Last month, Canada became the first first-world country to fully legalize cannabis for recreational use. The impact of this legislation has been huge, with many more people than anticipated attempting to get their hands on the now-legal drug, leaving suppliers without nearly enough stock to meet demands and forcing some stores to have to close their doors.

Needless to say, weed is pretty popular among Canadians.

Even though there are still many questions and concerns surrounding the legalization of this drug, as a Canadian and occasional pot smoker myself, I think the government made a smart decision that will benefit the economy and many individuals in numerous ways.

Cannabis has for too long been villainized and degraded in the eyes of authority, deemed taboo to an extent that it did not deserve. Like many mind-bending substances, cannabis has for too long been ostracized from popular discourses—in the name of political correctness, it had become one of those things that we just don’t talk about.

For too long, cannabis has been associated primarily with the stereotype of the stoner slouched in front of the TV, covered in pizza grease and Cheeto dust, watching cartoons. And while there is perhaps some truth to this stereotype (it’s one I myself indulge in every now and then), there is a lot more to pot than this, and I’m hopeful that the recent legalization of the substance will open up space for more discussions surrounding its potential uses and benefits.

While we all know by now about the numerous medical uses of cannabis, what I’m primarily interested in here is the ways in which it may act as a catalyst for self-development and spiritual growth. As a self-proclaimed psychonaut, and someone with a personal and academic interest in entheogens (basically chemical substances that promote religious experiences and insights), I believe that marijuana has the potential to be an exceptionally potent tool for personal and spiritual exploration and discovery… if we let it. And now that legalization has made discussions surrounding this particular drug more acceptable, I am hopeful that more people will have the chance to recognize this under-developed aspect of it.

Cannabis, like many psychedelics, is by no means a recent player in the field of religion and spirituality. Since antiquity, marijuana has played a role in sacred traditions and practices across cultures, with evidence of its use documented in various religious texts. In Taoism, cannabis was included in ritual incense burners, where it was used to return to a non-ego-driven state of mind, and to communicate with spirits. In Hinduism, the Vedas named cannabis (known as bhang) as one of the five most sacred plants, especially loved by Shiva, and considered to be a source of joy and liberation. In Buddhism, marijuana was considered to be helpful on the path to enlightenment, and even in the Old Testament of the Bible, the plant has been associated with an ingredient used in God’s Holy Anointing Oil made by Moses.

Interestingly, leading scholar on the ancient history of cannabis Chris Bennett has also written extensively on the connection between cannabis use and the practice of occult magick throughout history, particularly in 10th-19th century Europe. For instance, many 16th century grimoires provide instructions for using cannabis in mirror scrying, a practice that remained popular in the occult until the 19th century. Additionally, marijuana was used in alchemy, certain initiation rituals, and other forms of divination, such as communicating with spirits that appeared in smoke clouds.

Cannabis evidently has a long history of religious, spiritual, and magickal use—a history that is often ignored or intentionally swept under the rug because of its taboo status. Drugs today are equated with shame, guilt, and deviance, and are therefore often left out of the stories we tell about those that came before us, ultimately distorting our understanding of the historical past, particularly when it comes to religion and ritual.

But, when we move away from this version of history that is constructed to reflect what society wants us to believe about the past, and instead start to look at the facts, we can see that cannabis has been spiritually meaningful to many cultures throughout time, and is worth taking seriously today as a potentially transformative tool.

So, in order to contribute to the expanding discourse on cannabis, I’ve complied here some of my own thoughts on its spiritual and personal benefits. Keep in mind however that this is based largely on my own experiences with the drug, and therefore will not be helpful or meaningful to everyone. Experiences with cannabis vary widely from person to person—not everyone will get the same thing out of using it

Moreover, there are many people for whom using the drug isn’t a good idea at all, for whatever reason. This post isn’t about encouraging people to smoke weed—rather, it’s simply about contributing to the discussion and exploring the plant’s potential spiritual dimensions. I would never be so presumptuous as to tell people what drugs they should or shouldn’t do—that’s the kind of choice only you can make for yourself.

Also, even though this post is largely about the positive aspects that can come through using cannabis, I also know all too well that there can be just as many negatives involved in its use. Even though weed isn’t physically addictive, it sure as hell can be highly mentally addictive, and can cause serious problems if used too much, particularly for young adults.

