Opinions wanted

[nexalizer]

Even though myriad justifications for the modern laws against the entheogens have been offered up, the problem modern societies have with these drugs is fundamentally the same problem the Inquisition had with them, the same problem the early Christians had with the Eleusinian Mysteries- religious rivalry. Since these drugs tend to open people's eyes and hearts to an experience of the holiness of the universe... yes, enable people to have personal religious experiences without the intercession of a priesthood of the preconditioning of a liturgy, some psychonauts or epoptes will perceive the emptiness and shallowness of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition; even begin to see through the secular governments which use religious symbols to manipulate people; begin to see that by so ruthlessly subduing the earth we are killing the planet and destroying ourselves. A "counterculture" having ecstatic experiences in California is quite as subversive (Einhorn 1970) and threatens the power structures in Sacramento or Washington just as much as the rebellious Albigensians or Cathars, Bogomiles, Fraticelli "de opinione," Knights Templar and Waldenisians threatened the power structure in Rome and Mediaeval times (Cohn 1975).

Your thoughts on the matter?

 

[Vodsel]

Ott makes complete sense to me.

Entheogens make middlemen either unnecessary, or they completely change the middleman's role and nature - even in rituals celebrated by a shaman, the shaman is a guide, an enabler (not a deliverer, like a priest is) for an experience that is NOT a placebo experience.

Letting people define their own relation with god is obviously not good in the eyes of the establishment. The system wants to peddle us its thing, he wants to be necessary. Entheogens make many things within the system unnecessary.

 

[tigerstrike92]

I really liked what said Vodsel said ^^.

But IMO, while that may be a huge cause of it, I think there are also many other factors that play a role.

 

[Guyomech]

I would agree with those assertions. But it's larger than that. Fundamentally, I think the issue is that users of entheogens tend to disdain authority and are less fearful of its control tactics. On a broad level, we are inconvenient. And proud of it.