Drugs and happiness cigarettes etc.

[Kinki]

Hey.

Ive been wondering about my cigarette smoking affect on spirituality and happiness, ive been trying for years to quit smoking, while undergoing a Big spiritual change in me.

Then i wondered what if i am sensitive to drugs, because of the side effects i get when i do quit.

What i feel when i quit is like feeling cold blood going through my arms, my eyes feeling very good but almost like they are about to explode, and at around the solar plexus i feel like its some renewing energy working it just feels very good. It is just feelings. However my eyes get red and my psysichal reaction time is far Worse in this hibernate State

The reason i want to quit smoking is because i want my true happiness back.

Also i do not know what effects it has on my spirituality.

Ive just been undergoing some extense spiritual things through spontainious meditation, where i Saw things in Real life that couldent happen

My experience was real, more real than a full blown trip on acid (and made more sense)

But im wondering since my mom and dad had used drugs (i havent touched it) i was just wondering if it could make you more selfaware and more resistant and more ashamed or depressed by example smoking? Sensitive to it.

So ive been going through alot, 3 years ago i felt lifted from the base of my spine deleting beliefs, and seeing fears, crying tears of joy from past events, letting go, extremely sensitive to energys.

[Astro]

How long have you quit for?
In my experience it takes months & months & months of determination to break the habbit, & the early months are the most difficult. After three months I think you're supposed to get a great improvement to lung efficiency, I certainly noticed it & it was a great boost.

I think you can only flourish in all ways by quitting; mind/body/spirit etc.

[Greenslade]

But im wondering since my mom and dad had used drugs (i havent touched it) i was just wondering if it could make you more selfaware and more resistant and more ashamed or depressed by example smoking? Sensitive to it.
Yes it could. Spirituality and how you experience it (and your whole experience) is about how your brain is wired, it's as much down to the physical and genetics as anything else. My brain simply isn't wired for meditation so no doubt that has an effect on what most people would call my Spirituality. There is a new scientific study coming through called 'epigenetics', basically it's about how the behavioural patterns of our parents methylates the genes that are passed onto the offspring. Those genes have an effect on the way we think and the chain goes on from there, ending up with Spirituality. It's pretty likely that your parents' smoking weed would have had an effect on you. Smoking has an effect on your mind as well (I'm a smoker) and when the chemicals start having an effect (when I try to quit) my whole experience changes. I start getting spaced out and experience 'time dilations' when it seems as though time moves faster or slower.

[Kinki]

I have that aswell, spacing totally out, and the time dilations, but there is also good feelings, i get a lot more chill.
Thanks for your replys :)

[dream jo]

i only us it for pain relif weed i do coz painkilrs dnt seam 2 eas pain if its 2 bad
frozen sholdr is oush wen it plays up

[Astro]

Sorry I thought you were talking about 'tobacco' & happiness as separate things, not weed. You can forget about what I posted in that case it probably doesn't have any relevance.

[linen53]

I don't think cigarettes can matter in spiritual development. But did you know they put 599 different additives to tobacco in the United States? Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes

I've quit successfully 2 times. The first time I didn't smoke for 12 years. The second I've been tobacco free about 10 years now.

Quitting is one of the hardest things I have ever been through. It took 18 months of intense struggling.

[Kinki]

It is Tobacco in my case

[Astro]

It is Tobacco in my case

Well ok that's what I posted about, sorry for the confusion. I am much happier without tobacco definitely, & like Linen it took me about 18 months to break the habit. It's been two years & four months since I last smoked. Sometimes I miss the pleasure of smoking, which is no big deal. When I encounter the smell of smoke I find it repulsive.

[noxlumina]

Don't know if smoking is taking away your happiness, but if you want to quit, there are certainly worse things you could do!

I do know a few people who have successfully quit smoking (both of my parents, a number of friends) and one component was that they started telling people they were non-smokers, and reinventing themselves as non-smokers. They also pulled themselves out of environments where the smoking was reinforced (such as, groups where people stand around smoking).

[Cheesus Toast]

Hey.

Ive been wondering about my cigarette smoking affect on spirituality and happiness, ive been trying for years to quit smoking, while undergoing a Big spiritual change in me.

Then i wondered what if i am sensitive to drugs, because of the side effects i get when i do quit.

