metal dog

Alcohol... When one is "under the influence" of alcohol it means that it has affected them physiologically and behaviorally to where another person can note they are under the influence or the actual drinker can sense they are under the influence of alcohol. Most people drink alcohol to alter their consciousness or change the way they feel. Not as a medicinal dose. This is where moderation and caution is best advised. And a thorough asking of oneself as to why they wish to drink to change their mood or how they feel. I believe the term "spirits" was given to alcoholic beverages because it can render one's will weakened and allow external entities to inhabit such a person who has diminished control over themselves, or while under the influence their behavior changes so much that they act as if something had possession over them. I believe both are applicable and accurate. Alcohol is naturally present in very small amounts in healthful fermented drinks like kefir. But the alcohol is a byproduct of the fermentation process and is not the reason why the beverage is consumed, nor does the amount seem to tax the internal organs or effect behavior. Then you have fermented grains where the original "beer" was a fermented porridge thick enough that one need to eat it with a spoon. It is from here that the process of creating alcohol comes from with small beers, ale, strong beers and the rest of the hard liquors. Wine of course from grapes, rice wine from rice, etc. Alcohol in very minute amounts in food is not consumed for changing mood or its effects. One is consuming healthful food and is getting a minute amount of alcohol unintentionally speaking. When one consumes alcohol for the sake of consuming alcohol and changing mood or consciousness then some considerations need to be pondered. Intoxication is just that...a toxicity. And this is how alcohol changes your mood, as a toxic reaction occurring within. How toxic is alcohol? "The World Health Organization has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, which puts it in the same class as tobacco smoke and asbestos." So how toxic is alcohol even if you're only having a few wines or beers over dinner each night, once a week, once a month, once a year? It is up to the consumer decide. It is the resveratrol in wine that gives it the health properties commonly touted. This can be gained by drinking good quality organic grape juice or grapes. Thing is, if the grapes have been sprayed with insecticides or anti-bacterial or fungal sprays the grapes will have no resveratrol. So an organic designation on these products is your best bet to getting the healthy substance. And why not get this healthy substance without consuming a Class 1 carcinogen along with it? Those who have the benefits to heart health by drinking alcohol offset that benefit by their incidences of increased colon cancers. Do a little research on the fraud in the wine industry about how many wines that are advertised as good quality are really not that good and have additives that are not required to be labeled. This practice for saving money is quite rampant in the industry with many large companies. You would not know it because there are no requirements to put in on the label. Also many wines have sulfites (calcium sulfite) as a preservative, which I cannot drink because they give me a headache. And it is suspected that sulfites may also be carcinogenic. There are many additives in today's commercial alcoholic drinks that are under scrutiny regarding health. Alcohol is not a health promoting substance. It kills live cells on contact and is carcinogenic. It dehydrates the body and taxes the internal organs sometimes to their limits. It is not good for the liver. It is high in sugar and many develop a dependence or addiction to the sugar or alcohol itself. It has a significant depleting action on certain vitamins and minerals. Consider the role of alcohol in people's behaviors and its role in suicides (one of the top ten causes of death in the world is suicide) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide That can give you the worst-case considerations to think about. From there one can work toward the positives, the issue of moderation, to relax, medicinal use and work it out for themselves and in what context. For myself...I see no benefit for me at all. I drank when I was in college due to socializing, but even small amounts slow me down or make me feel upset in the stomach. So I never really touch the stuff. Because of this, in my youth, it was the ganga that did it for me...and its side effects were of no concern to my immortal self-image and outlook on life at the time. But even this I don't do any longer because, it too has deleterious side effects. I have found that I do not socialize with drinkers, cigarette smokers or drug users any longer. The whole aura around these activities and the socializing around them are absent from my reality.

Did you notice the lightness in her step as she walked away? Almost skipping along...like as if she felt she did a good deed for the day. I bet she thought about how powerful that moment was for her all day long and she just smiled at herself. Who knows what magnitude of darkness lies deep within this creature and how it would build up and manifest if not acted out in little bits on unwary stray animals.

