Medical Marijuana and Shamanic Skills
I dislike the words shaman, shamanic and shamanism. They have been reheated so many times and served with so many questionable seasonings that they bring confusion to most conversations. I choose to talk here about shamanic skills for convenience. As a new user of therapeutic cannabis exploring these forums for practical information, I am struck by the quasi-absence of a certain dimension which we associate with traditional cultures -- the art of interacting consciously with a plant in a two-way relationship instead of letting it do its thing to us, as we are conditioned to do in Western medicine.
It's surprising to me that working with the spirit of the plant, "praying" to it (I'll explain what I mean) is not on everybody's list of useful things to remember. There is a lot of information here about bypassing the high and the euphoria so we can use large doses to heal diseases. That is very useful to me as a beginner. But I am wondering if the psychoactive effects, which are still the main reason people seek out that plant, can be so easily kept separate from cannabis as medication.
Here is an example about cancer -- I am a cancer patient. I feel that there is an analogy between the way marijuana works on mood and the way it works on cancer cells. In my meditations on the disease, I reached the conclusion -- which is also found in a number of books and articles -- that the cancer cells mutated -- went crazy -- in moments of great distress. The inability to accept death as part of the life cycle, the frantic reproduction, the separate agenda -- as if they weren't part of a larger, more important community, a.k.a. my body, all these symptoms of insanity seem to have emerged from moments of despair, helplessness, major loss, grief, terror, great physical duress, partial or total loss of consciousness. The vibrational frequency of those experiences gave rise to the mutation and the cancer cells carry that vibration into the present. They are its representatives even when there is no despair in my consciousness. I would suggest that the cannabis plant is trying to change the "mood" of those cells, trying to make them smile again.. So it can't hurt to practice seeing its effect holistically, as one single action over several dimensions. And it definitely can't hurt to actively support that multidimensional work, as SweetSue is doing. If we know how to listen to it, the high, at least in moderate amounts, can be a valuable signal from the plant about the value of positive attitudes and an orientation towards pleasure, a message that we know and that is confirmed by our science, but receiving it "live" might be part of the cure.
There is a lot in the forum about endocannabinoid receptors and super-analytical stuff like that, but a plant doesn't make distinctions and categories. It just is what it is and gives itself entirely. It is we who later on parse out its different effects -- different because our language and way of thinking don't equip us to grasp the totality of the plant's personality in its interaction with us.
So what do I mean by shamanic skills? It's actually quite simple -- all you have to do is completely change your worldview and your beliefs.
In that new perspective, the plant is a being, an entity, and when you work with it, two beings are working together in collaboration, not just one. The treatment, the healing, is a result of a two-way relationship. You can learn to make a connection with that spirit and you can learn to ask for help or ask questions. That is what I meant by praying. You can learn to listen for answers and receive help. You can learn the proper attitudes -- ceremony, gratitude, humility. Experience has shown that the vibrational frequency that carries communications between humans and teacher plants like this one is the frequency of love.
These are skills like riding a bicycle or playing the guitar. You practice them and you get better at them.
It seems to me that when a serious health problem drives someone to work with cannabis, that should be a prime moment to get interested in this. If you don't have experience in that kind of work, it's a great moment to begin. And if you do, I see it as an advantage. The idea is not to get as high as you would get if you consumed that amount of it recreationally -- that would be really impractical -- but to get a broader, multidimensional perception of the plant, to recognize that the categories of materialist medicine are too rigid and restrictive to account for the ways it works.
I think all medicinal marijuana patients instinctively work WITH it to some extent. They have friendly conversations with it, they kind of make love to it while concocting their preparations. I have been privileged to actually learn to work with it in a context of prayer and spiritual healing. I remember how amazed I was, during my first ceremony at the power of that plant when used in that context and at the contrast with all my previous years of rebellious, furtive, paranoid consumption. It was night and day. I think we all know this but when we start doing it deliberately, with the right focus and intent, we can put our healing into overdrive.
