Further Exploration of Entheogens and Yoga (Might call this “Exhibit B”)…
Ganga White is the Co-Director of White Lotus Yoga in Santa Barbara, and one of the the most prominent western yogis. Ganga recently wrote a book entitled “Yoga Beyond Belief” (highly recommended) in which he refers to himself as a “renegade yogi,” apparently for some of his non-traditional views, as well as espousal of the potential benefits of plant medicines such as Ayahuasca. Seeking to learn more about Ganga’s perspective, I went to his website (www.whitelotus.org), where I found an interview he did with Laura Huxley, the widow of Aldous Huxley (author or “The Doors of Perception,” among others). In the course of the interview, Ganga asked Huxley some pointed questions about drugs and entheogens. What follows is a brief excerpt…
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Ganga:Drugs are such an extraordinary problem in our society and there is such hysteria. Do you think there is a positive aspect that is being overlooked and the baby is being thrown out with the bath water.
Laura: Oh, certainly. There is danger in everything that we do. We are to eat food otherwise we don’t live and sometimes we eat food that is very damaging.
Ganga: Or we become addicted to food.
Laura: Or addicted to food. Oh, yes, addiction to food is unfortunately really grave, also to alcohol or to anything else. But these drugs can be such an extraordinary gift, really. Some, not all drugs. Again, how can we speak about “drugs”? It is like speaking about the human race—each person is different, each drug is different!
Ganga: There are different classes of drugs and they are all being lumped together.
Laura: Yes, but they don’t consider nicotine as a drug. Why don’t they put it together with all the other drugs? And alcohol is certainly one of the most abused drugs since ever and ever, since Dionysus. They say have a glass of wine at dinner, which was done in the Latin countries. In Italy we always had a glass of wine at dinner. It is a good thing. But if you have dozens of glasses of wine at dinner it is not so good. Paracelsius said that the difference between a good medicine and a poison is the dosage.
Ganga: There is a big resurgence of interest in shamanism as well as “plant teachers”. Do you think this is a good direction and what would you advise people?
Laura:I would advise them to study everything that they ingest. Study first of all their own organism and see what kind of reaction they might have. Some people just cannot take certain foods. That’s all. People are allergic. Some people are allergic to orange juice, can you imagine? Orange juice is very healthy isn’t it? Yet some people cannot drink it without having an allergic reaction. Also, who is the person giving it to you? With whom area you taking it? And where, and even why. It can be a tremendous gift but it also might be a dangerous gift.
Ganga: Like electricity.
Laura: Like electricity, exactly.
Ganga: How have psychedelics helped or harmed or influenced you?
Laura: I was deeply affected. They gave me a much wider view of the world, as well as a much wider view of our ignorance, and ignorance, according to the Buddha, is our basic difficulty. Psychedelics and the process of aging make that clear to me all the time.
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Check out this video about Aldous Huxley:
