brainstorming book

[Teotzlcoatl]

~ "Psychoactives are culture"

*Thesis* - The importance of psychoactives to human culture cannot be overstated, it was a major driving force in human evolution and in the creation of the first cultures, societies, civilizations and religions. The use of psychoactive drugs by Homo sapiens is as important to our development as art, music, etc. and it is intrinsic to human nature to desire to alter one's consciousness. We are not creatures of mind, no, we humans are creatures of altered mind.

1)Opening paragraph- From the dawn of time humans and our animal kin have used psychoactive drugs, but only in humans does the use of inebriants seem intrinsic, in fact, there has never been a known culture on the whole of the planet and throughout all of history which has not used some sort of psychoactive substance in some way.

*Thesis* - The importance of psychoactives to human culture cannot be overstated, it was a major driving force in human evolution and in the creation of the first cultures, societies, civilizations and religions. The use of psychoactive drugs by Homo sapiens is as important to our development as art, music, etc. and it is intrinsic to human nature to desire to alter one's consciousness. We are not creatures of mind, no, we humans are creatures of altered mind.

Psychoactive drugs dominate our day-to-day routines and permeate every facet of society, especially the ancient plants, some of which have traditional usage stretching back thousands or even tens of thousands of years.

The "smoke break", the "coffee break", "tea-time", etc. etc. are wonderful examples of cultural memes created solely for the purpose of consuming psychoactives.

Not only menial aspects of life such as taking breaks at work or having a smoke after dinner but much larger things as well. The international trade of coffee beans, tea leaves, cannabis, cacao, sugar, alcohol, coca, khat and other psychoactive products generates billions of dollars in revenue per year. Major historical events such as trans-Atlantic slave trade in which slaves were brought from Africa to the New World to work on sugar, tobacco, cacao and coffee plantations, basically massive plant-drug farms using forced human labor have taken place solely due to the fact that these plants are so powerful and appealing to man's psyche.

Empires have been made and broken by forest of drugs. The attitudes and ideals of cultures and communities have shifted as they are exposed to different psychoactive compounds, sometimes, as was the case of the cultural revolution of the 1960s seemingly overnight.

Sometimes the use of a psychoactive will become highly ritualized such as we see in the case of the medieval Japanese tea ceremony requiring intricate paraphernalia and a highly skilled server to perform the ritual in the purportedly "proper" manner, yet the seemingly most mysterious and thus interesting aspect of the interaction between psychoactive plants and humankind are those very special cacti, flora, fauna and fungi which generate spiritual experiences, these are known as "entheogens", literally- "to generate God within" and have been the main source of ecstatic revelation and thus the origin of most religious traditions throughout history.\

In the exploration of our fascinating relationship between ourselves as individuals and as communities with psychoactive drugs we hope to better understand why psychoactives are important in hope to find an answer to the problems which plague our society due to drugs or as a result of our reaction to drugs.

?) *Title* - "Everyone uses drugs, yes everyone" ~ For example in many nations around the world, especially Western nations, there exists establishments which dispense a powerful psychoactive drug every day to anxious customers eager to get their fix who quickly gulp down the bitter, black liquid;

So commited are these addicts to their brew that they must consume it every single morning, sometimes in a ritualized manner potentially requiring the use of high-tech machinery while paying exorbitant prices; so dictated are their lives by the black beans that they take breaks throughout the day to consume it.

Coffea arabica and other caffeine containing plants are likely the most widely consumed beverage on the planet, it is known that Camellia sinensis is second only to water in its rate of consumption worldwide.

Caffeine is also one of the only drugs most Westerners will readily give to their children. Coffee, seemingly so constant and ancient is actually known to be one of the shortest relationships between man and a plant drug. The usage of coffee is young, likely being less than 1000 years old which when compared to other psychoactive plants is a quite brief history of human usage.

The story goes that one day an Ethiopian man named Kadli was tending his goatherd when he noticed his goats nibbling at the fruit of the Coffea arabica plant, he watched as the goats began to jump about and chase one another. Kaldi picked some of the berries hoping for the same energizing effect, after chewing a few of the bright red berries he found them agreeable and took them to a local Muslim priest to share his discovery, but instead of being intrigued by this new found psychoactive the priest threw the fruit into the fire which immediately began to toast, brown and roast emitting that wonderful coffee aroma we all know and love, quickly the "beans" (seeds) where raked away from the hot embers and stirred into water creating the world's first cup coffee.

Between 1511 and 1886 Cuba alone had well over 1 million slaves imported from Africa in order to have a labor force to work the plant-drugs fields. Although sugar production began slave-holding, coffee played an equally prominent role in establishing slavery in Cuba.[1]

Some may wonder how tens of thousands of a plants which are an African native wound up in the New World? The answer is simple- every single one was brought from Africa or propagated from a plant brought from Africa, so important are drug plants that entire forests of plants are transplanted thousands of miles away from their native homes.

?) *Title* - "Animals use drugs too" - Not only do Homo sapiens utilize drugs so too do many animals for various reasons, but it would seem that the main reason is just to get screwed up

~~~ Brainstorming ~~~~

Drugs in evolution, how psychoactives are part of us

drugs and business, how drugs affect a culture through business slavery drug wars etc. etc. etc.

Constructs of drug use affecting or creating culture how drugs helped create culture

Drugs in instilling cultural values and maintaining cultural values

The prevalence of drug use is intrinsic to all humans want to alter their minds there's nothing wrong with altering your mind is human to alter your mind it may even be good for you to alter your mind

Ritualized use of psychoactives??

Psychoactive drugs used for the religion, Drugs in the creation of the first religions

All cultures use drugs see below -

* Greeks poppies

*Aztecs. Mushrooms etc.

*Inca, San Pedro, ayahuasca coca

* India, hashish Ganja, Datura

* Opium in China

* Japanese tea ceremony

~~~ Resources ~~~

[1] - Singleton, Theresa. "Slavery and spatial dialectics on Cuban coffee plantations." Latin American Studies. Syracuse University, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2011. www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/cuban-cofee-plantation.pdf.

