"Entheogen" is cognate to several Greek words that mean "to become divine within". Today it is a word used to refer to any substance that invokes within the human being a sense of a higher universal reality. A growing body of historical literature illustrates that systematic progroms against peoples who use substances for this purpose have been happening for the last 2000 years. (The first casualty was the Temple of Eleusis in Athens - which we plan to visit soon.) I believe that these substances were the original sacraments of our religions. Today, our churches give placebo sacraments of wine and crackers which /symbolize/ this divine transformation, whereas the ancients actually imbibed true sacraments, powerful drugs, and achieved actual Grace. The major sacraments, or entheogens, were and are marijuana, hashish, psilocybe mushrooms and peyote. Various ancient sects of the Hindu, Buddhist and other religions consider people who regularly use entheogens as priests, shamans or otherwise holy in some way. We consider them stoners and druggies. Something very fundamental is wrong with this.
Is there anything more gezellig than the decriminalization of substances that facilitate the cultivation of personal faculties for gezellig? What does it mean when a country outlaws marijuana and hashish, substances that deepen the meditative and receptive sensitivities of the human being? What does it mean when a society imprisons its citizens for ingesting or selling entheogens that open the heart, calm the mind and deepen our intuitive relationship with the world and people around us?
I find it to be no small coincidence that a nation with such humane policies of tolerance as the Dutch have is also one of the most delightful and enjoyable places I have ever visited. When the rest of us are ready to accept entheogens and reintegrate them into our lives as the sacred substances they are, I believe we will see a similar transformation of our own society and will enjoy a collective rebirth.
Until then there will be needless war, famine, pestilence, unrestrained materialism, and the American imperium will continue to dominate our lives and cut us off from the humanity inside each of us and one another. We will remain fully colonized in body and spirit. We will continue to be less than human.
For what purpose?