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Conscious Suppressing Chemicals

The ways in which humans use plants, foods, and drugs causes the values of individuals and, ultimately, whole societies to shift.  Eating some foods makes folks happy while eating others makes one sleepy, and still others cause alertness.  Society encourages consumption of substances by the population that produce acceptable behavior.

“Like fish in water, people in a culture swim in the virtually invisible medium of culturally sanctioned yet artificial states of mind.”  [4] This hidden yet powerful chemical dependency was promoted if the effects of the substance made subjects happy and more controllable, otherwise the substances were made illegal by the ruling class.  Examples include hallucinogens such as mushrooms that contain psilocybin, potentially causing primitive workers to become aware of their own nakedness upon consumption?

As sugar and other spices found their way into the trade routes that served Europeans, having endured a dismal and boring existence sans lavish colors and variety, the Middle Ages were brought to an end.  Christian medieval Europe broke up as a result of the consciousness expanding chemicals that entered the market:  coffee, opium dyes, silks, and rare gems were put on display in the public forum.  The new trade goods were exotic and delightful.  Sugar, chocolate, tea and coffee, and distilled alcohol survive to this day as staples of the modern world.  Our global trading market was created to cater to society’s need for variety and stimulation, especially when it comes to food.  One particular drug that found ready acceptance in medieval Europe was cane sugar [4].

The Romans favored sugar but knew that the bamboo-like grass from which sugar was refined grew only in tropical regions, making it a rare and imported commodity.  Sugar beets were encouraged by Napoleon I as an alternative to the hard to get cane sugar.

Sugar abuse is the world’s least discussed and most widespread addiction [4].  Sugar, as with all stimulants, causes a brief euphoric rush that is shortly followed by depression, guilt, and usually an upset stomach if the individual quantity threshold is exceeded.  Sugar abuse is often correlated with serious alcohol consumption.  Sugar and slavery are also closely related.  Sugar cane grew in tropical regions and had to be imported, which led to brutal kidnappings, forced transporting, and mass murder of huge populations enslaved by merchants to support the addictive and growing demand for cane sugar.

The use of tobacco in Europe in the sixteenth century has been perpetuated on a global scale, although smoking tobacco in the form of cigarettes in the United States, especially in coastal health conscious areas, has been the target of government sponsored negative advertising campaigns and has been banned in many public places.  Developing nations and those on various trajectories along the industrialization curve are the heaviest tobacco users.

With the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling the colonization of the future American South, long before the creation of the United States. The initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one cause of the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans and became a driving factor for the use of African slave labor.  Nothing complements a good smoke like a hard shot to wash down the tar and nicotine.  Next we will look at alcohol’s effects on human consciousness.

Alcohol may be responsible for suppressing inhibitions leading to more dynamic  human interactions at the local pub, but it is not likely to be associated with elevation of consciousness any time soon, nor was it deemed so in the distant past [95-107].  The effects of alcohol vary from person to person and with different amounts.  The number of drinks that constitute being “drunk” for one person may have little effect on another.  Also varying are the changes in behavior that one undergoes when under the influence of alcohol.  A person may behave in a way that is quite unlike their usual personality.  For instance, someone who is normally calm and collected may become easily enraged and upset or vice versa.  Sometimes the effects of alcohol consumption are more subtle.  Someone may simply become quiet and withdrawn.  Often these changes are not necessarily dangerous or problematic, but there are times when they certainly can be.  Some of the more serious changes in behavior may include violent tendencies, inability to make good or safe decisions, or lack of use of protection when engaging in sexual encounters.

People often drink to relax, to gain confidence, or to be at ease in social situations [96].  Studies show that alcohol intoxication can make us aggressive [106,107]; it can relieve stressful anxiety and tension yet also increase them both; it can inflate our egos yet lead to “crying-in-one’s beer” depression [97].

Every time alcohol is consumed, in every person, perception and thought are generally impaired [99].  Research has shown that alcohol intoxication impairs nearly every aspect of information processing: the ability to abstract and conceptualize, the ability to encode large numbers of situational cues, the ability to use several cues at the same time, the use of the active and systematic encoding strategies, and the cognitive elaboration needed to encode meaning from incoming information.  Alcohol dulls the senses preventing one from using sensory cues to initiate a proper response, which could be fatal under certain circumstances like drinking and driving.

The consumption of alcohol may radically alter both one’s ability and one’s motivation to process information regarding sexual risk.  Alcohol intoxication can decrease one’s ability to consider the consequences of their actions and it can also lower inhibitions about sexual behaviors.  Often times, alcohol plays the role of scapegoat, as irresponsible actions can be blamed on the amount of alcohol that was consumed.

In general, studies have shown that people who regularly consume alcohol or use drugs are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior.  Leigh and Morrison (1991) report that 50% of both male and female adolescents had been drinking at the time of their first sexual experience.  Alcohol intoxication at the time of first sexual intercourse is associated with a decrease in condom use [100].  Under the influence of alcohol, people often make the poor decision to engage in sexual activity with someone they may not know and then make the even worse decision not to use protection [101].  The basic effects of alcohol on the human awareness and behavior are clearly not conducive to an elevated consciousness.

Other substances that made their way into civilizations via trade merchants recognizing a societal need or want and filling it.  The point that needs to be made is that the chemicals and substances that were allowed to stay in circulation in societies were either approved or denied by the ruling powers, with consciousness suppression being a foremost goal.  Of particular concern to all ruling classes is the potential for an uprising or revolt against the government.  With this potential threat foremost in mind, it was and still is imperative to pay particular heed to the chemicals that the population is consuming.