[Buddha-l] Dumbo's feather Re:Buddhism and psychoactive substances

[Joy Vriens]

Bonjour curt, 
 
>Et bonsoir mes ami Joy, 

Et merci mon ami Curt.
 
>Strassman thinks that the pituitary gland (this might start sounding  
>familiar to any Tantrikas out there) produces "endogenous" DMT during  
>birth, death - and any really good spiritual experiences that might  
>occur in between. Since the pituitary is deep inside the brain itself -  
>the DMT produced there will get to brain cells without being  
>enzymatically degraded first. This is a very "testable" hypothesis in  
>principle but doing the experiments requires getting over some  
>significant hurdles. First - DMT is a class one controlled substance in  
>the United States and it's almost impossible to get legal permission to  
>use it at all - let alone in experiments on humans. Which brings us to  
>the second hurdle - experimenting on humans. But not just on humans in a  
>general way - you have to find some way of measuring the levels of DMT  
>inside people's brains. It's hard to find a lawyer who would even  
>consider trying to draw up a "consent form" for that kind of experiment!  
>One of the really great things about Strassman's book, by the way, is  
>the first section in which he goes through the early history of  
>"psychedelic research" - when any Tom, Dick or Timothy Leary could just  
>give their "patients" (or friends or students) some LSD and just sit  
>back to watch what happened. Ah - those were the good old days. 

In my current approach to what I consider a "spiritual" "path" to be, the use of psychoactive substances and of magical techniques such as yoga, breathing, pranayama etc. with the intention of influencing one's perception, mental and/or physical state is control-related. Who and/or what wants to control what and what for? Genuin spirituality imo ought to be close to total ahimsa, non interference, or non-intentional interference. Why would that be genuin spirituality? No idea. Is it possible at all? Probably not. But if it can't make Dumbo fly without a feather, it doesn't deserve the name "spiritual" path. 

Arbitrarily yours,

Joy