Let me disclaim that I'm by no means an alcoholic!  As I've spent this last month immersed in learning and implementing the LOA, I went out for happy-hour last Thursday with some friends and had a few more drinks than I usually do.  Fortunately, I'm a very happy and loving drunk.  I make friends very fast while under the influence.  Is the LOA working while I'm happily inebriated?

This started out as a very humorous thought for me, but now I seriously want to know what the people here think.

Cheers, peace and blessings,
Matt

Hey Matt,

Interesting topic because I too was pondering those exact same thoughts recently. I was apart of the Abraham Hicks online chat with Yahoo several years ago and I noticed that most or many of them "party" and seem to believe or feel that alcohol lowers their "resistance" quite literally. In other words if we are wound too tight, control freaks who can't seem to get out of our own way then a little alcohol is just the ticket.

On the other hand I just spoke with an A.A. person the other day who will swear that alcohol will just block any kind of relationship you may want to have/experience with God/higher power or whatever you want to call it....LOA.

For me.....I think that both apply. If that is possible. I would say that the LOA community would agree that it is all about feeling good.

For me, it only "feels good" to a degree. I feel better about myself and others ....when I and they are "straight" quite frankly. I don't mind having a drink or two.........but any more than that........and I ALWAYS feel BAD the next day. Sometimes stupid, forgetful etc.

My belief is and I would contend that once we are connected, I mean truly connected to our source energy we will be so damn "high" that no artificial means of drunkenness will be necessary. We won't need caffeine to get up and alcohol to numb us out and make us relax or "allow".

So again....my answer for myself is for now moderation and I see myself someday not desiring nor enjoying alcohol at all.

I see myself absolutely high on life!

I wonder if you asked Jerry and Esther and Bob and John etc what they would say their experience with alcohol is

Thanks for the thread

Jil

 

Matt, In my humble opinion the L.O.A. is at work at all times. What if you could get into that state of gregariousness without the alcohol. Would that be cool or what?Knowing that the universe will just give you more of that good feeling but in a way that might honor your body in a more positive way. Boy i can't wait to read the replies that are I know already on the way!

Right on Jil!!!!!

actually... i was just going to make a thread similar to this. i typed it all out but i couldnt bring myself to post it. i asked who has tried LSD?
I have done it twice, in addition to DMT and shrooms. the topic of my thread was what do people think of the connection between that and the universe. I ask because I find that people who have tripped are much more 'genuine' than others. i feel like when i talk to them they arent putting up fronts and they dont hide anything.
also, th feeling while on that is very simliar to what is described as nirvana or 'oneness'.. such as being connected with all things, time and space merging into one.. or past present and future all blending into one energetic mass.
im not condoning drugs at all, i was just curious what people thought of its significance. who knows it may be nothing at all, or maybe it can be something acknowledged.

Funny I was just thinking of this since last night.  My wife and I went for an awesome sunset walk along the bay where we live.  A friend drove by and I saw her but she didnt see us.  My wife then called her on her cell and she said wow I was just thinking of you two.  She wanted to meet us to have happy hour since it was friday and who needs to fight traffic.  She met us and we went to a couple of cool bar/restaurants.  The first place had amazing apetizers for cheap and drinks at half price.  But then we went by a more foofy bar and looked in thinking we were going to call it a night.  Our friend had never been in the place so she said lets go for one more drink/beer.  We agreed and found three seats waiting for us at a completely packed bar.  Our new bar neighbors ended up being exremely interesting and generous.  We ended up drinking alot more that the one beer and when it was time to pay our new friends insisted on paying.  It was alot of fun and we were in a groove that I have experienced many times before in this exact situation.  People like to hang with happy, fun, positive people.  They respond with friendship and generousity.  No question the alcohol plays a factor in loosening people up but when you are beaming big smiles and genuine excitement people often respond.  Anyway the bad part of my experience was that I felt a little woosy when I woke up and was a house potato the entire day.  The good news is I made 3 new friends and I have yet another experience that gives me a warm confidence that humanity is all right with me. 

Again Travis, I would say that LSD etc is only necessary to experience nirvana if one is not connected with their source in the first place. Nirvana....is our natural state of being...........we are just out of touch with it.

Jil

I think it depends on how you feel while you are drinking. If you feel great and relaxed then it would stand to reason that your resistance would be lowered.

Karen

Travis,

People around the world have used opiates since man had the fore thought to pull a weed or root out of the ground and use it to FEEL GOOD. In many Native American cultures these natural compounds where used in a ritural way to get connected to the Source, to be grounded or to have a vision dream, to see beyound. In modern time we have taken the ritural in lew of the habitual. Thus robbing the power of these wonder drugs to do good in our sociality. I think having a guilded vision trip in a sweat lodge with a medicine man would be a great way to expand one consciousness.

very true jil :]
i feel like it only made me more sensitive to 'the missing piece' .. and im so grateful i found it :) i looked for YEARS for it.. and then suddenly stumbled across LOA. awesome!

Sorry meant to say' taking out the ritual for the habitual'

I've experienced the vision "trip" in a sweat lodge on Pine Ridge Reservation a couple times with several different medicine men..........and never needed any opiates.

