Alcohol in an amazing thing. SWIM really loves alcohol and it is his preferred drug of use as well as insane abuse. For him, his best days have been a constant binge on alcohol followed up fighting, having a great laugh with friends, his gf carrying him back home and him waking up with hangover, having pissed his pants and counting his bruises. Or waking up stitched up in the hospital.

But that's a bit too extreme for happening too often SWIM says. He normally drinks no more than 2-3 litres a day after work which he enjoys for its relaxant and psychedelic properties. SWIM brews his own beer which he not only finds stronger, but also having different qualities than store-bought beers. At these amounts, he can close his eyes and drift away with different thought ranging from pleasant to introspective to constructive to creative.

Alcohol inebriation is a touchy thing; I have seen that many people in this forum are either indifferent or dislike alcohol. And he recognises that for for many people alcohol is a pretty dangerous if not one of the most dangerous drug around. He believes that as people want to get high on something for pleasure or socialising or both and as the current drug laws in many countries restrict the available legit drug options, people end up drinking way more alcohol with catastrophic sometimes consequences.

The state of alcohol inebriation is a pretty weird one. One that removes most if not all inhibitions. Sort of taking away the social make ups that help humans form a society. SWIM remembers reading somewhere that in some Eastern monasteries the students participate in an initiation ceremony where everybody gets pretty much drunk; the elders of the monastery then observe the uninhibited actions of the students and decide which ones will enter the greater mysteries and which ones will remain on the lower levels of monastic grades.

SWIM is curious to find out what other people in this forum think about alcohol. For him, it can be quite entheogenic. For him, it needs to be respected just like any other drug (even though abusing it once in a while is indeed good fun) in terms of dosage, use and user. And it is not evil or devilish - on the contrary, 1-2 pints of home brewed ale is the real shit. Plus, it's full of vitamins.

I find alcohol about as appealing as heroin, meth or PCP.

I don't like alcohol one bit. I don’t understand why other people like it. I find nothing remotely pleasurable about it and I find it makes me less social. Why is it the most popular drug? Am I totally missing something here? I’d rather drink pee that alcohol. Alcohol just makes me feel like crap, taste bad, and that’s about it. I just don’t get it.

It should go in our cars, not our stomachs!

Alcohol HAS been used as an entheogen. It has been used by many tribes and religions to induce trance-like states. The Jurema Cult use it to induce trance. In Cuba they spit it for the gods, and many others do this too. It has been an offering for countless different gods the world over. The Aztecs considered it sacred and forbade the common man from using it recreationally. It is the sacrament of Christianity, and although they drink only a mouthful these days, you can bet 2000 years ago they were drinking far more- in the Roman world it was safer than drinking water because alcohol kills microbes (the poor had to drink vinegar instead). Medieval monks were often full of mead.

However, because of its common use, those negative effects, and the fact that most people don't use it spiritually (although spiritual conversations do arise during its use), people don't tend to regard it as an entheogen. But surely ANYTHING that causes a change in the user's state of consciousness could then class as an entheogen? It's for this reason that I think it isn't one, or at least isn't much of one, just as cocaine isn't much of an entheogen either.

As for its effects, like many things it's only good in moderation. Some people can't stand it, just as some people don't like other entheogens, and others have to give it up because it's detrimental to health and hangovers get persistently worse over the years. Me, I used to love it, even though it would make me do stupid and regrettable things sometimes when I'd had too much. I'm glad I'm not overdoing it anymore, but it still has its uses for me in moderation.

I don't like me drunk. Alcohol inebriation is a side effect of indulging in too many tasty beverages... the stuff's never even helped me get with a girl.

One area where you can't sell alcohol short, is how it unifies the masses. It is the one drug I can enjoy with pretty much anyone to extreme levels. That said though I rarely stay in touch with people who I've met while at the pub.

It does piss me off how drinkers look down on other drug users even though they are generally the most destructive of the lot.

Planet earth has a drinking problem which it hides by means of pointing the finger at other substances.

Does anyone know how alcohol effects the body and mind other than destroying proteins? I certainly don't think it's affective as a substance of insight. Far to high a level needs to be consumed.

I generally consider entheogens to be a lot more precise than a general intoxifier.

There's entheogens, drugs and poisons.

That's how I classify them anyway.

Yeah, I think 69ron pretty much said it all!!

Alchohol makes me feel toxic from the inside. I feel it circulating through my body for a day or two after I drink. So I don't drink.
And it usually tastes like shit to me too, especially beer (retch...)!!

If it's your thing though, man you are lucky, you get to go to the local market to pick up whatever & do your thing without prosecution by law!!
Lucky bastard!!