If that makes you feel better, then this is what is must be...no? That poignant facts and scathing personal commentary can only come from someone in misery and with anger. It must be a two-story high zafu. (By the way...when I say "you"...it may not be so much an addressing of a personal "you".) Yes, once acquiring food is equated with killing humans, Nazis, gas chambers and the jews, this is my cue to yield the floor to greater minds and insights than my own. I leave my "mess" for others to inspect and consider, reject or file away in "unresolved or-to-be-considered". I thank you all for this golden opportunity. And I will consider the opinions of those who contributed toward the benefits of a vegetarian choice without bringing the holocaust into the fray. It is a useful example to see just how diverse opinion and practice is concerning something so basic as what to eat and sustain oneself...and that for me was worthy of my participation in this exchange.

Then you cannot conceive of man's real relationship with nature. I have actually removed myself from suburbia for mental and physical health reasons and immersed myself into an agricultural and livestock lifestyle to experience some of that reality. I have put thought and actual real life effort into what it would be like, for real, if corporations and industry were not supplying all my needs through the grocery stores. This was very important to me coming from a city environment and having lived in one all my life. I have my own livestock, I have my own garden and fruit trees, I have my own water supply...and I can tell you right now, without a doubt...that without animal foods in this northern climate while living more in relationship with nature...there is no way a vegetarian could possibly survive...and certainly no way your children would be born and raised with exceptional health. Not if you really had to go at it...ALL natural. Leather and animal skin use for clothing would also make itself known immediately to you if you did not have the department store or mall to supply you something with a little synthetic added to it made in India or Bangladesh by slave-wage workers. In order for a vegetarian to survive in the modern sense, they must rely on an industrialized system of food growing, harvesting, packing and shipping to get all their needs...the process itself is a hundred times more unnatural to make it happen for the modern day suburbanite yuppie vegetarian...many of whom have never even grown one green thing for their whole consumptive lives. And it is this actual disconnect that has allowed a parasite like Monsanto to creep into this disconnected system and inject into it its GMO death seeds. Because had your food come from your backyard all this time, rather than Whole Foods Market Corp., then Monsanto couldn't have crept into your garden. If I were to remove gasoline and electricity from my experience back to nature, then the harsher demands of that lifestyle would even be more severe with no compromises allowable as to what you really have to do to survive. There is actually a family close to me that does not use electricity and gas in their farming and lifestyle as much as possible. No television, no computer. They excel in the arts as this is what takes up their idle time...painting, drawing, music etc. They too would admit that their is nothing inhumane about taking the life of one of their cherished livestock and putting food on the table. It is considered a sacred thing...so why soil it by demonizing it with an opinion from someone who just doesn't know...who truly is...ignorant? And it is this disconnect coupled with the superiority claims that piggy-backed the propaganda claims you, at some time, mentally digested and now regurgitate that vegetarianism was a superior choice over consuming animal foods that leaves you lost in your...ethics. Nature does not share your subjectivity toward your ethics...it makes actual demands and the more you live in harmony with it...the less friendlier and more hard it can become. Suck it up or die nature demands of you when you expose yourself bare to its harsh realities, rather than sit high upon your zafu making unrealistic judgments while downing bean curd. Get out of your air-conditioned comfort zone and feel the harshness of aloneness in nature...feel its bitter chill and its uncompromising demands...new definitions and the way you frame reality will meet you head on...and it is here that you will find my recipe for meat cake more than ethical. And when someone throws in Nazi Germany...well...all hope is lost on that one. They would only know this if they were removed from the comfort of the zafu and the History Channel.

There isn't a single valid strong point that eating animal foods is not natural for humans or unnecessary. The history of the human race on planet earth demonstrates this. You must demonize this as being less-evolved to justify it and elevate yourself. And I don't eat meat because it tastes good. That is not the primary reason I eat animal food. And I must say animal food, not just limit it to meat. I don't care if people are vegetarians. But when they point their bony anemic finger at me and call me or others killer, murderer, unethical, unnatural, barbaric, less-enlightened, ignorant or one-of-a-million labels...then I think it is time to take a look at why they are really doing that...you know?...the dismissing of a larger and poignant reality for the sake of their own aggrandizement or pride in their choices at the expense of another. They delude themselves in this pursuit.

The stupidity of industrialists and money-makers regarding overfishing and not using their resources responsibly or for greed does not disqualify animals for food as a biological need that has sustained man forever and is responsible for your own existence. I think corporate restaurant chains and cruiseline feedbags should be banned. They are a tremendous demand creator for low-quality inhumanely treated animal products that lead to tremendous amounts of waste. They are not providing sustenance. But my three goats and two cows in the yard are my own affair. I am quite thankful that during the three years I was a vegetarian that I did not adopt this holier-than-thou attitude, which just goes to show that what you eat has nothing to do with ethics, morality or being elevated.

