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Skunkseedspaypal ition to the scholar of the fable, who wanted to know about the land of Muggles.*
It was clear that the mind could indeed function in non-ordinary ways, but beyond that fact things were
not so clear. Some "travelers" told consistent stories about some of the states of consciousness they had
experienced, and I could feel certain enough about them to plan "expeditions," research projects to
investigate some aspect of that state in detail. For other states, the tales were wild and improbable,
inconsistent, and clearly reflecting whatever ax the particular traveler had to grind.
The literature on marijuana was especially confusing. Even when it purported to be medical or
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On Being Stoned - Introduction
scientific literature, much of it was full of propaganda, pro or con. Lurid individual tales of marijuana
intoxication contradicted the laboratory studies of its effects. For reasons detailed in Chapter 2, the
individual anecdotes were often hopelessly confused by the personalities of the writers, and the
conditions of the laboratory studies were so unusual as to have no applicability to the ordinary use of
marijuana. How could I profitably explore particular features of this strange country of marijuana
intoxication when the overall map of the landscape was so confused and useless? I might expend great
effort on what was truly a trivial feature.
The study described in this book is an attempt to get an overall look at marijuana intoxication as it
occurs in the ordinary world (insofar as California and America represent the ordinary world!). What
happens to the minds of experienced users when they smoke marijuana? What do they experience? What
are the frequent and infrequent, important and unimportant experiences? How do they relate to how
"high" or "stoned" the user is? Are they affected by his overall drug experience his educational
background, etc.? Knowing these general effects—the overall lay of the land—then we can concentrate
our research efforts on the important aspects of marijuana intoxication.
The study that gathered this information is, as far as I know, unique in its approach. Staying with our
analogy, I treated experienced marijuana users as explorers of the marijuana state and then
systematically collected, compared, and analyzed their reports. Since it is an initial attempt at this sort of
thing, it can be done in an even better fashion a second time around, and, ordinarily, I would like to have
repeated the study with improvements before publishing this report.
But the times are not ordinary, and so I am publishing this without waiting for the replication that
would make the figures a little more precise and eliminate an occasional mistake in the effects of some
background factors. A certain amount of justifiable technical criticism will result and, hopefully, will
help myself or others to carry out an improved version of this study. Because the times are not ordinary,
however Skunkseedspaypal
ariables in affecting the nature of the intoxicated state: "Being with people who
are much higher than I am (as from their being on acid or much more stoned on grass) gets me higher even
though I don't smoke any more grass." This is a common effect (13%, 13%, 32%, 23%, 15%), which may
occur even at the lowest levels of intoxication (23%, 22%, 26%, 5%, 2%).
Related Phenomena
Other relevant phenomena for understanding social interaction are the loss of short-term memory, the feeling
that this does not seriously impair the user's ability to carry on an intelligent conversation, and the feeling of
having said things that were not actually said (discussed in Chapter 14), as well as various alterations in other
cognitive phenomena (discussed in Chapter 15).
NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIAL INTERACTION
There were four effects studied that seem predominantly negative.
The first of these is "I feel isolated from
things around me, as if there were some kind of barrier or glass wall between me and the world, muting
everything coming in and partially isolating me," a common effect (29%, 21%, 33%, 14%, 3%). The
Meditators experience this less often (p <.01, overall). It may occur at the Strong and Very Strong levels (4%,
11%, 22%, 21%, 9%).
Another infrequent effect is "I get somewhat paranoid about the people with me; I am suspicious about what
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On Being Stoned - Chapter 12
they're doing" (20%, 38%, 31%, 7%, 4%). Non-users of Psychedelics experience it more frequently (p <.
01).
This also may occur at the Strong and Very Strong levels (9%, 15%, 21%, 24%, 7%). The Meditators tend to
experience paranoid feelings at lower levels of intoxication (p <.05, overall).
What may be an even more extreme cutting-off from social relationships is the rare phenomenon, "Other
people seem dead, lifeless, as if they were robots, when I'm stoned" (49%, 27%, 18%, 5%, 0%). This Marijuana
buy cannabis seeds Marijuana effect
may begin occurring from the moderately intoxicated level on up in the users who could rate it (3%, 11%, 13%,
14%, 6%). Users of Psychedelics may experience it at lower levels (p <.05).
An infrequent negative effect of the group on the user is "I am very strongly influenced by the social
situation set up by my companions, so I will do whatever they are doing, even if it is something I don't want to
do or wouldn't do normally" (33%, 38%, 23%, 3%, 0%). This is reported as occurring more frequently by
Males (p <.05). Weekly users also have it occur more frequently than Occasional or Daily users (p < .05). In
retrospect, this question is hard to interpret, as it does not specify how undesirable the actions are that a group
might pressure the user into doing.
A highly relevant question, dealt with fully in Chapter 17, is "I lose control
of my actions and do antisocial things (actions that harm other people) that I wouldn't normally do." This is
one of the rarest phenomena reported, with 77 percent saying Never, 22 percent Rarely, and only one user
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