Spirituality

Do psychedelics offer a path to the “god within”?

I mean, a lot of people take psychedelics and see some pretty colors and giggle or get a little paranoid, and that’s not what we’re talking about. And it’s important to make clear that even the word “entheogen”– all psychedelic experiences are not entheogenic experiences. If “entheogen” means a sacred experience of spiritual or religious…

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Spirituality

Pot and pretendians

Oklevueha members assert that marijuana is integral to their sacraments, just like peyote. There’s just one problem. It’s not. There’s just one problem. It’s not. While I’m not a member of the Native American Church, I practice Dakota/Lakota spirituality, and marijuana has not, nor has it ever been, used as a part of ceremony. While…

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Spirituality

Psychedelic drugs can deepen religious experiences

Johns Hopkins Medical School’s Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit is recruiting clergy as research volunteers in a study of “entheogens,” which are chemicals, usually derived from plants, that are ingested to produce an altered state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes. They have attracted serious scholarly attention. William Richards, who holds several graduate degrees in…

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Spirituality

United Methodist resolution regarding the war on drugs

To that end, we offer the following resolution as an appeal to end the so-called “War on Drugs.” Whereas: The public policy of prohibition of certain narcotics and psychoactive substances, sometimes called the “War on Drugs,” has failed to achieve the goal of eliminating, or even reducing, substance abuse and… Whereas: There have been a…

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Spirituality

Profits have become hospital focus

“Shouldn’t a community hospital’s $171 million profit be used to help the people of Lane County?” So not-for-profit Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend is the ninth-most profitable hospital in the United States (“Sacred Heart at RiverBend is No. 9 on profitability list,” May 3). Isn’t that an oxymoron? I’m a retired oral and maxillofacial…

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Spirituality

Why do we need a harm reduction Decade?

Right now, ahead of the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, governments and international organizations are discussing the future direction of drug policy which will determine policies of countries for the next ten years. ​We are asking you to stand in solidarity with people who use drugs, their families and communities by…

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