Herb is the healing
By: Kaz Mojica
Tags: Psychedelics, Limiting Beliefs, Mindset, Cannabis

Disclaimer: Cannabis and psychedelics are illegal in many countries. I am not a doctor and none of my articles are ever an endorsement to take any illegal substance. Substances don’t have the same effect on everyone, so it is up to you to do your own research and take responsibility for whatever decision you make.

I spent 9 years in the Australian Defence Force, and I used to be very anti-mind altering substances….except alcohol. Alcohol was completely fine. I had no problems getting wasted and turning into an angry, obnoxious, abusive woman. That was completely acceptable. But cannabis…hell no!

Ernell (my husband) used to try to tell me that cannabis healed cancer…and I had no dramas shutting him down and calling him out for saying something so ridiculous. I was heavily opinionated about the topic, yet I had tried it no more than 3 times (almost every time I was already heavily intoxicated), and had never read a single piece of research on the plant. But there was no way my hubby could be right and I could be wrong. Never! I must’ve been extremely desperate to be willing to try cannabis back in 2016.

When someone is anti-cannabis, they have their reasons. There are two reasons that I have come across the most. The first reason people are anti-cannabis is because they know someone who is a heavy cannabis consumer and just can’t seem to get their shit together. That scares people and they blame the plant.

People who struggle to get their shit together, have very negative beliefs about themselves and their life. How do I know this? Because I’ve been there. I had extremely negative patterns of thought about myself. I still have them, just not to the extent that I did. But it’s not the plant that causes this, it’s an individual person’s mindset and perception. Cannabis can be a tool to improve both, if you’re open to learning. It provides you with a very broad and open perspective about yourself and others. Cannabis can help you experience positive emotions such as compassion, understanding, and appreciation (don’t get me started on the emotions experienced during sex when combined with cannabis…ok I’ll just mention one…BLISS). It can help you process pain if you are willing to confront those parts of your life which are causing you pain. When cannabis is used as part of an integrative approach to personal development and growth (incorporating other mindset tools, or other strategies to improve well-being (including sex hehe), cannabis can be so beneficial.

The second common argument I’ve heard is because people believe cannabis is a gateway “drug” to the more hardcore stuff. I actually agree with that statement. And I can categorically tell you that cannabis was definitely a gateway for me…into psychedelics. And I am so appreciative that cannabis led me to psychedelics because they have some unbelievable healing power.

In those first 12 months of incorporating cannabis into my life, I was consuming as much research as I could about the plant, both as a participant in my own study (haha… I was definitely the guinea pig, but let’s be honest, there is NO better way to learn than through experience) and I was reading as much as I could about cannabis. When you spend so much time researching cannabis, there is no doubt that you will come across talk of psychedelics.

I was a highly anxious person and it takes a lot of trust to “let go” when it comes to mind altering substances. You have to relinquish control. And anxiety and control go hand in hand. Anxious people are fearful, and we do what we can to control situations. Cannabis helped me to practice letting go of control and learning to trust. Cannabis WAS my preparation for a psychedelic experience. I still get very apprehensive before a psychedelic experience… really apprehensive. I still find “letting go” difficult.

Before I finish this post, I just want to clear a few things up. The first one is about alcohol. I’m not anti alcohol, even though the title of the blog post suggests otherwise. I think moderation is the key, (ex binge drinker here!)— I loved getting wasted but it didn’t agree with me. It brought out my toxic masculinity and I became obnoxious and aggressive.

The next one is about cannabis being a gateway drug. If people are in so much pain that they are doing anything they can to escape, avoid or suppress the pain, yes I agree that cannabis can be a gateway to dangerous substances. But is preventing the legalisation of cannabis the solution to the problem when cannabis can be so beneficial for well-being (I think the list of ailments, illnesses and conditions that can be treated with cannabis is up to 700)?

I think it could be more helpful if we had more conversations and awareness around trauma, and how much our thoughts and beliefs about our self affect our behaviour (both positively and negatively). Let’s have conversations on ways to help those with limiting beliefs from staying stuck. Trauma doesn’t have to be extensive to have long term effects on people. If you are interested in learning more about the effects of trauma, Gabor Mate is an expert on addiction. You can read more about him here: https://drgabormate.com/topic/addiction/.