All those other kids can go out and play.....

I am going to a work function this evening and will be one of the very few (2 of us) not taking advantage of a night out to get drunk. I wish there was only one person not having a drink and that it wasn't me either.

I have come to the conclusion that we human beings need to "let off some steam" or otherwise ingest a foreign substance that affects our consciousness once in a while.

I feel like I have been bouncing off the metaphorical walls for the past two weeks. It was all so easy before that. Ah, well I might fall off the wagon after easter.

I reckon we need to "get high" in some way or another. I do not have "religion" so that is out.
It was usually too many beer that had me speaking in tongues. As for anything else, well, I couldn't possibly comment. Though I do see the lancet has published a litle report on durgs (sic) with a harm table included. I see that alcohol and tobacco are included (at bleedin' last).

I had some real tobacco once, in south america. NO it wasn't marijuana it was honest to goodness tobacco. The wild uncultivated strain.

Oh, boy...... No one and I mean NO ONE would be on a pack a day if it was these leaves used to make the cigarrettes.

After two puffs on a pipe I was feeling rather strange indeed, my extremities had become numb. I felt a bit disconnected from my surroundings. I was as high as a bloody kite and no mistake. I asked if it was "just" tobacco and I was told, yes, just tobacco.

This ingestion of tobacco (I don't smoke) was a prelude to an ayahuasca ceremony. Two puffs of tobacco and I was really loaded. What was the ayahuasca gonna do?

I got scared. Not for long though.
I realised I had steel myself and not be afraid, ach who am I kidding.
I was crapping myself.

I was loaded to the gills and feeling a bit woohoo, a bit wahaaay and was about to drink a bitter liquid that would shift me sideways into another dimension.

Oh blimey.

I drank when the cup was passed to me and, in the vernacular, it was boggin'.

Not so much that I wanted to throw up though. Thankfully.

I had read about this stuff for years and was fully prepared for the voiding from both ends that was said to accompany it.

Within about.....heck , who knows, my perception had been bamboozled by that damn tobacco...things started to feel a little more odd. That was disconcerting in itself.

The cup got passed again 3 more times and at the third time it took real effort to drink it.
I and the people I was with were encouraged to lie back. The ayahuasca was working.
The curandero had been whistling softly for a while and then started to shake a handful of large leaves over us. A rustle more than a rattle, if you understand.

My my, this is taking me back...ah youth, where did you go?

To try and describe my experience after this would be akin to using the medium of flatulence to describe a goverment document. The lexicon of any spoken or written language is woefully inept to even begin trying to explain my experience.

Not something to be undertaken lightly, I reckon I'm due to do it again.

Maybe I'll just have a beer instead