By Ansur

Most conscious-raising substances (various drugs--including alcohol) typically have some kind of Entity (a persona) in charge of them.  This Entity is basically the �deity�, assigned spirit, grand leader, king, or Unworldly Director of a particular material (drug).  Many of these Beings have good AND bad sides.  Some of them, usually called Allies, are fairly harmless and sometimes even helpful.  Allies reside in sacred items typically used in religious rites.  A good example is Peyote.  But Peyote can also be a bad example!  Many parts of the Peyote button are poisonous, and those that do not know the ancient ways of how to prepare them�or those that use them for recreation instead of holy purposes are liable to get into serious trouble.
The difference between the good side of an Allie and its negative �evil twin� is often the purpose that it is used for.  Some things, like Sacred Mushrooms can be used by natives to access astral areas and enable a Shaman to take mundane people along with them.  But when taken for recreational use, they can be one of the DEA�s termed �Entry Drug��meaning they tend to promote the use of more different and much more dangerous drugs.
 
Speaking of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), their never ending and never quite successful war against drugs will never end until new, non-political solutions to handling the drug problem are initiated.
 
Then there are other, more powerful and terrible substances ruled by cruel Entities whose main purpose is to gain power by subverting humans to their will.  They often ruin, degrade, and/or kill the people they possess.

In general, the older the association between the humans and the Entity in Charge, the less destructive it is.  For example, since wine is an ancient (and natural) product, it is generally good and its influence can be even be healthful�when taken in small quantities�especially when imbibed in social situations.  The problem with modern wines is that they are fortified�making them unnatural.  They are fortified with Distilled Spirits which do not have such a long association with humankind, plus they are much more powerful.  NOTE the word spirits in �Distilled Spirits��there is much wisdom in this title.  Therefore, Whisky, Vodka, and the like are comparatively newer and rawer (primitive in relation to humans).  All man-made, more processed conscious-affecting substances contain Entities that are more powerful and have a greater potential for dangerous possession.  The synthetic, artificial, or highly processed modern drugs contain the most awful Entities of all!  It should also be noted that ancient wine was usually diluted with water before drinking.  Modern wines are around 14% (7-proof) and this is an artificial level except in very rare cases.

While some Drug Entities are very powerful and dangerous, others are rather mild and content to just make people appear foolish�depending on the dose and the purpose for taking it.  But all of these intoxicating Beings work by riding (possessing) the human and bending that person�s will to the creature�s un-human needs.

Therefore, if you wish to be possessed, use drugs!

The amount of severity of the possession depends on many factors�psychological makeup, cultural expectations, and body chemistry.  My father had, and passed on to me in his DNA, a body chemistry that is sometimes good and sometimes bad.  I have therefore, been able to personally experiment with some drugs that most people should not try.  I am simply naturally immune to most drugs!  This may sound good, but the pain killers the dentists inject into my gums work less and less with each injection until toward the end of a few appointments, I just suffer!  I also found out when I was hospitalized with a kidney stone that Morphine doesn�t work on me at all unless I get about 500% of what usually does the trick for people with normal body chemistry.

My psychological makeup and personal worship of Mother Nature drove me to experiment mainly with natural occurring drug-substances that generally are not led by the more dangerous Entities.  One drug that did affect me in my youth was alcohol.  My friends and I were stuck in a foreign land, in a boring area where there was little to do in the way of recreation other than to drink.  One day, I became aware that we were beginning to drink more and more as if it was some sort of an automatic response--without really thinking about it.  This warning sign prompted me to �go on the wagon� and I managed to convince my friends to do so too.  Later, we learned that other workers in this area had one of the highest rates alcoholism in the world!  I still drink small amounts of alcohol, recreationally, at social occasions.  But I still have a deep respect for the alcohol Entity.

