oddly "Mind Expanding" is a misnomer. Now MOOD ALTERING... When you take away fear people can think differently. With a lack of fear in the equation people begin to ask questions they would not ask before.

Now when they ask these questions of Clergy they begin to see the BS associated with many canned (traditional) answers. The fog then parts and people realize they don't need religion.

Compared to then the drugs people use are much harder. Worst is the stacked drugs like Ecstasy which is three different drugs in one pill.

Ecstasy used to be just Heroin, Meth amphetamine, and Cocaine but it also has Viagra and a host of other ingredients to enhance the high. All depends on the Chemist.

There was also the exposure to other cultures besides the Puritan Christianity that ruled America for so long.

Remember the late sixties and seventies, and how mind expansion drugs
were in popular use?

Has that error of drug use affected the world's present religious order thinking?

How can you be sure that the "mood altering"
didn't affect better judgment?

Not really--not enough people did those mind expansion/mood altering drugs to make an impact on major religions.

Remember the late sixties and seventies, and how mind expansion drugs
were in popular use?

Has that error of drug use affected the world's present religious order thinking?

Are drugs the reason why people think Woody Allen is funny???


Enquiring minds wanna know....

Drug abuse was rampant during that era...and I tell ya, I believe it's made its impact in many areas of today's society: religion, politics, law, science, medicine, etc. In particular, Religious impact is the concern here.

MsHarmony wrote:

religion had not changed in the sixties, or since, but somehow people weaned themself away from blind acceptance of drug use as some outward expression of 'peace' and got back to responsibility and other means of expression,,

I'm not so sure that they did actually. Like Gwendolyn said, "Not really--not enough people did those mind expansion/mood altering drugs to make an impact on major religions."

I think in the 60's the drug thing was blow out of proportion by the news media because it was becoming associated with social defiance and rebellion against things like an open military draft and suppression of women's rights, etc.

And because it became "newsworthy" it also become popular. And so a lot of people experimented with it. Especially when they saw famous people being associated with it.

Today, drug use and abuse use is still rampant in our society. Probably every bit as rampant as it was in the 60's, maybe even more so because today people tend to take it for granted. While large drug busts, and drug-related crimes still make the news, doing drugs is no longer viewed as an expression of "social rebellion". Now it's just viewed as a "normal social problem".

If you really stop and think about this, it's not all that much different from the "Roaring 20's", when the moonshine and alcohol thing was going on. The government tried hard to suppress the free public use of alcohol, but to no avail. They finally had to concede that they couldn't control it. Of course, the masses already had in their favor that drinking alcohol had already been long since accepted by society. The real thing that was being fought for by the government was to have more control over it by the state. And they did gain quite a bit of control in that area over the years.

In the 60's the attention turned toward "pot" or "grass" or Marijuana. Maybe people were arguing that it's no worse than alcohol, in fact many people argued that it's not even as bad!

I personally think there's a lot of truth to those arguments. Just how strong of an affect either alcohol or marijuana can have on a person truly depends on the individual. Some people are strongly affected by alcohol in very negative ways, it might even cause them to become quite violent, (this is a common factor with alcohol consumption). Of course, with some other people alcohol can actually cause them to feel laid-back and quite passive. Others still may be affected by alcohol only very slightly, whilst someone else might get really radical after only having had small amounts of alcohol.

The very same thing is true of marijuana, it affect different people differently. I'm a child of the 50's, I lived through the 60's and early 70's when marijuana was prevalent. I smoked it. I refuse to say that I "abused it". I simply "used" it, and I confess that I used it quite often. But it was never a problem for me. It was extremely cheap back then, you could obtain a whole ounce for $15 and it was GOOD stuff too! Thick sticky buds that would take you on a trip.

For me, it was a passive thing. When I smoked it I just wanted to lay back and listen to music, or do something else that was laid-back and fun. It never had a negative affect on me.

