Death is coming

The closer death creeps up upon me the less I am able to understand the reasons for life or living.

Yes I have experienced a close family member dying and unlike television it takes decades to handle such a thing. To think I am going to put my family through such a thing when I finally leave is more horrific to me than the thought of death itself.

My life was and is still a learning experience but when all said and done what am I to do with all this accumulated learning over my lifetime if I just die. There is no logic or reason to this.

Long ago I became aware that the God story that is sold to the majority is just a nice story to give mankind with a message of a basic layout of how nice life could be if everyone followed these ideas. Not many in life do and if one thinks about it the good and evil structures actually depend on each other. The good that can be experienced in life is only understood as good when there is it's opposite to compare it to. This is not rocket science only common sense in reality. I am not saying we need to experience bad but understanding in it is needed to appreciate the great things many of us can have in our lives. From birth to death there are many ways mankind helps his fellow man. How many ways can you help?


Monday, July 12, 2010

Historic Use Of Mushrooms In Spiritual Ceremonies

By Dr. Markho Rafael

Since at least 5,000 B.C., people have used "spiritual mushrooms" in their religious rituals. The San Peoples of Tassili in southeast Algeria left behind cave paintings illustrating dancing, masked medicine men with mushrooms in their hands. It's believed the mushrooms were of the consciousness-altering variety.

Tassili is today part of the Saharan desert, mountainous and uninhabited. But in the days of the San Peoples, the environment was savannah-like and inhabited by cattle, lions and even crocodiles. There's archeological evidence of contact between the San Peoples of Tassili and other tribes across the Sahara, from Chad to Egypt, perhaps even Greece.

The Greek Eleusinian Mysteries - spiritual initiation ceremonies - date back to 1,600 B.C. and for two millennia it was the most important spiritual initiation ceremony of ancient Europe. Many scholars believe the ceremony employed the use of mind-altering mushrooms. With participants such as Plato and Aristotle, the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries on the formation of western culture cannot be underestimated.

Later Vikings are known to have consumed limited amounts of the today much feared poisonous species Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). Ironically, they appear to have used it to overcome fear through religious rituals in which they danced and ate mushrooms before fearlessly going into battle.

Of course many of us may not think highly of the Viking warrior spirituality but it was an undeniable part of their religious practices whether or not we approve. At the same time, across the Baltic Sea, Siberian shamans also used Fly agaric to achieve spiritual communion with their gods.

Fly agaric is even put forth as the source of "soma," a juice described in ancient Vedic texts as bestowing divine qualities on the consumer, including immortality. Convincing arguments linking Fly agaric to Soma are presented by R. Gordon Wasser in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. His theory, although not proven, hasnt been disproven either.

(Important note: Fly agaric - Amanita muscaria - is poisonous and may also be easily confused with other even more deadly species. Consumption for any reason is vehemently discouraged.)

Meanwhile in the New World, spiritual ceremonies using mind-expanding mushrooms were likewise performed. The earliest written record stems from between the 13th and 15th centuries, a text known as the Mixtec Codex. The Mixtec Gods were often engraved wielding mushrooms.

Although Mixtecs themselves told white anthropologists they used spiritual mushrooms in their religious rituals, western scientists still doubted them in characteristic condescending manner.

William Safford, an American botanist, believed the supposed mushrooms were actually nothing but peyote buttons. Other western scholars, meanwhile, insisted that the "spiritual mushrooms" of the Mixtec people really were mind-altering mushrooms.

The debate raged on until the early 1930s, when amateur anthropologist Robert Weitlaner got invited to witness an original spiritual ceremony that included the use of consciousness-altering mushrooms.

Then in 1953, mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina Povlovna as the first westerners became honored participants in a mushroom ceremony - Velada - performed by shaman Don Aurelio. Wasson published his account of the Velada in Life Magazine, 1957. His article initiated the broader public awareness of spiritual mushrooms.

Although the (in-)famous genus of mind-altering mushrooms, Psilocybe, contains 60 species, most do not contain the psychoactive compounds psilocin (fresh mushrooms) and psilocybin (fresh and dried). The Mixtecs are believed to originally have used Psilocybin mexicana and Psilocybin caerulescens. The today more common Psilocybin cubensis is believed to have arrived from Europe.

Spiritual mushrooms have been illegal in most of the world since the 1970's because of their potential misuse as recreational drugs. Only in The Netherlands were fresh Psilocybe allowed to be sold until less than a year ago.

That all changed after a French 17-year-old girl jumped off a bridge when eating Psilocybe mushrooms. The Dutch parliament responded with a ban on the sale of so called "magic mushrooms," which took effect December 1, 2008. From Tassili to Amsterdam, the use of spiritual mushrooms is now officially history.

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