But life is too short to get into a tizzy over it. Time for a beer.

LOL! Had a good laugh over that one.
Pete, are you contributing to the delinquency of a minor? ..just kidding

For some reason I was thinking that people who have real control over their minds and their lives wouldn't need such base means to alter their states.

The founder of my Tai Chi lineage was an alcoholic! Yet he was also a Master in four arts: Tai Chi, Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy. That is, ‘master’ as in the pinnacle of specialty that comes with many decades. He was also a senator in the old Chinese government before being exiled to Taiwan, and a renown Confucian university professor.

Also, Alan Watts, the man who helped bring knowledge of Taoism and Zen and Buddhism in a palatable form to the United States in the 60’s, was also an alcoholic and into psychedelic drugs. ..the most articulate man I know of! I respect these two men’s lives more than any others.

Not that I’m condoning alcoholism!! Just pointing out two great men.. Enlightened Men, no less, who were alcoholics. Seeming contradictions.

Actually, I bet if you conducted research on the subject, you’d find a high correlation between *recreational* drinking and ‘true happiness’. It kills mind chatter, stifles fears, and induces a feeling of well-being. All good things? “Yes, but it also does x, y, z.” True. True. But isn’t it worth it to sacrifice a smidgeon of health for that much more happiness?

Then again, beer is an American past time, so I might be wrong.

Alcohol is more the pastime of humanity!

I think the view which you are expressing is a puritanical remnant. I put that right in there with puritan sexual beliefs, which still affect our culture. Perhaps the only thing that makes drinking 'bad' is the ancient taboo? In most every other country in the universe, alcohol is taken for a normal part of life and thus abuse is much less. I’m surprised you hold this view, having spent so much time in other countries, where doubtless the drinking age was 12 if at all. Actually, I held your exact view until taking a trip to Italy when I was 14, which opened my mind rather like a cosmic can-opener.

I realize that all this can be quite shocking to realize.

Even Yale is much like every other college on the weekends!

Hallucinogenic drugs on the other hand... Man oh man, I remember at a potluck dinner with many senior students and a couple instructors from tai chi class. The topic turned to the 60's, and they all started to share psychedelic drug experiences!!! 'WOAH'. That crumpled my perception of them for a time. I was definitely not prepared to hear that!

Here is an article by Alan Watts on the noblest uses of drugs: http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal4.shtml Let me say that I do not subscribe to drug use. And the illegality of drugs has nothing to do with that. It’s the horrendous and permanent mental damage that concerns me.

Though, here’s a thought: Psychedelic drugs essentially induce a waking theta state. Waking dreams. It would be quite interesting indeed for a Master PhotoReader to experiment with say LSD after photoreading… I wonder how that would compare to the Lucid Dreaming adventures Pete has described?