SHAMAN THREE
Monday, March 07, 2005
DOWNSTREAM: A LOVE STORY
A person was walking in the forest one day when they
came to a river. They noticed a body floating in the
current and they rushed out into the water to rescue
the person. With a great struggle they pulled the body
to the shore and began giving CPR. After a minute or
so the victim started coughing up water and regained
consciousness. Just then another body was spotted in
the river floating in the current. Again they entered
the flowing water and struggled to pull the body to the
shore and began giving CPR. Again the victim started
coughing up water and regained consciousness. This time
two bodies were spotted coming down the river. Being
exhausted, the three formed a human chain and caught the
two victims just as they were about to float past them.
CPR was performed on both of these victims and soon they
were coughing and spitting water out of their lungs.
More and more bodies were coming down the river now.
One of the people ran to the town and got help. Many
people came down to the river and began rescuing the
victims as they floated by. Soon a major operation was
underway of pulling people out of the river and giving
them CPR. Emergency vehicles were arriving with their
sirens blaring and personnel were leaping to the shore
to help with the recovery of the dozens of bodies that
were floating down the river. About then, the person
who had rescued the first victim had a thought. Why
were these people falling into the river and floating
down to them. That person decided to go upstream and
see what was causing all this. He walked along the
shore heading upstream to search for an explanation.
He could see that there were many more people floating
down to where the other people were now frantically
rescuing hundreds of victims.
Like the person who decided to go upstream to see what
was causing the people to fall into the river, the three
shamans pictured above found themselves asking questions
about what was happening to those with substance abuse
problems in their community. Some of the victims died.
Others caused their families and community great trauma.
It seemed like few were escaping the perils of addiction
and drug induced crisis or incarceration. The community
was stricken and profoundly bewildered by what was going
on around them.
The results of the three shamans "going upstream" to find
the causes of these problems are reflected in the content
of the treatment models. None of the processes developed
to curtail the problems were working. Some of them seemed
like good solutions but they were just not stopping the
problems. What could the three do to help the community?
They identified that there were natural forces at work.
People explore the alteration of their consciousness with
little knowledge and varied propensities for abuse. The
context of the whole situation repressed things getting
any better. More and more people fell victim to the
perils of substance abuse. It seemed to visit the rich,
the poor, the intelligent, the ignorant, the young, the old,
the men, the women, the metropolitan, the rural, the tall,
the short, the skinny, and the fat. There was an underlying
mechanism at work. Historically it has been a relationship
of drugs for money, money for guns, and guns for power. In
our free society (free will included) it has become drugs
for pleasure, drugs for money, and drugs for ego and power
tripping. Excuse the misuse of the broad definition of drug
here. The vicious circles now seem even more destructive and
virtually unstoppable.
Was this a law enforcement issue? Was this a medical issue?
Was this an educational issue? Was this a community issue?
Was this a psychological issue? Was this a behavioral issue?
Was this a spiritual issue? Was this a family issue? Was
this a moral issue? Was this a genetic issue? Was this a
social issue? The answers were puzzling. Each question
seemed to be answered with a confusing... YES!!! How could it
be all of these factors at once? Was there no solution to the
cycle of increasing pain and destruction in our supposedly
civilized and technologically advanced culture?
The major problems seemed to stem from people abusing either
stimulants or depressants. Was the answer in the nature of
the drugs themselves? The three shamans looked for answers
in ethnobotanical research and the drug abuse community
dynamics. A startling discovery was made. "Drugs" was a broad
term used to include legal and illegal substances. Little
emphasis was placed on addictive and non-addictive. They
looked to the "drug culture" that evolved during the culturally
revolutionary times we now refer to as the "sixties!" What
drug behavior was different back then? There seemed to be a
category of drug that was severely driven underground when
drugs were used in a context of consciousness expansion. The
category was psychedelics. That makes one think of LSD25, a
synthetic derivative of ergotine... a rye grain mold. It was
pervasive in the 1960's drug culture and seemed to spawn a
mind boggling change of perspective about life and community
values. There were also less pervasive experiences with more
natural psychedelics like magic mushrooms, peyote, mescaline,
and DMT.
