Quotation on Morality...

I lifted this quote from Anthony Peyton Porter's Facebook status - it's a good one:

"Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them."

Henry Louis Mencken, journalist (1880–1956)

Set and Setting

My sleep patterns are completely screwed up from a combination of the shortening days and the switch off of daylight savings. This morning I was out of bed shortly after 5 a.m. – in the tub and reading Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent.” I am enjoying it, but my brain can only handle a single chapter at a time. I’m just into chapter four. If I try and read beyond a chapter in a sitting, my eyes go buggy and I have trouble following the story. My brain used to be much sharper than it has become.

This morning, after I’d finished reading, I lay there, staring at the wall, feeling badly about how I behaved the night before. I get really moody and I take it out on people around me. That means Trish and the dogs. It is unfair – when I get into those states of mind, it would be better if I were far away from people; particularly the ones I care a great deal about. (For the purposes of this column, dogs are also considered “people,” – people with four feet and fur coats. Cesar Milan will probably want to have a talk with me.)

Winter Gardening

We took down the hanging tomato containers over the weekend, and Trish planted them with lettuce and spinach seed. I need to get those re-hung – already a squirrel has been digging around in the buckets and disrupting the soil. Winter gardening is a misnomer. A lot of what gets planted doesn’t grow vigorously during the colder months. What it does is put down roots – then when spring arrives and the ground starts to warm up, the “winter” crops burst to life and grow with gusto. We’ve never had a great deal of luck with our winter gardens. We don’t use pesticides, and snails and slugs love the sprouting vegetation. That is why the idea of using the hanging containers seems like a good idea. I will let you know how that works out for us.

Legalize Ibogaine!

I have heard and read several recent articles touting the success rate of ibogaine therapy in treating serious drug addictions: cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Ibogaine is a powerful hallucinogen; it takes the user on a journey that lasts for several days. Scientists and pharmacologists do not understand exactly why it works, but there is a school of thought that believes the deeply introspective trip the ibogaine user undergoes provides them with the psychological insight to understand the reasons behind their addiction. This knowledge may then allow the addict to break those mental chains. I have read similar studies from the early 1960’s that suggest LSD helped hardcore alcoholics to escape their addictions as well. It’s my opinion that our brains are prone to developing ruts; sometimes a powerful psychotropic can smooth out those ruts and break the circles. The problem, of course, is that both ibogaine and LSD are scheduled drugs, illegal in the United States.

This is something lawmakers really need to take a close look at. Methamphetamine addiction, in particular, is so prevalent and damaging that I would think politicians would be leaping at any opportunity to help alleviate this epidemic. Right now there are ibogaine clinics operating in Canada and Mexico, but sadly not here in the U.S.

Set and Setting

I read a lot about psychedelic drugs when I was in school. One of the important elements of a successful trip is making sure that one is in the proper set and setting – essentially you should be in a safe place surrounded by good people that you trust. My personal opinion is that drugs can be good, and drugs can be bad. It has more to do with the context – the set and setting – in which the drugs are used, than it does with the drugs themselves.

CIA Sentenced in Absentia

Twenty two Americans, allegedly members of the CIA, have been convicted by an Italian court of illegally kidnapping an Italian Muslim cleric, Abu Omar, back in 2003. Omar was literally grabbed off of the street as part of the “extraordinary rendition” program that George W. approved after the attacks on the World Trade Center. After his kidnapping, Omar was held without charge for seven months in Egypt, where he claims to have been tortured relentlessly by his captors.

I’ve often heard rumor that the CIA used psychedelic drugs in order to extract information from their captives. This would definitely fall under the category of an undesirable set and setting for your psychedelic experience.

madbob@madbob.com