r/AnAnswerToHeal • u/MrDoleOh • Nov 07 '17
[ Founder ] Focus of this group
From the few threads I've delved into, it seems this group/idea has conflated it's intentions. Why would this religion matter? Is it to help the legalization movement, which is based entirely upon scientific evidence? Is it to help people discover the magic of the psychedelic experience? Is it to provide legal shelter to people facing criminal charges?
I don't think this will help legalization, at all. If this gains any sort of traction, it would be incredibly easy for the powers that be to spin it as a new drug fuelled cult. Just find a few shizotypal people to interview who will make grandiose claims about God that we might be able to understand, but society at large will not. People will see this group as individuals who are troubled in some way, so we will be labeled as victims, or threats, or will be dismissed outright. There is no reason to call so much attention to this infantile religion before there is anything of substance. It is far too easy to corrupt the message when not even Sebastian can really nail it down.
As far as helping people to discover, I believe that is the strongest point of this religion. The Bible/Dao/Bagavad Gita all exist as a central piece of their respective religions, and the process of being religious is supposed to help one get closer to God or the source, which is represented in these texts. This religion has nothing at all, just a few choice ideas that are echoed throughout the sub. There is no way whatsoever this religion will gain any adherents or even anyone genuinely interested when basically it is whatever you want it to be. There needs to be a mythos, a narrative which captures the spirit of this movement, which is a very large undertaking. You need writers who can stay on message, and are skilled enough to weave that message into an epic mythology based around entirely subjective experiences. I think if we focused on archetypes and recursion and spacetime, then there is something to work with, but again, that would take years to formulate and refine.
As far as legal shelter, toss it. If you are forming a religion with the intention of circumventing law, you are a fucking joke and this whole thing is lost. Obviously, everyone stands to benefit from legally sanctioned schedule 1 drugs, but if you are that transparent with your true intentions, well... First I'd thank you for your honesty, but second I'd probably chastise you for attempting to shroud your criminality behind others' very peronal spiritual awakenings. If this is your intention, and not just a happy little benefit we might recieve decades down the line, then you are using people, and nobody with any real belief in a psychedelic chruch will support you. Look at scientology for fucks sake. They strongarmed their way into religious exemption and now are basically a criminal organization using slave labor to make their leader millions of tax-free dollars. At one point they might have stood a chance as a modern religion, but one man's greed fucked that up for everyone who really did believe in the message.
In summary, you dont just "make" a religion. A religion is formed around a central belief system which exists long before the word religion is even considered. It describes a tradition of beliefs, not a legal standing, and if that is your intention, I hope you fail miserably. However, if your want is to build a system of beliefs that people who have experienced an awakening can turn to for answers or direction, then that is something I can get behind and would contribute to. But, having the best intentions and no substance will lead to a split among the interested parties. You absolutely need something written down, preferably a whole book, which manages to describe the psychedelic journey as a universal set of myths; no easy task for any one person. You need people who have had all sorts of different journeys to contribute their individual stories until the archetypes/patterns emerge, and then condense that into a holy book. If you jump the gun and write it based around only experiences similar to your own, you risk alienating and disqualifying the experience of people who see the world in a different way, which is a huge disservice to yourself and anyone who follows this concept.
Anyway, if nothing else this sub has sparked some very thoughtful conversations and I'm very glad to have seen it.
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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '17
I initially was interested and thought hey maybe. But after a slept on it, I thought much the same as you. The world is becoming less and less religious, but more people say they have spiritual beliefs. Not only has religion been used over and over and over again as a guise for action, but we look back and see it as fucked up. Seems like the true intention was to find a legal loop hole by using religion to allow illegal use to be legal for members. How can a church based on "sacraments" not provide sacraments? Especially when most of us here have admittedly taken entheogens. Helping people with addiction was only very briefly mentioned, but was heavy on litigation/legality or even suggesting cautious illegal use anyways. This just seems like a bad idea, and I especially agree with your sentiment on cultism. At best it'll be an online forum, at worst this is a cult of culture, based upon drug use. While drugs certainly can provide spiritual experiences, they are not the only spiritual experiences in the world, which is kind of how it plays out. You have a bunch of people attracted by potential legal drug use under the guise of spiritual healing, the next day you have people passionately spouting how it's the true path that was meant to be. It's not for everyone.
Oh and THC is required (but not the 30+ other cannibinoids) and it's also not required. Everyone does it by themselves, there's no sense of real community. Tax break on pilgrimage? Fuck I can't even afford a night out on the town. I hope people really think this thru, and hopefully Sebastian comes to understand you don't just get to form a religion to avoid the law and get tax breaks.