WS

Alcohol has never been entheogenic for me but I do enjoy alcohol occasionally. It's a great social lubricant. I lake to have maybe 2-4 drinks over a period of hours with food. I like to drink beers in the woods and it sucks because their heavy.

It doesn't work as a "social lubricant" for me. I've noticed that I'm sometimes more social on alcohol, and sometimes not. I've come to the conclusion, that it's not really the alcohol, but the mood around me that makes me feel relaxed. I recently had a "party" experience totally without alcohol and it was the most pleasurable thing that has happened in a while.

Alcohol mostly bores me and it's not really worth the hangover.

Thanks for the replies guys!It is still weird to see that SWIM is one of the really few people around here enjoying alcohol as much - especially beers.

Re to 69ron's:

Wow!Quite a condemning and caustic answer! But you're not certainly missing something at all my fellow. It is indeed popular (even though you dislike it) because people like it. SWIM likes it a lot and can understand why others like it. But I believe ( as I said to my first post) that certain drug laws leave few options to the common people when it comes to choices of company drugs.

SWIM doesn't like weed. Honestly. He doesn't find it pleasurable, and it makes him less social, smells like shit and the taste is crap. Likewise, I do not like videogames. However, I perfectly understand why people like. It's all a matter of preference. There is nothing you should "get" or not.

i highly dislike alcahol and its fx on our culture - truly a retardant

I love beer. I love the way it taste and find that a couple can take the edge off of a long day. All things in moderation my friends. But getting wasted is not something I'm very fond of anymore, though I will admit to getting carried away every now and then. But there are moments here and there that make me feel complete disdain for the substance. I try to really moderate myself, though. My family history in very prone to obesiety, heart disease, and alcoholism.

It pisses me off too and a lot of drinkers are very destructive, but its the same as people who dont drink tend to look down on people who do. My dad doesnt drink, just smokes weed and he looks donw his nose at me when im drunk sometimes. Seems to be the case with a lot of stoners. Like I dont turn into an arse when im drunk but people that dont drink sometimes get this attitude just because you are drunk, also a lot of people that cant handl;e it and become arseholes give it a bad name imo, because I dont turn into an idiot.

Sometimes when im really drunk with some friends, we are aware that our egos are huge, least were aware of it unlike most. There was a lot of hate for someone on another thread when he was drunk and smoked spice and hed lost it a bit and I seen a lot of prejudice and snobery towards him because he drank alcohol. Swim usually has a few beers before smokingh spice to give him that dutch courage, the way some folk went on was as if its sacrilidge, to each their own no?

I like alcohol and I always have done and like infudibulum I dont like weed either, it makes me quite withdrawn and paranoid, alcohol doesnt do any of these things, i love to brew my own but I dont have the space. It can really help me have real clarity unlike weed after a session, and I really love making music and playing the decks when half drunk so maybe it can be entheogenic.

i love alcohol..i love beer..especially home brew...its sooo damn tasty..gets you a nice drunk..and no hangover because of all the vitamins in it...mead is also a god send..and so is fermented cider...

I do like beer, but only if it is good beer (like Sam Adam's), but I don't like getting drunk.

I HATE vodka and other spirits... taste like gasoline!

love hate relationship. its fun solo or with mary jane, not much else.

not an often thing cause i hate hangover. sorely hungover in the place today. need me some tasty savory food and a couple gatorades. that and a rip outta that bubbler.

for me it is the substance that i must respect the most cause shitty is how i usually roll with the substance. that and tasty beer (light, whats that? nasty) > hard alcohol. shots of 190 prf. have found their way into my mouth before though.

Alcohol is one of my favorite substances for sure. I love beer (especially good micro brewed beer mmmmm) wine (especially good red wine mmmmmmm) and liquor (especially good whiskey mmmmmm). I love getting drunk with friends especially outside in the woods camping is the best.

But for sure the dumbest and stupidest things SWIM has ever done have been under the influence of alcohol but oh well I'm still here and no one was seriously harmed. Either way I'll probably drink for the rest of my life just like I'll smoke pot and trip for the rest of my life. Rock and roll

good wine! good whiskey! those are excellent too but usually not for me to get shitty with. stupidest things done on the substance, most definitely. educational bulkpacks will not open your front door as much as you try and they sure appear like you tried for awhile. you need to use keys!.

Macallan 18, eh. 12 is good enuf.

I dislike the taste, feel, and after effects from alcohol. It's just a personal thing. I don't look down on those who do enjoy alcohol, but for me, there are better ways to relax.

It's not that I'm a mean drunk, or do stupid things while drunk (although I am sure I have, just not the norm), I just don't care for it.

My wife and I drink maybe two or three times a year and only during social gathering.