Drugs and Alcohol

[Michael Sternbach]

Anything which causes an extreme change in perception of one's reality will tend to shake up the balance of one's momentum through change, inviting further extremes of perception (highs and lows) amidst the various cycles through life.

 

To balance one's momentum in change amidst strong extreme changes requires an equally matched strength of intention. Martial arts and exercise can help metabolize the effects of extreme change, raising the intensity of the dynamic to encompass both ends of the polarity.

 

There are reports of LSD begin given to a guru high up in the mountains in the 60's, and the guru actually took a bit more than what is considered a safe dose... but showed no external signs of discomfort and didn't say much other than that he felt just fine. Adepts in awareness are already operating at a different level; and their body chemistry has already been altered significantly and perception operates differently for them. Perhaps different in the way that psychedelic drugs are said to effect the brain and perception, and thus don't pose the same type of threat to one's balance in reality as they might to those of us who are more in the beginning stages.

 

Modern society doesn't train us very deeply in the ways of navigating spiritual energy, and I wonder if psychedelics are the best way to properly train this awareness. The more this level of perception is altered and developed by forces external to one's own spiritual devising, likely the more difficult to achieve clarity of understanding, at least one one's own, and unless this happens to be one's natural path.

 

It is up to each of us as to the flavor of extreme change we operate under. Some chose to cultivate simplicity, to aid in getting deeper. Other choose to go wild. Is there only one path to balance? No.

 

But it is also said that life is like a sine wave, with a limited length. The more extreme jumps, the shorter the length. The smoother and more gradual the ups and downs, the longer the length.

 

Well said. I'd like to add that internal martial arts, qigong, alchemy provide means to extend the sine wave, to whatever degree. Or so I believe.

 

Something your post reminded me of is how, in my wildest years, a bartender once observed: "Michael, you stay quite the same, no matter whether you are sober or had a few drinks."

[Daeluin]

I agree with that somewhat. But I've also honed in on a sense that we are born with what we need to achieve our destinies. Many of us waste much of our energy before discovering our destinies. I think it is possible for us to extend our lives through martial arts, but what is happening here is the borrowing of external energy to replenish what we have depleted internally.

 

So though it may be considered "extending", it is also taking from something else. Many believe this distinction irrelevant, as there appears to be plenty. I believe the balance to be very fine. If we are able to utilize what is borrowed to give back more than we take, then this is truly beautiful.