Myths of the World: a Thematic Encyclopedia by Michael Jordan

Myths of the World by Michael Jordan was disarming, if only because it made me recall a nerdy youth, when I took to bed ill for the sheer luxury of reading encyclopedias. I like books I don’t necessarily have to read back to back, start to finish. Here, I could crawl under the blanket and learn more about the Ganesh statue a friend blessed me with, or read the important highlights of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Myths of the World: a Thematic Encyclopedia groups global stories, as the title states, in themes. It makes for fascinating reading in clusters, comparing lore of different cultures, on the big questions of humanity like love, apocalypse, childhood, morality, and creation.

While it certainly is not exhaustive, this nifty collection of stories does span diverse continent, and does not get stuck in that proverbial pit where the fascinating Greco-Roman mythology is the only interesting kind, so we do actually encounter a whole world. Spanning Japan, Polynesia, early America, Nordic, Celtic, African, Siberian, and more.

Blessedly, the writing never gets that cheesy new-agey lilt to it, and sounds pragmatically and curiously anthropological, without sternly erasing any enchanted beliefs we do have. And amazingly we find humour in all eras and places on earth. There’s even a myth from Siberia about The Diarrhea Man.

Myths of the World: A Thematic Encyclopedia by Michael Jordan,
Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, England, 1993

Lorette C. Luzajic
www.thegirlcanwrite.net
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Monkeys on Crack: Exploring Dr. Siegel’s Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances

It’s no secret that I’ve always been fascinated by the spell of magic plants and potions, much to the chagrin of my more conservative family. I never viewed intoxication as a mindless, nihilist pursuit, though I respected its inherent dangers. I believed that the realm of the psychedelic was spiritual, not ungodly, and in days when I still possessed some impulsive bravado I had Free the Herb emblazoned on my right arm, complete with a marijuana leaf. I have to confess the damn tattoo is now a thorn in my side- while I still believe in anyone’s right to a plant that is absolutely medicinal, I don’t need to advertise it every time I want to wear something sleeveless. But there it is, a constant reminder of a belief system that I boldly assumed I’d always hold to. Certainly I reassessed my need for psychonautical exploration when things got out of hand, when some I loved lost their lives after an intense addiction to the cosmic pull of intoxication.

photo by Gonzalo Cardenas

Still, it was clear to me that millions of people use alcohol, marijuana, party drugs and unique shamanistic hallucinogens and seem to gain any number of insights, confidences, relaxations, or unforgettable experiences from their practice. I concluded that these substances are dangerous, but not illusory. We can get so wrapped up in a glimpse of Eden that we use it to drown real life rather than expand it. We can get addicted to something and not be able to leave it behind. There seemed to be right and wrong reasons to indulge an impulse, and it became true to me that clarity was precious and valuable. It’s clear that you can get lost along the way, and that balance is key. There’s also the fact that substances do not show you only heaven- I have seen heaven and hell, close up and extreme.

While I will always be furious that Marko seemingly chose spaced-out experience over a life with his family and friends, inwardly I knew it wasn’t that simple, and that if he had been able to change his mind, he would have left these things far behind. Regardless of his extremism, his drive to explore intoxication is no different from yours or mine. I was sure that humans had this drive, not for simplistic escape from reality, but for a deeper sense of reality. Glimpsing the divine must be part of our human nature, and getting too close might mean going all the way and not coming back. The divine is not always paradise, either, and looking for heaven might land you in hell.

Many sit in judgement of the addict or even the user, yet many users attribute their enjoyment of drugs to deep spiritual connection, not obliteration. How do we reconcile the obvious dangers of drugs with the equally obvious love that humans have for them? For we all do! It seems that alteration is a human experience we all clamour to take part in. Many cultures have religious intoxications, and they are correct in placing extreme caution and respect in these rituals. Responsible adults know a few drinks or something stronger can offer a wonderful intimate bond with others to mark special occasions. We instinctively use plants and fermented grains to relax or to combat illness. Legal drugs are under fire for their equally dangerous effects, but we call them medicine because many of them have extraordinarily healing properties, for the mind and body. Drugs are a part of human culture. I have always believed that our drive for them is God-given, but possible consequences are the temptation to lose sight of moderation and a refusal to accept a more ordinary or mundane time without them.