There was a good year of my life where I was basically perpetually baked, smoking from when I got up in the morning to when I went to bed at night. And even though a lot of personal insight and creativity came out of that period of my life, my grades also plummeted, my friendships suffered, and my ambition faded, lost in the haze of smoke constantly surrounding me. I was living an intoxicant-fueled lifestyle that was not at all sustainable, and inevitably I crashed and burned. After that, I took a two year break from pot, and when I finally came back to it, I had to learn how to use it in moderation.

When it comes to cannabis (and really any mind-altering substance), what you get out of it depends heavily on how you use it and why you’re using it. If you smoke a bowl only to kick back and switch on Netflix, you’re probably not going to get much personal growth or spiritual development out of it. Same goes for if you’re a habitual user, where being stoned is merely a part of your daily routine—it probably won’t be overly effective as a tool for transformation. And that’s perfectly fine, if that’s not something you’re going for. Obviously, this isn’t something everyone wants to get out of their high—some people use marijuana so that they can turn off, tune out, and drop out. But if personal or spiritual development is something that you want to explore with cannabis use, then the context in which you use it is extremely important.

Personally, I agree with Terrence McKenna, one of the most insightful (and entertaining) psychonauts of our time, when he said that the best way to use cannabis is to smoke a decent amount no more than once a week, preferably alone in a dark room, and to simply sit with the experience and see what comes to you. As he puts it: “you will absolutely every time be torn to pieces by it” …which sounds unpleasant and even scary, but sometimes that is exactly what we need.

So, with that in mind, here’s four of the key reasons why I believe cannabis can be a potent tool for psychological and spiritual development.

  1. Cannabis opens the doors of perception

Even though Aldous Huxley was writing about his experiences on mescaline when he wrote his famous book The Doors of Perception, cannabis also has mild psychedelic properties that allow for minor versions of some of the shifts in perception that occur when under the influence of more potent hallucinogens. It allows us to see the world in different ways, often making the familiar seem strange, and causing us to question things that we may otherwise take for granted.

This could mean giving you a new perspective on something that’s been troubling you, such as a challenge that you’ve come up against in your personal life, or an ongoing issue in a relationship. Smoking weed can help you see things in a new light, pulling us out of old patterns of thought, and allowing us to come at things from a new angle, which can prove integral to our development.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is—Infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Moreover, as the poet and great mystic William Blake pointed out, when we open these doors of perception, we learn to see things as they are, rather than as we’ve been taught to see them. Ultimately, the truth that is revealed here is that all things are one—all things are infinite. Though there are many different keys to these doors of perception that can be found in a variety of places and through a variety of experiences, I believe (like Huxley) that particular psychoactive substances can certainly provide one such key.

On a less poetic, more scientific level, cannabis is known to enhance neural activity in the frontal cortex, where the THC allows for new neural pathways to be created that did not previously exist, thus allowing the user to make new connections and to develop novel (and often insightful) thoughts. From this, new perspectives emerge, allowing us to see the world in a different way, which can be important for personal or spiritual realizations.

 

  1. Cannabis may increase creativity

This heightened ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts that THC allows for may also play an important role in creativity, as it encourages more “out of the box” kind of thinking. Though studies directly linking cannabis to creativity have been debated, for many of us, smoking weed helps us escape the rigid structure of everyday linear thought patterns, and expands the mind in unexpected ways.

So, perhaps when partaking in cannabis smoking next time, you may want to try putting pen or paint to paper, and seeing what comes of it. I always have my sketchbook and journal with me whenever I smoke these days, because I never know what might need to be expressed. But if writing or visual art aren’t your kind of thing, know that creativity doesn’t stop there. I have friends that are computer science wizards, who like nothing better than to smoke a bowl and sit down to write line after line of coding, because that’s how the creative spark manifests for them. Whatever your mode of expression, cannabis may serve to break down constraints we place on our everyday thought processes, and allow that spark to flow more freely through us.

Of course, sometimes what results may be pure gibberish, or just plain ridiculous, but sometimes we may discover a bit of genius in the madness, and end up creating something highly meaningful, perhaps even spiritually profound. Sometimes the best art isn’t the best because It’s necessarily objectively “good” or aesthetically pleasing, but because of what it teaches us about the world and about ourselves. And I believe that when coupled with creative expression, cannabis has a lot to teach us.