I dislike the words shaman, shamanic and shamanism. They have been reheated so many times and served with so many questionable seasonings that they bring confusion to most conversations. I choose to talk here about shamanic skills for convenience. As a new user of therapeutic cannabis exploring these forums for practical information, I am struck by the quasi-absence of a certain dimension which we associate with traditional cultures -- the art of interacting consciously with a plant in a two-way relationship instead of letting it do its thing to us, as we are conditioned to do in Western medicine.
It's surprising to me that working with the spirit of the plant, "praying" to it (I'll explain what I mean) is not on everybody's list of useful things to remember. There is a lot of information here about bypassing the high and the euphoria so we can use large doses to heal diseases. That is very useful to me as a beginner. But I am wondering if the psychoactive effects, which are still the main reason people seek out that plant, can be so easily kept separate from cannabis as medication.
Here is an example about cancer -- I am a cancer patient. I feel that there is an analogy between the way marijuana works on mood and the way it works on cancer cells. In my meditations on the disease, I reached the conclusion -- which is also found in a number of books and articles -- that the cancer cells mutated -- went crazy -- in moments of great distress. The inability to accept death as part of the life cycle, the frantic reproduction, the separate agenda -- as if they weren't part of a larger, more important community, a.k.a. my body, all these symptoms of insanity seem to have emerged from moments of despair, helplessness, major loss, grief, terror, great physical duress, partial or total loss of consciousness. The vibrational frequency of those experiences gave rise to the mutation and the cancer cells carry that vibration into the present. They are its representatives even when there is no despair in my consciousness. I would suggest that the cannabis plant is trying to change the "mood" of those cells, trying to make them smile again.. So it can't hurt to practice seeing its effect holistically, as one single action over several dimensions. And it definitely can't hurt to actively support that multidimensional work, as SweetSue is doing. If we know how to listen to it, the high, at least in moderate amounts, can be a valuable signal from the plant about the value of positive attitudes and an orientation towards pleasure, a message that we know and that is confirmed by our science, but receiving it "live" might be part of the cure.
There is a lot in the forum about endocannabinoid receptors and super-analytical stuff like that, but a plant doesn't make distinctions and categories. It just is what it is and gives itself entirely. It is we who later on parse out its different effects -- different because our language and way of thinking don't equip us to grasp the totality of the plant's personality in its interaction with us.
So what do I mean by shamanic skills? It's actually quite simple -- all you have to do is completely change your worldview and your beliefs.
In that new perspective, the plant is a being, an entity, and when you work with it, two beings are working together in collaboration, not just one. The treatment, the healing, is a result of a two-way relationship. You can learn to make a connection with that spirit and you can learn to ask for help or ask questions. That is what I meant by praying. You can learn to listen for answers and receive help. You can learn the proper attitudes -- ceremony, gratitude, humility. Experience has shown that the vibrational frequency that carries communications between humans and teacher plants like this one is the frequency of love.These are skills like riding a bicycle or playing the guitar. You practice them and you get better at them.
It seems to me that when a serious health problem drives someone to work with cannabis, that should be a prime moment to get interested in this. If you don't have experience in that kind of work, it's a great moment to begin. And if you do, I see it as an advantage. The idea is not to get as high as you would get if you consumed that amount of it recreationally -- that would be really impractical -- but to get a broader, multidimensional perception of the plant, to recognize that the categories of materialist medicine are too rigid and restrictive to account for the ways it works.
I think all medicinal marijuana patients instinctively work WITH it to some extent. They have friendly conversations with it, they kind of make love to it while concocting their preparations. I have been privileged to actually learn to work with it in a context of prayer and spiritual healing. I remember how amazed I was, during my first ceremony at the power of that plant when used in that context and at the contrast with all my previous years of rebellious, furtive, paranoid consumption. It was night and day. I think we all know this but when we start doing it deliberately, with the right focus and intent, we can put our healing into overdrive.
