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oh you might also think about doing some Yage

Not a good idea, IMO. I think it like you to smoke

I was on the wagon for several years, and fell off when in Peru doing ceremonies.

If you've ever sat in a traditional ceremony, the curanderos smoke mapachos like a chimney, as do many of the participants...

Nothing goes a well with yage a tobacco. Hell, I know one violent non-smoker who wouldn't consider being in ceremony without cheek-smoking.

Cool. Bamboo or plastic?

You should have told her that you weren't carrying: you were just "really, really glad to see her!"

I had a ponytail for about nine years -- cut it off a few years ago. Honestly, I didn't notice anyone treating me any differently. Then again, I live in a pretty small town, and everyone basically knows everyone else, so they kind of know what to expect, regardless of hair length.  

It's a lot more comfortable without it, though!

it's legal to posses a ten day supply of any drug in Portugal..

Legal, or decriminalized? It's my understanding that they have undergone decriminalization there, but that's not quite the same thing as legalization.  

Roach, mescaline is a phenethylamine. Do you know how you would react to related compounds (such as amphetamine, MDMA, or the 2C's)?

In Peru you can legally participate in huachuma ceremonies, but that's not the same thing. I don't think you'll find anywhere where the purified substance is legal, as it's covered by the UN Psychotropic Convention, and most counties have agreed to be a party to it. And the ones that haven't... well, it would probably be a bad idea to take any drugs or medicines in those countries!

Yea, I'm not much of a drinker anymore and have no tolerance -- a glass of wine or a beer just makes me tired and cranky -- but in my youth when we used to drink to excess I never had any problem with tequila. I can remember splitting an entire bottle with a friend once, and truth be told I didn't even get that drunk.

Different forms of alcohol affect people differently. Yes, it's all ethanol in there, but I think the other things affect different people's metabolisms differently and effects, for example, the bioavailability of the ethanol.

I haven't blacked out since college, but if memory serves me when I did it was with things like sourmash (loved the George Dickel) or Southern Comfort (the thought of which today still makes me shudder!).

Right on Satori.

Before enlightenment- chop wood and carry water
After enlightenment-- chop wood and carry water

While I agree with what you're saying, you have to be really careful with this, lest it be a justification for stagnation, or at least inaction.

Along these lines, Lama Surya Das, a western teacher of dzogchen, cautions his students about a misinterpretation of the dzogchen teaching that "we're already enlightened, and there is nothing to do." Yes, he says, that may be true, but you have to be careful not to say it too soon. It's premature for (almost all of) us to say that there is nothing to do. From this side of whatever-it-is, it's an excuse. From the other side it is a statement of fact.  

So yes, after "enlightenment" you still chop wood and carry water, but that doesn't mean the experience or the meaning is the same as it previous was.

Speaking personally, I could very well have gone to my grave without having know that, without being unfulfilled in any way.

"I am a cool hero of self-mastery and a babe magnet."

Yes, but deep down, isn't that really what we all want? I mean, who wouldn't trade "enlightenment" for that?  

It has often consisted of little more than the idea that meditation leads to mystical experiences that will result in "enlightenment." But mystical states can be just another yuppie achievement in this context.

Yea, that's actually something that I've had to really work with, too. In my own meditation practice I have a tendency to view the state/experience as the end goal, and that's really kind of wrong-headed. The situation is actually probably exacerbated by my, er, "familiarity" with entheogens. Let's face it: with the entheogens you kind of have a faucet with states on demand, so it's hard not to see things in those terms.

I've been an on-and-off meditator for years, but it wasn't until I took up a pretty formal, daily practice that I really had to start dealing with these issues.

But I'm also actually on a bit of an entheogen hiatus at this point. I figure I've had access to pretty exhaled/transpersonal states for quite a while now through them, but to what end? How has it improved my life, made me better? I can't really answer those questions -- either positively of negatively -- but it has made me want to step back a little, take stock in things.  

His message to us is simple: "Grow up!" meaning grow though the stages of faith. That's where our spirituality should be focused—right thinking; right interpretation; right paradigm.

That's pretty much straight out of Buddhism: right view; right action; right effort (the three groups from the eightfold path).

The human perception of color might be a good place to start. Its my understanding that until fairly recent times, colors weren't generally given names for various shades recognized today. What changed?

Did the human eye rapidly evolve? I highly doubt it.

Did our perception evolve? Sounds more likely to me.

Many languages don't make a distinction between blue and green; they are seen as different shades of the same color, as opposed to distinct colors.

Our categories shape our perceptions, and our perceptions shape our categories. And these things do change over time.

Considering all the possible levels of consciousness, it looks like there are mysteries that can be unlocked by the individual through practices including but not limited to ingestion of an active sacrament. Anyway, if an individual is allowed (induced?) to examine his/her own consciousness while under the influence of an active sacrament in a group setting, isn't it possible that the collective community could also undergo further transformation while facilitating individual growth in a psychedelic state?

I don't know. It seems pretty clear that there are different stages of cultural development, and these stages tend to be ordered in time in fairly consistent ways. But I don't really know enough about psychology and metaphysics to have an opinion on the possibility of group-change. But it seems to me that the truth -- whatever it may be -- lies in the middle of the extremes. Aficionados of psychedelics seem to overstate their utility, whereas the opponents dismiss any value at all along these lines.

...it's not as if it is a new substance and I doubt that use of it is that high compared(or even on the rise) to other things, that and the fact that most people who try it generally only do so once or twice.

Those things may all be true, but they're more-or-less irrelevant to prohibitionists. I don't think you can be a prohibitionist if you have a solid grounding in facts.

Is an evolution of consciousness possible? (Or maybe an evolution of our perception of consciousness?) History has many examples of individuals reaching enlightenment, but what about groups of people?

I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand you have the data (presented by the likes of Wilber) that seems to suggest that large-scale structures in consciousness are subject to the same evolutionary pressures that other things are. And you have all the "claims" made by the many spiritual traditions.

On the other hand, all to often such thought seems to lead to large-scale abnegation of personal responsibility when it comes to one's own consciousness. No where it this more apparent than in the whole 2012 thing, where some people have substituted a calendar date for a Messiah and just expect consciousness to "evolve" through external forces unrelated to themselves. Seems really silly to me.

My guess is that there are cultural and societal evolutions taking place, but it's way to early to know if those evolutions would every reach to cover something like "enlightenment."

Salvia was outlawed where I live last summer -- although it could be worse, because plants are probably permissible (it has a "for human consumption" clause).

Increased regulation of the plant seems pretty inevitable. Hope Canada fares better.

Didn't see the movie, but the group in it -- Huun-Hurr-Tu -- gave a performance about a year ago at the college in my town. Great stuff! Orphan's Lament is always in rotation in my MP3 player.

My psychotria have handled the occasional light frost with no ill effect (but of course I move them inside before any hard frosts).

Thanks for the tip about D. pauciflora, which I will explore when I'm not rushing off to work.

Not much is known about it from what I can find, although it is reported (at least by Ott) to be an ayahuasca analog.

For what it's worth, my friend has bioassayed it and found it quite strong (but a disclaimer: this particular person is extremely sensitive to plants, unlike me who is something of a hard-head, so I have at times been unable to replicate his bioassays).