Cannabis Spirituality by Stephen Gaskin
 
Copyright 1996 Stephen Gaskin.
ISBN 0-9647858-6-2.
$15.95, hardcover nonfiction, first edition, 136 pps.


Inscription from Stephen? To whom?

"If you want to get the maximum benefit from marijuana, this book is for you. Cannabis Spirituality explains how the world's most beneficial plant can improve your family communication, your love life, and your relationship with God." —Steven Hager, High Times Editor

Plus 13 tips for sanity and safety!

 

A review from reader Scott Ryan

Let's get one thing clear here: this book is much more about spirituality than it is about cannabis.

Smoke dope, don't smoke dope; that's not the point. It helps some people and doesn't help others. I haven't touched it in years (and that wasn't me, and it wasn't ganja, and I was just keeping it for a friend of mine, and anyway I didn't inhale). If it helps you, go ahead and make it a sacrament as Stephen describes here, and follow his excellent advice. (And do let's drop this nonsensical "War on Drugs," shall we?)

But that's not what this book is really about. What it's about is realizing that you are God—not in the sense that your personal, local ego is the divine, omnipotent, omniscient creator of the cosmos, but in the sense that God is being you, if you know what I mean.

If you don't know what I mean, you stand a pretty good chance of picking it up from Stephen, whether you ever toke up (again) or not. As with all his writings, if you're receiving on the frequency where he's broadcasting, you'll pick up one helluva spiritual contact high.

Me, I find that if I go too long without reading him, I start to get cranky—yell at the dog and kick the kids, or vice versa, or something—but cracking open any one of his books mellows me out right away. My own receiver, at least, is definitely tuned to his channel.

Yours may be too. Oh, maybe not—not every "spiritual teacher" (ugh) is suitable for everyone, and you may be better off with somebody else or with nobody at all. That's okay; Stephen isn't looking for followers (and you should beware of anyone who is, both for your sake and for theirs).

But it's worth the trouble of finding out. It's entirely possible that you found this page precisely because Stephen is just exactly what you're looking for.

It's really just a question of picking up his vibe. (And if you know what I mean by that, you will almost definitely find him worth reading.) It's not so much that he's going to teach you anything in particular; he'll just knock your mind loose from your brain, maybe only a little at first. And then a little bit more....

Mainly you'll just grin and be happy that Stephen is possible. And you'll start to be possible too.

 
More Books by Stephen Gaskin

An Excerpt: Enlightenment

Even if you are broken up or ill, you still have to come on to the world with a good heart and not drag it down. One of the ways to tell if there is any enlightenment is whether there is any service or not. There is so much heartache and suffering in the world that it is important not to add to it.

The first prerequisite for enlightenment is a real heavy sincere desire that will make you go through whatever changes are necessary. Usually these changes are a lot simpler than you think they're going to be. This desire explains why millions of hippies stood on their heads, or shaved their hair, or did 150,000 prostrations, or any of the various excesses and extremes that we did in the Sixties, thinking there was some formula we could follow to become enlightened. Mostly paying attention to other people instead of one's own self is a great help.

I never met anyone who took enlightenment seriously until I got around hippies. I was around church people, but many of them lie constantly. They talk about miracles that happened in some other time and place. Once in a while a preacher can move a congregation and get them stoned, but most of the established churches are dry holes. No energy happening there. Most churches don't teach anything about enlightenment. They want you to sign a contract and give them money like an insurance company. The most dangerous thing about religion is self-righteousness. After all, what was the Inquisition but an orgy of self-righteousness, torturing peole to death to save their immortal souls?

Enlightenment comes and goes. One of my favorite Zen statements is:

I do not seek after enlightenment; neither do I linger where no enlightenment persists.

It's not like climbing a mountain and once you've done it once, you're the person who's climbed Mt. Everest. Sometimes on a good day you know where it's at, and you've got a nice serenity on, and you stone people with your presence. Sometimes you don't.

Enlightenment means you aren't easily driven to rage, you don't let people push your buttons and you don't use emotion as a tool to manipulate other people. It means you are not in the game for money or fame but for love and justice.

Another thing about enlightenment: You can't have a teacher at one end of a room and a bunch of people at the other end, and the teacher is enlightened and the people are not. It doesn't work that way. The psychic vibration naturally goes into a group resultant of all the energy fields on contact. These fields flow like water into their natural shape. If most of the people are sane and good, and they talk good stuff, they're all enlightened. If anybody in that room tastes enlightenment, they all taste it together. In that sense enlightenment is more like daily bread. It sustains you as you go along. Enlightenment is like fire and water. Wherever in the universe you find fire or water, they follow their own laws. And if you see a little piece of fire on the end of a matchstick, and a huge building burning, it's the same thing.
 

Home

Website and contents copyright 2007 Stephen Gaskin except as noted