This is sure to generate some heated debate!
Channeling Transcript
Me: Is marijuana bad? Should some or all drugs be legalized?
(Pause)
Me: This whole thing at the border between the U.S. and Mexico has got me very concerned, so I’m wondering if we decriminalize certain drugs if that would help. When we criminalize things it seems like it creates this black market propelled by greed and tainted with violence and a number of other crimes. Just look at how the Mafia grew in power during the Prohibition.
Erik: Alcohol does the most physical damage.
Me: Oh yeah.
Erik: Here’s how it should be in my eyes, given my new perspective here. There shouldn’t be a drinking age.
Me: Oh boy. You probably had that same opinion while you were here in the physical.
Erik: That while age restriction nonsense should be lifted. What should be monitored is the amount of alcohol per glass, per bottle that kids can have. So let it be up to the parents. When you make alcohol an age-based thing where all of a sudden, poof, you’re 21 and you can go crazy with it, then it’s like dangling a carrot in front of a teenager. They wanna be treated like they’re older, of course, so they’re gonna wanna look cool and drink.
Me: Yeah, well, since my father is from Spain, it’s not unusual for young people like 14 or so to have a glass of wine at dinner. So for me there was no big mystical allure surrounding alcohol, and I’m only into my second liver so…
Jamie laughs.
Me: No, just kidding.
Erik: Yeah, so if there’s no age limit and if you control the alcohol percentage, there’s not gonna be this secretive pressure. It’s giving respect and responsibility to the people instead of micromanaging them and treating them like children.
Me: I’m going to have to digest that one for a while.
Erik: And marijuana absolutely should be used in certain circumstances. It should be legalized and run by the medical field. That could wipe out all these chemicals and pills they’re creating! They could make sure it doesn’t get contaminated with toxic stuff, and not only can you use the bud of the plant, you can use the leaves and the stems to make hemp clothing. It could help the cotton crop, uh, because hemp is one of the strongest ropes ever made. But you already know that.
Me: No, I didn’t. I did not know that.
Erik: But no, you can’t use the plant, because the bud is illegal. It’s silly.
Me: I’ve been watching various documentaries on THC, and I do see people who benefit from it, like people who have a severe stuttering problem and completely stop stuttering when they smoke. Then there are people with chronic pain, people with nausea from chemotherapy, um, and of course a lot of the prescription medication we use now is derived from plants. Look at Digoxin. We use it for heart failure, and it comes from the plant, foxglove.
Erik: You’re right. The basis for almost every medicine out there is a plant.
Me: I just think inhaling the smoke is so bad for the lungs, though.
Erik: People can eat it, put it in butter, make butter. You could sell all these products. You can steam it. There’s just so many other ways to consume it.
Me: Yeah.
Erik: But it should be run and regulated by doctors. And the hallucinogens like LSD, things like Ecstasy and mushrooms and things of that nature should be run by the psychiatric world.
Me: Okay. Whoa.
Erik: It should be legal for the psychiatrist to give these to their patients and take care of them in a quiet safe place while they go through this experience.
Me: Well, gosh, what would be the reason for the experience?
Erik: To help them realize that there’s a bigger reality out there, to see the spiritual side of things. It would completely take their fears and depression away.
Me: Wow. Hm. I know that a lot of people who have had near death experiences often come back to life completely changed, and in a positive way.
Erik: A hundred percent, yep. Imagine, Mom, a person’s fear, depression or anxiety for 15-16 years completely paralyzing them. They can’t move forward. Then a knowing person, a psychiatrist gives them LSD, sets them in a room, very nice music, talks them through their experiences, is totally there with them. The next day, they’re a completely different person.
Me: Wow. But then, doesn’t that take away the duality that’s important for spiritual progress?
Erik: No. Just think about it. What makes you think the duality has to be eight years long?
Me: Oh, well, that’s true. Some people get stuck, you know.
Erik: Yeah, that duality might just be for the run of that duality trip. Maybe it’s a two hour or a four hour one. But that ultimate goal for everybody is to find that place of harmony where they can love their life and love their experiences.
Me: Yeah.
(Pause)
Jamie: I was just telling Erik there’s this word that I’m totally fascinated with by an Indian tribe that I’ve forgotten, but they say Ahoma Taqua Asi. (I have no idea how to spell this. Sorry.)
Me: Ooo! I like the sound of that. Now say it five times really, really fast.
Jamie: Ahoma Taqua Asi means “I lay all my relations before you.” My relationship to you, the couch, the floor, God, the trees, the light, everything. Total vulnerability.
Me: That is powerful. It’s very hard to surrender, to let go. We human beings tend to be clingers. White knuckle clingers.
Erik: And that’s what the LSD can do for some.
Me: Anything else on the subject of drugs?
(I’m hoping not, because this is enough to get my ass kicked several times.)
Erik: Nope. That’s my two cents right there.
Me: Yeah, I’m beginning to agree. Now, if you had told me all this, you know, 2 or 3 years ago, I would have freaked out, being the anti-drug Nazi that I was.