As far as butchering meat... I, out of curiosity, took an extra part time job for six months a couple years back at the local slaughtery. It was during the fall season where a lot of sheep are being slaughtered. They processed about 4000 sheep a day and about 250 cows a day. These are small numbers for a company that supplies the local rural areas. I was able to work just about every position on the line, except the one where they electrically shock to kill the cow on the head and where they herd a bunch of sheep into a room and slowly deprive them of oxygen while increasing the CO2. The sheep fall asleep and die. I really wanted to witness the kill part of the operation, but was told that it was off limits because it takes a "special" kind of person to do that work and it is not on display to the public or anyone that doesn't need to see it. Knowing that animal products are food and that we all are indebted to this practice for our existence I have no problem with the process. It's what's for dinner.

mmmmmmmmmmm...this...this...SFJane...I just can't read enough of her...

This weekend metal dog made some of his nutrient dense meat cake. I make a large amount and freeze some for the next six months supply. I eat this meat cake once a week, but not primarily for epicurean reasons, but as a nutrient dense addition to my diet from real food...rather than any kind of protein powders or commercial supplements. But I do find it is delicious. I take a huge amount of beef bones (beef marrow, knuckle bones, meaty rib and neck bones, and one calves foot)and place in a large stock pot and cover with cold water. I add 1/4 cup of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar to the pot and let the bones sit for an hour in the vinegar and water (this begins to leach the minerals out of the bones). I add 3 each of chopped onions, celery stalks and carrots. Bring this to a boil and then simmer while skimming off any scum that rises to the top of the water. I then add some fresh thyme from my herb garden and some crushed dried green peppercorns. I let this simmer anywhere from 12 to 72 hours and reduce it down to about six cups worth of concentrated stock. And at the end add a bit of fresh chopped parsley from my garden to finish it off. The result is a white liquid with a yellow type of fat floating on the surface...what I call..."The Medicine". The stock contains the minerals of the bone, cartilage, marrow such as calcium, magnesium and potassium. This stock adds hydrophilic colloids, gelatin and a very healthy fat to the diet. I then take this stock and use it to cook three cups of organic whole grain brown rice. And I set this aside. I then take some beef (or sheep) heart, kidney and liver and cut it up into small pieces. Place in a glass dish and cover with the juice of three lemons and a little water. Let these diced organ meats sit in the lemon juice for 24 hours. As this will clean the organ meats and make them tastier with a good texture. Strain out the juice and grind the organ meats in a blender or food processor into a paste. I then add this past to some quality ground beef. All the meat I buy comes from free-range, pasture fed, healthy cows. I mix 30% organ meats with 70% ground beef. I then add the cooked brown rice to the meat and organ mixture. I then saute' six each of finely chopped carrots, celery stalks and onions in butter and add some black pepper, salt, fresh thyme, basil, oregano and dried hot chili pepper flakes. I add the cooked veggies to the meat, organ meat and rice mixture. Add six eggs and a cup of whole cream to the mixture and stir it up well. This makes about 25-30 pounds of meat cake. I then break it down into separate loaves and bake each meat cake at 350 for about 90 minutes each in a glass dish with a little water added around the meatcake to keep it moist while it cooks. 15 minutes before it is finished I top it with a mixture of tomato paste and a little organic maple syrup (just to sweeten it a bit, much better than a ketchup). The rest of the meat cakes I bake up, slice and freeze. This amount will last many months to come. It is a convenience food as well and only take a short time to reheat. I never give myself the excuse to buy some processed crap from the store, especially time constraints. A nutrient dense item suitable for a dog like myself. My Kundalini thanks me and The Ancient High Ones would be most proud.