I was led to believe that the quest for drugs is natural and integral to our spiritual landscape because of the depth of the experiences. Sacred things must be handled with deep reverence or else they turn dangerous. I was also influenced to see them as natural because their use is not specific to humans, despite common sense that animals don’t smoke or take drugs.

They actually do. Everyone knows about catnip. Most of us know that koala bears eat eucalyptus to get high. We’ve all heard stories about birds who gorge on fermented fruit and fly around knocking into things. We’ve seen pets get into people stuff and seem to enjoy the fruits of their discovery. We’ve heard the legend that goats led man to coffee, a national favourite. After observing the happier, friskier behaviour of goats that ate coffee beans, man decided to try them for himself.

I was not aware that these were not exceptions but the rule. Dr. Ronald K. Siegel, a pharmacologist and respected scientist who has spent his life observing humans and animals on drugs, found that every species of animals uses plants to get high, whenever intoxication is available to them! From insects to lizards to reindeer that love those red and white fairy tale mushrooms that may kill a human, Siegel found that animals love drugs as much as we do, and that like us, many overdose and die. He observed startling similarities in preferences- a specific plant may appease a small number of animals because it is local to them, but certain intoxicants are favourites across the board- guess which ones? Yep- alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, cocaine and opiates.

While animals who find themselves lucky enough to wander near some magic plants enjoy the intoxication, like humans, most will not get addicted or overdose (but some do). Over prolonged exposure, however, their behaviour will change and getting more of the drug becomes important to them. Eventually, it will be so important that they will neglect their responsibilities like childcare or undermine their health by choosing the drug over food and water. Synthesized or concentrated concoctions are the biggest problem, as is frequent access.

For example, no human or llama ever overdosed or lost his way chewing coca leaves- in fact, the small amount of the stimulant extracted in this method was beneficial to altitude sickness and highly nutritious. Llamas may have taught the Indians how to use the plant: natives mimicked the animals’ chewing patterns and found the backbone of South American tradition. But give animals cocaine- a universal favourite and highly addictive-and after repeated experiment, many animals and humans found it increasingly harder to live without, even as the initial effects of enjoyable stimulation turned into a nightmare of anxiety, mental anguish, and the discomfort of a racing heart, dry mouth, irritated nostrils, sleeplessness, irritability and violence. Animals will leave their babies and stop eating to continually get at cocaine. Rats are willing to push a reward lever 12 thousand times to get a single dose of the ‘reward’ and then they’ll do it again.

Siegel calls this natural inclination ‘the fourth drive’ and argues effectively in his marvelous tome Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind Altering Substances that food, water, sex and intoxication are natural, normal drives of all animals, including human ones. Even if this seems the stuff of fairy tales after everything we learned in health class and from Partnership for a Drug Free America ads on TV, his voluminous work is illuminating and indisputable. It’s not just one animal that has a peculiar penchant for drugs- any animal might like to get lucky and given the chance, will take it. For all our education we hear nothing about this. I believe that taking this information more seriously can better help us understand addiction, respect substances, and understand our drive toward them.

While his claims may seem outlandish, and I admit that I’ve read just about every book available about drugs and still found much of this news to me, you can’t dispute his studies even if you doubt his conclusions. Siegel observed animals like monkeys, ants, mongooses and reindeer in their natural habitats and also performed lengthy, elaborate laboratory experiments. Some of our history can be found here- to a great extent, we evolved by watching the trial and error of our animal friends and imitating them. We had to discover somewhere along the way which plants were poisonous and which were nutritious. Clearly, if an animal or human died after eating a plant, that was a sure sign to move onto another pasture. Intoxicating plants like coca, coffee, and fermenting fruits became a staple of cultures, part of their social, spiritual and economic history.

