Marijuana promises a solution for anxiety, depression, physical pain (and many other experiences of dissonance in the mind and body), while opening the user up to spiritual insights and a sense of apparently otherwise unattainable calm. The paradox is: when smoked or otherwise ingested, pot delivers an experience that feels more embodied, but in reality, is less.

While some or even all of these promised benefits may be experienced, the energetic result of this approach—disembodiment—effectively exacerbates the condition(s) that originally inspired its use. With greater use, the original symptoms are amplified, and the relief offered by cannabis-based solutions is diminished, requiring more consistent and frequent use to accomplish a similar outcome. With further use comes greater disembodiment, setting up a negative feedback loop.

Marijuana is understood to be non-addictive, yet because of the energetic dynamics that are initiated by its ingestion, it might more accurately be considered an addictive substance.

***

I live in a state where pot is legal (Colorado). What began with a medical focus, is now available for recreational use. It’s a regular occurrence to be driving (in town or on the Interstate) and encounter the strong smell of pot. It’s the same while walking. Marijuana is everywhere.

With its increased use has followed the idea that it’s no big deal. Teenage attitudes towards pot appear to consider it the preferred medicinal solution to a wide range of challenges, never mind the recreational benefits. It’s not just teenagers that feel this way. A recent article in the New York Times referenced regularly smoking pot at the end of the day to recover from the understandably challenging dynamic of pandemic parenting. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/style/am-i-drinking-too-much.html)

Truth be told, I’ve never smoked pot. It’s not that I haven’t had the opportunity. I toured with a band as their sound engineer when I was in my early 20’s. If that tour took place today, it might well be sponsored by a pot dispensary.

I’d love to tell you my marijuana-free history has something to do with a spiritually motivated sense of the right path forward, but when I was younger I’m pretty sure it came down to being a control freak: I was unwilling to drink heavily or do drugs because I didn’t want to lose control. Which is pretty funny from my current perspective since one central theme in spirituality is surrender (aka a complete loss of control)—something I resisted until I felt I had no other option.

The choice to give up control that initiates spiritual surrender is quite different than what takes place when marijuana is smoked or otherwise ingested, even though the experience might feel very similar. One early client reflected following a session with me: “it’s like I’ve just smoked the best bowl of my life!”

Pot appears to promise an untethered experience. Smoke marijuana, or ingest THC in whatever form, and escape the limitations of the human condition. Anxiety along with other emotional and physical pain be gone! And an endless list of other physical and emotional benefits. Never mind the spiritual benefits of cannabis: insights galore! Tune out, lift the veil and see the truth!

There is ample anecdotal evidence to support these commonly held beliefs about this wondrous plant.

Yet there’s a hidden or unacknowledged truth about marijuana: ingest it, and whatever else might be going on, the soul disembodies. 

Why is that such a big deal?

The soul disembodies when it encounters physical, emotional, and spiritual or energetic trauma. This is step one of the trauma cycle, which every human being is trapped in until we figure out how to set ourselves free.

In brief, the cycle is experienced in this way:

Trigger -> disembodiment -> symptoms of disembodiment (lack of presence, anger, anxiety, depression, etc.) -> disruption -> recovery -> deeper resonance -> embodiment -> enlivenment -> trigger is once again encountered, and the cycle starts over again.

Embodiment is the soul’s movement from the top of the head towards the base of the torso (which I refer to as the hips for simplicity). Disembodiment is movement the opposite direction. If the soul disembodies beyond the top of the head, we refer to this as physical death. This type of death would be the result of trauma, whereas an embodied death by contrast, is a very different experience and process.

Consider someone who has been through a profound trauma. Often, the light in their eyes is diminished or gone. In this case, their soul has disembodied above the eyes.

As the soul embodies (its natural state, by the way) it enlivens everything as it descends. When there are unresolved traumas that are enlivened, unless there’s a conscious practice of soul embodiment—or the individual is being witnessed and supported in their embodiment—the soul disembodies in response. The soul doesn’t recognize the difference between trauma in real time (e.g., a car accident) or trauma that is being re-encountered (e.g., from a car accident that resulted in broken ribs, whose embedded trauma is as yet untransmuted). The result is the same either way: disembodiment.

