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Marijuana use
can have physical, psychological,
and spiritual benefits:
PHYSICAL
BENEFITS
The Physical benefits
of marijuana are far-reaching, widespread, and long-term.
Because of the way marijuana impacts the Autonomic Nervous
System which expands the breath and relaxes the body,
its potential for health and healing are enormous, and
have been completely unrealized by Western Medicine.
The following passages are excerpted from The Benefits
of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological, & Spiritual:
The simultaneous opposing action of marijuana is akin
to balancing our entire system. Such balance in the
ANS can be understood as a charged equilibrium, which
is defined as “well-being” experienced as
physiological expansion and psychological contentment
and responsible for health. (p. 29)
The net effect is a highly functioning, yet relaxed,
system with better fuel. This is why, with marijuana,
the feeling is both relaxed and alert, which explains,
in part, the experience of being “stoned.”
Normally the body vacillates between the two opposing
modes of being. The effects of the complicated marijuana
molecule somehow actually integrate these two modes,
simultaneously, as absolutely nothing else does. (p.
30)
Although specific effects of marijuana in the body are
well known, each has been taken in isolation without
noting that both sides of the Autonomic Nervous System
are conjoined. Instead of a perspective that sees the
whole person and the simple holistic effect of marijuana,
a myopic and reductionistic method of measurement has
been employed, and marijuana’s profound meaning
for health has been lost. (p. 31)
Marijuana, by its effect on the ANS, enhances both sides
of the brain. Through increased Sympathetic action,
left brain perception is heightened, while, at the same
time, right brain reception is enhanced. This is a physiological
fact. More blood, and cleaner blood, is sent to the
brain, as in the “fight or flight” reaction.
And because of Parasympathetic dilation of capillaries,
which signifies relaxation, the blood supply to the
entire brain is increased. More blood means more oxygen
and consequently clearer and broader thinking. Since
marijuana works on both sides of the brain, the most
noticeable effect, in our fast-paced mind set, is one
of slowing down, which blends the thrusting competitive
attitude with the contrasting viewpoint of nurturance
to arrive at a more cooperative balance. This experience
is, however, not innate to marijuana, but to the mental
set of the subject. When we are mellow, tired, and relaxed,
marijuana is energizing and affords alertness, determination,
and even strength. This variation in the physiological
effects has caused great confusion from an either/or
framework. And the balancing nature of marijuana (both/and)
has not been understood. It both stimulates and relaxes,
simultaneously, which equates to an unpredictable variation
in effect that is solely dependent on the state of its
subject. When the system is sluggish, as with natives
in warm climates (Africa, India, South America), marijuana
has been used extensively and for centuries to energize
it:
A common practice among
laborers... have a puff of a ganja (marijuana) pipe
to produce well-being, relieve fatigue, stimulate
appetite. (Chopra and Chopra, 1939, p.3)
When the system is hyper-aroused,
as in today’s lifestyle, marijuana calms. The significance
of this fact cannot be ignored. It explains the increased
creativity reported as a part of the marijuana experience,
because when both sides of brain processes are heightened,
both types of brain activity are greater. The left brain
notices more, while the right brain receives more. This
is the unification of logic and intuition. The term
“expansion of consciousness” is explained
physiologically as a “shifting of brain emphasis
from one-sidedness to balance” (Sugarmena and Tarter,
1978), which fits precisely with the feeling called
“high.” (p. 35)
Marijuana ingestion has been shown to change the worried
state by producing alpha waves, experienced as well
being. (p. 36)
When we ingest marijuana, the heart swells through capillary
enhancement and is fueled more by more fully oxygenated
blood, while, at the same time, its contractions and
expansions are greater, allowing for stronger pumping
action to the rest of the body (p. 37)
As rigidity in the body is released or reduced by the
action of marijuana, there is a corresponding reduction
of mental tension that translates into a feeling of
expansion and well being and explains the reverential
attitude commonly expressed by marijuana lovers. (p.
39)
As the body’s workings can become more harmonious
with marijuana, the functioning of the five senses can
be noticeably improved ....In our discussion, the trigger
to the high experience is marijuana, but many other
activities can also produce it, such as jogging, chanting,
fasting, isolation, meditation, and prayer. (p. 41)
The marijuana experience itself does not miraculously
cure. Instead, it allows the body a respite from the
tensions of imbalance, while exposing the mental confusion
of the mind. The marijuana experience of balance becomes
a learned and, over time, somewhat permanent response
as the essential human tendency to homeostasis is reawakened
and the natural healing process restored. (p. 49)
For a serious psychosomatic disease such as cancer,
the benefits to be derived from marijuana cannot be
overstated:
1. The causal element of unconscious (repressed) pain
can be ferreted out.