Historically, shamanism delved into the exploration of culture.
There was a spiritual context and the purpose was to explain
human relationships with each other and their environment.
Various concoctions of natural tryptamine substances were
combined with MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) to take the
shaman outside the context of the culture and to look with an
alternative perspective at the issues of the day. For thousands
of years this process served the varied needs of human cultural
evolution. We lost touch with these practices in the modern
culture. Stimulants and depressants were repeatedly cycled in
society causing paradoxes and decline. Intellectuals in the
1960's caught a glimpse of the past. As the door was being
shut from fear and misrepresentation on psychedelics... the
community and historical value was perceived. Some kept trying
to understand the value and nature of these substances. They
were not typically addictive and they seemed to reveal new views
of social problems. Could these substances be part of the
solution to the increasing social destruction caused by current
substance abuse cycles of addictive stimulants and depressants?
In fact, the answers were found in history. As Terry McKenna,
a PhD ethnobotanist chanted... the modern shamans must learn
to fast-forward into the past to bring back the answers and
spread the word. Psychedelics are illegal, considered by some
to be psychologically damaging, and are only available in very
limited quantities by comparison to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, a
variety of pharmaceuticals, and toxic homemade methamphetmines.
One of the psychedelic substances that people were familiar with
was the analgesic herbal known as marijuana. It was different
from the destructive and addictive drugs. Some said it was just
as harmful as all the stimulants and depressants. But evidence
to the contrary was continually experienced by users and this
caused even more confusion about the nature of substance use and
abuse.
So what is the conclusion to the downstream metaphor? Is this
an encouragement to explore psychedelic mind altering substances?
It is an eyes wide open wandering around in the essence of a very
real problem that is manifesting in our community and culture.
Seek your own answers in the information you will find posted here.
came to a river. They noticed a body floating in the
current and they rushed out into the water to rescue
the person. With a great struggle they pulled the body
to the shore and began giving CPR. After a minute or
so the victim started coughing up water and regained
consciousness. Just then another body was spotted in
the river floating in the current. Again they entered
the flowing water and struggled to pull the body to the
shore and began giving CPR. Again the victim started
coughing up water and regained consciousness. This time
two bodies were spotted coming down the river. Being
exhausted, the three formed a human chain and caught the
two victims just as they were about to float past them.
CPR was performed on both of these victims and soon they
were coughing and spitting water out of their lungs.
More and more bodies were coming down the river now.
One of the people ran to the town and got help. Many
people came down to the river and began rescuing the
victims as they floated by. Soon a major operation was
underway of pulling people out of the river and giving
them CPR. Emergency vehicles were arriving with their
sirens blaring and personnel were leaping to the shore
to help with the recovery of the dozens of bodies that
were floating down the river. About then, the person
who had rescued the first victim had a thought. Why
were these people falling into the river and floating
down to them. That person decided to go upstream and
see what was causing all this. He walked along the
shore heading upstream to search for an explanation.
He could see that there were many more people floating
down to where the other people were now frantically
rescuing hundreds of victims.
Like the person who decided to go upstream to see what
was causing the people to fall into the river, the three
shamans pictured above found themselves asking questions
about what was happening to those with substance abuse
problems in their community. Some of the victims died.
Others caused their families and community great trauma.
It seemed like few were escaping the perils of addiction
and drug induced crisis or incarceration. The community
was stricken and profoundly bewildered by what was going
on around them.
The results of the three shamans "going upstream" to find
the causes of these problems are reflected in the content
of the treatment models. None of the processes developed
to curtail the problems were working. Some of them seemed
like good solutions but they were just not stopping the
problems. What could the three do to help the community?
They identified that there were natural forces at work.
