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Op-Ed from Mighty Companions of Hollywood:
Marijuana: Shamanic Tool of Ancient Cultures
With all the conversation and commentary these days about legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, and the damage to our youth that might ensue, the war on drugs to prevent young people from using them lacks an essential discernment. This is not just a black/white, right/wrong issue. In addition to medical benefits, marijuana can be a valuable tool in that most essential journey of soul that human beings are here to make.
We are very different as a function of our belief systems. For some, life is a power struggle and acquisition is the goal. For others, who are further along in their psycho/spiritual development, it is a divine dance with the source of everything. Feeling aligned with that fundamental force, commonly called God, is a very different life experience than feeling separate from it, and people who have a that perspective handle marijuana differently from people imprisoned in separation. This ancient tool of shamanic cultures affords them insights rather than escape -- a blueprint to another level of reality beyond the small self, where we are connected to everyone and everything. Marijuana gives insight into whatever fears and other reactive emotions blind us to this unity, helping us to be the authors of our lives and not its victims.
The natural urge to transcend this reality to connect with a larger one needs to be acknowledged for young people to deal realistically with their feelings and longings, which, when denied, makes them crazy. Kids made wrong for what is ingrained become split off from themselves, naughty instead of natural. We have a lot of naughty people getting psychotherapy to unravel unrecognized needs they have expressed in unacceptable ways.
The drug problem will not change until society at large changes; no punishments will be harsh enough to break people of wanting what is so desirable to them. When we deal with all of "us" intelligently choosing, and not just "them" as some renegade minority of abusers, we will be tackling the right issue. We all need to meet in the miracle of life, the sacredness of earth, and the divinity of soul. That, and not a war on anything, should be our societal objective. Then, assistance from marijuana can be seen as the blessing it can be.
As marijuana can reveal the mind of God, a good education demands focus in a non-transcendent state. Youngsters might never acquire the basis they need to succeed in life if they enter transcendent realms too soon. They need a frame of reference in this plane for marijuana to teach them about the next one. This is a reason for abstinence, where the power of the human to choose what is right comes into play. This intelligent choosing is what we need to be looking at, as all of us as a society work out our future together.
--Suzanne Taylor
Mighty CompanionsHome Page
Suzanne's newer site: The Conversation
Editorial: Affirmations Change Our Reality
This issue of PFPF News is dedicated to the power of affirmation. Enclosed you will find affirmations for Hollywood and a peaceful end to the war on drugs. Some of these affirmations are posted at Marshall House, a place to learn how affirmations work, how to develop a positive attitude & create a better reality.
Speaking of positive news, yesterday the L.A. Times reported that FBI crime statistics for 1996 show a significant drop in violent crime across America. Most significantly, L.A. had a 16.5% decline in homicides. Obviously, we're learning to get along. People here feel safer and we don't need crime statistics to tell us L.A. has become more livable in the last year.
However, now the pundits are coming out of the woodwork to explain the new trend. They can give all their ideas till they're out of breath, but PFPF News offers the only logical explanation: our Hollywood affirmation campaign. If you just get a few Hollywood players talking about something, pretty soon it ends up on TV, or in a movie & millions hear about it over night. After Hollywood has said something, everyone just takes it for granted. So it goes for the Hollywood affirmations. Now that Hollywood's getting safer, so will everywhere else. It just goes to show, a few positive thoughts can cancel out thousands of negative ones.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pray for Peace Announces its 1997 Affirmations for Hollywood
HOLLYWOOD: To this city of dreams and entertainment, we invest the energy of love and light and peace. We envision Hollywood as a safe, friendly and peaceful heart, surrounded by the loving arms of the greater City and County of Los Angeles.
More affirmations to help Hollywood:
THE AMERICAN CULTURE WAR: Peace is possible in America.
UNDERAGE DRUG/ALCOHOL USE: We teach our children to find fulfillment and love, free from the influence of manufactured drugs.
ELECTED OFFICIALS: We hold the intention that the men and women elected to government office make their decisions with steady consciousness of the people they represent.
POLICE: We affirm that the men and women of law enforcement fulfill their duty to protect and serve, thus nurturing trust, cooperation, safety and goodwill among the people in their districts.
DRUG ADDICTS: We pray that addicts find the faith and fellowship they need to lead productive lives, freed from their addictions.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Adults of the hippy creed smoke pot peacefully at their own discretion.
SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS: We envision life free from synthetic chemicals.
Please help Pray for Peace bring positive energy to the world through prayer and affirmation.
Hinduism & Ganja
Terence McKenna credits psychedelic mushrooms for the evolution of human consciousness, but I believe marijuana played an important part too, especially in India. Hindus generally avoid mushrooms, but as you can see from the excerpt below, their holy men smoked hash and ganja (marijuana).
