Say What, Man?

The contemporary German author and philosopher, Philipp Hübl, writes, "We can smoke a joint and simply enjoy it, or additionally ask ourselves whether we are narrowing or expanding our consciousness in this way, and what is meant by it at all."

I suppose it depends on whether we have enquiring minds. I don't mind confessing at this late date that I used to occasionally smoke weed in my twenties and, as far as I can remember, I simply enjoyed feeling spaced out and giggly. My consciousness (if you could call it that) narrowed to enjoying the sensations of the here and now, rather than pondering the answers to the ultimate questions of Life, the Universe and Everything. (42, of course)

But I understand that other, stronger drugs, which I never tried, did have the effect of expanding the consciousness - such as LSD. But the dangers of experimentation had been well drilled into me and I never smoked or took any of them.

These days, I neither drink nor smoke. My one remaining vice is vaping. Which is not to say there are no opportunities to narrow or expand my consciousness. On the contrary, they are there for the taking, whenever I choose to live mindfully, concentrating on the present moment - now, and now and now. Or whenever I choose to think deeply about important questions - social, political, cultural, spiritual. No drugs required.

Sometimes it can be tempting to simply enjoy the moment, and to ignore what is going on in the world around us. The news rarely seems to be good and it can often feel overwhelming - we (or at least I) start to feel that there is nothing I can do about (whatever the latest catastrophe is), so why bother?

But I believe that kind of thinking is fatal - we cannot afford to ignore what is happening under our noses. We have a duty to respond as compassionately as we feel able. I think it is no accident that the words "conscience" and "consciousness" come from the same root. When we become aware of something bad happening in the world, our conscience is awakened and it is up to us to do what we can, where we are, to alleviate the situation. Or at the very least, not make it worse by doing nothing. 

In his wonderful book, The Screwtape Letters, the senior devil, Screwtape, tells his apprentice, Wormwood: "Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them."

I believe that this is the most dangerous state of all - to become so apathetic that we cannot be bothered about anything. We owe ourselves, we owe the world around us, more than that.