Mercury Trismagistus
Active Member
If you look around the world at indigenous cultures, you will find that the most stable and long lasting have one very significant thing in common...they have a shamanic tradition that stretches back to the a time before the beginning of history. Hinduism is one obvious example. Their main god..Shiva..is also the god of Cannabis. Shiva is frequently pictured holding his "Bhang" bowl. Bhang is a Cannabis Milkshake that is sold widely in India in government authorized shops. During the many festivals to Shiva..like the Holi Festival for instance..Bhang is drunk by the populace at large in emulation of their most beloved god. Another obvious example is the use of Peyote by the native people of the Southwest. Indeed, their right to use this plant for religious purposes had been encoded into law. Then we have the Bwiti people of Gabon in Africa. They use the Iboga plant to "See Bwiti" as they like to put it. Ibogaine is a class one hallucinogen that has shown promise in the West for the treatment of addiction. I could mention the use of Ayahuasca in the Amazon Basin..or the use of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom by the shamen in Siberia..but I think you get the idea. The main point I want to drive home here is that there must be some deeply felt commonality among people to base a common culture on. And traditionally this has been the common experience of being under the influence of an Entheogen. So it would seem fairly obvious that ..if you want a long term stable culture that is truly inclusive..you must take this route. The alternative appears to be fairly quick disintegration in cultural terms...followed by the complete collapse of the societies involved.