There are some good points made here in favor of vegetarianism-veganism. The B12 issue is one of them. Many meat eaters are deficient in B12, but that is because of how they consume their meat or other factors in the diet diminishing B12. And it is quite possible for someone with a balanced bowel and internal flora along with a strict healthy diet could be producing their own B12, but many vegetarians don't have such an internal milieu of perfection either. We have to remember that smoking, alcohol and industrialized-refined and denatured foods are rampant and that can account for a host of problems that are part of the health equation. Hard to get a good picture of what is healthy when the numbers are tainted by the effects of pure poison. I have pretty much made my argument that omnivorous animal food eating beings we are on a physical level and that our existence is indebted to this practice. Structure determines function and the teeth and digestive tract are not carnivore and not herbivore, but omnivore. I would agree with the 80%-20% consideration regarding diet...with 20% comprised of animal food as a general guideline and should you live in extreme northern climes with extended cold and darkness this 20% is essential to long-term health, the ability to have healthy offspring and their ability to develop. I also promote regular fasting and periods of abstaining, which most animal food eaters don't do...and their health may suffer as a result due to overconsumption and acidic buildup. The structure and function of humans coupled with their traditions and history back up the consumption of animal foods. The -isms are a slim minority of people who have made choices, or one could say...impositions, upon themselves to do something other than eat all the kinds of food available to them. Some do this for physical reasons. They say it is healthier. This is debatable and always will be and is not universal to all because of differences in individuals. Some do this for energetic-vibratory reasons. They say it promotes higher vibrations and keeps lower vibrations out of their fields. Some do this for spiritual reasons. Because their god told them to...or whatever. And I don't have a problem with what people choose to do for their own reasons. But to label those who eat food, including animal food, as being lower, inferior, killers, eaters of corpses, murderous, inhumane, or less- "anything" isn't taking into consideration the big picture or perspective. I am not any less spiritual, energetic or healthy because of the food I choose to eat. When making the jump from the obvious physical indicators supporting an omnivorous diet into the energetic or even spiritual, one must remain open and mutable to such discussions and concepts. I would not dismiss these considerations and the benefits of the -isms. But most of the time the energetic or spiritual considerations are in the context of being in conflict, opposed to, at the expense of the physical considerations. I do find that this can be a hierarchical view rather than a holarchy and perhaps very much a carry over of the Hindu caste system's influence over vegetarianism or the edicts of religion. In many cases there has not been an evolution of spirit for on so many levels it is still contained and not holarchical. And holarchical would be careful to exclude anything or to demonize it without due and full consideration. It is to my advantage to remain mutable in all things and bend like a reed in the wind. It is here that I will make some further points on why I think animal foods may not be ideal in pursuit of fully experiencing or enhancing the physical or the supra-physical

This a good question regarding healing. As someone who does spend six, to eight, even ten hours a day doing bodywork and related modalities what methods or techniques can I investigate that would specifically and most dramatically enhance what I offer to others? I have heard of "Buddha's Palm", but do not know what that really is.

These subjective labels, "corpses" or "by-products of death", have been and are actually called...FOOD. Animal foods have long sustained humanity on this planet and you would not even be here if it were not for the many generations before you having consumed animal food. Before globalization, international shipping, the invention of electricity to power the grocery stores, refrigerators and freezers...your food choices would have been dictated by the geographic region in which you lived and by the climate and season. Storage and preservation methods would have been much more traditional. And your chances of surviving on a vegetarian or vegan diet reduced or nearly impossible, particularly the further away from the equator you lived. At or beyond the 50th parallel, during winter, you would have died without some form of animal food to sustain you...no matter how many potatoes you socked away for winter. It is also false that vegetables can give you everything a meat diet can. Now that I live in an extreme northern climate with extended periods of no sunlight, and having spoken to the local elder physicians, it is a known fact with your child that if you think vegetable vitamin A, B12 and D is the same as what you can get from fish oil or animal sources you are sadly mistaken. Provitamin A or Carotene is what you get from vegetables to be specific, and you cannot make this conversion of you are a child, diabetic or have poor thyroid function. The bones and brain development of developing children in cold climates will suffer. None of the higher mammals are strictly vegetarian. All primates eat some form of animal food. Gorillas mistakenly labeled vegetarian eat loads of insects and larvae adhering to the leaves and fruit they eat. The contribution of these to their health is profound. Other primates eat crickets, flies, rodents, small antelope and other animals. The insect parts, larvae and eggs left on plant foods in more traditional times before food was made so sanitary, even the Hindu would actually have protection to prevent vitamin B12 deficiency anemia. When you examine the healthiest of the people prior to the post-industrialized world of convenience...you will see they all consumed animal products in some way. And when that was removed from the diet for whatever reason, health was impacted and not for the better. I do feel that those who put the "spiritual" label on food choices are not seeing the whole picture of the entire reality. Just they one they deem to be more..."special", "higher", "elevated", "enlightened". I don't believe that my choice to have a glass of milk from a humanely treated cow, an egg from a humanely treated chicken, or a piece of meat from a humanely raised livestock animal that was slaughtered for food makes me any less spiritual than the next guy. From my experience its the roosters and peacocks that strut around talking about their spirituality and their religions that seem to exhibit the most contradiction and inhumanity in this life. When you are lost in the woods, in the dark, cold deep of winter and you huddle yourself while shivering to stay alive; shuffling through the high snow with nothing to eat...then you will happen upon me sitting next to my fire with a fresh killed rabbit sizzling and smelling of delight. I shall allow you to enter my camp and warm yourself by the fire as you attempt to dig through the frozen earth for a tuber...but you will get none of my sustenance for I know it is forbidden to you...and slowly I will watch you die and fade away...with my final thought and comment..."Whoa...that was so spiritual a spectacle...what a special person...so high...so pristine...so pure. May the Great Ones forgive me for what I am about to do"... (sprinkles salt and pepper on rabbit and munches...and lives another day.)

