Going from memory here, but didn’t the Fourth Circuit find Congress’ authority to regulate prison provisions could be upheld under Congress’s Spending Clause power? And didn’t the opinion focus on whether damages could be had against the state, and nix that idea under the Eleventh Amendment? Or am I misremembering?
That may have been my ex.
I’m also talking about the people who think atheism is worse than death; the sort of people who talk about how they’d prefer their own children die rather than become atheists.
No, you have it pretty much right, except that I wouldn’t say that the opinion focused on the damages issue. (It certainly was part of the holding, and the result was in favor of the state on that issue, as you say, but the remainder of the opinion favored the inmate, rejecting the state’s various Constitutional attacks on RLIUPA.)
So, as I read it (albeit quickly), the inmate may get an injunctive order allowing his religious practice under RLIUPA, but not damages. (At least in the Fourth Circuit)
I’m not looking to meet God. Although if I did, it wouldn’t be so bad. I just think it would be interesting. I suspect that once would be enough for me, I’m just curious.
Ahh, I missed your implication here. Congress cited the Commerce Clause andthe Spending Clause as alternative bases for its authority to enact RLUIPA.
Madison (the Fourth Circuit case) found it unnecessary to address the Commerce Clause issue, given its Spending Clause holding.
Other cases have addressed the Commerce Clause issue.
I question the validity of this statement. Most of the psilocybin I’ve seen is distributed in the form of dried mushrooms. The only exception is the fresh form found in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
I do agree with the “spiritual” feelings attributed to hallucinogens. I am though, “athier” than most.
Well, anecdotes are not data, etc, but recently I had an (entirely legal) experience with a powerful hallucinogenic drug, and literally overnight I went from being a completely nonspiritual atheist to being a very spiritual person who believes in a higher universal consciousness. This was about 4 months ago, I took it only once, and I had no previous experience with psychedelics. It was a major, major life-changing paradigm shift for me. I feel incredibly frustrated that these healing sacred instruments carry the same legal penalty as destructive, unenlightening, escapist substances like meth.
I will say however that not everyone responds the same to these substances. Some people get no sacred experience out of it, and some people get horrific experiences. I would like to see psychedelics down-scheduled so they could be prescribed by an MD, and administered by some sort of credentialed paraprofessional, likesay the psychological equivalent of a midwife, licensed to administer psychedelics in safe conditions with adequate medical support.
How exactly does this stuff differ in its effects from LSD?
I know next to nothing about mushrooms or LSD. But if there were a non toxic, non-addictive substance that allowed the brain to experience spiritual “senses” similar to what Persinger’s machine does, then I don’t think it’s the government’s business to interfere. Why should they? Why needlessly limit our brains from fully functioning?
Duration, for one thing. Typically a 3-4 hour trip, while LSD can last 6-10 hours or more and can make it extremely difficult to sleep afterward. I suspect the shorter duration makes it appealing as a therapeutic aid, and the fact that (judging from my own long past, youthful experience) psilocybin leaves no lingering residual effects or “hangover” when it wears off, unlike LSD.
There are some qualitative differences as well. I’ve heard many people describe the hallucinations and visual patterning of psilocybin to be more “organic” than those of LSD, but it’s a difficult concept to understand without firsthand experience. Nausea seems to be a more common side-effect with psilocybin, especially in higher doses.
I’ve experimented with both in the past, but not for many years. Although I enjoyed it, I’m not really interested in ever using LSD again. I probably would do mushrooms again, though, if a suitable opportunity presented itself.
Organized religion is more vulnerable to mysticism and personal revelation than it is to atheism. Organized religion depends on a series of revealed truths which it dispenses to the people in the form of a holy text or texts, and interpretations of said text. Mysticism allows people to find God on their own, dispensing with the middleman.
“The Holy book of Krang say we must slay the unbeliever.”
“Yeah, well, the thing is, I talked to Krang last night, and he’s actually pretty cool with the unbeliever not being slain. In fact he says you’re a pompous power-mad ass, and all we really have to do is be nice to each other.”
Do you just eat the mushroom, or boil it in a tea, or what?
Is the trip anything like Altered States? (Or was that peyote or mescaline?)
… actual tears of laughter… 
Eating is probably more common though some people prepare a tea.
Probably we shouldn’t diverge too far into the technicals as it is frowned upon here, but Erowid has a lot of information concerning what you’ve asked:
Hardly. It’s been a while since I saw the movie, but I recall the drug they portrayed being something like ayuhuasca—and their portrayal of the “trip” as something like a bad surrealist student film. At any rate, neither LSD nor psilocybin transforms the user into a mutant protohuman who changes color when he bangs his fist against the wall. (Or at least the stuff I got didn’t.)
Except possibly in very high doses, neither drug produces what I would call “true” open-eye hallucinations; i.e., seeing fully formed objects, people, places that aren’t there. Your perceptions are certainly distorted—colors and hues can shift and strobe, stable surfaces may give an illusion of movement, like walls or trees “breathing” in and out, and shadows flutter and sway, especially in the peripheral vision. Patterns, such as carpet, the woodgrain of a desk, or plaid fabric on a sofa, become fascinatingly, intensely intricate, as though you are seeing them for the first time. Depth and size perception can be profoundly affected, so that gazing down at your feet, you may sense that you’re hundreds of feet tall, then a moment later as though your face were inches from the floor.
In a high enough dose, mushrooms (and allegedly also LSD, although I never experienced it) can produce an effect referred to as “ego loss” or “ego death,” where reality essentially disintegrates along with the barrier between self and surroundings. Some people find this state useful and actively seek it out, but I found it to be quite terrifying on the one occasion when I, ignorant and inexperienced, took a large dose of mushrooms while alone.
If that was my introduction to a higher, universal consciousness, then that consciousness promises confusion, chaos, and abject terror, and is nothing I’m anxious to regroup with. But as with most thing spiritual, your mileage is likely to vary.
Don’t suppose you know of any drug that does?
[jefferson airplane]
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall . . .
[/ja]
If this were true (which I very highly doubt), it would be the first time that the drug war resulted in an upgrade rather than a rip-off.
I thought the same, as well. As it turned out, listening to the Art of Fugue can compensate for the lack of dosing.
Due to a technicality, these mushrooms have been legally available in the Netherlands for more than a decade now. And without giving any hints, among the scheduled substances, these are actually the easiest to procure in the US.
As for ayahuasca, the case will likely resolve in the favor of the government. Mostly because of drug prohibition being treated uncritically as a ‘compelling governmental interest’. I remember reading a summary alongwith excerpts from the UDV case, where I was distinctly surprised by a comment where the judges agreed with the government’s assessment that DMT (the active chemical in ayahuasca brew) was “exceptionally dangerous” despite no third-party scientific assessments. Never mind that the practice of ayahuasca as religious sacrament has been legal in Brazil since the late 80s; that there are about 10,000+ people in 3 organizations who consume the brew every other Saturday, and the scientific studies conducted on subjects among this cohort show no notable detrimental effects. This sort of a political-moral ethos which seems to pervade the judiciary as well doesn’t bode well for UDV in terms of the ultimate result.
You need to know the true way in order to recognize ‘shortcuts’. I just say, to each his own.
You misunderstand how these experiences are supposed to help. They alter your journey rather than deposit you to a destination.
Didn’t work here, sorry! Good fun though. ‘Profound’… check. ‘Religious’… er, no.
I wasn’t looking for god either. It is very interesting. I did psychedelics a number of times, though not as often as some of my peers.