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What are your thoughts on alcohol?

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jungleheart

jungleheart

In love with a baby jaguar
Senior Member
Senior member
I am wondering two things:

- How do you feel about recreational alcohol use?
- What do you know about ceremonial alcohol use in any spiritual practice?

My take is that I have been really liking alcohol lately. Two drinks is great for dancing. It's a sure way to feel happy and have fun in a good environment. Some of my best memories include alcohol. Mushrooms and alcohol was always a great time with my friends. I would say that I am a fan, when used with self-control and in the right setting.

I would like to know more about alcohol in ceremonial settings. I know plants like Bobinsana, Ajo Sacha, Ayahuma are soaked in brandy in the Amazon. I've done that before and found it really powerful. I was having a shot of brandy a day during those times. Does anyone know how alcohol is used in ayahuasca ceremonies? I assume it is also used socially by shamans? I hear rum is used as an offering in Voodoo. I would like to more and more details.

Want to know if I can use it in my spiritual practices. I am practicing witchcraft lately. I'm always looking for ways to add more elements of intention into my practice.

Thanks for sharing any thoughts you might have.
 
In my experience it realy matters what kind of beverage you're drinking.
This could have to do with the specific mixture of ethanol and methanol that is slightly different for every non-distilled alcoholic drink. However, i personally don't find distilled drinks by definition more enjoyable, even though distilled drinks (from professional and licensed distillers) are always much lower in methanol.
But there are some other compounds in many alcoholic beverages, like tannins and sugars, that probably have some effect on how well the alcohol is tolerated.

I don't drink alcohol very often, but i do like to drink some premium belgian beers sometimes.
Especially sweet and fruity tasting beers. I don't like beers that are very bitter.

Alcohol is best enjoyed when the effects are still kind of mild, i find. You have to resist the temptation to drink more because it makes you feel lightheaded, warm and cosy. You don't get more of those pleasant effects when you keep drinking, only more of the unwanted side-effects.

I once drank some alcohol after having taken ayahuasca and it resulted in a realy terrible headache. I don't know if there was a causal relation there, but i am definately not going to risk ever getting such a headache again.
 
I’ve had some good mushroom experiences after small amounts of alcohol, likely because it lessened any anxiety.

Sometimes after a small amount I feel almost clear headed and present.

I also like to smoke weed after drinking, if done right it enhances both. But I never drink after smoking.

I can go for months without a single drop and then I can find myself drinking every weekend. I’m not always great with self discipline either and quite often have “one more” even when rationally I know I shouldn’t.

I’m too old to be wasting time on hangovers these days :lol:
 
There is a time and place for everything. So a nice dinner with a glass of wine or port, I love that. Not too much, just enough to enhance the taste of the food. It also stimulates the food processing in the body for me. And feeling a little bit shaky and intoxicated in the head can be nice too.

I never use alcoholics in combination with DMT or salvia.
 
In some circles (also indigenous communities), alcohol is seen to be a 'heart opener'. As such it is believed to let out blocked/supressed emotions, trauma etc. I guess I can relate to this, alcohol certainly can ease the flow of tears and words. Thus, I like to think that rom time to time, and with the right intentions, alcohol can even have healing effects - even in higher doses.

Now, in Western society, alcohol is vastly over-consumed, abused. Where either people become dependent on it to show emotions, or where people use it to suppress their emotions. Both doesn't lead to anything worthwhile.
 
In my observation, alcohol only damages.

Sure, it is a preservation method for powerful herbs. But those herbs can be taken sans alcohol as well, and work just as fine.

Sure, you can have fun on it. Sure, it can loosen you up. But so can mushrooms. So can harmalas. You can feel "drunk" on Amanitas, too. There are countless other plants and mushrooms that can do the job of alcohol, only better.

I understand why it has been used ceremonially and celebrationally--because there were no other options, it's easy, and it's addictive. I don't blame people for needing to feel drunk and celebrate and using something that's highly convenient and available to do so.

But now that virtually any entheogen is available to us at our fingertips--and the knowledge and culture regarding them, as a result of globalization and the internet--excuses for the use of alcohol dwindle.

tl;dr - Anything alcohol can do, weed, psychedelics, other plants and fungi can do better and without damaging organs and relationships.
 
To each their own. However, I personally have a poor opinion about alcohol. The combination of its potential for abuse, addictive nature and ubiquity make it very dangerous imo. It breaks my heart a bit since some of those closest too me struggle with alcohol problems. Set and setting don't matter much with alcohol. The culture around alcohol stipulates that any occassion is an occassion for imbibing.

I typically say that I don’t drink. On a rare occasion I will drink small amounts of mead (less than 50ml) to relax a bit more, to open up a bit, and because it's tasty. It's my way of trying to get myself to loosen up a bit, but it's use is very low.

One love
 
I once took some ayahuasca that was mixxed with some strong spirit (aguardiente). In a particular ceremony with shaman in the jungle in colombia, it was a little bit scary taht ceremony...

I never mix alcohol with dmt or aya... I´ve taken mushroom and a few beers in the beach, but that´s all (a cold beer in a hot beach is nice...).

I think alcohol is probably the most misused substance ever... they say in statistics, more than 50% of murder victims... and murder perpetrators are under the influence of alcohol, also rape.

The word "spirit" for some high alcohol % types, has an origin of people getting possesed by some entities when drunk... we´ve all seen it, is one of the most evident types of possesion.

In the spiritual, attached entities, dead people (most of the times family member, and old grandparent that liked booze) will attach to people and boost their taste for alcohol (or sex or other vices). A dirty bar is a place where these type of entities will wonder around. It also makes possesion easier, the alcohol...

