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In This Issue

• The Monkey Election College
• The Goshen, CT County Fair
• Freak Babies: Gotta Catch 'Em All
• Interview with author Louis Silverstein
• Animals, Placentae and You
• Letters to the Feditor
• 114th Street Rat Rock Exploration
• Bodacious the Rebel Bull
• Fed Arts Review: Columbia Unbecoming
• Mary Had a Little Lamb... with Potatoes
• John Jay Pet Deathmatch
• A Letter to the Columbia Gospel Choir
• DARE: 8 Ways to Say No
• Ice Bitch Comic
• Guide to Naming Suburban Housing Developments
• THEY WATCH

Dr. Silverstein chillin' out

Louis Silverstein is Professor of Liberal Education at Columbia College Chicago, where he has taught courses on culture, society, education, and drugs. His new book, Deep Spirit & Great Heart: Living in the Marijuana Consciousness, available on Amazon, continues his lifelong interest in the effects of psychoactive drugs on personal and cultural psychology and experience.

FED: Could you summarize some of the major points of Deep Spirit & Great Heart?

SILVERSTEIN: The notion that it can be good to get high doesn't play very well these days. Neither does the idea that getting high can be good for you. The book's major theme is that marijuana is truly a gift from the gods and goddesses to humans, when this plant teacher and guide is used in a disciplined manner and afforded the respect it deserves. According to Hindu traditions, the god Shiva brought cannabis down from the mountain for human enjoyment and enlightenment.

Another purpose of the book is to enlarge public discourse on the subject of marijuana. Our officially sanctioned policy of "just say no or say nothing" serves not to prevent drug misuse, but rather to bar a necessary public dialogue, with all informed viewpoints welcome, including divergent and alternative perspectives. The goal of such a discussion would be the formulation of an effective, intelligent, humane, protective-of-civil liberties national policy on drugs.

FED: I assume that when you call marijuana "food of the gods", you are using that as a metaphor to describe the subjective experience of drug taking. As a writer, do you feel that that comparison offers the best way to describe your experiences?

SILVERSTEIN: I speak of the gods within us, in the sense of the title of the book. Deep Spirit refers to that within each of us that is sacred and universal, a state of grace to be achieved in everyday life. Great Heart refers that within each of us that is a source of compassion, joy, and love for all of creation, including oneself.

Marijuana journeys do speak to everyday human experience-one's relationship to self, to family, to work, to the earth and its life forms, to sexuality, to finding meaning in life, to death.

My book also defines god as a verb, not a noun. If god is love, then whenever one makes love, agape or eros, so be there god. If god stands for justice, then whenever one acts justly, so be there god. If god represents compassion, then wherever one practices compassion, so be there god.

FED: Your book is devoted to revealing marijuana as a drug that can bring spiritual transformation. In your opinion, how does marijuana compare to other drugs in this respect? Does alcohol have the same potential? Does LSD?

SILVERSTEIN: It is correct to say that my book is devoted to marijuana use an agent for spiritual transformation, but in the sense of taking spiritual experiences and turning them into a spiritual life, taking the experience of being high and turning that into living a high life. In essence, don't tell me about "spiritual transformation;" tell me about what you do each day in relation to yourself, others, the earth. Then ask yourself whether you've used marijuana or any other substance to elevate your spirituality.

As to how marijuana relates to other drugs, that is a different subject, and one I'd prefer not to go into at this time. "Coming out," so to say, in relation to marijuana has been quite a journey for me unto itself. What I will say is that drugs have always been associated with human populations and are here to stay, if only because the biological impulse to "get high" rivals the biological impulses for food, water and sex.

Also, in speaking about the "strength" of marijuana, we need to keep in mind that the marijuana experience is based on three factors: substance, or marijuana quality; setting, the social, cultural, and physical environment; and set, the psychological and spiritual makeup of the user.

FED: Are the benefits you see in marijuana use inherent to any use of the drug, or are they only felt by those users who commit to a certain relationship between their use and their life?

SILVERSTEIN: Yes, the higher and deeper benefits are inherent to the drug, in the same way that the benefits are inherent in the drug known as love. However, whether or not its potentialities for transformation and healing (physiological and psychological) are realized depends on the reaction between user and drug. Again, that's substance, setting, and set.

FED: Do you see your book, then, as a sort of "itinerary" for creating a mix of setting, substance, and set that are conducive to exploring the possibilities of marijuana?

SILVERSTEIN: It is both an itinerary as well as a beautiful description of marijuana as deep spirit and great heart.