You know so much Caitlin. Your insights enlighten me often, but on this subject you are wrong.
"Anyone who thinks they've got life all figured out is suffering from a psychedelic drug deficiency."
A few people actually have life figured out. Who? The prophets of course. If and when one has had an encounter with the almighty creator of the universe, then the major questions in life are no longer a concern. Once you have met God, you no longer wonder where we came from or how we got here. It becomes perfectly clear. God answers all these questions and many more.
I understand, you might object. You might point out all the terrible ways men have used religion for evil. But I will point out that this is just another example of sociopaths usurping a genuinely good thing for their own ends. The same way any other genuinely good human movement has been hijacked for evil purposes, religions get hijacked too. You brought up the feminist movement as an example of this phenomenon just the other day.
Because of this, the ability for psychopaths to hijack religion, the message of God gets muddied, and it is pretty poorly understood these days. Most people seem to think it mostly has to do with regulating our sex lives and how much fun we can have at parties. This is a lie.
There's a reason the government killed Jesus Christ, and it isn't because he was teaching people to have less sex. It's because he was teaching people to take care of each other. It's because he was preaching truth against hate and violence and cruelty. It's because he was teaching people to turn away from the capitalist system and the love of money, and I to take care of others first. He was teaching that if everyone gives all they have, if everyone dedicates their lives to the welfare of everyone else, then there will be enough for everyone to be taken care of.
The truth is, what you preach most days in your blog is closer to the message of God than what you will likely find in a church on Sunday, because you preach the truth, and the truth is the light, and when the light shines on the darkness, the darkness cannot survive. But don't take it from me, here it is from the book of John and the lips of Jesus Christ himself:
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." (John 3:19-21, ESV)
Keep speaking your truth Cait. You are a light in the darkness, and the darkness cannot survive the light. You are a bright light, one of the brightest, but you're not alone in the world. I know you've seen Lee Camp's new comedy special. He's a light too, and a bright one. There are other bright lights popping up every day as well, and as more and more of us shine the light of truth into the world, the darkness will be burned up before us.
God bless you Caitlin Johnstone. Have faith that Good will triumph. And please, if you have some time, read an open letter I wrote to you. I know, it's kind of long, and I don't write as well as you do, but I sure wish you would read it.
-Chris C. (Eddison Flame)
This makes sense to me Chris. The prophets had doubts about themselves and the prophets had access to psychedelics too! I'm not saying they took them, I don't know, but it's possible and likely. I'm not saying psychedelics are the only way, but they inevitably expand horizons and challenge the notion that things are fixed, set, ordered and controllable.
I read your open letter to CJ a while back...you report a similar experience with mushrooms yourself, going from a 'staunch atheist' to an experience of Divinity and essentially your own divine nature, starting you off on your current journey....isn't it?
I'd love to see an experiment whereby they put MDMA in a city's water system and check out the effect on crime, on human interactions - it would be a revolution/revelation!
Touché. You make a good point. Please allow my to clarify.
The idea I am objecting to in this piece is that there is no actual real truth in this world. Caitlin is walking a dangerous path that essentially leads to a nihilistic way of thinking. Later on in the article Caitlin says,
and,
But there really is truth! And there is a self! And there is a real difference between good and evil! Some things are actually good, and some things are actually bad, and we can tell the difference between them. We can tell when something bad is being done to another person, and it isn't hard either. When we see the pictures of children starving in Yemen, and when we hear the explanation of what is being done to them, we know whether to call this good or bad. We understand the truth of this situation.
This is what I object to about Caitlin's analysis in this piece. It is unequivocally untrue to say there is no such thing as truth.
(As a side note, I didn't identify myself as a "staunch atheist" but a "staunch agnostic", and I absolutely reject the idea that my experience had anything to do with my "own divine nature". The experience I had was with the divine, and the divine was absolutely distinct and separate from myself.)
Is she saying that? Neither of the quoted statements imply that there is no such thing as Truth, and I can't find such a thought in the context. You seem to have read a lot of her stuff, would you really say this is a representative statement that she does not hold that there is such a thing as 'Truth'? I'm not speaking for her, but posts by CJ such as this or even this suggest to me that it so. But 'Truth' is also a bugger to define in words and concepts, I think that she also conveys this ineffable 'aspect' of Truth in her writings, many of which I personally find to contain a deep spirituality that resonates well!
Apologies the mixing up of agnostic/aethiest - these are indeed very distinct, I wasn't paying attention. Unconditional acceptance of your experience as you say it and your position as you state it. I guess I was projecting my own view, for this is what seems to have been the case :).
"I'd love to see an experiment whereby they put MDMA in a city's water system [...]"
Did you consider to take a minute think about what you said? Or just blurt it out. What a stupid thought!
I have thought about this considerably, in other words, I have given it considerable thought.
Does that thought scare you? Does thought itself scare you?
No thought doesn't scare me it the idea, that a braindead fuck like yourself, hasn't taken into consideration, that babies and toddlers, drink city water, old people and the aflicted drink city water, dogs and cats drink city water. In general society's zoos and ainimal compounds use city water.
Educated dumbasses like yourself can become tedious...
"When doe the cull start!"
Hmm, yes, fair point about babies and toddlers. Accepted! As for the other groups, well plenty of oldies would benefit, it is an experiment, and there is bottled water and blah blah blah, but you ain't really listening are you :)
Looks like you might have injested some toxic juice as a toddler yourself!
Why are you scared of braindead fucks ? Seems strange that such a label should intimidate you.