54 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
54 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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When I smoked frequently (in college) I happened to be thinking a lot
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about spirituality at the same time, and I came up with some hypotheses
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about the morality of what I was doing:
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To begin with, I was influenced by Lacan's view of the subconscious:
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that it is created by the difference between the speaker and the speaker's
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place in the language structure.
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In terms of spirituality: I personally believe the concept of God exists
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as a cultural idea that appeals to subconsciousnesses of groups of people.
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That is why it is vague: because the subconscious impulses that create God
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aren't fully understood in th e language structure.
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Now if the subconscious is also the place to which spirituality appeals,
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then to study your spirituality you must study your subconscious.
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I believe that smoking marijuana can help you study your subconscious.
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Here's why: language is what creates meaning, and the subconscious is that
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which is not expressed through language. When one smokes, one is
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temporarily distanced from the language structure. ( That's why it can be
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easy to confuse someone who's high: because they can't deal with your
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words, or use their own words, as effectively. That's why music, visuals,
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and -- my favorite -- *thoughts* are more interesting: because when you
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are high, the stimuli to which you are exposed will be understood not only
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within the context of the language structures through which they are
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usually understood: when you are high, they are understood also within the
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context of your own personal non-langua ge subconscious impulses. That's
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why your smoking experience depends so much on your environment: your
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state of mind depends on what your subconscious is giving it: if you feel
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threatened, your subconscious will give you threatening impulses. )
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I personally believe that the best way to worship God is, rather than
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asking for favors or forgiveness, to try to understand God. One can do
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this by praying in a church, by talking to a minister, by singing praises,
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by analyzing the concept of God inte llectually, or, if my hypothesis is
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correct, by trying to understand your subconscious connections to God,
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while smoking.
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So smoking marijuana could help you understand God not in a traditional
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unquestioning way, but also in a personal, contemporary, and very living
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way: by helping you understand exactly what "God" is, in your mind. This
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isn't to say, of course, that mari juana can't be abused or overused. But
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if used correctly, it could make the concept of God more real than if you
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hadn't lit one up.
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Parts of the above argument could also help explain why the strength of
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the cultural idea that smoking marijuana is wrong: individualism may be
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treasured among the concepts of America, but a lack of accountability to
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society is not. If smoking does mo ve you away from the structured order,
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then that is a very real threat to that structured order. I myself wonder
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if it would be good for the world as a whole to have a large segment of
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the population spending their time in isolated introspection *without *
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having a productive goal for that introspection. I.E. if you sit around
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smoking up and watching TV *all the time*, is that really -- from a moral,
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ethical perspective -- good?
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If, however, you use smoking as a tool for helping you understand the
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world, your thoughts, your approach to things, even God, *and* make an
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effort to relate what you've understood to the social structure when
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you're done, then I believe that smoking ma rijuana is not only morally
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benign, it is morally laudable.
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So go ahead. Smoke a joint for Jesus. :)
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