Here's an excerpt from Paul Devereux's "The Long Trip" A Prehistory of Psychadelia. Great book if you ever get a chance to read it.

"This account of just one psychedelic session [from previous chapter] shows how complex and far-reaching such an experience can be. The workings of the mind are revealed, aspects of the environment can be observed in ways impossible in ordinary consciousness, and profoundly deep (and, yes, sometimes painful) spiritual and philosophical insights are gained by direct experience. It is far too important and complex an experience to be dismissed with such bland and pointless statements as "just say no" to drugs. If this rich complexity of the psychedelic experience is not appreciated, then it becomes impossible for us to understand why human beings have sought natural hallucinogens throughout time, a fact this book will demonstrate.

Today it is the fashion to talk of "drugs" in a monolithic sense, as if they were all the same, and as if they were all necessarily bad. Because Western society is failing in various ways, the use of some drugs, especially alcohol but also even more dangerous substances such as crack cocaine, further alienates and fragments individuals within that failing society, causing physical harm, crime and despair. This of course has to be tackled and guarded against. But in other societies where other kinds of substances, hallucinogens, were (and in some cases still are) considered in a sacramental way their was a binding and ordering of society through their use. With suitable safeguards, organization and planned application, some of those types of substances could do much the same within our society.

Our culture is out of step with the entire record of human experience; it is our culture which is eccentric, bizarre and deeply obtuse. Unfortunately, the ignorance and indiscriminate prejudice about "drugs" is so deeply ingrained at the present time - primarily in America, which regularly attempts to impose that prejudice around the world - that it has been difficult up to recent times for even bona fide scientific research to be conducted on hallucinogens.

At the same time it has to be said that the situation has not been helped by current attitudes towards hallucinogens on the part of some of their users, because it is also true that, in addition to the exaggerated paranoia of the authorities, hallucinogens tend to be abused in todays society and not properly valued as tools for extending our understanding of consciousness, which is what, with careful and considered use, they can be. "

I thought it was interesting to think of our culture as the "eccentric" when compared to societies of the past and I feel compelled to make people understand this concept. It's frustrating though because I feel as though a lot of walls still need to come down surrounding what these alkaloids really are, and what they can be. I feel stuck in wanting to spread the word but also understanding that these chemicals aren't for everyone. I often wonder how they will find their place in our society. I'm training to be a psychotherapist so the practical use of these alkaloids in healing is of great interest to me.

That's why I was so impressed reading Enoon's Open Hyperspace Traveler Course because I felt like I was reading a textbook of the future. One that incorporates these chemicals in a scientific and scholastic way for the betterment of the person interested in understanding more about themselves.The thought and effort that went into it is inspiring. Nice work Enoon and any other contributors!

Does anyone else share in this frustration or am I just being pretentious?

S

PS. If you haven't read it, check it out:
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...&m=431592#post431592