A Commentary about the Effects of Alcohol
By Stephen Cocconi
It seems as if it is one more of the many humorous associations from the TAO, planted here as subtle “accidental” word play, that we humans (in English anyway) term both the vibration of living energy -Spirit, with that of those alcoholic distillations, brews, and fermentation, people have also come to call “spirits.” I love such cosmic innuendo as a back door to consider the implications of how each may alter our consciousness.
Alcohol, of any type and any name, releases behavioral inhibitions, depresses senses and motor functions, and accesses deep emotions otherwise suppressed, positive as well as the negative. Those effects happen at the level of Personality, not the Essence; but it is the Ego that deceives itself into reducing alcohol use of a drink as a mere “choice.” It is a choice but the series of consequences which follow are seldom deliberate outcomes. Many cannot open verbally or emotionally until they have diluted conscious fears leading to reverie and what some call courage. Humans have elevated the so-called “craft” of making alcoholic beverages into large scale industries, diluting the effects by socially framing their manufacture and praising what is termed, taste. But it is the effects of alcohol which is what people are seeking, not the flavor of the concoction itself. For no child and no mammal readily likes the taste of alcohol; it is inherently a toxin. That is why it is an ‘acquired taste.’
But it is also a drug. A euphoria producing relaxant which liberates a brain from the stresses present in daily regimentation of tasks, livelihood, child rearing or boredom. The chemistry of alcohol is well known as a depressant, but it doesn’t usually cause sadness, or any emotion for that matter. It is just the elixir which lowers the draw bridge to let whatever has been held within one’s emotional walls to come out! Happening alongside that process is the lowering of one’s psychic defenses, as well. Thus, while emotions may be flooding out for release, other energies can go marching in; opening the way for a Trojan horse to enter the city.
Not to be confused with religious “possession” almost everyone alive who has imbibed to the point of inebriation can remember themselves waking up from a nights antics and thinking “what did I do last night?” Especially if you were in a strange place, bed or position on the floor. Or their friends calling them up the next day and teasing them, “who did you turn into after a few drinks?” In a broad sense, the amnesia preventing your recall may simply be explained that it wasn’t you! Well, at least not the conscious daily ego-managed personality which presents ‘appropriate’ sides of itself to selected audiences it interacts with. Rather, they are the deeper subconscious aspects, often wounded, and suppressed parts of Self which appear when defenses are down. Those injured, flawed, or shamed aspects put out a scent, almost like a psychic pheromone, which signals non-physical spirits that an unsuspecting host is available to latch onto and have that person do the bidding of an outside spirit form. It will use your insecurities, body, and your capacities to its own ends. Comedian Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine used to say “the devil made me do it.” Not really the devil, but one’s own personal demons activated and directed by, in some cases, quite playful and endearing imps, while others may have beings of dark intent glom onto the darkness within you. Its mission: make you express that which you have suppressed! While your conscious personality may not have wanted such an invasion, your unconscious, even the Essence itself, may have schemed you into the circumstances for you to confront the consequences of your behavior – entering you into a Karmic scenario.
Let’s not paint alcohol as the sole villain here. It is an effective solvent and fuel…for machines. But it bears reminding that like any useful chemical substance with specific purposes it can be misused and abused with others. It is also one of those substances people employ to numb themselves, escape from themselves, and then vent with the convenient and often ego-indulged excuse, “well, I was drunk.” That very opening sets up a neon sign in the aura that broadcasts the message “welcome to my psyche, anything goes.” When people substitute medication for meditation, it drives the desire for an escape outlet of an inebriant even more ruthlessly, regardless of kind. All drugs, whether ‘natural substances’ as marijuana smokers might claim, or pharmaceutical as those hooked on painkillers plaintively defend; they all vibrationally alter one’s state of consciousness. They cause one to open, if more cautiously phrased make one susceptible to, a wide variety of non-standard experiences – those which happen to you and those that originate within your psyche. Thus one is exposed to the multidimensional nature of the universe, and many of the creatures that coexist within it.
The metaphysical properties of alcohol make the aura thinner. Holes are often rent in the energy field of an alcoholic, but it can happen anytime someone consumes amounts that dull the brain. And not all alcoholics are falling-down-drunks, either. For example, Essence used alcohol ‘successfully’ with such writers as Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Earnest Hemingway to wring out some of their most powerful works. President Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill freely plied themselves with alcohol daily; and more so in social interactions to make negotiations ‘smoother’, and themselves bolstered, in the face of critical decisions. But these are exceptions, not the rule of most users. Yet, they paid a price too. The effects upon their physical and emotional health are well document in biographies for reading.
Karmas, great and small, have been facilitated by Essence’s use of altered consciousness. Many a baby was conceived in an out-of-wedlock tryst all lubricated by alcohol. The karmic paths of those who suffered being ‘bastard children’ have produced great artists, horrible or tragic persons, but also heroes who rebounded from those hardships. But again, they are the exceptions, not the rule. In these examples is a lesson about control, discipline, and consequences. The results of actions taken while intoxicated may actually have, in the long run, some strategic karmic importance that might not be clear for years, or perhaps lifetimes, to come.
Let us not forget the less overwhelming alterations of consciousness that arise from substances like: sugar, food or the additives in them, caffeine in coffee or soda – let alone the increase of carbon dioxide from carbonated soda, nor the antidepressant effects that tobacco smokers receive when inhaling nicotine. Everyone is free to choose the ingestion of these items, but no one controls the chemical effects upon them. And though the effects tend to be more subtle, less obvious to witnesses, and don’t tend to invite unwanted visitations of unruly outside forces, the underlying cravings and augmentations to your behavior are still self-karmic and alter your perception.
Remember one rule that is in effect on the Physical Plane, while intoxicated you might not be in control of outcomes, but you are still responsible for them! Therein lays a simple definition of Karma. No matter what your behavior under various levels of intoxication, the results are still yours to be accountable for. So if we have one suggestion here it is simply this: choose wisely. Think before you drink.
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