I much, much prefer it that way. What a trip indeed.

Oh and by the way...........I've tried LSD, Pot, cocaine, shrooms, PCP etc. etc. when I was oh so very young and silly. So I am not speaking without any experience or one who would "judge" such things.

Jil

Jil,

would you mind expanding on what your vision trip experience was like?

In a nut shell......knowing that I am in the womb of God. I mean it was the closest experience I have ever had....(that is why I did it over and over again and would still do it again if I knew of a medicine man that would allow the white man and woman in their sweat.) I lost touch with that group of people when I moved to Colorado and started a sweat there and then when I moved back....the same group was not available or around.

But being in a sweat ceremony brings me closer to God than anything else I have ever experienced and I do believe that we can re-create that for ourselves in our own little ways......like in wet sauna's using cedar and sage and sweet grass. They sing, they use the drums and chant. Of course the singing is in Lakota here so I learned the 4 directions song etc and I could sing it and I could tell you what it meant....but I did not speak their language. It makes you want to chant and dance. The peace and connectedness with others is amazing. They always pray for self and others. They always do give aways.

In that space....of oneness you create your vision or it comes to you. Just depends.

Some medicine men did not like us....white folks coming so they would make the sweat extra HOT! And I was a stubborn one. I would NOT let them sweat me out. I would stay........and go further and further inside myself....and it would not phase me. But I would have burnt ears the next day.

Ha!

Jil

WOOOoooowwww!!!!1

The Peyote Ceremonies are one of the most sacred ceremonies for the Native American people.  This ceremony is something that is not taken lightly due to the sacredness of it.  Please understand that the Native American people do not do this just to connect at a drop of the hat.  It is done maybe once or twice a year for those that participate in this ceremony and is treated with utmost sense of sacredness. 

Native American's do not use drugs on a regular basis for their connection to the Creator, and this is a common misconception as well as a copout to say so.  The thing that connects them to the Creator is non drug induced things like the Sweat Lodge, Vision Quests, and other ceremonies that are sacred to us.  The main thing is Mother Nature.  We can look at her and understand the greatness of the Great Mystery.

Once again, the use of Peyote in ceremony is only in certain tribes that use this practice, for the most part, Native American's do not use anything.  They go within.  And again, it is the most sacred of all ceremonies.  Please, do not connect us with this as a whim because you wish to get high.  You alone, are responsible for your journey in connecting with Creator Spirit and how you choose to do so.

I apoligize if this post is on the defensive side, but my people would not appreciate anyone labling them in this as a regular practice.

Thank you

Windwalker

Ok, one thing I wish to make clear as well....Since I have been the Lodge Master at many sweat lodges, I know from experience that lodges are not made extra hot because the lodge master doesn't like white people there.  If you were invited to a sweat lodge, then they were honoring YOU.  Lodge rocks get hot.  Sometimes the sweat is hotter than another, but this has nothing to do with whither a person is like or not liked.  The lodge is a sacred ceremony and there is no room for this sort of attitude when one participates in the lodge......especially as a lodge master.

You were honored in being invited to attend a sweat lodge and you, in my humble opinion should perhaps look at this experience with another mind set.  I am saddened by this thread but I had to speak forth.  I will say no more.

Windwalker

Abraham has some good info about the use of alcohol and drugs, but in a nutshell they say that people use them as a way to connect with source energy (feel good), which is basically what's been stated here already.  :-)

I've done drugs and drank a bit more than moderately at various points in my life, and yes, I would say that it made me feel good.  However, there were also negative side effects that I didn't care for, like sluggishness and foggy thoughts the next day.

What I've found now is that regular meditation gives me the same relaxed floaty feeling, without the negative side effects!  I just put on some soothing music, lie or sit on my bed, and flow with source energy for 20-30 minutes.  It recharges me like nothing else ever has.

I don't see anything wrong with going to happy hour and having fun with friends.  But I think if a person becomes dependent upon alchohol and drugs in order to connect with source, then they are limiting themselves in a sense. 

 

Great information!  Thank you.

I couldn't help but notice, and I'm not excluding myself, the abundance of "disclaimers" in the posts that imply "I don't drink very often, but this one time..."

Are we afraid of being judged here? or judged period? With all of the positive information, thoughts and exchanges on this post... is there still an underlying fear or worry of being judged?

I'm not trying to antagonize, it's just an observation.

Matt

Absolutely!

I do watch what I say here. Fear of being judged. I mean I said I felt that they were trying to weed out the white folk in a sweat...and I got a defensive response.

Is that what I intended? No. But none the less I offended someone. And I gotta tell you, I can go back to that day....and I guarentee that is how it felt to ALL of us (white folk) who were there. And I am the ONLY white person who remained in the lodge and it wasn't a sweat master it was an old, old Lakota medicine man leading the sweat.

Um..........this isn't my first rodeo.

I don't need to defend my experience nor my feelings.

Thanks for the thread none the less.

Jilli

What a great question.

I am going to investigate and report back.

I will start with wine and see if there is any difference.  I will compare my LOA abilities after having had red wine and then the next day I will do white wine.

I have to go.  I am going to begin my investigation now. 

:)~