Meditation and marijuana

[VedetteCroyante]

Let me start off by saying I have no position either for or against the use of marijuana. I am simply putting this thread up to find out the group's thoughts about meditation after smoking weed.

I'm not much of a weed smoker, I don't really do it on my own. But every once in a while I go to my sister's house to hang out for a night or two and she is a regular smoker. Sometimes I join her to relax if I've had a particularly stressful week, and I find she is nearly the only person with whom I can smoke and be relaxed (that's a whole other thread!). My sister is very into her own sort of spirituality, she is into angels and crystal healing, astral projection and lucid dreaming. Sometimes she tells me about these experiences and I don't know what to think because she seems to be very in-tune with these things and I haven't really experienced much of this so it's difficult for me to determine if it is really happening to her or just sort of a figment of her imagination (this is a tangent...) But, in any case, whenever we smoke together our conversations tend to turn in that direction.

When I smoke, I tend to have the difficult problem of getting super-analytical, with racing thoughts, and my thoughts tend to go in a negative direction with me basically focusing on all the areas of my life that are dissatisfying and make me feel insecure. Lately, whenever my thoughts tend to spiral in that direction (while not smoking), I have been trying to "push" them the other way, refusing to let my thoughts go to the negative side.

Last night, after I had smoked and was sitting with my sister and talking I noticed my thoughts start to go in that negative direction & I kept stopping them. She left me alone for a while and I suddenly got inspired to sit quietly outside under the stars and start meditating. I had a really good experience, I saw thoughts come into my head and even if they were negative they did not fill me with anxiety, I just let them "float" by. I felt sort of like a cleansing was taking place and I made some realizations about some activities I was participating in that were not enriching my life. I made some decisions to make some changes in my activities. For example, for the last couple of months I've been participating in an online message board that is a gigantic waste of time that I realized was making me even more judgmental and critical than I already am (need to work on that). I decided to delete my profile from that site. I also deleted my profile from an online dating site, and deleted a bunch of photo albums from my facebook. I guess I'd just decided there was a too much of "me" out there on the internet.

This is a bit of a ramble and doesn't really get to the point, but this is just one experience I had that led to some insights on my part that happened during this episode of smoking and meditating. I also experience seeing a symbol in my meditation, which was an eagle. I was curious about whether this had any meaning, so I looked it up and found an interesting article about symbols in meditation:
Symbolic Eagle Meaning
Since I'm fairly new to meditating (I've been doing it on and off for years, but never with any consistency) I'm not sure if I should take my "vision" of the eagle seriously as an actual meaningful insight or simply something that popped into my head.
I've been doing yoga a couple of times a week for the last few weeks and I've found that it is really starting to push me in the direction of thinking about consciousness and the world and my place in it, what I should be doing with myself, how I'm spending my time and what I'm putting out there into the universe.

I know I've muddled the topic with an anecdotal account, but basically I'm asking the question as to whether or not you consider meditation while "high" a valid experience. Unfortunately I don't have any sources to quote because I haven't done the research by I'm aware that there are different schools of thought. Basically, either that marijuana meditation is invalid or tainted in some way & doesn't lead to any actual insight, or that using it can "enhance" the experience and open the doors to perception even further than the straight way.

Any thoughts or experiences regarding this? Thank you for reading!

[alphamind]

I have been there too, marijuana can really open you up and do wonders with your meditation and introspection in general. It isn't permanent though, that I can assure you. Though the experience during your high can be a big motivation to open your mind and experience your self in a spiritual manner, or even experience the things your sister is into, be careful not to become attached to the herb for these sort of experiences. You CAN experience that state of mind without the help of a herb, but it will require dedication and persistence to "fix" your obstacles and have more conscious access to your source. I know this is not what you might wanna hear, but it's the truth and it's best that you know this. You can of course have a smoke for the experience but must not rely on it for your personal growth. Permanent growth happens slowly and steadily.

[Cam]

I've found that most people that don't like marijuana, don't like it for the reasons you've stated. It pushes them to "a negative area" and they don't like that feeling.

In reality, weed brings out all the problems people shove down in their subconscious. It brings their problems into light. And sometimes people aren't ready. What you did was meditate, and so your problems floated by. Meditating while high, in my opinion, can be a great experience. It allows you to take in these harsh realizations with confidence that you can change and the desire to.

Also, it takes time to get used to the plant. It is a entity. It has a personality, as do all herbs. It takes time to get to know these things and when you do, you can be more in control of the experience (much like it seems you did when meditating). That's when deeper analytical and creative thinking becomes possible. You'd be surprised how many scientists, authors, etc discover things while high.

Nobel Prize genius Crick was high on LSD
when he discovered the secret of life- The DNA Helix

However, as alphamind said, don't become dependent on it, for there are independent ways to attained heightened states. But there is nothing wrong using it as a tool to develop and integrating it into your spiritual journey. All ancient cultures did this- the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, Native Americans, even Tibetan monks.

Something you might find interesting: I've heard that meditating while on _______ (insert psychedelic plant here) is different in that you can sometimes feel the plant's presence. It guides you.

As for the eagle, seems like you found a spirit guide/power animal/guardian, w.e you wanna call it. You can call on it for guidance through your meditation and spiritual journeys.

My friend and I, did yoga while high, and found our spirit animals. I saw an Eagle as well (perhaps were part of the same clan lol), but the Eagle has long been a part of my history, so I'm eager to see whether I manifested it or not. Interestingly, I was able to figure out what my friend envisioned as his spirit animal before he said it aloud, just by watching him. It's amazing how weed can put people on the same "wavelength". The best way to describe it is an intuitive telepathy- you just know.