However, I know that other people reacted to it differently, and I also know that some people would actually become violent when they smoked it. I personally feel that it works like a magnifying lens to just bring out and amplify your true nature. People who became violent may have simply been aggressive people naturally. Aggression itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but how it is applied can be. For example, aggressively applying yourself to a positive constructive goal is a good thing. That how great athletes, musicians, and so on, achieve their greatness. They aggressively go after a goal.

However, under the influence of a drug (including alcohol) that aggression could potentially become unleashed in social settings with negative consequences.

So all drugs (including alcohol) can be a negative influence on some people. But this isn't true of all people. As as it's not true for how alcohol affects every individual.

Perhaps the biggest argument against legalizing marijuana came from the argument that if marijuana is legalized, then what's next?
Opium? Heroin? LSD? etc.

Many people saw marijuana as merely a stepping-stone to far more physically addictive drugs. Marijuana itself is not a physically addicting drug. By that I mean that if you quit it you're not going to go through a major physical withdraw having convulsions and getting sick. If you can't quit marijuana it's just that you refuse to give up the habit.

The heavier drugs, like opium and heroin are strongly physically addictive. There's very good reasons to not permit them to be socially available.

So anyway, I for one always hate to see marijuana placed into the bucket of "drugs" whilst alcohol is being passed off as "socially acceptable".

I don't do either anymore. In fact I even quit smoking cigarettes many years ago too, and there's a totally wasted product that doesn't have anything to offer but health hazards, it doesn't even get a person high. What a waste. Yet look at how many people smoke cigarettes. You don't even need to look at the people, just look at the shelves in the stores behind the counters lined with packs of cigarettes! They wouldn't bother keeping that stuff in stock if it wasn't selling!

And they almost always have a LOT on stock, so they must be selling a LOT of cigarettes.

But yeah, if you want to talk about drugs you've got to toss alcohol in the batch, it's one drug that is currently legal.

MsHarmony wrote:

people need a release and they turn to different artificial sources to do so,,,,

Why would you call it "artificial"? What's artificial about it?

If a God created this universe then that same God created all the drugs on it, and God also created the way in which drugs would affect the humans who consume them.

And some people who "use" drugs and don't "abuse" them would suggest that they aren't only good, but their GREAT.

They do have positive medical qualities. If a person is inflicted by a disease that makes them highly nauseous (like say cancer), marijuana can actually be a "God-sent" relief from that agony. Marijuana can also reduce pain levels in other situations. I had quit using marijuana just for pure pleasure, but then I broke a leg. It was quite painful and I "returned" to using marijuana briefly during that time just to ease the pain.

In fact, look at how doctors currently prescribe personality-altering drugs all the time. I think Prozac and similar mood-altering drugs are prescribed on a regular basis.

Is that "artificial"? Is medicine in general "artificial"?

What about water-skiing? Is that an artificial past-time?

How about playing music on all these instruments that mankind invented. Is that an "artificial" activity?

What constitutes "artificial"?

I think it's pretty easy to put a label on something that you may not agree with, just to pretend like it's not "natural". But marijuana grows naturally and some would argue that it's a quite natural herb to harvest and use. You don't even need to smoke it, there are other ways to prepare it and ingest it, such as in brownies or fudge, for example.

Finally, just to drive home my point, most people wouldn't think twice about using Saint John's Wort as a "Natural Herb" for a sense of well-being. (i.e. a mood altering substance).

In fact, I take St. John's Wort regularly myself. I think it does help to keep me in "Good spirits".

So when does a natural herb qualify as a "Natural Heath Aid", or get bashed as an "Artificial Crutch"?

Who decides?

Seems to me that any such lines are highly subjective.

Of course, when you get into the hard-core drugs like cocaine, opium, and heroin, etc., then you could argue that they are highly physically addictive. But in the case of marijuana that argument doesn't truly hold.

