spontaneous drug rant So, what do I think about drugs? Gads, why did I start writing this? Anyway... Drugs... Everything is a drug. Well.. everything is an influence. Drugs are just some particular classification of influence, and somewhat of a vague one at that. Everything is an influence! Drugs effect the physiochemistry of the person who takes them. Drugs have their own particular effects on the functioning of the nervous system. This is not only true of drugs. This is true of all influences that a human deals with. People have evolved to respond to certain drugs in certain ways. Evolved to have certain chemical reactions, often times resulting in certain physical or mental actions, as is the way the body naturally functions. Oxygen effects the physiochemistry of the person who breaths it. Oxygen has particular effects on the functioning of the nervous system. This is not only true of oxygen. This is true of all influences that a human deals with. People have evolved to respond to oxygen in certain ways. Evolved to have certain chemical reactions, often times resulting in certain physical or mental actions, as is the way the body naturally functions. Food effects the physiochemistry of the person... Sex effects the physiochemistry... Color, sound, pain, smell... Company, surroundings, sleep cycle, physical exertion... Book, CD, TV, concert, speech, trial... EVERYTHING Is An Influence! We breathe air and eat food and drink water to survive. These things effect our bodies and minds in such a way that they continue to function "normally". Change the food and we experience things differently. Try being enemic for a while, it's quite an experience. Change the oxygen intake; the body will function differently; the mind will act differently. We sleep. Sleep effects the way we function drasticly. We act very different depending on our duration of sleep, quality of sleep, time since sleep... We choose, after a fashion, to sleep the way we do and thus determine the way it will effect us. It plays as a very large factor in the way the body and mind function. Think about this, if you want total control of what influences your body and mind. We act! Everything we do effects us in one way or another. Hopefully, we are choosing what things we do; we are choosing what effects us and determining how we are effected. We learn! We attempt to choose what we want to influence our minds and, as a result, our general well being. Everything we read or watch or listen to, it all effects the way we exist. We take drugs! They make our bodies and minds work in ways that our bodies and minds have evolved to work under such influences. We get high, we relieve headaches, we feel good, we fight illness, we learn, we act, we exist! Drugs, taken consciously, are an influence to be considered alongside everything we do and experience. Food. Food is an influence. We eat some foods, we grow healthier. We eat some foods, we get sick. We eat some foods, we experience great pleasure. We eat and experience and eat and experience... We take some drugs, we grow healthier. We take some drugs, we get sick. We take some drugs, we experience great pleasure. Drugs.. experience.. drugs.. experience... I have hallucinated without being under the influence of "illegal drugs". I have hallucinated from lack of sleep; from the influence of some books; from the effects of being ill. Generally, lots of factors come in to play in causeing the body and mind to work in the particular way that is considered hallucinating. The body and mind are capable of existing in the most mindboggling numbers of configurations. They are chemically driven structures and different influences, chemical (including food and air) or otherwise, cause them to act in various natural ways. Some influences cause addrenaline to be released by the brain and this changes the state of the body and mind. These influences may be external stimullii, or they may be an injested or injected element with a particular chemical makeup, which needn't even be a "drug". Not being able to choose what we read, what we eat, what we feed our bodies and brains, is a form of slavery, oppression, and thought control. The way our minds function - what influences them - must be left up to the individual or there is no individual. If we cannot choose what we want to put into our own bodies and our minds - what makes us _US_ - then we are _SLAVES_! We must accept the responsibility of choosing for ourselves how we feed our own minds and not let anyone take away that freedom!