Siegel’s observations are extensive (and when I say extensive, I mean the scientist has logged thousands of hours of reading, world travel and first-hand observation, clinical experiments with humans, decades of hundreds of controlled animal experiments that were at turns fun and at turns torture or fatal for the animal, intimate observation of animals using drugs in natural settings around the world, and on and on. This is an enthusiastic specialist whose passion is to let us and our natural friends tell their stories about drugs, and document them.) All creatures have an innate instinct to alter the way they feel from time to time. Rather than this drive indicating an illness or weakness, this instinct is natural from insects to primates to human beings. It is not an aberration: it is the norm. It is also the norm to enjoy excursions in balance to life’s other pursuits and demands, but with unusual exposure and with unique chemical differences, our love of chemical soup can cause addiction and illness. The desire or use itself is not the illness. This pragmatic, earthy, well-documented perspective can only help us understand our own instincts and help people who have poisoned themselves. Because that’s what addiction and overdose is- the imbalanced chemistry we create by too much, different mixes, poorly calculated risks. Some plants are food, some are fun, some are both, and all have a threshold of safety. We are chemistry after all- the natural world is a pile of chemicals.

Siegel argues that much of history is humans versus plants- while nature lovers ramble on about the healing powers of vegetables and medicinal herbs, purporting plants to be miracles of nutrition and medicine, that’s only half the story, because the other half is poisonous. Nature is not always benevolent- though her dangers are equally integral to a full spirituality and remind us never to take anything for granted. For the gift of relief from everyday stresses, we must pay dearly with our liver or our loved ones. The only remedy is absolute respect. Most shamanic cultures treat intoxication as a rare, heavily contemplated ritual, for which they prepare at length with detoxifying plants, fortifying liquids, and they do not return to the ritual every night. Christ turned the water into wine: tellingly, it was his first miracle, and he believed there could be no real wedding celebration without wine. It’s doubtful he thought a nightly excursion to the bottle was of any spiritual benefit.

Impoverished workers found that chewing coca gave them both nutritional boosts and energy to toil, but modern respecters of the Mama Coca as they call her find it abhorrent that the strongest alkaloid has been raped from the plant and caused war and murder and suicide. This is where greed happens, and it also happens to the animals. Plants are chemicals, and we need chemicals, but balancing our chemical soup is exactly what mental and physical health is all about.

It’s reassuring for many of us, I’m sure, that use is the norm over abstinence or addiction. We can benefit from our newer understandings in many ways. This information can help us have compassion for loved ones who suffer the ravages of drugs. It provides comfort for anyone who has lost someone they loved to addiction- now we are better able to understand the mechanisms of our beloved’s descent. We are able to observe more objectively the ways we use various chemicals for our emotional needs, and how to better keep watch on what we are doing. A great deal of the “we’re all connected” sentiment that has commonly occurred in my personal experiments and recreations was confirmed loud and clear, but the more hellish struggles and experiences I no longer perceive as wasted time but as it’s own kind of natural time, one I may have more control over in the future because of my fresh understanding.

In a manner, these studies give some insight into how we can all step reverently and avoid catastrophe, use chemicals if we choose to rationally and minimally. Just knowing something of the lore of tobacco for example, its universal ancient use in religious ritual, and the animal kingdom’s affinity for it, made me understand why I spent years of my life chained to tobacco, a recurrent slavery. While this book is heavy handed science, I was able to derive an overwhelming sense of symbolism of this Fourth Drive and unlock a little bit the mysteries of my personal behaviour and the patterns of those I’ve loved (and lost).

As Siegel writes, “…We look at ourselves, and America itself, as the inheritors of this long natural tradition. The human pursuit of intoxication is motivated by a strong biological drive that pits individual needs against those of society. The struggle to satisfy our psychological and physical demand with drug supplies creates a neurochemical war within our brains…The lessons gleaned from the animals show how we can come to peace with this natural force through the education and technology that is our human distinction.”

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