Senator Robert Kennedy, in 1966 said: "Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that LSD can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly"
Now of course he was assassinated a few hours after convincingly taking the CA primary election of 2008, and LSD had been relegated to the CSA category of Schedule 1 a few months after RFK's remark. Thus we have lived in a nation unrepentant for its abject disregard for the well-being and wellness of its citizenry, and for the cavalier attitude towards murder, torture, and imperial invasions. In these last forty years, one sure thing you could count upon was the repression and massive interdiction into the manufacture, distribution, and use of LSD. At the core of this successful government operation was/is the vigilant awareness that of all the things that could substantively change our society for the better (and away from the disgusting greed, planet destroying, human enslaving, species slaughtering consumer capitalism) was LSD. As a molecule in very small quantities, it is capable of radical shifts in how one thinks about consciousness and the relation of that consciousness with the universe outside of it. Nobel prizes have been awarded for discoveries made; incredible feats of sport have been achieved; and milestones of creative energies revealed--all under the use and influence of LSD (see David Jay Brown's CONVERSATIONS AT THE EDGE OF THE APOCALYPSE).
In describing his vision of how important LSD can be for the future of the planet, Jonathan Ott wrote:
I firmly believe that contemporary spiritual use of entheogenic drugs is one of humankind's brightest hopes for overcoming the ecological crisis from which we threaten the biosphere and jeopardize our own survival, for Homo sapiens is close to the head of the list of endangered species.
We are indeed at the apex of a series of events that require the best and brightest minds, the most creative thinkers and artists to provide divergent and vastly numerous solutions to the catastrophic problems we face living on the planet today. It is beyond hope and reason to tacitly concur with this thought, yet do absolutely nothing to contribute to being part of the solutions. We need to agree that reason and rationality be paramount to the din of verbose, useless, religiospeak during this period. Idiotic acceptance of prophesies spoken by priests, pastors, imans, avatars, etc. concerning the whims of invisible, masculine, anthropomorphic, omniscient energy entities (illusions of deities), only further the planetary degradation and the loss of sustainable habitats for all living (actual real living) entities and species. Pragmatic reason must ascend to levels hierarchically paramount to rhetoric of faith, party, and money. Greed is no different a religion than its servant Mormonism or Scientology.
I wholeheartedly endorse LSD as a therapeutic treatment for living in the US. So rich and powerful a transformer of change it be, that our own government chose to use it as a remedy for curing the Soviet empire in the late 1980s. In the mid-1980s, agents of our CIA and DEA were encouraged to make contact with a large number of LSD distributors, coaxing them to procure large scale weekly purchases for European shipment. Many of these distribution sources were very closely connected (necessary when one is asked to provide up to 15 grams of pure LSD crystal per week) with the manufacturers. This government operation had a two prong agenda.
The first was to flood eastern Europe with Gorby acid (as some of it was labelled) encouraging citizens of Hungary, East Germany, then Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Poland, etc., to declare their personal freedom and independence from the constraints of oppressive and coercive rule. Rising up in these new nations were young adults who could see beyond the constraints of greed and power, and become leaders of creative and substantive change. The second was to gain immediate access to the suppliers and manufacturers in this US, so that when the anti-Soviet operation was concluded the CIA/FBI/DEA could shut down LSD in the US. Both prongs were incredibly successful. Coupled with the draconian drug laws of Reagan/Bush, dozens of the best LSD manufacturers and distributers were incarcerated for 20 to 40 years terms in Federal prisons, thereby securing for decades the potential for the flow of LSD to reach the citizenry of the US. I could make a substantive argument that were it not for the near complete lack of LSD, FoxNews would not currently be able to reach and exist the large numbers of brain-dead it does.
Rising up in this wake of extreme interdiction against entheogens and other psychedelics, while permitting a huge and constant flow of heroin, cocaine, pharmaceutical painkillers and other vicious narcotics to reach the citizens, three groups have made the effort to promote new venues and directions of research. Spawned during this same period of DARE and Just Say No, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and the Center for Consciousness Studies--all have been moving forward with their efforts to fund research and spread the news. Around the world, agencies of governments as diverse as Israel, Brazil, and Canada have been interested in funding and engaging in research using MDMA to reduce PTSD and other similar pathologies. Switzerland has recently embarked on work with LSD for people who are terminally ill and near death, as well as treatment for various chronic pain from migraines. The US has three similar projects ongoing, and others for medical marijuana.
At the heart of these developments is the consensual understanding that citizens of the US are endowed with the inalienable right of cognitive liberty. We are absolutely free to keep our own minds and counsels, without accepting interference from anyone in that regard. Indeed the Bill of Rights is formulated (and the 13th &14th Amendments) on the principle of cognitive liberty. This crosses thresholds and emboldens misguided folks to think that a celebrant of cognitive liberty would accept libertarianism as a path towards political pragmatism. This is decidedly not true. Libertarianism is not about cognitive liberty, it is about property liberty, and at its base is the fomenting of the same dangerous greed and selfishness that is destroying the planet through capitalism. A citizen, knowledgeably informed of the principles of cognitive liberty, would not interfere in any regard with the freedom of thoughts and minds of others, whereas libertarians and other capitalists rejoice in the desire to attribute economic value to thoughts and minds. Do not confuse the two, please.
Insuring the freedom of consciousness and mind, supported by ever more available information and tools to liberate minds through education and consciousness research, and availing these minds the choices of using entheogens is a path to moving forward in hope for a better, more sustainable future. Without free unfettered investigations in how thought processes, under the influence of LSD, can engage interactively with other species, and other holistic systems of planetary interconnectedness. We need our earth to be populated with human beings working at their best in thought mind and deed to solve the critical problems of the upcoming year, decade, and quarter century. Quashing tools, such as LSD, because one is afraid of the consequences of a population suddenly freed from the confines of mind-numbing media messages, only further serves the destruction of all of the planet's species. We are on the brink of creating the greatest period of extinction in the Earth's history. And we are one of the species that are at great risk.
As Terrence McKenna, the profound researcher of entheogens and mystical states, said:
Consciousness is what we're in need of to avoid running off the cliff into armageddon!
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