If marijuana was legal I'd probably still use it on occasion, kind of like a person might use a six-pack on occasion. One of the reasons I did quit it was simply because I was no longer interested in taking chances of being hassled by the law.

I personally don't believe there is anything "immoral" about using marijuana, unless a person gets really irresponsible about it (but that could be true of anything). If I were to use it, I'd just use it at home in my own private space. I don't particularly like being high in public places anyway. But that's just me.

I don't see anything wrong with enjoying a drug anymore than enjoying listening to music or watching TV. In fact, watching TV is probably the biggest waste of time on the planet. Talk about "artificial entertainment". TV is about as "artificial" as it gets.

Remember the late sixties and seventies, and how mind expansion drugs
were in popular use?

Has that error of drug use affected the world's present religious order thinking?

"I just pointed out that people turn to artificial (man created or altered) means of release

as opposed to release that comes from the self, like meditation or fasting,,,etc,,, "

artificial... Like organized religion... a 'drug' of a different sort.

Drug use and abuse in the 60's was merely a symptom of much deeper social issues. The main thesis of that era was actually a desire to be free, and to get out from under the blind authority of things like religion, or to be more precise religious hypocrisy.

There was a DRAFT going on at that time. Young men and to a lesser degree young women were being drafted and shipped off to Vietnam and tossed into a petty political war that many people felt we (the USA) had no business fighting in the first place.

So it was a rebellion against just BLINDLY following authority just because the authoritarians happen to be in a position of authority.

The main theme of the 60's was "Make Love not War". And the PEACE symbol would probably be the single most popular symbol that could be associated with the era:









It was a time of rebellion against BLIND AUTHORITY.

Kind of like rebelling against taxation without representation.

People were being drafted and sent into wars, women were being suppressed and held back simply because of their gender.

Don't forget that the 60's was the time of Women's Liberation and "The Great Bra Burnings".

I've always said that those women should have been burning Bibles instead of bras! The Bible is where all that male-chauvinism comes from. The Hebrews were very patriarchal and treated their women like second-class citizens and it permeates their religious folklore.

Much great art and music came out of the 60's. Songs that made political and moral statements. "I am Woman hear me Roar", by Helen Redding.

One Tin Soldier
Give Peace a Chance
Imagine
If I had a Hammer
This land is your land
Blow'in in the Wind
Eve of Destruction
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

The list is endless, and the paintings and artwork from the era also reflected these same deep themes of humanity.

There was a LOT of GOOD, that came out of the 60's.

In fact, any anti-religious sentiments that may have come out of that era are a GOOD THING as far as I'm concerned. People need to question religion, especially when it's being used to try to shove an ideal of BLIND OBEDIENCE to authority onto the people.

That's oppression!

And the hypocrisy of that kind of oppression is precisely the kind of thing that incites rebellion.

And rightfully so, IMHO.

We don't have a FREE DRAFT into the military today. And be THANKFUL for that! Because if George W. Bush had that kind of unlimited resources when he invaded Iraq who knows what might have happened? We could have ended up with all our children being shipped out to fight in the Arab Nations.

Yep, the 60's were a GOOD THING!

Drug use and abuse, was just a small part of it actually. That was just one of the symptoms, not the CAUSE.

The idea of just BLINDLY following authority without QUESTIONING it was the real cause.

Yet, that's precisely what your religion tries to get people to do!

Look at me, I question your religion and you call me names and try to make out like I'm a jerk!

Nope, sorry CeriseRose, but the real PROBLEM is following anything BLINDLY and NOT questioning it.

Question EVERYTHING!

Especially dogmatic religions that demand that they be blindly believed, followed, and worshiped, and that to question them is blaspheme.

Those are the very FIRST things you should question!

"I just pointed out that people turn to artificial (man created or altered) means of release

as opposed to release that comes from the self, like meditation or fasting,,,etc,,, "

artificial... Like organized religion... a 'drug' of a different sort.