 

  1. Cannabis can help you get to know yourself better

Bob Marley once said “when you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.” And honestly, I couldn’t agree more. One of the most profound effects I’ve found with cannabis is that it allows me to see myself in a different way—shifting my perspective so that it’s like I’m really meeting myself for the first time. It’s given me profound insight into many of my personal issues, such as helping me understand my anxiety on a deeper level, or helping me sort out confused emotions regarding a floundering relationship.

Moreover, now that I’ve really taken the plunge into shadow work, I’ve found cannabis to be particularly helpful. The psychological state that the drug produces is often likened to the dream state, and connected to the unconscious mind. Scholars and recreational users of marijuana alike often agree that the separation between the conscious and the unconscious begins to dissolve when under the influence of the drug, placing users somewhere in between the two realms.

Since shadow work is all about tapping into the unconscious in order to discover that which the conscious mind has rejected and buried away, cannabis can be a powerful tool for this kind of self-realization. At times, it may even be too intense, for this drug, like other psychedelics, can be merciless. It may show you things you’re not ready to see, or take you places you’re not prepared to go—drawing you down deep into the shadowy depths of the mind. More than once its left me sobbing on the floor after raising a blackened mirror up to my face, forcing me to look at the twisted image reflected back at me.

So if you do decide to use cannabis in shadow work, just be sure to proceed with a measure of caution, and only if you feel ready to accept what it may have to offer.

 

  1. Cannabis can promote spiritual/transpersonal experience

In addition to proving useful in shadow work, the increased connection between the conscious and unconscious mind that marijuana promotes can be a powerful catalyst for religious and transpersonal experience, particularly when used within a ritual context. If smoking the herb allows us to break free of linear everyday thought processes, and increases connectivity between seemingly unrelated concepts and things, then it makes sense that it would be helpful in dissolving the boundaries of the ego, helping us connect with that which is beyond the self.

As a pantheist, the most profound kind of spiritual experience for me is attaining a sense of cosmic oneness—that feeling that everything is intimately connected as integral parts of the same whole. In order to reach that kind of state, the rational, everyday mind that constantly separates and categorizes everything must be momentarily silenced, allowing for another kind of thinking to take hold—a kind of thinking that originates within the body, emotion, and the soul.

Much of the ritual process is geared towards tapping into this way of thinking, which can be considered an “altered” state in its own right. Meditation, rhythmic drumming, dancing, chanting—all of these practices are used in ritual to promote altered states of consciousness that quiet the rational mind and allow for a profound sense of interconnectivity with that which is outside of the ego, potentially sparking intense spiritual experiences.

Cannabis, like drumming and chanting and whatever else, can be one such catalyst for these experiences. While some people frown on the idea of using substances to chemically induce spiritual experiences, I personally don’t see any significant difference between using drugs and using something like drumming to produce particular mental and embodied states. Either way, there are changes happening within the body and brain as a response to the stimuli. Both are acting as tools or catalysts, regardless of how “natural” or “unnatural” they may seem.

That being said, everyone conducts ritual differently, and everyone has different ways of attaining a spiritual state of mind. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another—it’s about figuring out what works best for you. Personally I find a combination of music, dancing, and smoking a small amount of cannabis works particularly well in some contexts, but even then it depends on what the purpose and general feel of the ritual is. I also understand that for many people, this method wouldn’t work at all.

Additionally, keep in mind that although cannabis does have the potential to contribute positively to spiritual and personal growth for some people, negative effects have also been linked with regular marijuana use  as well. Some studies have shown for instance that heavy usage may change areas of the brain, altering pleasure receptors, affecting memory, and potentially decreasing one’s ability to recognize and process emotions.

Again, effects from the use of marijuana will vary from person to person, and you often can’t know what it will do to you until you’ve tried it.

However, with this recent legalization in Canada, I’m sure that we’ll see many more studies coming out over the course of the next few years that will help us develop a clearer idea of what cannabis really does to the brain and body, which may in turn help more people decide whether its something they want to partake in or not.

As for whether you want to include it in your spiritual practice or make it a part of your personal development journey, that’s something only you can decide. Either way, I hope this article has helped lessen some of the taboo surrounding marijuana use, and has shown that it is a substance to be taken seriously—not only medically, but spiritually as well.