"No Drugs, No Democracy"

From my Book Proposal:  "Drugs, Freedom and Spirituality:-

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow....

                                                  Bob Dylan, “Mr. Tambourine Man”

 To ask when Man first began using mind-altering substances, is to ask a question that has no meaning. For the use of natural mood-changers can be traced back to our animal ancestors - elephants, chimpanzees, birds, have all been observed in the wild, seeking out “substances” and using them for an “attitude-adjustment”. And there's no need to go on safari – just give your cat some catnip, and watch what happens....

Coleridge and Graham Greene smoked opium; James Joyce talks about an absinthe “trip” in “Ulysses”. Aldous Huxley’s “Doors of Perception” is a lucid and objective description by a serious man, of his consciousness expansion through mescaline. Geneticist Francis Crick experimented with LSD on the day he discovered DNA.

Dr. David Hillman, the author of “The Chemical Muse – Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization”, argues from evidence in Classical texts (and a background in Pharmacology), that "The early Greek philosophers who inspired the mental revolution that influenced the birth of democracy were… more like medicine men than philosophers. So not only did democracy spring up in a drug-using culture, but its roots lie in a drug-using, shamanistic, intellectual movement. I think it's perfectly safe to say: 'No drugs, no democracy.'"

You can hear David Hillman tell his own story of his struggles with the academic system, in this video -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E01pQCE10Ng

It's a helluva yarn, and well worth hearing!

[TOMORROW:  Find out why the excellent Dr. Hillman says "Goddess-Worshiping Greeks Had No Pornography"]