Stephen Gray - Cannabis and Spirituality: An Explorer’s Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally

Cannabis
and
Spirituality

WARNING: Reading this book will forever change your opinion of cannabis and your relationship with it. Like too many of us, I had underrated cannabiss spiritual effectiveness. No more! This wonderful, often lyrical, immensely practical book introduces you to its diverse spiritual uses, contemporary practices, and the possible results when you honor and respect the plant, the plants spirit, and yourself.

JAMES FADIMAN, PH.D., MICRODOSE RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR OF THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPLORERS GUIDE

Humans have fashioned a relationship with cannabis for many thousands of years, whether medical, recreational, or addictive. This volume offers a succinct yet broad survey of a fascinating aspect of that relationship, peoples eternal quest for transcendence.

GABOR MAT, M.D., AUTHOR OF IN THE REALM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS

Marijuana has undergone a mass resurgence in the past decade, as legal restrictions are relaxed and the plants medical benefits are demonstrated. This book provides a deeper context, examining cannabiss value for spiritual exploration and creativity. I hope it inspires a new consciousness in how we approach and make use of it.

DANIEL PINCHBECK, AUTHOR OF BREAKING OPEN THE HEAD

Inspirational, informational, and insightful, Cannabis and Spirituality more than accomplishes its mission of helping cannabis take its rightful place as one of our wisest and most honored plant spirit allies.

ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE, AUTHOR OF THE CANNABIS KITCHEN COOKBOOK

Gray offers a cogent case for cannabis as a spirit medicine and provides food for thought, perhaps best considered over a bhang lassi or a pipe of good hashish.

CHRIS KILHAM, MEDICINE HUNTER AND AUTHOR OF THE AYAHUASCA TEST PILOTS HANDBOOK AND THE FIVE TIBETANS

With a stellar cast of expert contributors, Cannabis and Spirituality is a page-turning anthology of beautifully written essays, overflowing with fascinating historical facts, rare botanical knowledge, and sacred shamanic wisdom about everyones favorite herbal ally.

DAVID JAY BROWN, AUTHOR OF DREAMING WIDE AWAKE

This book provides readers with an empowering approach to healing themselves and their relationship with the greater web of life by describing ethnobotanical, spiritual, and medical uses of this important plant.

ERICA L. WOHLDMANN, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

By describing cannabiss entheogenic uses in Cannabis and Spirituality, Gray and his coauthors establish cannabiss important role in the Entheogen Reformationreligions current movementfrom being based on sacred words and texts to being based on personal spiritual experience.

THOMAS B. ROBERTS, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE PSYCHEDELIC FUTURE OF THE MIND

At its bottom line, this book embodies a highly passionate cognitive liberty/religious freedom perspective that will be persuasive, even to nonusers of cannabisor nonbelievers. This is an informative, compelling, timely volume.

NEAL M. GOLDSMITH, PH.D., AUTHOR OF PSYCHEDELIC HEALING

Cannabis has a long history as a sacrament used to mediate our relationship with the sacred. This book reminds us of this great power plant and how best to take advantage of it!

JASON SILVA, EMMY-NOMINATED HOST OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS HIT TV SERIES BRAIN GAMES

The ideas explored in this book are an important step forward in our societies evolving understanding of currently illegal drugs.

MARK HADEN, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF POPULATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH AND CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHEDELIC STUDIES CANADA

Acknowledgments

THIS PROJECT EVOLVED almost of its own accord. Pieces fell into place with relative ease at the right time. I like to think it has been supported all along by an unseen vision to reclaim and rehonor the sacred cannabis plant.

Im very grateful to the seventeen contributors to the book, who accepted my invitation readily and who have been easy to work with throughout. With respect for all of the contributors, one among them deserves special gratitude. As we sat in my parked car in the Vancouver rain in October 2012, I told Kathleen Harrison I was contemplating the creation of this book but remained somewhat tentative about it. She said that would be an important book and she would contribute a chapter. That was the turning point. Many thanks for that and your ongoing support for the project, Kat.

In a more general sense, much gratitude and respect is due the many people who have worked as advocates and activists on behalf of the legal and cultural recognition of cannabis. Some of the leading figures in that work are contributors to this book and some of them have paid heavy prices for their courage and commitment. Their efforts have helped create fertile ground for this timely message.

Inner Traditions/Bear & Company is a remarkable publishing company, supporting much of the best literature in the field of entheogens. Everyone Ive encountered there has been gracious and supportive. In particular I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to acquisitions editor Jon Graham for his immediate recognition of the timely importance of this subject matter. Patricia Rydle, assistant to the editor in chief, and Jennie Marx, project editor, were warm, helpful, and prompt throughout the process, as were Erica Robinson, Nicki Champion, Manzanita Carpenter Sanz, and Kelly Bowen. Many thanks also to those in production, publicity/marketing, and all the other departments that worked so diligently to bring this book to the public.

Along with the gratitude I have for many friends, colleagues, and teachers past and present, two in particular stand out. One is my wife, Diane, who has graciously ridden along throughout this sometimes incomprehensible project while always doing more than her share to keep our home an oasis of peace and sanity. The other is Jim Fadiman, another Inner Traditions/Bear & Company author, whose repeated encouragements have given me confidence and heart.

Foreword

Julie A. Holland, M.D.

IT IS MY HONOR to be writing the foreword for this much-needed book on cannabis and spirituality. I must admit, Im thrilled that so much attention has been paid lately to the therapeutic effects of medicinal cannabis, whether to kill cancer cells or treat post-traumatic stress disorder. And Im encouraged by the inroads made by drug policy reform toward ending mass incarceration and implementing harm-reduction strategies. Its all great progress and we should be proud. But theres been a dearth of discussion about all that cannabis can do for us spiritually: to feed our souls, to transcend and connect on a higher plane.

Until now.

Author, editor, entheogen-related event organizer, and workshop leader Stephen Gray has compiled a robust roster of writers who will introduce you to the spiritual use of cannabis across cultures and eras, worldwide. From the sadhus of India to the Rastafarians of Jamaica, the ritual use of this ancient plant is a keystone in the archway of enlightenment for many indigenous tribes and collectives.

Coevolving on this Earth with us for millennia, cannabis is one of our planets most magical gifts, a medicine for body and soul. Its no wonder that so many religions have chosen to make it central to their dogma. Like music or math, its a universal language.