In "witchcraft" or spiritual practices... well... they say, one way to capture evil spirits, it putting a dish with some strong spirit, inside a salt circle. They alcohol attacts them, the salt traps them... then you have to dispose of it.
I know people in santeria also talk to dead, take a strong spirit... spit/spray in the air, ask the questions, etc.

Tobacco and alcohol offerings are frequent in withcraft... it seems spirits like it.
In a way, in the offering, they don´t have a body, but they "etherically" breath from the offering.
A nicer type of offering could be flowers, herbal essences or inciense... (Darker type of offering would be blood, burnt meat or fat, etc).

It makes you think, what type of entity likes alcohol?
 
I find it quite plausible to guess that almost any human that works with entheogens would have a low opinion of alcohol.

I've just been on a 3 month no alcohol break, not because I drank alcoholically, but actually because I get instant headaches often when drinking. Had a few pints of guinness recently and felt fine, even enjoyed it. But regular drinking makes me very physically uncomfortable. My body hates it these days.

Having witnessed and been responsible for the care of my mother during the darkest depths of alcoholism I find it the easiest vice to keep under control. The damage radius around an alcoholic can be huge on a family scale.

A beer and a cigarette is such a pleasure for me. Unfortunately I cannot sensibly moderate the tobacco use so have only off and on as an option. Currently off.

Its fairly common knowledge that those in power deny us the compounds that threaten their power structure. They allow us only the most self destructive and devisive. If it is legal and heavily taxed, it's probably no good for you.
 
The spirit of booze was drinking from me. I'm ever grateful for getting rid of it. Going to the market, walking past the booze section, not getting the urge. That is freedom. When feeling down, just trying to figure another way to get forward and actually having a chance to succeed.
 
hi!!

For many years I closed myself to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, for good reasons, The same good reasons, along with the passage of time and as an obvious result my growth and openness to good living, I invited myself to observe the origins in general of what I consume, whatever the end, since, nothing that Mother Nature can offer, treated with respect and responsibility, can not hurt. As the great Paracelsus said, the difference between poison and medicine lies in the dosage.

Today, I produce my own mead, and it is wonderful to be able to share it with my loved ones eventually, however, I know very well that it is not a substance (alcoholic beverages) with which I identify, for example to use it when I am alone, in that space, my relationship with entheogens is miles away in front. I think we're very much governed and influenced by the cultures around us where we tend to see things, or black, or white.... And well, I think many of us agree with the gray of the matter and our total participation and prominence in how an experience can be and what it can bring to our lives, be it creation or destruction.

Here where many people show a degree of awareness from their own experience of living, I consider that talking about this is fundamental, since we are united by the great respect, devotion, affection, curiosity, gratitude, study, etc,,, of psychoactive, entheogenic, psychedelic, and medicinal substances. Personally, I am not at all fond of making encounters between the strength of the drink, along with that of entheogens, but that is only because of my own sensitivity and respect for what those on the other side guide invite you to practice...

Peace to your lives, responsibility and maturity to consume what you love.
 
navegandouniversos said:
nothing that Mother Nature can offer, treated with respect and responsibility, can not hurt.
Click to expand...
I want to comment just this little bit, since this way of reasoning is common, but in my opinion it does contain an error. There are many many substances in nature that are simply deadly to humans even in small amounts. Not everything in nature is meant for us, we are one lifeform among others. Other lifeforms produce and use substances that we cannot and should not use. So, while I too believe in the sacredness of mother Nature, I think it's important to remember that nature and life in general doesn't revolve around us and does not exist for our purposes.

This is not to invalidate anything else you said, just a comment on a common point I feel needs addressing.
 
Yes Tom,

I absolutely agree with what you highlight Perhaps the correct way to say it is, not everything we take from our natural breast can harm us, as long as we treat it with respect, care, knowledge, responsibility, etc...

Hugs friend thanks
 
Interesting question.

It's a great solvent, but it's an awful drug.

All of us had phases with excessive drinking, I was no exception.

Looking back there persisted an urge to continue, although it always ended with doing stuff that you regret, hanging out with shady people, not being yourself and feeling like shit the day after.

If done alone, it's just sad. In company, a recepie for disaster.

Anyone that had trouble getting a loved one sober knows how damaging this compound actually is.

I would dare to say alcohol is worse then heroin. With smack you don't die from withdrawal, and you don't cause so much damage to others.

Society makes it seem normal, and plays down its dangers, in reality it's a far cry from that.

Anybody can do whatever they want, but I see this compound as something that is best to be completely avoided.
 
C2H5OH most certainly is responsible for a lot of pain, destruction and un-conscious behaviour, but I do love it.
Booze has always been part of my family life, from being given a dash of red wine in our water at dinner on holiday in the south of France when my sister and I were young, it was an unquestioned part of any social gathering. Throughout school, while I was steadfastly opposed to any drug use, I thought getting smashed was perfectly normal behaviour, and I look back at how I drank in my youth, with a mix of incredulity and despair. This level of intoxication in public arenas, coupled with chronic shyness crossed with a public school instilled arrogance, still gives me remembrances that make me cringe.
But alcohol is literally the lubrication of the majority of western culture, an utterly fundamental part of life that the vast majority could not even begin to imagine existence without.
It has most definitely enhanced many of my experiences, coloured far more, and it has allowed me to be the person I wished I could be, temporarily, while turning me into an unpleasant arsehole, ultimately.
I now find it almost impossible to enjoy it without at least some level of guilt, whether this is justified or not, but I still enjoy sharing alcohol, in its many incarnations, both socially and on my own, from time to time.
 
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