“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Unless physical pain is involved, drugs should be avoided — particularly for those in depressive states.

(Long pause.) The so-called uppers soon require downers for mood regulation, and the mind ends up in a state of confusion, and often a stupor. Such drugs should also literally be considered dangerous for use in old-peoples’ homes, for those considered senile, or even demented. With some variation these drugs are actually sometimes given to overactive children, where their effects can be very unpredictable, and result in moods that encourage suicidal tendencies, even in those so young.

Many people who use drugs socially are playing a kind of psychological Russian roulette. Their feelings can run something like this: “If I’m meant to live, these drugs won’t hurt me, and if I’m meant to die, what difference does it make what I take?” They are taking a certain kind of chance with their own lives, however — those who indulge in such activities — and the stakes can be high.

It is true that some schools of knowledge almost glorify the use of some drugs as encouraging the expansion of consciousness and the release of repression. In some ancient cultures, drugs were indeed utilized in such a manner, but their use was well understood — and more importantly, their use was socially acceptable. Those societies were, however, highly ceremonial, and quite as stereotyped in their ways as your culture may seem to you.

(Very long pause at 3:14.) Doctors should be extremely cautious in the prescription of mind-altering drugs of any kind, and certainly not encourage their use for people in depressed states. Under drugs, choices become limited, and certainly people have committed suicide while under the influence of drugs — who may not have otherwise. I am not saying that drugs alone will cause suicide, but that the psychology of drugs already includes an attitude that promotes a Russian-roulette kind of mentality, that can only add to the problem.

People use drugs also in order to “let go.” It seems as if some drugs permit an individual to let down barriers of fears and repressions, and to emotionally transcend the problems of daily life. The fact is, however, that many such people use drugs instead as a kind of chemical blanket that has a tendency to smother rather than relieve.