2. The breath can be restored to fullness, thereby eliminating
directly the built up toxicity and, at the same time,
enjoining balance throughout the whole organism. A depressed
system is a weakened system, and since it works holistically,
marijuana gives strength where weakness exists, and
expansion and relaxation where there is contraction
and nervousness.
3. The more richly oxygenated blood that is in effect
with marijuana can help to cleanse the poisons at the
cellular level.
4. And a broader perspective through activation of the
entire brain leads to positive feelings and thus eliminates
the usual and debilitating attitudes so common in cancerhelplessness,
depression, fear, resignation, and dread. (p. 60)
Application of
Marijuana:
In a Costa Rican study, it was found that chronic marijuana
smokers who also smoked cigarettes were less likely
to develop cancer than cigarette smokers who didn’t
use marijuana. Since marijuana (smoking, as well as
ingestion by other methods) dilates the alveoli, toxins
are more easily eliminated with cannabis use regardless
of its method of application. Nicotine, on the other
hand, constricts the alveoli, so it is likely that the
use of cannabis neutralizes, or even overwhelms the
constriction, by its own tendency to dilation ...As
an aid for all psychosomatic disease, marijuana can
benefit the participant, generally because of its health-restoring
effects... The fear of marijuana... stems from
its limitless potential for treating illness, in that
both the pharmaceutical industry and the medical monopoly
would lose billions of dollars if marijuana became the
non-drug of choice. (p. 61)
PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS
When we balance the Autonomic
Nervous System, there is an effect on the mind that
is both energizing and relaxing SIMULTANEOUSLY. In other
words, we can think more clearly and more efficiently.
The following
are excerpts from The Benefits of Marijuana:
Natural feelings of expansion that correspond to favorable
perceptions, such as a sense of accomplishment, are
experiences common to us all, What makes marijuana unique
and beneficial is its ability to summon these states
of well-being at will (p. 44) We might suggest that
those hundreds of millions of people around the world
who face marijuana to experience higher levels of life,
do so specifically because of the great import they
ascribe to being “ high,” i.e., feeling
better, happier, more expansive, and therefore more
tolerant and compassionate. (p. 4545)
Whereas marijuana results in an “altered state
of consciousness,” the depressant drugs have been
described as producing “altered states of unconsciousness”
(Sugerman and Tarter), allowing for relaxation without
awareness. (p.45)
Marijuana exposes things. When used over a period of
time, it allows us to witness our many subtle motives
which, under normal consciousness, are usually not noticeable.
(p 46)
It was just this catalytic effect of marijuana to expose
the unconscious and increase the patient’s vulnerability,
while maintaining awareness and understanding that prompted
psychologists (in the 1960s and 1970s) to utilize marijuana
extensively in the therapeutic studies before the government
ban (P. 47)
With the expansiveness that occurs with marijuana, the
subject may begin to notice infinite possibilities to
raise the quality of his/her life that would otherwise
have remained hidden from normal, defensive consciousness.
And feelings of health and happiness naturally lead
to hope, which of itself can be curative. (p. 49)
Marijuana can act as the loosening agent, so that whatever
has been banned from consciousness may come cascading
forth. To uncover our deceptions without our usual rationalizations
can be unpleasant, an experience that has turned many
psychologically fragile individuals away from marijuana
despite its therapeutic catharsis. (p. 50)
Regardless of the model used, marijuana resolves conflict
by de-emphasizing extreme aggressiveness and stroking
the receptive sides of human nature. This unification
or balance, however, may be responsible for changes
in goals and values. It Is the healthy balancing nature
of marijuana that is most beneficial to the individual
and most threatening to modern society. (p. 51)
When it first became popular in the West, marijuana
was imported mainly from tropical zones, where the sativa
strain of cannabis is indigenous. This type of marijuana
is known for its “cerebral high,” having little
noticeable body participation. No studies concerning
the different effects of sativa vs. indica have been
done, but from the lack of physical sensation, it is
reasonable to assume more Sympathetic or stimulant qualities
in sativa than indica (a cooler climate type). This
is compatible with the notion that in hotter climates,
less calming is desirable from a recreational substance,
since hot climates in themselves cause lethargy. Many
connoisseurs of marijuana prefer the sativa high, although
in the last decade it has become very scarce due to
domestic cultivation of strains that thrive in temperate
zones (and indoors). “Cerebral highs” are
experienced as lightness of thought beyond usual concern
with self esteem. In relationships, a cerebral high
attunes the participants to a less separate sense of
themselves. Conversation is animated and a general feeling
of camaraderie is in the air.
