Liza,

I'm not saying it's a useful practice, you'd have to ask the shamans and
reindeer.

Though I will say, peyote has supposedly been very succesful in helping native
americans overcome addiction, and the terminally ill to come to grips with
their death.  Remember, it's best not to judge anything, and let each
individual find out what's good and what's not good at each moment in life.

It's not our place to judge whether 'natural' intoxication is 'bad' or 'good',
'healthy' or 'unhealthy'.  Thought, in my experience, sobriety is the greatest
high!

It seems as animals and humans have always freely enjoyed intoxicants, it
might be 'unnatural' to resist them, or 'unnatural' to judge them, or
'unnatural' to NEVER have them, though I never have them and it doesn't seem
to hurt me, from what I can tell.  The only thing that would hurt me is if I
judged others, or intoxicants as exclusively bad.  That would be to close my
mind to possibility, and THAT would be self-defeating.

The truth is drugs are fun, even though they are psychoactive and some are
harmful to the body.  And again, from what I've read, animals seem to enjoy
them as much as humans.

The truth is ALSO that LIFE is FUN and Sober Reality is Great, problem is a
lot of people who eat healthy diets aren't sober because they're still
dissociating from aspects of reality or they're addicted to other things.  For
many, attaining sobriety is not an easy process, and for them, life may not be
fun.

From personal experience I can say my past use of intoxicants enriched my life
immensely, and then I found them counter-productive and damaging, and then I
became aware of the downsides, and now I just love reality!!!!

About the reindeer...

I read it in a book on the historical worldwide use of drugs and other
intoxicants. It seemed like a VERY thorougly researched book by an expert on
the subject.  It seems many shamans around the world use hallucinogenic plants
ritually which often contain the same serotonin mimicking chemicals.   They
have many of the same experiences and rituals regardless of their culture.
They use them for the same purpose.  They have great respect for the plants as
teachers of knowledge and it doesn't seem to cause them any problems.  They
learn through the experiences provided them by the plant.  They don't take
them just to 'get high and party'.  They seem to be in harmony with nature and
to have a profound respect for all life and to be interested in healing.
Siberian tribal shaman seem to participate in these activities.  People
suspect the shamans learned about the mushrooms and urine drinking from the
reindeer who have also been observed to eat these mushrooms.

Unfortunately, I do not know the name of that book, but it was on the shelf in
a Barnes and Noble in Atlanta, GA.  Next to some books on primates.  It was
interesting.   As with anything we read, it can be incomplete, or untrue, or
biased.

I also took a course in college on drugs and behavior and our book detailed
many accounts of wild animals eating fermented fruits, and even donkeys or
burros eating hallucinogenic cacti.  (peyote is not the only variety).  I do
not have that book at the moment, it's on loan to a friend (years gone by).
It was called, Drugs - Use and Misuse (or something like that).

From what 'I've read', it seems many animals 'enjoy' psychoactive substances
or intoxicants, both in the wild and in the lab.  Thus, we can say it is
natural.  Animals also fall off of cliffs, get into fights, etc.  All natural
behavior is not beneficial, but then, who knows what an animal might learn
from such an experience...

Or, what perspective it might give them on reality.

Or what unhealthy behavior might play in weeding out the weak.

I gained a profound appreciation for reality, sobriety, and life that I had
lost since childhood the first time I 'shroomed'.  It also restored a
sensitivity and appreciation for color I had lost since childhood.  It
reconnected me with feelings and memories long lost, and it restored my
ability to cry, and feel love, which had long since been lost.  After many
years I finally broke down and cried and felt the grief I couldn't feel when
my dog died as a child.  That first night I shroomed began a process of
opening to life for me for which I shall eternally be grateful.  I think,
everyone or almost everyone  I know who's taken hallucinogens says it was an
amazing experience they were glad to have done, and many feel everyone should
do it at least once.  It awakens something, or reconnects people with
something long since lost.

Going raw did the same thing for me.

I think hallucinogens may temporarily give one an experience of life that true
health would provide (at least that is what has been happening to me), as well
as giving them hallucinations, visions, and other 'side-effects' that might
not be so good.  I think people's normal experience of reality is so dampened
and skewed that drugs are a way to access what should be normal states, even
though it means paying a price.

I should note:

Hallucinogens can also be dangerous psychologically, so I do not recommend
their use.  They can be completely ungrounding, and I've met people who seemed
to have been permanently damaged by their use, including one fellow who's
voice changed from normal to a higher pitched weird sound.  Not good.  He was
doing sheets of acid over a long-period of time.  One friend had frightening
experiences when taking large doses of mushrooms (which are sometimes laced
with LSD).   And I have known or heard about people who used them to escape
reality, and they appear to have succeeded!!

Anyway, eating a psychoactive wild plant may be quite different than consuming
man-made chemicals.  And doing it ritually with certain intentions may be
different than taking it to escape.

I took mushrooms to learn what I could learn from them, and they always left
me with a nice feeling, and LSD seemed to have what I can only describe as an
'evil' side, a 'dark' side.   I took LSD at a psychologically fragile time,
and I was trying to find a way to re-learn how to handle reality.  Ultimately,
even my bad experiences led to my recovery.  I have no regrets, and wouldn't
change a thing about my past, it being a part of what made me who I love
today.  So, I do not wish to judge anyone else who chooses to use intoxicants,
and I cannot judge them as bad.

Animals and humans have always given themselves the freedom to induldge and
enjoy intoxicants.  However, I want to end by saying, I have found sober
experience of reality to be my greatest teacher.

Hope that's what you wanted to know, and more...;)

Aaron