Edited April 27, 2011 by Teotzlcoatl

[Teotzlcoatl]

Y'all think I'm a good writer? Be honest.

[Alice]

That is actually pretty good. Your comment about all known cultures using psychoactives - what about Austalian Aborigines? I seem to remember some discussion on how it was odd that they didn't? Actually they have pituri, so I guess that is psychoactive use. Maybe I'm think of them having not employed hallucinogens (that we know of).

[Rabaelthazar]

Honestly, I think the writing style works really well. Would be keen to read the rest.

Is this a thesis for university or a book for the general public that you have in mind? Are you putting forward any new ideas or is it more a round-up of existing information? (One is not necessarily better than the other - just curious).

...on a side note, I've often marvelled at how little kids all seem to love spinning around and making themselves dizzy. I reckon for a lot of us, this is the first intentional seeking of an altered sense of perception. Is it only human though? Kittens and puppys seem to like to make themselves dizzy as well. Kittens grow up to be cats that dig on catnip and puppys grow up into dogs who steal your beer from the table when you're not looking.

Are animals who partake only getting "messed-up"? How do we know the Jaguar isn't affected by the vine in a spiritual way? Do reindeer have a spiritual experience when they consume amanita? Hard to know.

Nice work, Teotz.

[santiago]

the aboriginals probably had more knowledge and use of entheogens than any culture in the world, unfortunately they were treated as less than dirt and targeted for extermination from day one so its no wonder that thye extensive knowledge they had wasnt passed on to the so called educated white people....and its a bit too late now to garner the knowledge which was all word of mouth.

its still shocking in this modern day they are still not thought of with anything of an educational basis.............why is that, because we bloody killed most of them.

[qualia]

opium was never used by the indigenous population of china until it began to be used as trade, primarily from British merchants wishing to save on some hard coin. this is the entire basis of the opium wars. as far as i'm aware the only agent for getting "high" throughout ancient china was alcohol, and largely due to the religious cultures (taoism/confucianism/buddhism) such use of sacraments generally doesn't come into play. the closest thing i can think of as being "entheogenic" in ancient china would be their use of herbs in TCM, a subject requiring a numerous volumes in itself.

[Teotzlcoatl]

...on a side note, I've often marvelled at how little kids all seem to love spinning around and making themselves dizzy.

Good point I was thinking about this!

opium was never used by the indigenous population of china until it began to be used as trade, primarily from British merchants wishing to save on some hard coin. this is the entire basis of the opium wars. as far as i'm aware the only agent for getting "high" throughout ancient china was alcohol, and largely due to the religious cultures (taoism/confucianism/buddhism) such use of sacraments generally doesn't come into play. the closest thing i can think of as being "entheogenic" in ancient china would be their use of herbs in TCM, a subject requiring a numerous volumes in itself.

I was going to note how Opium affected their culture.

More to come I'm just busy, thank you so much for the responses!

[planthelper]

yeah well said teotz, and one thing i found always good with you is that you believe in yourselfe a lot.

the concept is not new, but a brainstorm would certainly provide you with more ideas.

brainstorm means saying what, pop's up in your mind, even if it's crap, because somebody else, might bounce off a better idea from what you said. i have experienced, crap responces going round 4 times, till suddenly they turned brilliant....

often people and societies, have enormous double standards when it comes to drug use, i mean a non alcohol society like say, brunei has no problems earning export dollares with betel nut, but for fermenting fruit to alcohol you could go to jail, and they find alcohol disgusting and very dangerous.

in our society, it the other way round, we loose control with our beer or wine in the hand and laugh about the betel chewers and there revolting habit.

it's my birthright to get intoxicated, and men need sometimes intoxication, to function well in society.

plant drugs are responsible for giving different nations there identety, to feel british or japanese as a tea drinker, actualy has enormous benefits for those nations.

reading is a drug, and book reading can later lead to cannabis use.

drugs are similar to religious believes, but i think drugs are safer, as they cause less psychosis than religions.

society get ruled by the bullies, and they use the good people as scapgoats.

it's always projection, what humans think about drugs, unless they have (or till they) tried them themselves.

the more an intolarant drug user uses his drug, the more they become intolarant of others.

probably by putting down other drugs, the use feels better about there own using.

nothing else jumps to mind now, brainstorming ought to be done spontanious,

when ever i get a new idea, i will try to post it in your thread.

if you use some of the forum members input teotz in a puplication, please give them all good credit.

i sometimes feel a bit like, you would hope other people do the work for you, that's all, but i'm sure you don't see it that way.

[Marcel]

I'm sure you know of the following books, but a lot of your topics and theses are covered in Andrew Weil's From Chocolate to Morphine, and Terence McKenna's Food of the Gods and The Archaic Revival. Of course, that's no reason to avoid writing what it is that you're writing, but it is important to make some effort to synthesise these writers' ideas and build on them, or bridge them to other ideas, or to reintroduce them to a different audience. There's no use re-inventing the wheel, but there is value in trying to improve it or make it useful for someone who hasn't used a wheel before.

Good luck!