The indica strain of cannabis offers more of the “body
high.” Depth rather than height best describes
the subjective experience. Rather than freedom in the
mind, the felt sensation is freedom of the body. This
state more closely mimics deep relaxation. Thought patterns
do not approach the clarity of thought of a “cerebral
high.” In contrast, the “body high” is
similar to the reverie that precedes sleep. While thinking
may be diminished, more sensitivity to nonverbal experiences,
such as music and color, comes into play. Physiologically,
a true “body high” probably is the result
of more Parasympathetic input. Participants ofen become
quieter, since internal silence predominates.
Indica thrives in temperate areas, and as such it has
become more popular with the American marijuana farmer.
It is a shorter variety, thus it is more suited for
the limits of indoor gardens and comes to fruition earlier
in outdoor gardens. In less tropical zones, recreational
substances are compatible with tempering the bustle
usual to cooler climate cultures. As horticultural interest
has grown, a cross between the indica and sativa species
of cannabis has given the modern marijuana user the
subtleties of both strains. Nowadays quality marijuana,
grown in the US, is usually a hybrid of the indica and
sativa varieties. (p. 56)
Marijuana will not tolerate repression. Tranquilizers
and depressants relax the body and release tension,
but the state of mind associated with these drugs is
“unconsciousness” whereby we escape rather
than resolve our dilemmas. Alcoholism is an extreme
need of both the body and personality periodically to
release the nervousness that has accumulated and continues
to accumulate to an unbearable degree. It serves the
same function for the collective personality for the
society, as well A culture in which alcohol and tranquilizers
are the prevalent form of release prefers not to witness
internal confusion and actually choose to act without
conscious participation, maintaining a semi-numb condition.
(p. 56)
SPIRITUAL BENEFITS
That which enlivens is
understood as the SPIRIT. In these times of secular
values, when the life force is not recognized as being
an expression of the holy, when in fact, the notion
of a plane of existence beyond the material is not acknowledged,
the search for meaning nevertheless perseveres.
Today, in these darkest
of times, hundreds of millions who pursue the journey
inward to the universal core values, find that marijuana
facilitates the search. As a religious sacrament, intuitively
recognized by all for whom the sacred beckons, marijuana
has been employed for thousands of years, crossing all
geographical and ethnic barriers. Marijuana not only
balances the body, and enhances our mental processes,
it can also help (some of) us to perceive the abiding
reality by raising our consciousness.
The following
are excerpts from The Benefits of Marijuana:
Meditation Is the ultimate tool for self-knowledge In
the East, marijuana has been used to facilitate the
process for millennia. (p.47)
The uncovering of inner confusion, so prominent with
marijuana, is conspicuously absent with depressants.
As the overall benefits of insightfulness obtained from
its use lead to a greater freedom, marijuana is shunned
by individuals who need a status quo in the personality
or social position.
Sigmund Freud developed and expounded the understanding
that we mechanically base our actions on programs devised
throughout life, and many esoteric schools, ancient
and modern, have taught the same. Being aware of these
programs is very difficult since ordinary consciousness
has within it the conspiracy to keep the mind comfortable
and free of conflict This operates collectively as well
as individually. Whenever confronted, this usual state
of mind automatically assumes a defensive posture by
relying on distorted rationalizations, which are evident
in a repressive and intolerant social order. By contrast,
the open and aware consciousness often leads to spiritual
realizations, irrelevant in mainstream thinking. In
today’s world, this understanding is uncommon.
Higher morals and ethics, as propounded by organized
religions, are agreed upon by the masses, especially
during church attendance, but are otherwise too difficult
to maintain when personal survival is at stake. Universal
spiritual values, so often released with marijuana,
can break down the conditioned defensive mentality.
It appears as if society, as well as the programmed,
individual mind, needs to hold in check the notion that
we love our neighbor as ourselves. There is no way that
we can love our neighbor as ourselves, nor any way that
our economy can subscribe to a policy of cooperation,
when the very life of business enterprise is dependent
upon “profit first and foremost.” Cooperation
within free enterprise is a difficult reality so long
as “me first” remains the primary motivation.
A neurotic society, with its deeply imbedded habit of
maladaptive coping methods, is resistant to change.