With a soul embodiment practice, or while being witnessed and supported in embodiment, the individual who allows themselves to fully feel whatever has been trapped or held in the body or energetic field (or is being experienced in real time) is able to transmute the trauma to the degree they allow themselves to feel and express fully (physically, emotionally, and otherwise) whatever is coming up. The alchemy of this dynamic is made possible by the two apparent polarities: the expression of the pain (on whatever level) and fully feeling whatever is coming up, in combination with soul embodiment. You could think of the transmutation that results as the embodied fire of divine presence burning up the trauma.

***

I had a masterclass in the energetics of pot while working with a private client some years ago. This person started smoking pot as a way of managing the stressors of daily life, and in the process uncovered all sorts of wonderful spiritual insights. Despite this, they wanted to stop and were looking to be supported in this goal.

I discovered that when they smoked pot, their soul disembodied immediately, while paradoxically leaving them having an experience previously associated with being more embodied.

Once, unbeknownst to me, my client was smoking pot during a session. After struggling to understand what was going on, I finally asked if they were smoking. At every turn, what normally would have transmuted and supported greater embodiment instead expressed as a radical increase in disembodiment. With their confirmation I clearly saw the paradox.

***

Consider a person who is anxious or stressed, and smokes pot to relax or cope. Do they eventually smoke enough pot that they can move on with their life without anxiety or stress without smoking further? Or do they over time engage more consistently (and frequently) in smoking pot as a way of coping with the inevitable return and increase of anxiety and stress (a function of the disembodiment caused by marijuana)?

The spiritual journey—life—is all about soul embodiment. When we’re embodied, we feel energized and the “symptoms” of disembodiment (including anxiety, depression, physical pain, lack of presence – and the list goes on and on) fade away and are replaced by a deep sense of resonance, which comes from the feeling experience of the Divine within.

Marijuana creates a situation where the same outcomes are experienced, but rather than resulting from greater embodiment, they take place while being more disembodied.

The net result is that when the pot wears off, that which was resolved by smoking or ingesting is amplified, requiring that the original approach to resolution be re-engaged, often times with greater consistency and frequency.

Which seems to fit with the definition of a substance that is addictive, namely that with subsequent engagement, greater consistency and frequency is required to affect the same outcome.

Some definitions of addiction add a condition that engagement is harmful, which is a challenging qualifier. Perhaps it would be helpful to note that the destructive potency of some substances is varied in different contexts. Whereas pot might be seen as socially less obviously destructive, I wonder what the long-term impact is on a mind and life that has marinated it a THC cocktail—the entire time sustaining a disembodied posture.

If the goal of engaging with marijuana is a sustainable experience of the Divine within, it might be time to consider a different approach. Ask someone who gained their spiritual insights from a substance to re-engage with the flow that delivered their awareness, and unless they have shifted to an embodiment practice without aids, they will reach for the substance to once again open the flow.

Yet the flow is here all of the time, available without any external aid.

***

The perspective I’ve shared here isn’t new for me, but I’ve long resisted sharing it. At times I have communicated with the confidence of someone who thinks they understand the absolute truth, and I don’t want to step into that noise here.

My goal in sharing is to offer a perspective that might be different, about a plant-based resource that is becoming widely accessible and accepted in the alternative health space. Not to castigate those who are considering or currently engaged with it, but to offer an alternative that is just as effective—if not more so—in accomplishing the experiences of mental, emotional, and physical resonance in a sustainable manner.

Your embodied soul offers a pathway to a deeper experience of the Divine within, and all the extraordinary and miraculous resources that follow.

That’s it for this week . . . From My Heart

We are always in the Divine’s Love and Presence,

Ken

PS – Join me later today (Wednesday the 7^th of October, 2020 at 6p Eastern) for a livestream on YouTube where I’ll be exploring soul embodiment and breaking the trauma cycle with this link: https://youtu.be/KMj8E9ZXd4M (the replay will be at this same link)

If you haven’t already, I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel for free by clicking this link.

The theme for Deep Dive VX tomorrow is: deeper into the silence, deeper into absolute presence: https://kenwstone.com/deep-dive/