Expert: AJ Fletcher - 11/21/2006

Question
hello again, thanks for your quick answer! how about if one tries the ecstasy pill only once.  would that harm them or their spirituality??  i heard you get depressed when it wears off but only for a little while cuz the endorphins were plenty then when it wears off you feel the contrast.  would one time of trying ecstasy be harmful for spiritual progress?  wut color would the aura be during the "e" trip??? thanks again
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi there!  I once heard that if someone does drugs from hash to the ecstasy pill (even if just once) their spiritual growth will start from zero once again.  What do you think of that?  Is it really that extreme?  I also heard that drugs cause yellow spots on one's aura.  please tell me whatever you know. thanks!
-----Answer-----
Drugs are an important part of the spirituality of many cultures. Drugs can help a lot with spiritual growth. They help to open up the collective consciousness and are really beneficial to spirituality for some people because they simulate a spiritual experience. However, drugs are merely a tool. At some point in your spiritual growth you won't need the drugs anymore.
Certain drugs do cause yellow spots on the aura. However, this is because the aura of hallucinogenic/psychotropic plants is yellow. Just like the aura of poisonous plants is pink and edible plants green or blue. The yellow spots fade as the intoxication fades. However, cocaine turns your aura black which makes it really absorbent. You don't want your aura to be absorbent around a bunch of people tweaked on cocaine. Opiates (heroin, morphine, opium, etc.) turn your aura a dark blue which often the colour of a sleeping person's aura. Marijuana/hashish turn your aura green which is good neutral colour for your aura to be.
Many spiritualities encourage use of drugs. Buddha used marijuana/hashish. Jesus likely experimented with magic mushrooms and peyote. Confucius and Lao Tzu likely used opium. Rastafarians use marijuana as a sacrament. Christians use alcohol as a sacrament. Many of the indigenous peoples in the Americas used peyote, magic mushrooms, datura, yage and tobacco as sacraments and tools. There is actually a few schools of thought that suggest that drugs are essential to spiritual growth (Terrance McKenna, Timothy Leary, etc.)
I think the best reference on the subject is Carlos Castaneda. He wrote ten books on his experiences as a apprentice to a shaman sorcerer in Mexico. In the first book his teacher gives him peyote, mushrooms and datura in separate incidences. A few books later, Carlos finds out that the drugs had been bad for his physical body. He asked his teacher why he had given him the drugs. The teacher told him that it was necessary to to show him that there was a spiritual world and different kinds of reality. After the second book there is no more usage of drugs.
Your spiritual growth can never go back to zero because we grow spiritually from experience (even if we are not trying to). Some drugs are dangerous and not good but a lot of them have some beautiful things to teach us.

Answer
Drugs cannot harm your spirituality if used responsibily and with respect. Using ecstacy once would not do your spirit any harm. It will do more harm to your physical body than your spirit. Some people get a little depressed coming down from ecstacy but that is usually only if the ecstacy they did was not very pure or they have been doing the drug consistently for many days in a row. Ecstacy should be used with marijuana. Marijuana helps ecstacy kick in and it helps make the come down not as bad.
Ecstacy opens up the collective consciousness. The colour of your aura during an ecstacy trip depends largely on what you experience during the trip. Usually though it is greens, oranges, yellows, sometimes purples. It also depends on the mixture of the ecstacy. Ecsatcy is MDMA. The 'MA' part stands for Meth Amphetamine (aka Crystal Meth). As MDMA is a stimulant, often people will make ecstacy cut with heroin or other opiates so that people can relax and enjoy the experience. MDA is another form of ecstacy known as 'natural   ecstacy' that comes from a certain kind grass. It is much less harmful to the body. If you want to experiemnt with ecstacy you should really try to find pure MDMA or MDA because a lot of ecstacy pills are cut with some pretty dirty things (ie. things you would have under your bathroom sink).
Most drugs however cannot harm your spirituality. If you got addicted to the drug perhaps it would harm your spirituality. I have seen people get addicted to drug like crack, cocaine, heroin and they definitely lose touch with their spirituality. However,if they manage to recover from the addiction, they usually find a renewed sense of spirituality.