The legalization of marijuana is finally out of the mud with Reefer Madness defeated, yet few people discuss the true wonder of the “drug” – the introspection.
We’ve all heard enough on the physical health effects of ganja. Man has been keeping this plant around for centuries, for a reason.
I’m going to describe the incredible usefulness of smoking marijuana to induce powerful introspection, known only to the experienced user, and ineffable to those not bold enough to defy the “law.”
The brain seems to have the ability to compartmentalize thoughts. Distributing the work if you will. In doing so, power can be dedicated in isolation, hurdling the thinker either deeper into their mind, or toward sensory perception.
The amateur smoker will generally not understand this because the initial euphoria upon discovering the typically described “high” is just a shit load of fun at first. Laughter, smiling, profound independent realizations, etc. Over time, tolerance weakens this euphoria, but not so much the ability to efficiently divert power to isolated yet simultaneous thoughts.
An old man is walking down the street.
He stops, and you have a brief conversation. His age is revealed to be 85. After a few minutes, you part ways.
The conditioned sober brain generally moves on, or considers the old man for a few moments and returns back to the general observation of surroundings.
Here the stoned brain, known better to the experienced smoker, would analyze the encounter, which quite immediately induced introspection, a train off the rails. An ineffable experience.
You begin to consider what it would be like to be 85 years old. Whether you are currently 50, or 30, or 17, the mind leaps off the diving board into a now explorable ocean of inner reflection. What might it be like to exist for 85 odd years?
Ever drive down a long winding road, and suddenly return from a daydream? It seems impossible that you maintained control of the vehicle, but you did.
The enlightened stoner encounters this frequently. It can be highly beneficial to the evolution of a particular thought, but dangerous in the wrong circumstance. Inducing this while driving a car is poor, less so because of neglect, but more so because your brain is dedicating focus and power to an inner thought. This can be a lot of power, and it means you are not paying attention to subtle details on the road.
Imagine being a 14 -year-old, smoking poor-quality weed grown by who the hell knows.
The adolescent brain is being tossed back and forth between introspection and reality, brought on by a poorly cultivated product. This is far less than ideal for today’s teenager, someone with little life experience. Dealing with stress under these conditions would be quite difficult. The need for a mentor becomes apparent, as the mind becomes increasingly agitated by the lack of understanding and awareness about what is occurring in the mind.
The stereotype of the mannequin stoner on the couch, motionless and seemingly brain dead, is another example of potential misunderstanding. This person, though seemingly fried (and let’s be serious, sometimes maybe they really are brain melted) may actually be lost in deep, deep introspective thought.
Consider how the sober person or amateur smoker may not know how to interpret this behavior, though an experienced pothead, often deep in the forest of their own mind, understands that this person is simply….thinking….a lot.
If the “weed” is embraced by society, its use could be taught, and you could create a legion of people who know an extra trick, a shortcut to a useful idea. And boy, do we need great ideas these days.
Soon marijuana will be fully legal to purchase, but what we really need is a mission to understand its usefulness on a cultural level, as an idea-generating catalyst. This is ancient wisdom of the past that has been pushed to the fringe.
We should embrace marijuana-induced introspection.
If you aren’t a stoner, someone will need to explain this to you.
Smoke one and read some other blogs:
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Colorado and Oregon have shown us the way…what a waste of time and money the drug war has been
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We should move there immediately.
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More states will follow shortly. But, yes, the teachings must be made an integral part. Including how to roll the perfect judge ; )
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Sounds like Alaska may be next. What the hell is a judge? 😀
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Haha yea I know exactly what you mean by the mind bending thoughts you get over time when you smoke a lot. I use to smoke all the time but I recently quit a few months ago.
I didn’t feel like it was helping me but more like hindering me. I was starting to hate the feeling of being slow and feeling light headed and shit faced.
I like the feeling of being awake and being aware of my surroundings. I’d just different preferences I guess? lol.
Another good post though, my friend.
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I completely understand. After a long time (years in my case) it just flat out burns you out. Many people interpret “burn out” as stereotypical stoner talk for literally becoming “dumb.”