And when I listened to George Bush Jr. publicly state that, "God told me to go to war in Iraq." I kept wondering why isn't anyone throwing a straight jacket on this guy and whisking him away to a padded cell. We have a delusional religious zealot as a president who is stating he is hearing a voice in his head, the voice of God, telling him it is time to go to war. Anyone else claiming death and destruction by a voice of God in their head would be committed immediately out of public safety.

You are the third person I have communicated with that has independently corroborated this ability concerning Share K. Lew. Understood and thank you for that elaboration and differentiation between the bilocation and phase shifting.

Coming in February starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith.

And thank you for those most sobering shots of realistic commentary ralis...a voice of sanity amongst the un-sane.

I believe he was approached by the powerful because his war record would make him a good figurehead for their movement in order to derail the New Deal. Corruption begets corruption on all fronts in the power game. The U.S. now suffers economically nonetheless...and war maintains the empire. Best to cut through the B.S. and join a good war contractor group like Blackwater which has political immunities from prosecution and just go all out like the dirty business war really is. After your first stray bullet kills a child on the street and you eek out a few tears over the mess, grab some complimentary anti-depressants and psyche drugs, quickly validate yourself and move onto the next insurgent to justify the collateral damage...while humming American the Beautiful.

Let's see... My grandfather on my father's side fought in WWII and Korea in the U.S. Army and was wounded. His wife was an army nurse. My grandfather on my mother's side fought in WWII on the side of the Germans as a Nazi. His wife was an Irish nurse on the side of the Allies. My uncle on my father's side fought in Vietnam in the U.S. Army. My uncle on my mother's side fought in Vietnam in the U.S. Army, a Ranger, spoke seven languages, and worked as a "Specialist" in other areas of southeast Asia for over ten years. And a few of my good friends served in the first Iraq war. (Two of which have the Gulf War Illness and another who lost a leg over a ridiculous order from a superior...) ...all seem to come to the same consensus and opinion concerning the military and war of corporate sponsored governments... "WAR...IT'S A RACKET..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket What the U.S. is involved with today are corporate ventures of death and destruction executed through the alliance of The Crown, the U.S. and terrorist Israel. With the keen ability to make profits off that destruction and rebuilding...talk about making the dough on the upside of spreading democracy and freedom from terrorism. I actually left the U.S. six years ago because of domestic terrorism laws that can be applied to any U.S. citizen at the government's whim...and forget your habeas corpus and posse comitatus too. Unless this legislation is repealed I shall not return to the clusterfuck nation. Nationalism, honor, bravery and all that tough guy talk is the brainwashing jazz to get you to feel all good inside about it. Like you are doing something good for God and for country. Get real. Do some reading. Talk to people above the level of brainwashed grunts and profiteers suffering from psychopathic levels of machismo and posturing.

Science is finding out that the body does not treat all sugars the same. Cancer feeds a lot more on fructose than glucose. When it comes to what you stick in your mouth it is pure willpower and not always what you eat...but what is eating you.

Yes...she did...door wide open.