Excerpt from Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men, by Dolf Hartsuiker Inner Traditions, Int'l. (1993), p. 97-98
<<A common ritual [for devotees of the God Shiva] is the smoking of a mixture of tobacco and charas (hashish) in a chiam (pipe). Although this undoubtedly serves the more earthly purpose of socializing with Sadhu-brothers and devotees, the smoking of charas is nonetheless regarded as a sacred act. Intoxication as a 'respected' -- amongst Babas anyway -- method for self-realization is related to the drinking of soma, the nectar of the gods, which is recommended in the Vedas as a sure means of attaining divine wisdom.
<<Mythologically charas is intimately connected with Shiva: he smokes it, he is perpetually intoxicated by it, he is the Lord of Charas. He is invoked before taking the first puff by shouting one of many chilam-mantras: "Alakh!"; "Bam Bam Bholanath!"; "Bom Shiva!" Babas offer the smoke to him; they want to take part in his ecstasy, his higher vision of Reality. As a final gesture of devotion, a Sadhu may mark his forehead with the chilam-ashes, or even eat them, as prasad from Shiva. Charas may be used by Shaivas (Shiva worshipers) and Vaishnavas (Vishnu worshipers).>>
Lord Balarama & Ganja
Worshipers of Shiva traditionally offer their ganja to Shiva before smoking, but what about followers of Krishna? Krishna generally does not accept ganja offerings, although He clearly states that He is the healing essence of all herbs. In ancient India, the temple incense was infused with hashish so worshipers could inhale the sacred smoke and experience love of God. Although hash incense is no longer available, Krishna worshipers offer ganja smoke to Krishna's brother, Balarama, and receive the Lord's blessings.
Mantra for offering ganja to Balarama: Baladev Baladev Hara Hara Ganja.
THE NEW AMERICAN CHURCH ASSOCIATION
A Religion For People Who Love Marijuana
by Guy Mount
When spiritually sensitive people are healed with the help of a powerful herbal medicine, like pot or peyote, they quite naturally want to give thanks to something -- the mysterious power that sent the plant, or the spirit of the plant itself. Many people in America actually feel the deepest and most profoundly significant gratitude and reverence for marijuana, because it is a good medicine -- physically, mentally and spiritually. It's not like taking aspirin or other pharmaceuticals. Marijuana lifts the spirit above the agony of almost any difficulty. It expands our awareness of and connection with the earth. There's more to it than mere chemical reactions between THC and neuron receptors. Our relationship to the earth suddenly becomes more important than our relationship to the empire -- it's a matter of true spiritual and physical identity.
"Thank God for pot and peyote," is what we say in the New American Church. This is our birthright and true spiritual heritage as "earthpeople." We simply need to establish our constitutional right to religious freedom. We believe that marijuana smoke is "God's Breath," just as some Christians believe that wine is "God's Blood." Marijuana is, in fact, a sacrament in our religion.
Every morning at sunrise I stand on my front porch and have a smoke. Then say: "Thank you Grandfather Sun for shining down on me and all my relatives-- the animals, birds and trees, the rivers, clouds and rocks, and people, too. I hope You have a good day." Then I take another puff of smoke from the pipe and thank Grandmother Earth for loving me, no matter how old I get. "What can I do for You today?" I wonder. Then I thank the smoke itself for helping me understand that we all have a higher parentage in common, regardless of how we express it, metaphorically. The smoke is good for us, providing we follow the teachings that go with a medicine path. That's my religion. Many other Americans share similar ideas and values.
Please help establish our constitutional right to religious freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court decided (Oregon vs. Smith, 1989) that each state has the right to exempt a controlled substance for religious or medical use. Oregon subsequently recognized The Native American Church and exempted peyote for religious use. THE NEW AMERICAN CHURCH ASSOCIATION has submitted a non-profit application to the state of California with a request for sacramental marijuana exemption for medical marijuana users, their friends and families. The internet is our gathering place.
Lifetime Membership Donation: $100 Yearly Membership: $25
Your membership includes a free book, the Holy Smoke newsletter, and personal ID card which asserts that members have the constitutional right to religious freedom and use of marijuana or peyote as sacramental medicines, regardless of ethnic heritage.
Respectfully Yours, Guy Mount, M.A. Executive Director THE NEW AMERICAN CHURCH ASSOCIATION A Non-Profit Religious Association For People Who Love Marijuana
Chief Editor and Publisher SWEETLIGHT BOOKS "For People Who Need Good Medicine"
Pray for Peace News est. 1995
Pray for Peace News was founded to spread awareness, education and devotion to the Great and Holy Mystery that is God. We accept all paths as true; all religions are but branches of the same tree. We promote interfaith dialogue and exchange programs to develop tolerance between religions.
Pray for Peace News is dedicated to nonviolence (vegetarian diet) and daily meditation. Pray for Peace News editors are committed to the legalization of sacred natural medicines for spiritual healing, for all people.
End the War on Drugs
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