It’s really just tolerance, and after some time the mind bending thoughts can overwhelm you, especially when you know they are there. I have lost many nights to a racing mind while trying to fall asleep from being too stoned.
Terence McKenna, an all time great on the subject, said the ideal way to do it is to get some great stuff, and hit it once a week, if that.
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lol yea man I’ve been burnt out so many times. Now that I look back at it I think I was just smoking just to be cool not because I really liked it.
To be honest with you I had the most fun smoking at the beginning. Then it became a game of “Who can smoke the most?” or “Man, I smoke a lot more then you do a week” but at the same time all of our money being gone lol.
Junk food and pot. Spent so much money on these two things smh. But yea I totally agree with you on only spending your money on the good stuff and taking your time smoking it. If your going to smoke, in my opinion you should doing it the smart way.
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Hello mate, ive never actually come across your blog before, but I landed here from your reply to my comment on zendevils mdma therapy post a couple days ago.
You appear to be a ‘stoner’, right now I would say I am to. To be honest, I cant really remember a time I wasnt high. And I actually feel it becoming a problem. Therefore, I found myself on sites to stop smoking weed. From there, I discovered weed isnt this danger free drug, in comparison to drugs like coke, nicotine and meth, it is a red riding hood with a knife under her cloak.
And I just wanted to say, after the passing time of carelessness towards its use and lack of understanding it, I really do believe what I just said. I only feel normal when im high, not when im sober.
It is true what you said. You do look at things different, feel things different, you truly do go down a path unique to your own mind. However, I barely remember how they feel, because I cant remember how they feel in a normal state to compare them to. Or when or if im in a normal state to compare to the high state.
I understand what youre saying, and I think im going to say this, in the first time of my life, maybe we shouldnt embrace marijuana.
Thank you for reading my comment. I can assure you I am going to look further into your blog because from just this post, and all the possible value around has sparked my curiosity.
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Hey fishy,
Appreciate you coming over to read the post. Someone of your stonage level can offer a lot to this discussion.
I see why you may argue against marijuana – however based on your description your usage is borderline abuse/overkill, and I would never recommend someone be in a perpetual state of being stoned unless perhaps you lived in a stress-free, worry free environment.
Marijuana can be tremendously useful for introspection – however there are times when you don’t want to be in a state of introspection. Let’s say you are talking to a beautiful woman in a high class restaurant. You would want to be in the moment, and not deep in your mind, in my opinion.
If you were meditating on the hillside, deep introspection might be tremendously uplifting – a time when digging deep could be quite helpful. We need to educate people about how to use marijuana as a tool for introspection, and that certain times such as operating a vehicle could be quite negative for stoners.
Also, because of the black market, the quality of the product is always in question. Unless you know your source, you never know what you are constantly putting into your body. If even one extra chemical or foreign element is involved, who knows how that factors in…
If society embraced the herb, we could dedicate resources to cultivating an ultimate product. We could teach youngsters how and when to use it (though we know they won’t always listen), but at least good information would circulate.
Listen, I have abused weed myself. I still sometimes feel dissociation or mild psychosis from a long session. I finally decided that there are times when it is just not advantageous to be deep within the mind…
Writing music however…that’s another story…
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Before I write my reply, I wasnt just blowing bubbles in your ear when I said i was gonna check your blog. I have, and ive already subscribed, the artistic and musical side of it truly caught me. Ive got a spanish guitar myself, and a didge, harmonica, djembe, all sorts mate.
…
I may have been too harsh on weed, and I came to that decison by how you said it seems I may have stepped onto the abuse side of smoking. I think I have, yes people have said I smoke too much, but its jovial, but they drink too much, watch too much tv, complain too much, spend too much time on snapchat, worry too much about their unibrow, however, I have never heard it how you just said it, in those six words: ‘your usage is borderline abuse/overkill’.
Only recently have I developed such a negative view of marijuana, compared to how I used to have such a positive bob marley pineapple express view of it. Hence, why im not sure I can add to this discussion, because I dont think there is anything I can say to cause people to embrace smoking.
