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Talk about how alcoholism has destroyed Native American communities and how Peyote seems to be the only thing that helps!

Gonna have to do some research buddy. The best thing is to have a good balance of information. If you go on and on about psychadelics, a lot of people will be all "oh this is just some hippy whos into drugs"...so all the advice i can give you is find a very good balance of everything. Also, why not throw in how all the plants in cities are all male?(they dont fruit). Possibly how even the nature we have throughout the country / world etc. is being turned into "controlled" nature...how we're losing tons of species of plants etc. because of certain ones getting bred for certain traits, while the other species may have very very desirable traits we dont know yet.

pops

Anyone see the sweat lodge deaths here in US in the news? I believe four people died. There is talk of homicide charges for retreat owner/organizer.

Not to taint your post congrats on the speech. It is kind of on topic.


PEACE
MV

Let's see if we're thinking of the same thing, the guy who created the secret ran it? If not, then yeah the guy who created the secret did a retreat, sounds like he got cocky, full of himself, stingy & greedy. A plastic tent in 120 degree weather = huff huff huff. You can throw this in too! How the culture humbles themselves and respects everything, and you don't end up with idiotic things that anyone could tell you are plain dumb.

I forgot who it was, but they were saying how things must be dealt with on their own dimension. So, if it's a spiritual thing causing the problem, you heal it on a spiritual level. If it's a biological problem, you heal it on a biological level. If it's psycological...so on and so forth. It might've been on a shaman who does ayahuasca healings. Saying how they don't put off medicines, but they open their mind to all aspects and not rule out any options(where most doctors etc. do)

garrr

I think your dead on with that statement. It is racist to say that someone can express his spirituality in a certain way because of his skin color and blood but you and I can't.

Also, just an FYI, native americans have the highest rate of fetal alcohol syndrome. This is a problem and I hope to see the native americans improve it. good luck!

here's a beatiful report of one mans experience with peyote and the native american church here in canada..all the way back from the 50's..I really enjoyed the read but it's long..I want to one day eat peyote but I dont thik I would do it outside of NAC ceremony because the stuff is so rare and endangered these days..I have my huachuma..hope to grow some peyote though. If I ever get to attend a NAC ceremony I want to give them a peyote cactus that I grow as a gift..would be nice.

http://www.psychedelic-library.org/peyote.htm

Alcoholism- my Native American friend told me that people say that alcohol was meant for the white man, not the natives (dubious explanation?).
I expect it's more to do with other things.
-Conquered people tend towards alcoholism- such as the Australian aboriginals, the NZ Maori and the Irish under English oppression- which isn't surprising really considering another culture has stolen your ancestral land and rejected your culture.
-Secondly, she tells me their culture is a lot more permissive of things like alcoholism and teenage pregnancy- they don't look down on people for such things, which is a lot nicer way of treating people, but I guess it means that people aren't scared into moderation via peer pressure.
-I wonder if they have also experienced a 'brain drain' with more successful types leaving the reservation, increasing the proportion of alcoholics etc there.
-Maybe there's even some genetics involved- white people have perhaps thousands of years of experience with alcohol (I read that small beer was drunk instead of water by children in medieval times!) so maybe a significant proportion of alcoholic tendencies have been evolved out of the race due to years and years of alcoholics dying before having children? Speculation, of course.
-Peruvian Torch cactus helped SWIM to give up his binge drinking, here's his report http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=76579

NAC- I would say your first port of call for information would be the NAC website, then contact someone from the website for at least an email interview, I expect they will oblige if they trust that you are going to be enthusiastic and fair about them. By the way, they are Christians, not a traditional religion. I expect a tribe like the Huichol will be your best bet for traditional religious use of peyote.

Another thing about the race issue- the Peyote Way Church of God was started by white members of the NAC, after the NAC decided not to defy the government's ruling on race (I think you have to be a minimum of a quarter Native American to take peyote legally), so the excluded white members started their own church. I'm not sure if the Peyote Way is actually legally allowed to take peyote yet... I don't think so, but check the timeline on their site. The Peyote Way are practically Mormons.

P.s. I don't think I count as a source, because I am a European in Europe! But I hope what little I know is of help in giving you directions for investigation.

ohayoco, I dont know about native americans but there are definitely south american indigenous people that traditionally consume different sorts of fermented drinks with plenty of alcohol, so its not only a 'white man's drug'...

unless we are talking only about distilled, in which case I indeed dont know about any indigenous with distillation techiques, but still the claim that alcohol is only for white man is a problematic one

Yeah, that's just what she told me they say where she's from. She's from a certain North American tribe. I agree it was a dubious explanation. She has told me before that some natives are racist against whites, perhaps unsurprisingly. I expect no more so than the average American is against them.

yep racism and lack of conscience is everywhere...

Thanks for the info though- I'll tell her what you said, and that should help to couterract that myth from circulating in her circles
Also I just remembered that the Pre-Columbian Aztecs drank pulque, 'an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant' (Wikipedia).

www.Peyoteway.org accepts people of all races, most of the other Peyote Churches do not.

rops