My best friend and cousin, at age 17, had one beer and instantly became an alcoholic.  His body chemistry was such that alcohol had this kind of effect on him.  In later years, it became apparent that most drugs had an overpowering influence on him.  When LSD first came out, I wanted to try it but was waiting to see how it affected others.  In the meantime, at a downtown coffee shop, someone laced my cousin�s coffee with LSD.  When he began hallucinating, he went to the hospital and they figured out what had happened to him.  What no one knew at that time was that LSD �came back�.  So thinking he was okay, when he began having these unexpected post LSD hallucinations, he had himself committed to an insane asylum�thinking that he was going crazy.  Seemingly cured, he checked out of the asylum, but had another hallucination.  Not wanting to be a burden on his family, he committed suicide!  Contrary to government lies, LSD is not habit-forming, but it can still be dangerous.

Those caught in the web of the powerful and negative Entities make it very hard to impossible for their associates, friends, or relatives to deal with them.  This is because when a person is talking to the possessed one, it is hard to figure out if you are talking to the person, the Entity, or a combination of both.  And the longer the user has been at it, the more their real personality is subverted to the Entity riding their soul.

In Heinlein�s classic Sci Fi book, �The Puppet Masters�, parasitic alien creatures land on earth and crawl up people�s backs to attach themselves to the victim�s spine and brain.  They then controlled those people absolutely.  Symptoms of this possession showed up early on the victims�whose clothes became ragged and filthy, never bathed, didn�t eat properly, and had but one purpose�to infect others.  This is exactly the same real symptoms that show up on those possessed by the Entities addicting them to drugs.  While traveling the long way home on our electric transportation line, I was mediating when a seemingly pretty young lady sat down next to me.  She began nodding off and leaned into me.  She woke up, apologized in a mumble, and then nodded off again.  I took a better look at her.  She smelled unwashed, her hair was a rat�s nest of uncombed locks, and her arms were covered with scabs.  I could tell that she had once been a pretty person�but obviously was currently deeply possessed.  I felt very sorry for her.  She was the very image of Heinlein�s alien-possessed human.

Drug rehabilitation is a form of exorcism and can only be started when the real human personally �inside� desires it.  And it can only be successful if the real person �inside� is strong enough to be a partner in the exorcism.

The best solution is to not take drugs in the first palace.  A person�s consciousness can be raised by many other means that are not destructive.

Ansur,

I would like to mention a point where I disagree with the DEA as well as an error in what was related about wine.

The DEA will claim any drug as an "entry" drug; I remember the D.A.R.E. program in grade school.  I hold that this is not true.  I have watched several users of various drugs and admit to having used some myself.  The only persons that I noted using more different and much more dangerous drugs were those with a predisposition towards alcoholism.  Marijuana, Peyote, Mushrooms, even Cocoa leaves (from which Cocaine is derived) have been the sole drugs used by many people without further experimentation.  Much like with cigarettes, I believe it is something in how manufactured drugs are created that makes those drugs addictive and "entry" drugs.  I personally have used three of the aforementioned drugs both for "religious" and recreational reasons with no ill-affects or desire to use something more dangerous...I put my trust in Nature and she has yet to lead me wrong.

As for wine, it was the Greeks and Romans who diluted their wine.  The Celts and Gauls never did.  The Celts are also credited with the first brewing of mead, a sweet beer made from the fermentation of honey.  I will hold that if you are not inclined to addiction that wine, mead, and beer are also fine items for consumption.  In moderate amounts, they are actually good for you.

Despite everything mentioned above, I am not advocating that we should all go off and smoke a bowl with a flagon of wine.  I am just stating that drugs and alcohol that is naturally produced are fine.  When I did the experimentation phase that many go through, I held one belief that seemed to work for me: If someone using the drug has to be trusted to make it, stay the hell away from it.

On a side note, the bit about painkillers being ineffective.  Your genetic make-up may be part of it but there is another reason...the one I suffer from.  The greater majority of the population primarily uses one side of the brain.  The drug manufacturers know this and make their drugs to cover this greater portion of the population.  I am of the smaller perentage that uses the other side of their brain; as such much manufactured drugs work backwards for me.  Vicadin, the pain pill of my dentist, does not make me tired (a common side-effect) but instead will keep me awake usually in great pain.