For example, maybe this is something we all experience when we’re high, maybe because im the one experiencing it and it feels more significant in comparison to yours because im the one feeling it, whatever. We all know about short term memory loss and weed. You can be walking along the street, you’re in your euphoric state, you know you are because the music in your ears sounds different, the picture of the girl in your head who you spoke to before at the bar looks a little different, you remember times at school and they feel so vivid, even your shadow looks funny. And then you look up from your phone. The end of the street looks completely different, the road behind you unrecognizable, you look around at the houses and they look lifeless but you feel their eyes or you feel the silence surrounding you. You completely forget where you are, where you are going, where the road leads, where the road comes from and why and what you are doing there. For more than a moment you forget these basic things, and all you can do is carry on walking forward.
And this is not me even talking about moments of intense paranoia, where iwould react in ways I never thought.
A little about myself, I work in a very vibrant social environment, very often Im surrounded by beautiful women, men with millions and people who could get rid of someone. Its a fun industry, many people work in it, easy to get in aswell, its just how well you make it to be, sometimes you land luckier than others. You must experience a similar lifestyle and feeling when your on stage with your amp and guitar pick in front of an audience.
Since forever, before a roach even touched my lips, people considered me a smoker, part of the drug cartel, whatever, my persona and type personality must reak with being high, relaxed, cool, free smoker, whatever. I dont think thats bad. Its just when it takes over, and you become it.
Hence when you said about correct education. Man that is so right. I didn’t have that, so ive been on a path of either loving and falling for it to hating and hating myself for it. You’re right. Marijuana isn’t all bad, yes you can get cancer from it, yes the smoke can ruin your throat and lung, yes it can cause you to eat unhealthy foods at stupid times, it can even change the way your brains wired.
But damn you can experience some truly amazing things when youre high, the good and the bad, damn the first time I had my dick in a girls pussy I was high, on the other hand the first time I thought I was truly going to be killed by someone I was high. Theyre experiences that were intensified by marijuana, in a way, to me, that your post explains the power of marijuana, and why we should embrace it. But as you said, we should embrace it correctly and smartly, paddle first and not go diving with bricks for shoes like I did.
Maybe there was a time that I looked for a source of deeper introspection, I am already a deep thinker, however, now I think im just chasing the high and for more stronger moments of deeper introspection .
When I first started to write this reply I was gonna end it by saying: when all you think about is your next high, you know you fucked up. But thats wrong, theres more to it.
I appreciate how you admitted to abusing it yourself, and thank you for accusing me of the same. Its made it a lot easier to understand and deal with.
I dont know if I contributed at all to this discussion, I may have got carried away and smoked, I mean, wrote too much. I like to write.
I look forward to your work, thank you for the time you’ve invested in the reading of my comment and any replies you offer.
Funny thing is, I’m not even 20 years old yet.
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I understand it better than anyone my friend, so I am happy to discuss it at length. I also have quite a few thoughts on LSD and how pyschedelics can be totally hit or miss.
This quote from you I can relate to 100% – Maybe there was a time that I looked for a source of deeper introspection, I am already a deep thinker, however, now I think im just chasing the high and for more stronger moments of deeper introspection
Think about when you are walking down the street – you had something you were going to do, then you forgot. This is exactly what I meant about the need to know the times when introspection is helpful, and others when it’s not.
I don’t know how many times I realized how easily I could have been mugged because of how deep down in my mind I was while listening to music. Complete lack of awareness – awareness of surroundings, of perception.
Think about it this way – in my experience you are either with “reality” or deep in the mind. Learning to know when to be deep in the mind is the ultimate lesson.
You are pretty young, and to be constantly stoned is not likely to benefit you. Take it from a 30 year old – try and control the habit ASAP. Any addiction or habit you can’t shake has a death grip on your better self. And I agree, weed and sex are excellent…
Weed and porn are amazing at first, but this is an insidious combination that will lead to plenty of problems in the long term. It will be devastating in a lot of ways, something your age group will deal with more than anyone.
Stop in from time to time to let me know how you are doing.
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