Santa, Hughes, and Walsh

Santa:
This Santa stuff is interesting. It's not entirely for me, but it's interesting. For instance, the whole idea of an "upper" world and a "lower" world---upper being heaven and lower being hell. The author writes, "the lower world is underground and commonly accessed by a tunnel or a hole in the earth" --and--"the upper world is associated in the sky and is accessed by such means as a sacred tree, or ladder that reaches into heaven" (3). Why do we always associate heaven with being above us? This isn't the first time that I've heard a reference to a ladder or rope to go UP to heaven. I don't get it. When I was a younger I used to always think that if you flew far enough out into the sky that you could reach heaven. Also, that if you dug far enough into the ground you could reach hell. And, as a child might do, I attempted to dig to hell. Not because that was my preferred choice, but rather, because my dad owned a shovel but not an airplane. It didn't take me long until I gave up when I realized how much time and work it would take---I did, in case you are interested, put a pit from a peach in the small hole I managed to dig in an attempt to grow a peach tree. No success. The author also points out that "sugar, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco have been culturally supported whereas the sacramental use of entheogenic mushrooms are still demonized and outlawed" (6). I liked this quote because it reminds me of a comment I made in an earlier blog about wanting to reach an ASOC through yoga but not drug use because I have been taught that drug use is a bad thing. I'll get back to this point later.

Hughes:
It must be later because here goes.....Hughes writes, "the most popular drugs range from coffee and tea to tobacco and alcohol, with marijuana a recent addition" (161). He goes on to talk about "psychedelic" drugs too labeling them as "problematic in social terms". I drink coffee and I drink alcohol---and sometimes when I'm drinking alcohol I might smoke a few cigarettes because they go so well together ( I know, I know). I also don't like taking any medicine when I'm sick and have recently started eating some organic food. I had to set that up to give you the proper perspective for what I'm about to say (summary: coffee, alcohol, some cigs, organic food)---what I don't do is any drug considered "illegal". But here's the catch, we have had a prohibition before. So I strikes me as odd to consider certain drugs illegal and not others when the ideas/feeling/emotions/thoughts about these drugs change over time. People used to use opium openly---now it's illegal. People used to drink alcohol---then it became illegal----now it's legal again. Who is in control of this whole thing any way? Why do certain people get to classify drugs as either "good" or "bad"---legal or illegal. They're all drugs, right? Even the word "drugs" had different connotations to it. For instance, when I say that I don't use drugs people generally understand what that means. You can name the ones that you know would be included on that list. But, at the end of the day---I would be lying because every morning I drink coffee and occasionally I'll have a few drinks on the weekend. People automatically make a distinction between "illegal" and "legal". Oh, you don't do drugs? Ok, well how about that soda you're drinking?---I love the hypocrisy. Hughes also talks about absinthe which I've seen in a movie before (can't remember which movie but I do remember the drink was green). The movie portrayed it as the greatest thing ever---which just makes me want to try it. This is strange because it happens to be a liqueur, whereas if it were a mushroom or something like that then I wouldn't be interested. I just love what I've taken in from my culture. Speaking of cultures...

Walsh:
He writes that most of the world's cultures are polyphasic whereas the Western world is monophasic. In discussing ASC's: polyphasic cultures "value and cultivate these states, honor those who master them..." -----while monophasic cultures "give little credence to alternate states and may denigrate those who explore them" (179). This just goes back to my point about how our culture teaches us, and has taught me, that drugs (here, I mean illegal drugs) are bad and that people who use them are bad too. I was happy to read how popular other spiritual practices are becoming in the West, such as yoga and meditation. I'm going to end this week's blog with a quote (surprise, surprise) "cognicentrism- is the counterpart of ethnocentrism between cultures, but in this case it is not the narrowness of someone's cultural experience that is the fundamental issue but the narrowness of someone's conscious experience" (182).