They ate mushrooms and yet... they killed kids. Makes you wonder...

[jamie]

Psychedelics are similar to enlightenment in that they bring about ego-death and a lack of attachment.

I wouldn't even call that enlightenment, perhaps a flicker.. because it doesn't necessarily
continue once the psychedelic experience terminates.

the term "enlightenment" all too often gets thrown around by psychedelic afficionados as some sort of fashionable word describing a few hours of pyshotropic-induced altered consciousness. pure enlightenment is a continuous state of being, and those who claim to have it, most likely don't.

From what I understood about the traditional context of the term "enlightenment" when I was into buddhism and other eatern traditions is that there was no linear time limit attached to the context. It is a state of timelessness whether it lasted 5 minutes or 500 years..saying it is a continuous state of being might not necessarily fit in with the traditional understanding of the term.

 

[caliwa]

cultural relativism. its an important think to consider before pointing human sacrifice in the ancient civilizations as a condemnable thing. we all know Maya civilization's achievements in terms of astronomy, medicine and many other things. We on our postmodern way of life consider murder and sacrifice as a crime but, it hasnt always been like this. if we, mind travalers, cannot conceibe human sacrifice as a way to improve this world, then who? who knows... maybe a human's sacrifice generates some sort of good thing for the surrounding light of his community or something..

i do not want to kill anyone, im not promoting human death, im just considering it from a metaphysycal point of view.

 

[Nitegazer]

Good point on the moral relativism, caliwa. It is pretty pointless to condemn past cultures for their transgressions (Greek slavery, 1800's witch burning, etc.), UNLESS we use it as a window to critically view ourselves, and recognize that future generations may well see our 'lack of morality' as shocking.

 

[caliwa]

5 grams of cocaine ( no matter the quality) can put a man 20 good years in jail. our modern society is putting people in jail all over the world because of carrying some herbs and bad quality substances, for a monstrous ammount of time. its that condemnable? i say yes, i say its monstrous.

 

[Jin]

to the Op

obviously some of the mayans were sick , now we all know psychadelics can influence sick people and bring more problems to the surface

moreover psychadelics don't mean magic medicines to healing and light for everyone , some people actually suffer a lot after taking these medicines as you'll find some threads of people suffering popping up on nexus from time to time after consuming psychadelics , also do people remember the Manson's i mean they were taking acid and then went out just killing people

crazy people will do crazy things , psychadelics can only help them become crazier faster , also mayans were into scolpamine alkaloids too so that could have been another problem as many people on brugmansia and other plants from the family have found to commit crimes , loot people , murder and do all sort of nasty stuff

the only bad thing i feel is that the mushrooms could not help these retarded mayans to evolve , sometimes mushrooms cannot help , probably if they had dmt who knows ?? :lol:

also if they had Traveler as the head shaman ,the moderators and the members here , things could have been very different for the mayans and maybe they would not be sacrificing children