pomegranatesandchains

https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/why-i-am-no-longer-going-to-be-using-plant-medicines-part-1/?utm_source=activecampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article&utm_content=plantmedicinepart1

Article begins:

On June 1, 2022, I reached one of the most important conclusions and subsequently made one of the most important decisions of my life.

I decided to completely stop using, endorsing, encouraging, extolling, promoting, praising, or otherwise having any involvement with so-called “plant medicines” – specifically when it comes to their use in an unsupervised, recreational setting or their use for getting “divinations”, “downloads”, “God experiences”, or anything else that involves intentionally using drugs to alter your consciousness with the goal of having some kind of contact with the spiritual world.

Now, before you roll your eyes and stop reading because perhaps you were never interested in plant medicines in the first place, or you think I must have had some kind of a “bad trip” on shrooms, or you’re convinced that plant medicines play a vastly important role in your own personal, spiritual, or professional development and there’s no way you’d ever come to the same conclusion I recently have…

…I beg of you: please stick with me here.

Please hear me out.

I have some very important things to say that I think the world desperately needs to hear right now. After a great deal of studying up on the topic (and, over the past decade, experimenting with nearly every plant medicine substance known to humankind) I strongly feel that it is now my responsibility and God-given calling to share my newest thoughts with you on this matter. Frankly, there is absolutely no way I want to go to the grave without speaking my mind on this topic.

Furthermore, this information is going to be important for you to know because, if you’ve glanced around you lately, you may have realized that plant medicines seem to be taking the world by storm. Folks are now performing ayahuasca ceremonies in their New York City apartment loft and strolling through town with a DMT pen in their back pocket; you can’t swing a dead cat by the tail without hitting some self-proclaimed or otherwise certified “shaman”; half the people you know are likely already experimenting with microdoses of LSD, psilocybin, huachuma, and beyond; ketamine clinics are popping up right and left, and often frequented by folks simply using this substance for escapism and recreation, and not true “trauma” or addiction problems; gym junkies and health enthusiasts are sneaking off on the weekend to explore themselves with iboga, often with some kind of self-labeled “shaman bro”; MDMA therapy is lauded as the final, close-to-legalized solution for everything from PTSD to romantic couples therapy; there’s a shockingly high likelihood the person standing next to you at the museum or passing by you on a nature hike is dosed up on psilocybin or san pedro; cannabis so potent in THC content that it can knock you on your ass with one pull on a vape pen can be found on nearly every street corner in most states; and even modern-day evangelical Christians are now considering the fact that, as Brian Muraresku writes about in his book The Immortality Key, that the early church growth was fueled by psychedelic spiced wines, mind-bending fungus, and drug-induced heavily altered states of consciousness, and that we should consider a return to these practices so that we can finally commune with the divine and grow closer to God.

And yes – I realize that a few of you might be cringing because, deep down inside, you suspect that I’m about to expose the “noble and laudable” excuse of “healing yourself” with plant medicines that a shockingly high number of health enthusiasts and spiritual warriors and shaman-bro’s and sis’s engage in on a frequent basis…

…as just an excuse to get high and do drugs without feeling like an addict.

You’d be right if that’s your suspicion.

Admittedly, I’m partially responsible for fueling this entire movement.

I’ve podcasted and written multiple times on the benefits of journeying with plant medicines.

I’ve heavily promoted microdosing with plant medicines for focus, creativity, productivity, and social outings.

I’ve equated cannabis and shrooms with coffee and wine (trust me, they’re a bit different).

I have owned multiple investments in ketamine clinics, cannabis companies, and psilocybin research laboratories.

I’ve encouraged couples—in the same way that my wife and I have done—to consider compounds like sassafras, MDMA, ketamine, lysergamides, and beyond for enhancing sex or having highly bonding weekend getaways.

Perhaps most interestingly, I have derived a great deal of benefit and personal insight and relationship enhancement and creative ideas from “journeying” with plant medicine, which made what I am about to share with you very difficult to write. Frankly, I thought because all the fruits of my use of plant medicines were nothing but good, that the ends justified the means.

But I was wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

I am sorry.

I am ashamed.

I have severely missed the mark.

I was playing with fire, and you might be too. 

And I am about to tell you why.

---

What I Mean When I Say “Plant Medicines”

Before I delve into the nitty-gritty details as to why I am done with plant medicines, I think it’s going to be important to establish what exactly I mean when I say “plant medicines.”

I am specifically referring to chemical compounds—both synthetic and plant-derived—that have the capability, even in relatively small dosages, to induce a rapid and dramatic altered state of consciousness (or gnosis or metacognition or hallucinogenesis or any other similar term bandied about these days) and that have or are chemically related to compounds that have a tradition of use for spiritual divination, “journeying,” witchcraft, sorcery, shamanism, the occult, white magic, black magic and any other forms of “pharmakia” (more on what that term means later). This includes nearly all psychedelics (also known as entheogens, hallucinogens or psychotropics), which are a class of psychoactive substances that are capable of producing significant changes in perception, mood, and cognitive processes.

[Carol’s note: Continue reading at above link. Jesus is our mediator and lover of our soul. You are just kidding/lying to yourself if you participate in a drug ritual to “enhance” you connection with the “divine”. This is not scriptural, and you are being deceived.]