What i feel when i quit is like feeling cold blood going through my arms, my eyes feeling very good but almost like they are about to explode, and at around the solar plexus i feel like its some renewing energy working it just feels very good. It is just feelings. However my eyes get red and my psysichal reaction time is far Worse in this hibernate State

The reason i want to quit smoking is because i want my true happiness back.

Also i do not know what effects it has on my spirituality.

Ive just been undergoing some extense spiritual things through spontainious meditation, where i Saw things in Real life that couldent happen

My experience was real, more real than a full blown trip on acid (and made more sense)

But im wondering since my mom and dad had used drugs (i havent touched it) i was just wondering if it could make you more selfaware and more resistant and more ashamed or depressed by example smoking? Sensitive to it.

So ive been going through alot, 3 years ago i felt lifted from the base of my spine deleting beliefs, and seeing fears, crying tears of joy from past events, letting go, extremely sensitive to energys.

Hello Kinki,

Coming from the Yoga school of thinking I would recommend you cease all drug usage. If possible it is probably advisable to avoid even things like caffeine and the drugs that people consider mild.

There is no spiritual benefit from taking drugs of any kind as far as I can see. I have seen them referred to as counterfeit reality and I agree with that assumption. They simply seem to alter perception for a short while and then you come down.

I had problems with drugs. The most prevalent were alcohol and nicotine. I am aware that some would say that alcohol is a poison as opposed to a drug but it is psychoactive (its classification is not that important). I stopped using them years ago anyway. They are bad news.

If you wish for a genuine state of enlightenment then I do not think it is going to be possible with substances in you body that interfere with perception.

:smile:

[Greenslade]

I have that aswell, spacing totally out, and the time dilations, but there is also good feelings, i get a lot more chill.
Thanks for your replys :)
Really it's nothing more than so many Spiritual people have been doing for years. Shamans have been taking all kinds of potions and partaking in rituals that bend their minds and take their consciousnesses away to some weird Spirit land. The Necronomicon has quite complicated rituals and symbols that's supposed to open up minds, I read the book many years ago but never tried it. The famous Timothy Leary was into all kinds of drugs like LSD that he used to alter his consciousness, he's probably the father of the hippy movement. Cigarettes do to to a lesser extent, even how you feel about yourself because people are treating you like a leper. I suppose the moral of the story is that by all means try it for the experience but don't do anything that will cabbage-ify your head:smile:

[Cheesus Toast]

Really it's nothing more than so many Spiritual people have been doing for years. Shamans have been taking all kinds of potions and partaking in rituals that bend their minds and take their consciousnesses away to some weird Spirit land. The Necronomicon has quite complicated rituals and symbols that's supposed to open up minds, I read the book many years ago but never tried it. The famous Timothy Leary was into all kinds of drugs like LSD that he used to alter his consciousness, he's probably the father of the hippy movement. Cigarettes do to to a lesser extent, even how you feel about yourself because people are treating you like a leper. I suppose the moral of the story is that by all means try it for the experience but don't do anything that will cabbage-ify your head:smile:

Hi Greenslade,

I think it highly depends on what one wants to achieve. To some people those things you mention may be exciting. I did LSD quite a bit - I rarely ever enjoyed it but it was due to boredom and experimentation. I got no spiritual benefit from any type of drug - they just seem to drain mentally.

I was under the impression that Kinki was looking for peace and happiness. By spiritual development, I was under the impression that it was more along the lines of seeking clarity. Stimulants like nicotine will disrupt that clarity and hallucinogens will totally rock the boat dramatically.

I don't think cigarettes can matter in spiritual development. But did you know they put 599 different additives to tobacco in the United States?

Don't know if smoking is taking away your happiness, but if you want to quit, there are certainly worse things you could do!

I have to disagree. I would not have quoted these if I didn't feel strongly about this. I am not picking a fight :tongue:... just a disagreement. Nothing personal.

One of the main reasons why I gave up was due to spiritual development. Preventing Lung cancer and general bodily malfunctions attributed to smoking were actually, in a manner of speaking, secondary (although stopping them were definitely good side effects!).

I think it has even been mentioned: the way in which a fog seems to lift when you stop smoking is a good sign of how powerful nicotine is! One of the most odd things about smoking cigarettes is how powerful the effects are when you first start smoking.

I often saw it as futile because that strong drugged up feeling ceases within the first days of smoking (I attempted multiple times to give up). It seems from that point on that it is just being done to maintain nicotine in the blood. You then get the sense of habit forming from having the cigarette in the mouth and the burning sensation at the back of the throat.