People explore the alteration of their consciousness with
little knowledge and varied propensities for abuse. The
context of the whole situation repressed things getting
any better. More and more people fell victim to the
perils of substance abuse. It seemed to visit the rich,
the poor, the intelligent, the ignorant, the young, the old,
the men, the women, the metropolitan, the rural, the tall,
the short, the skinny, and the fat. There was an underlying
mechanism at work. Historically it has been a relationship
of drugs for money, money for guns, and guns for power. In
our free society (free will included) it has become drugs
for pleasure, drugs for money, and drugs for ego and power
tripping. Excuse the misuse of the broad definition of drug
here. The vicious circles now seem even more destructive and
virtually unstoppable.
Was this a law enforcement issue? Was this a medical issue?
Was this an educational issue? Was this a community issue?
Was this a psychological issue? Was this a behavioral issue?
Was this a spiritual issue? Was this a family issue? Was
this a moral issue? Was this a genetic issue? Was this a
social issue? The answers were puzzling. Each question
seemed to be answered with a confusing... YES!!! How could it
be all of these factors at once? Was there no solution to the
cycle of increasing pain and destruction in our supposedly
civilized and technologically advanced culture?
The major problems seemed to stem from people abusing either
stimulants or depressants. Was the answer in the nature of
the drugs themselves? The three shamans looked for answers
in ethnobotanical research and the drug abuse community
dynamics. A startling discovery was made. "Drugs" was a broad
term used to include legal and illegal substances. Little
emphasis was placed on addictive and non-addictive. They
looked to the "drug culture" that evolved during the culturally
revolutionary times we now refer to as the "sixties!" What
drug behavior was different back then? There seemed to be a
category of drug that was severely driven underground when
drugs were used in a context of consciousness expansion. The
category was psychedelics. That makes one think of LSD25, a
synthetic derivative of ergotine... a rye grain mold. It was
pervasive in the 1960's drug culture and seemed to spawn a
mind boggling change of perspective about life and community
values. There were also less pervasive experiences with more
natural psychedelics like magic mushrooms, peyote, mescaline,
and DMT.
Historically, shamanism delved into the exploration of culture.
There was a spiritual context and the purpose was to explain
human relationships with each other and their environment.
Various concoctions of natural tryptamine substances were
combined with MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) to take the
shaman outside the context of the culture and to look with an
alternative perspective at the issues of the day. For thousands
of years this process served the varied needs of human cultural
evolution. We lost touch with these practices in the modern
culture. Stimulants and depressants were repeatedly cycled in
society causing paradoxes and decline. Intellectuals in the
1960's caught a glimpse of the past. As the door was being
shut from fear and misrepresentation on psychedelics... the
community and historical value was perceived. Some kept trying
to understand the value and nature of these substances. They
were not typically addictive and they seemed to reveal new views
of social problems. Could these substances be part of the
solution to the increasing social destruction caused by current
substance abuse cycles of addictive stimulants and depressants?
In fact, the answers were found in history. As Terry McKenna,
a PhD ethnobotanist chanted... the modern shamans must learn
to fast-forward into the past to bring back the answers and
spread the word. Psychedelics are illegal, considered by some
to be psychologically damaging, and are only available in very
limited quantities by comparison to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, a
variety of pharmaceuticals, and toxic homemade methamphetmines.
One of the psychedelic substances that people were familiar with
was the analgesic herbal known as marijuana. It was different
from the destructive and addictive drugs. Some said it was just
as harmful as all the stimulants and depressants. But evidence
to the contrary was continually experienced by users and this
caused even more confusion about the nature of substance use and
abuse.
So what is the conclusion to the downstream metaphor? Is this
an encouragement to explore psychedelic mind altering substances?
It is an eyes wide open wandering around in the essence of a very
real problem that is manifesting in our community and culture.
Seek your own answers in the information you will find posted here.
posted by mag00 # 3/07/2005 04:20:00 PM 
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