of cannabis may have something to do with the chemical make-up of hemp, and the scent of its pollen and resin as they float through the harvest season air: "The active compounds of marijuana have some molecular resemblance to certain female hormones (estrogens).”(Weil 1980).

As well, recent psycho-pharmacological studies have determined that THC has its own unique receptor sites in the brain. Further these receptors are located in the most recently evolved part of the human brain--the areas of higher thinking and memory:

"New United States government funded studies at St. Louis Medical University in 1989 and the National Institute of Mental Health in 1990, moved cannabis research into a new realm by confirming that the human brain has receptor sites for THC and its natural cannabis cousins to which no other known compounds thus far will bind.... On the molecular level THC fits into receptor sites in the upper brain that seem to be uniquely designed to accommodate THC. This points to an ancient symbiosis between the plant and people.... Perhaps these neuronal pathways are the product of a pre-cultural relationship between man and cannabis." (Herer 1995).

These curious biological connections between man and marijuana continue: the hemp seed contains the most complete protein in the vegetable world, and is the highest source of essential fatty acids. Besides being responsible for the luster of hair, skin, eyes, lubricating arteries, and even the thought process, the "essential oils support the immune system and guard against viral and other insults to the immune system"(Eidlman, M.D., & Hamilton Eh.D., Ph.D.) The globulin edistin found in the seeds protein closely resemble those found in human plasma, (Osburn 1993, Herer 1995, Robinson 1996). Even more interesting is that cannabis seeds contain rare gamma linoleic acid, found only in spirulina, two other rare seed oils, and human mother's milk.(Conrad 1993). In short, for humans, the seeds of hemp are "Nature's perfect food".

Whether these biological similarities arose independently, or out of some early quantum relationship, is unknown and perhaps at this point unprovable. It may be that hemp developed these traits, from humans putting "ourselves" back into the ground in which it was grown; through the use of our waste material as "night-soil", and even perhaps through using sperm(Cole 1959) and menses as a ritual fertilizers, a common fertility practice in the ancient world. Likely, such methods were not purely imitative magic, but arose out of the dire need to enrich parched desert soils with rich organic matter in order to yield better crops and, like almost everything in the ancient world, this necessary fertilization of the soil became imbued with religious overtones.

In relation to such ritual fertilizers, it is interesting to note the ancient Canaanite fertility rite's connection with the cult of the Dead. As the aforementioned revelries of Baal Peor were later clearly defined as funeral feasts: "They yoked themselves to Baal Peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead."(Psalms 106:28) A statement that hints that the fertility cults habit of putting "themselves" back into the soil, may have gone beyond the use of just "body waste" for ritual fertilization.

The ancient Ugaritic mythology of the aforementioned goddess Anath (daughter of Ashera), depict her as conquering Mot, (the god of death and the sterility of winter), in revenge for Mot's slaughter of her lover and brother Baal. In a sense Mot is "the rival... twin, and alter ego of the fertility god...Baal. Mot may be compared to Shiva in his 'dead' phase as Shava the Corpse... In other words, he was the vegetation god in the fallow season"(Walker 1983). After the vengeful slaying, the ancient texts describe how Anath took Mot's corpse, and "With a blade she cleaves him; With a shovel she winnows him; With fire she parches him; With a millstone she grinds him; In the field she scatters him". By disposing of Mot's remains in this way, Anath miraculously brings Baal back to life and ends the sterility of the land caused by his sojourn to the underworld (i.e.-winter). Perhaps this myth gives indications of how members of the ancient fertility cults disposed of their dead.

