Magic Mushroom Explorer: Psilocybin and the Awakening Earth by Simon G. Powell

Author:Simon G. Powell [Powell, Simon G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality/Entheogens
ISBN: 9781620553671
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2015-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

4

The Powell Report

One would assume that politics has nothing whatsoever to do with consciousness. One would think that politicians have no business policing the chemicals employed by neurons in the brain. One would think that grown adults would be able to alter or expand their consciousness in whatever way they choose as long as they do not injure or endanger anyone in the process. Even if there is some degree of potential health danger in such a pursuit, one would still assume that it would be deemed socially acceptable in the same way that potentially dangerous pursuits like rock climbing, snowboarding, and white water rafting are deemed socially acceptable. Alas, none of this is so. The last century has seen a politically driven “war on drugs”—or, to be more accurate, a “war on some drugs some of the time.” In fact, the war is specifically against drug users (i.e., people) and not drugs. So it is really the “war on some people who use some drugs.” This “pharmacratic inquisition,” as some have called it, has seen an inordinately oppressive reaction by the establishment to those who choose to alter their consciousness through psychoactive substances. Drugs are dangerous, we are told. They cause harm. They are bad for you. Above all, they are wrong and immoral. Those who indulge in illicit drugs are dodgy and depraved citizens in need of harsh chastisement. No surprise then that there is apparently no such thing as illicit drug use, only illicit drug abuse. If you make use of illicit drugs, you are an abuser, not a user. To be sure, if you utilize illicit drugs, you are indulging in criminal behavior. Moreover, the psilocybin mushroom has been tarred by this legislative madness and is pretty much prohibited everywhere on the planet. Can you believe that? Almost everywhere on the earth, wholly natural Psilocybe fungi are subject to prohibition, their possession carrying criminal implications.

Certain other drugs, however, are totally licit and are part and parcel of the fabric of society. Take alcohol. Alcohol is so ingrained within Western culture that you are more likely to find a pub or a new liquor store in any given town or village instead of a library or an old church. Alcohol consumption is everywhere. Drinking beer or wine or vodka is pretty much de rigueur these days. We invariably chuckle and wink knowingly if someone starts to tell tale of a previous night’s hard drinking. Those who choose not to drink are the odd ones out. Yet alcohol kills millions of people every year. For instance, a recent study published in The Lancet estimated that around one in twenty-five deaths around the world were attributable to alcohol consumption.*2 That is an astonishing and lamentable statistic. Yet alcohol is still advertised on prime time TV, where we see good-looking young people dancing the night away followed by a brief and almost subliminal warning to the tune of “please drink responsibly”—even though, of course, alcohol inebriation precludes self-control.

As for the U.

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