I think these new smokeless cigarettes are bad news as well.

I smoked for far too long. All the way through teens and twenties. It was tough giving up but it was worth it from a spiritual development perspective!

[Mr Interesting]

All I got left is Tobacco and cigarettes, and you can see even the way that was written I'm not that keen on letting go, but one day I will... most probably.

I gave up weed about 18 years ago after using it all day, every day pretty much since I was 17 which then would be 18 years and I just got sick of it one day. Funnily enough the person who got me into it in the first place arrived back in my life and was so down on stuff I just stopped right there and then when he offered me a bunch.

Same thing with alcohol following a mad night drinking to the small hours with some chap paying who was dying to do music like I'd done and he saw, which was weird 'cause he was touring with a musical and doing the whole thing on keys and I was doing experimental for a share of the takings, then I drove home totally off my face and made a decision no more and haven't touched a drop since.

In both instances it was other people almost kinda representing the drug and I just decided I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. No pangs, no looking back... just over it completely.

I pretty much figure the same thing is gonna happen with coffee and cigarettes. I never do anything 'cause it's good for me not to do something else so much as maybe I stop doing something because doing it just becomes completely stupid I I end up seeing that stupid and it's so obvious it's easy to stop.

[The fool 0]

Hi kinki, good luck quitting cigs. I just quit myself about 6 weeks ago. Starting to feel much better now. It's worth it stick with it. It is only a few days to get the nicotine out of your system then just the mental aspect of breaking the habit like smoking after meals and driving in cars ect. I have faith in you my friend stick with it you'll be glad you did!

[Cheesus Toast]

Hi kinki, good luck quitting cigs. I just quit myself about 6 weeks ago. Starting to feel much better now. It's worth it stick with it. It is only a few days to get the nicotine out of your system then just the mental aspect of breaking the habit like smoking after meals and driving in cars ect. I have faith in you my friend stick with it you'll be glad you did!

Agreed. I had been smoking so long I found that I had to change my life around the idea of "not smoking any more". They do become a significant part of your life if you do them from years. It is very obvious to me now when I see others smoke.

[Greenslade]

Hi Greenslade,

I think it highly depends on what one wants to achieve. To some people those things you mention may be exciting. I did LSD quite a bit - I rarely ever enjoyed it but it was due to boredom and experimentation. I got no spiritual benefit from any type of drug - they just seem to drain mentally.

I was under the impression that Kinki was looking for peace and happiness. By spiritual development, I was under the impression that it was more along the lines of seeking clarity. Stimulants like nicotine will disrupt that clarity and hallucinogens will totally rock the boat dramatically.
Hey Cheesus
It probably depends on the individual and how certain things affect them or not. Timothy Leary was a proponent of LSD but I've never tried it, nor do I intend to. He came out with all kinds of weirdness back in the day and advocated to his followers to take it. It made him happy and had quite a profound effect on his Spirituality - he was hailed a guru at the time. Although to be fair he was also hailed a spaced-out junkie with a head full of mince :smile: Use it or not, at the end of the day both affects people's Spirituality because it affects how they perceive their reality and themselves. Both Spiritual development and happiness are entirely personal though and Spiritual development isn't always as it seems, or as defined. Happiness is just a state of mind and sometimes Spiritual development can be detrimental to that.

[Cheesus Toast]

Hey Cheesus
It probably depends on the individual and how certain things affect them or not. Timothy Leary was a proponent of LSD but I've never tried it, nor do I intend to. He came out with all kinds of weirdness back in the day and advocated to his followers to take it. It made him happy and had quite a profound effect on his Spirituality - he was hailed a guru at the time. Although to be fair he was also hailed a spaced-out junkie with a head full of mince :smile: Use it or not, at the end of the day both affects people's Spirituality because it affects how they perceive their reality and themselves. Both Spiritual development and happiness are entirely personal though and Spiritual development isn't always as it seems, or as defined. Happiness is just a state of mind and sometimes Spiritual development can be detrimental to that.

Yes, I have seen some of Timothy leary's material. I realised I got him totally mixed up with Terence McKenna actually :redface: when you mentioned him. I think I have mixed them up in the past as well.

I agree, it depends on what people want. I am one of these people who thinks that we should strive for purity of lifestyle etc (although I should try more to practice what I preach). I am glad you don't consider taking it. It is not worth the curiosity from what I learned in my experience, but to each their own. I had several bad experiences on it as well - many people do.