Similarly "the blood of Tammuz... and Adonis... fertilized the soil"(Mackenzie 1915), mythology paralleled in ancient Egyptian mythology: "Isis placed the severed limbs of Osiris on a corn-sieve... probably the legend may be a reminiscence of a custom of slaying a human victim... and distributing his flesh or scattering his ashes over fields to fertilize them. In modern Europe the figure of Death is sometimes torn in pieces, and the fragments are then buried in the ground to make crops grow well, and in other parts of the world human victims are treated in the same way. With regard to the Egyptians we have it on the authority of Manetho that they used to burn red-haired men and scatter their ashes with winnowing fans, and it is highly significant that this barbarous sacrifice was offered by the kings at the grave of Osiris. We may conjecture that the victims represented Osiris himself, who was annually slain, dismembered, and buried in their persons that he might quicken the seed in the earth".(Frazer 1922). Such sacrifices, both mythical and ritual, could easily have developed from more peaceful funerary practices of a matriarchal culture. This explanation would help explain the strong association of the cult of the ancestors amongst the Scythians with cannabis, who adopted many of their practices (such as the ritual use of cannabis) from the peoples they raided in the ancient near East, including the Canaanites.

The story of Cain and Abel, recorded either during or after the time of Moses, was meant to demonize the agricultural fertility cults, and gives indications of a rite similar to those described above. When Cain kills Abel in jealousy over the Lord's rejection of his "grain offering", in favor of his brothers flesh sacrifice, he takes Abel out into the field to do the job. Further, the Lord is unable to find Abel's body and has to ask Cain, who gives his famous reply "Am I my brother's keeper?". The Lord only knows of the crime because Abel's blood cried out to him "from the ground",(Genesis 4:10). Leading to the Lord's curse on Cain; "Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand".(Genesis 4:11). In the story of Cain, traditionally said to have been recorded by Moses, we have another example of how the myths in Genesis were used as a form of propaganda in the diabolization of the practices of the ancient Canaanite fertility cult, in this case the ritual use of their dead (and possibly sacrificial victims). The Canaanite funerary rite was completely opposed to the much described Hebrew practice of placing their deceased in tombs, and caves.

When faced with the death of nature each winter and its rebirth in spring, the ancient Canaanites saw an imitation of their own lives and mortality. Since through sexuality their own lines continued, so through imitative magic and the proper worship of Baal and Anath, fertility was transferred to nature each spring and the fecundity of both their lines and the land was ensured. In their orgiastic excess in the fields and funerary grounds, the ancient practitioners believed their erotic worship bought Life's continuing victory over Death. "It is no accident that tombstones and memorial stelae are sometimes distinctly phallic in form... and the term yad, "hand", in Ugaritic and Hebrew is applied to the phallus and in Hebrew to a memorial stela (I Sam 15:12; II Sam 18:18; Isa 56:5)" (Pope 1977).

"For if plants could be born again and again from the earth (the womb of vegetation) one could believe, even though it was not given to humans to witness that process, that the Goddess--who recycled days and nights, barley and wheat, and spring and fall--would also recycle human life. And one could also believe that through erotic rites of alignment with the mysterious power of sex through which the Goddess performed her miraculous work of birth and rebirth, we humans could not only find protection and solace in our inevitable pain, sorrow and death but also augment our chances, generation after generation, for a joyful and bountiful life."(Eisler 1995)

Considering cannabis' strong association with the ancient cult of the dead, such ritual fertilization of crops with human remains and waste material might also explain the strange genetic connections between humans and marijuana. No wonder the Grim Reaper holds the ancient tool used particularly for the hemp harvest, the Scythe. Indeed, perhaps in the seeds of death and decay, we can find the creation and roots of the Tree of Life.

"Some plants remained relatively independent of man while others got very involved. Marijuana for one has been involved with us for so long, thousands of years, following campsites and settlements and the like, that there's no information about what it was like in prehistory. It appears that some plants make some kind of evolutionary decision to be come involved with our trip. Marijuana is very involved.("Weil 1975).

If this hypothesis about cannabis' relation to the ancient funerary cults is right, then the ancient hemp Tree of Life is the ultimate form of the Eucharist; "Take this and eat of it, for this is my body and my blood".

Well if you were trying to lose me, you succeeded. I'm just waiting for you to talk about martians and crystals and throw that in the mix too. I give up. Peace out, Brother Chris.