Will there be 'shrooms in my stocking this year????

I'll admit that I didn't start these readings until early Monday evening. I had to laugh to myself when I opened each book, upon seeing that the topic of each reading was drugs. My husband and I spent our entire dinner hour last night discussing various drugs, their effects (those experienced by the user and those perceived by others around them), and the harm that they can do. I had no idea what was in store for me tonight!!

Having never done drugs (aside from taking perscription drugs under a doctor's explicit care), and having been drunk very few times, I don't really understand the concept of being high, stoned, or entering into whatever state a drug takes the user. I find it hard to believe that drugs can induce a truly "spiritual" state, as Walsh talks about. I obviously can only speculate about this, but I doubts that the experiences of one using drugs would be the same as those experiencing an altered states via a contemplative method. To me, it just seems as though the chemical changes experienced by the brain as a result of the drugs would result in something less.........less something........I just don't know what. I am now thinking about something I hadn't thought of earlier. I have a really hard time getting a good night's sleep. I, and my docs, have no idea why. I just suck at sleeping. Unfortunately, I am not one of these Dean Karnazes-types (a crazy ultra-marathoner, if you don't know the name) who can thrive on 4-5 hours of sleep. I'm lucky to survive on 7-8 hours. At times, I have to take a perscription sleep-aid to get to, and maintain, sleep. I hate doing so, but it is necessary if I want any chance of keeping my job or maintaining decent grades in school. If I compare a "normal" night's sleep (one without Lunesta) to a manufactured night's sleep, they are markedly different. I could totally tell if someone slipped me one of those pills. Even though I wake up feeling better, it doesn't feel natural - it just doesn't quite feel "right". If I could achieve the same level of sleep without medication, I think that I would feel better, on the whole. This is what I think about drugs and altered states. Yes, drugs and contemplative methods may both enable an individual to achieve an altered state of consciousness. And during both experiences, the individual may experience some level of creativity, or have a spiritual experience, but I have to believe that the drug-induced experience would not be as "real" as the contemplative one. (Since I truly typed that as I thought it, I hope it made sense to the reader!!!)

I found the reading on the links between Santa and the mushroom a little odd. I think the idea of Santa is ridiculous, and I am going to struggle with that whole notion when I have kids. I don't want to push that idea of a fat old white man living at the top of the world, who delivers toys to "all" (don't get me started on that part!) of the kids of the world in one night. It's total hog-wash............YET, I don't want my kids to be the ones everyone blames for ruining their kids' Christmas by saying Santa isn't real. Maybe I should just do some mushrooms so I believe in him???? JUST KIDDING!!!! While I think that idea of Santa is ridiculous, I have a hard time believing he had his origins in fungus. It just seems a little far-fetched to me. If the reindeer were 'shrooming, why are they the ones pulling the fat old man around in the sleigh?? It seems like they should be having more fun than that. It's all just a little bit out there to me. In spite of this, though, maybe we'll put some mushrooms on the hearth this year, just in case.