Marijuana can be of tremendous benefit in exposing the
distorted perspectives responsible for social, class,
and racial conflict It can open the “doors of perception,”
and thereby after the very core of the personality,
by allowing a view of the transcendent values of human
life. (p. 57)
In the area of private values, marijuana may offer benefits
beyond the personal ego, which reach the dimension referred
to by mystics and saints as the ever-present “now.”
The experience addresses states of consciousness not
common to the common man and resembles Maslow’s
“peak experience.” (p. 65)
To ascend the ladder of consciousness, human beings
need as much help as they can get. Levels of consciousness
above concerns of personal survival and power are neither
necessary for human life, nor visible from ordinary
states. Because these higher degrees of awareness threaten
the power structure, all paths to them are often outlawed.
If we are not taught by some older, wiser person that
deep and timeless perceptions really exist (or unless
we ourselves fortuitously catch a glimpse of these subjective
realities), we remain ignorant of their existence and
are easily molded into the lower social goals of materialism,
competition, and power. This less enlightened state
is expressed by a constant gnawing dissatisfaction.
It is the dimension of perennial desire. With each fulfillment
of a goal /need / want, another void erupts. In Buddhism,
it is the realm of nightmarish, insatiable hunger, which
cannot be resolved unless or until the being attains
to a less self-centered level. Deep within each of us,
an essential need for a higher meaning of life waits
to be awakened. Because of its ability to unlock this
yearning and allow us a glimpse of the deeper reality,
marijuana is feared by the establishment and loved by
the user. (p. 66)
It is mainly because spiritual values are abandoned
during eras of materialism that marijuana is banned
today. And, ironically, it is because these values are
so absent in the modern culture that the marijuana experience
is so ardently sought. (P. 67)
Perhaps investigation into the higher human values could
not surface in the industrial West until all imaginable
physical, psychological, and social dysfunction reached
dangerous proportions. (p. 67)
The Christian mystic de Chardin, explaining this same
process, says, “physical energy must be mastered
and grounded for spiritual energy to move, because physical
energy transforms the spirit.” (Ferguson) Within
the deep recesses of human understanding, the intuitive
faculty steers its course. For many who are in touch
with this sixth sense, the realm of the spirit is supreme.
Anything that demonstrates a possibility for psycho/spiritual
uplifting is known to be sacred. Marijuana is so recognized
and revered. “Bhang brings union with the Divine
Spirit.” (Indian Hemp Commission) (p. 69)
“Through balance, with time and interest, marijuana
can enliven the Center of Knowing.” In the
Theory of Vibration, this is the sixth level of development
known as the “Knowledge Center.” What we refer
to as the sixth sense, or intuition, derives from this
esoteric symbol, which very often is depicted as a third
eye, located at the midbrow. (p. 71)
As we have seen, many an argument against marijuana
refers to the non-competitive nature it engenders. During
the Vietnam War, one of the major problems of our soldiers
was their inability to accept the brutality of their
own actions. Our young men encountered marijuana at
every turn in Asia (the Vietnam War was the beginning
of marijuana use in this country, since it was the first
time a status and educational cross section of America
was exposed to it), and their reaction was often not
in keeping with the insensitivity necessary for war.
Their conscience bothered them. Gaining higher values,
such as compassion, cooperation, and consideration,
is a function of balance and a threat to a militaristic
society. If we all became aware of our conscience, who
would be left to maintain the indifference of the social
order. The more we uncover the spiritual element in
our natures, the more sensitive we become. Scrooge had
no conscience until he experienced the spirit He was
surely happier and healthier after his vision, but not
wealthier, for his conscience dictated that he share.
His new-felt sensitivity did not result from rules,
fear, or his superego. It overflowed joyfully as an
expression of his higher state of being.
Marijuana’s contribution to the developing spirit
is cumulative. As bodily tensions are reduced mental
fears dissolve, clearing the way to greater insight
But, until the direct effect (physical balance) of marijuana
on the body and the attendant side effect (high) of
marijuana on the mind become familiar, the alterations
themselves remain the focus of interest The “getting
high” is the end in itself, rather than the understanding
and insight that accrues a s the changed set becomes
more a common. People who try marijuana and reject it
do so usually because they feel uncomfortable and confused
in altered, fuller consciousness. Instead of life being
safely framed by the rigidity of the societal dogma,
the wold becomes unfamiliarly bigger, brighter, fuller,
yet less manageable, more unpredictable and full of
mystery. A mind that has been bound and accustomed to
a low charge or a selling without light very often finds
the expansiveness of reality too highly energized. The
light can be blinding and disorienting. Over time, and
with regular intake, when these higher states of seeing
are no longer the focal point of attention, a restructuring
of values may emerge. (p. 72)
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