Some thoughts and considerations... I have adopted the belief that my spirit decided to incarnate into a physical vessel which is my body. My spirit now having an attachment to that physical body is now termed... a soul. My physical body is experiencing a physical reality to learn from and experience. Some regard this process as the "Fall of Man". This descent into physicality, or in some cases, the demonization of this descent into physicality. As a physical being my biology and physiology does suggest that I am suited for survival as an omnivore, particularly the teeth and digestive tract. Fortunately, should climate, natural disaster or any other event limit my regular or popular food choices of the times, I can choose to gain sustenance from something other than the usual fare and perhaps thrive. At the most base and gross physical level this is real. But even on this physical level there is diversity as to what one can comfortably eat. It may vary by genetics, gender, race, constitution, allergies and a host of other factors that can be different from one individual to another. I had recently read that many Asians typically have a pancreas twice the size of westerners and this makes them more adapted to eating and assimilating grains over the westerner. I have also read that those of a "pitta" Ayurvedic typing will be more suited toward a vegetarian lifestyle whereas other types may not be. Not that I take the Bible to be a literal book of history or rules to live by, but many a veggie will quote the Genesis bit about every seed-bearing fruit and plant being food for man. And yet, later there are changes to that where it is suitable to include clean meats. Lifespan also seems to be reduces with such a change. To me, such a change in lifespan could have not occurred with just a choice in diet, but a genetic alteration of significance...to go from living 500-900 years down to 120. How could something so necessary for survival be rife with differences of opinion regarding what to eat? Energetically and spiritually brings in many other considerations. Then you have religions or the residual customs bestowed from religious beliefs. Take all this into account and the many different advices on food and diet and one thing is for sure...conflict is about the most common conclusion. I do think that at a certain point, one will find that minimizing or eliminating animal foods during energetic and spiritual practice will bring advances in gains. But to extremes this type of a lifestyle is best served in the full monastic context of living. Working a nine-to-five job, raising a family, going to the gym, and many other secular activities may demand a bit of clean, good quality animal food from time to time. But how many animal food eaters limit their portions to 4-6 ounces and only three times a week? Most people don't eat well and are not balanced in their choices in most regards. A certain amount of respect and responsibility makes the choice to eat animal foods a more healthful choice, but for many a necessary one. I have tried a well balanced vegetarian diet for three years. I found that I needed to include some animal products in my diet just a few times a week. But I also lift moderate weights and do physical work so I burn it and take measures to balance that choice. My best animal food choice is making whey from soured raw, organic goat or cow's milk. I don't buy powders, but make my own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey Next comes free-range, organic eggs. Which I either eat poached in water or soft-boiled at low temperatures. (My master has told me that lightly cooked eggs are good for chi.) Next comes the lighter meats of fish, some shellfish, then birds, then what I one can consider, if they deem it necessary, the "clean meat" herbivores starting from the smallest in size to the largest in size (as I think hormone levels in a large cow may not be as suitable for humans as say, eating deer or gazelle...just a theory.) I do eat some fish raw, after freezing to kill parasites, in the form of sushi that I make myself and I do eat some beef quite rare as well. Delicate cooking is best, although I am not adverse to a summer day of grilling. But I do recommend animals that have been fed an ideal diet, allowed to roam-exercise and are not filled up with chemicals. Periodic short cleansing fasts and 2 more extensive fasts each year with some colonic irrigations keep the system clean and rids the body of excessive proteins and substances that may be anchored within the body. Should I take up a more spiritual practice in my future, then the reduction of animal foods or eating the "lighter" forms less often would take precedence. But I would have to notice or have some type of signal that this was helping me in my spiritual practice...some corroboration that what everyone seems to say about it has some validity that can be realized. (rather than enlightened-sounding espoused precepts) These books recos are interesting Paul...I will have to take a look into this further. Thanks.

I believe I had read in one of Mantak Chia's books about Taoists having used drugs and elixirs to help in achieving "enlightenment". And there is a vast history of mushroom cults and use of drugs even in what one could consider a positive way. But that some who considered necessity of using substances decided that these substances had limitations (which perhaps an enlightened consciousness, or one seeking enlightenment should not have any hinderances due to dependence on externals) in that they would not always be readily available whenever needed, nor dosages consistent, side effects, and a few other unpredictable and uncontrollable factors. And thus a non-drug-dependent path may be the way to go. And this consideration I have personally adopted. But I will also admit that my use of marijuana in earlier years did provide me a way to look upon the world differently that did make a significant change in my life. But after a short while, its use muddies the auric field (I always actually see dark green clouds around the head of users) and slows its vibrations down. It causes a diuretic effect (dry or cotton mouth), also significantly impacts insulin/blood sugar (which is why you get the munchies), creates and extreme acidic ph reaction in the body (which can open one up to more yin illness) and affects the adrenal glands which can be wholly counterproductive with internal energy practice.