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Updated 7:52 PM, December 26, 2009

This website is devoted to the subject of the spiritual harmfulness of using marijuana and other so-called psychedelic drugs. The words of spiritual teachers will be posted and the hard won understanding of former experimenters will be shared. The postings spell out the harmful effects of drug use.

The first posting are these quotations from Meher Baba's "God in a Pill?". Other postings on this page include quotations from Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok and the words of a former experimenter who discovered first hand the spiritual harmfulness of drugs.

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Excerpts from "GOD IN A PILL?" by Meher Baba

…All so-called spiritual experiences generated by taking "mind-changing" drugs such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin [including ganja or marijuana] are superficial and add enormously to one's addiction to the deceptions of illusion which is but the shadow of Reality.

No drug, whatever its great promise, can help one to attain the spiritual goal. There is no short-cut to the goal except through the grace of the Perfect Master, and drugs, LSD more than others, give only a semblance of "spiritual experience," a glimpse of a false Reality.

The experience of a semblance of freedom that these drugs may temporarily give to one is in actuality a millstone around the aspirant's neck in his efforts towards emancipation from the rounds of birth and death.

The experience is as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from water….

…..Although LSD is not an addiction-forming drug one can become attached to the experiences arising from its use and one gets tempted to use it in increasing doses, again and again, in the hope of deeper and deeper experiences. But eventually this causes madness or death…..

An individual may feel LSD has made a "better" man of him socially and personally. But one will be a better man through Love than one can ever be through drugs or any other artificial aid….

As for possible use of the drug [including ganja or marijuana] by an enlightened society for spiritual purposes — an enlightened society would never dream of using it!

God can only be realized by loving Him with all the love at one's command — pure, simple and unadulterated love….

… [T]here is no drug that can promote the aspirant's progress — nor ever alleviate the sufferings of separation from his beloved God. LOVE is the only propeller and the only remedy….

Medically there are legitimate uses of LSD. It can be used beneficially for chronic alcoholism, for severe and serious cases of depression and for relief in mental illnesses. Use of LSD other than for specific medical purposes is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually.

Any drug when used medically for diseases, under the direct supervision of a medical practitioner, is not impermissible and cannot be classed with individual usage of a drug for what one can get out of it — or hopes to get out of it — whether thrills, forgetfulness, or a delusion of spiritual experience.

LSD and other psychedelic drugs should never be used except when prescribed by a professional medical practitioner in the case of serious mental disorder under his direct supervision.

In short, LSD can be used beneficially for specific medical purposes, but for spiritual progress it is not only useless but positively harmful.

If the student world continues to indulge in the use of LSD, the best of its intellectual potential will be lost to the nation.

Use of LSD produces hallucinations, and prolonged use of this drug will lead to mental derangement, which even the medical use of LSD would fail to cure.

Sufism Reoriented, Inc.,

Walnut Creek, CA

Also see http://www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/godpill.html

Quotes from “Kabbalistic Insights into the Dangers of Drug Use”

by Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok

( http://www.koshertorah.com/PDF/drug-use.pdf )

….I have known my Rabbis specifically to not initiate anyone who has a history of hallucinogenic drug use. I was told, and have seen with my own eyes, that when one approaches the true spiritual courts wherein which G-d resides, one must be both, physically and psychologically grounded in the objective reality of that experience.

The astral, spiritual and sefirotic plans all have objective reality to them, as does our physical plane. One can artificially alter all the consciousness that one perceives. Yet,the experiences therein are nothing but subjective, and thus only a shadowy reflections of the truth. For example, if when in an altered state of consciousness, you decide to stand in front of a speeding train, thinking yourself to be Superman, you will very quickly realize that you are not.

Many people experimenting with mind-altering drugs feel themselves to be spiritual supermen. They believe that they can side step the long, ardent details of spiritual discipline. What they do not know is that what they are experiencing is not an objective reality, but a subjective one. Such subjective truths are of no concern for the Kabbalist,for such immature experiences are nothing but klipah (the glow that surrounds the true light). Bluntly put, such experiences are lies.

….chemical usage can sabotage this progression of learning.

According to the Torah, drug use for the purpose of spiritual gain or for any other kind of recreational use is wrong, misdirected, dangerous to both body and soul is and therefore condemned. There is no place for drug use in the life of a Jew walking the path of the Torah….

A Communication in 2009 by an Anonymous Writer Concerning

Some Seldom Acknowledged and Little Understood Effects of Marijuana:

There are aspects of marijuana use that few people know about and fewer dare to talk about. I am sharing with you the widely known fact among persons who are psychically sensitive that the use of marijuana attracts to the user the lowest and darkest of influences. I realize that you will likely think me some kind of nut for saying this, but it is something that is well known to persons who are psychically sensitive. Even more problematic is the fact that it can take years after one has last used marijuana for the users to be rid of its influence. One spiritual teacher of my acquaintance has stated that it can take seven years to be rid of its influence. The use of marijuana significantly handicaps a person spiritually, aside from the mental and physical harm that it can do. This is all very far out I know, but that is the way it is. These matters are rarely spoken of for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that people may well think that the person who talks about such effects is somewhat, if not totally loony.

Views of a Psychic Who Passed Away in the 1980s

A well known psychic had warned individuals of her acquaintance of the dangers of psychedelic drugs. She had particularly warned of the dangers of using marijuana. She viewed it as being a drug of extremely low vibrations that attracted the lowest of entities from the astral realm. Those using marijuana risked opening themselves up to these extremely negative, malevolent, and mischievous influences.

[Other psychics have explained that allowing oneself to become open to such outside "spirits" or "astral" influences or cultivating such experiences can result in what has been called "unwilling mediumship" or "spirit possession." Such psychics have further explained that persons who open themselves up to malevolent and/or mischievous outside influences, whether inadvertently or on purpose, may even mistakenly interpret such "channeling" and extra-sensory phenomenon as "benign" when it can in truth be anything but benign. Some may regard psychic phenomenon know as "astral journeying" as benign. No authentic spiritual master would advocate the cultivation of any of these kinds of experiences. In addition, not all spiritual teachers may be able to undo the damage that can be done to an individual who has or continues to cultivate such experiences. This includes individuals who have "opened" themselves accidentally or on purpose with or without the use of drugs.

Views of Murshida Ivy O. Duce

See Ivy O. Duce, What Am I Doing Here? (Sufism Reoriented, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA, 1966, pp. 31 - 36)

for further discussion of occult phenomena associated with drug-induced openness to unwilling mediumship or see

Quotes about Psychic Phenomena, the Occult, and Drug- and

Alcohol-Induced Openness to Astral Influences and Unwilling Mediumship

Views of Two Spiritual Teachers Concerning

the Harmful Effects of Marijuana Use on the Subtle Body

The first spiritual teacher had stated in the '70s or '80s that marijuana use negatively affects an individual's "subtle" body and that these effects can remain for as long as seven years after the person last used marijuana. When this was shared by a student of the first teacher with a second teacher in 2009, that teacher added that the effects of marijuana can remain for as long as seven years if not longer after the person last used marijuana.

Views of a Theosophist

Will power is soul power. Using drugs leads to the abeyance of will power and hence the surrender of soul power.

Links to Relevant Articles:

~ "Consciousness Expanding Drugs: Catalysts or Corrosives? New Views on Psychedelics"

~ Quotes about Psychic Phenomena, the Occult, and Drug- and Alcohol-Induced Openness to Astral Influences and Unwilling Mediumship from What Am I Doing Here? by Ivy O. Duce

~ "Money Won't Buy You Love, Neither Will Drugs"

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