InPresence 0139: Alcohol

InPresence host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). For many years he served as president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people were supported and encouraged in developing inner intuitive abilities.

Here Jeff notes that he could divide his life into two phases: before and after psychedelics. Before psychedelics, growing up as a teenager in Wisconsin, he imbibed alcohol liberally. In Wisconsin, it was almost a patriotic duty to drink milk on weekdays -- and beer on weekends. He also notes that he has personally witnessed or known of many tragic circumstances resulting from alcohol use and abuse. He regards 12-step programs as a positive social contributing resulting from alcohol addiction.

(Recorded on July 27, 2018)

[RichHandsome]

This was my request, thank you Jeffery!!!

[knowyourlove]

I’m in my 40s. In my early 20s I was at a very fancy restaurant, I saw this older very rich woman push aside the bread and I got the sense she was slumming it at this restaurant. Then she said bread is slaves food. I always just found that really strange.
Eight years ago I stopped eating grains, within two months bizarre neurological conditions disappeared, I lost 25 pounds, and I started to wake up.
Today I do not eat grains, granulated sugar, or drink alcohol.
It’s not that I ever abuse these things, these things abuse my body, more specifically they somehow close off circuits in the brain. At least that’s my biology.

[cagedgreed]

"There's no i in denial." (One of the funniest jokes I've heard this month.)

[korpze]

Alcohol has been a major hindrance for my spiritual development. I always think I am going to go on some good adventure and remember the good times from the past. It has never worked, every single time. Like masturbation.

[Gen_Jutsu_Itachi]

Greetings Jeffery Mishlove. My name is Khalil Williams. I am a 21 year old male And student of philosophy and psychology. I have studied your work for about a year now as well as the works of Terence Mckenna Joe Rogan Jordan Peterson Timothy Leary and so on for many years. I started off as a fan of your old series in particular. In my opinion Your Interview with mckenna to this day stands head over shoulders of your many guest. and to my astonishment i was amazed to see that you were still at it. Keep up your good work. I plan on becoming a clinical psychologist who plans on making an impact on this entire planet mark my words. i just wanted to thank you personally for being one of many lights in my life. you are who you surround yourself with, and in this day and age with technology i find myself spending my time picking the minds of the great thinkers of and before my time learning and studying and i shall say that it has parlayed into my favor. a complete shift in my consciousness. Stay blessed

[catharinefinch]

All I can say is that just looking and listening to you with your healthy appearance and joyous outlook on life inspires me everyday! I drink way too much and am trying very hard to quit completely, thank you for being so honest! 😏

[marymayer]

OMG, I'm from MN and the number of 'Sconnie Runs" for beer when I was young were innumerable!

[KittyKate]

My father drank himself to death, as did many of his family members. Despite knowing the detrimental effects of alcohol abuse, and the genetic susceptibilities, I still partied hard as a teenager/college kid. Thankfully I have never experienced the addiction, and now I only drink occasionally on the weekends. Alcohol was a tool that enabled me to get past my terrible shyness and self-consciousness around others, and I have many fond memories of silly shenanigans while drunk with my friends. But the dark side has always been present in my mind.

[peggyharris]

My addiction: DARK CHOCOLATE. I am willing to breakout in hives and itch for 2 hours, for the the joy of chocolate. But, if it ever made me vomit, I would stop. And that's the reason I don't drink.
If I could have, I would have.
When the body disapproves, it can create incredible discomfort.

[lindaraereneau]

The thing is, once a person gets used to the highs experienced from meditation, it gets harder and harder to drink because drinking ruins the high. I am talking mainly about the natural meditative state, such as dzochen meditation, which is extremely simple, yet very difficult to do because it is so simple, and really easy. I have been a zen/dzochen meditator since 1969, and for the past 15 or so years, it has been incredible, and even though I like one or two beers on occasion, they are a very different high; alcohol takes one below thought, while meditation takes one above thought. The former is good for going unconscious and the latter for waking up. Either state can be just the thing at the time. Yet, more and more I choose the "waking up" state because it feels so good and is so exquisitely, intensely a "peaceful joy"---not like mania, yet intensely pleasurable, but at the same time not like a bliss ninny because one is deeply embodied. It is almost sad---alcohol for me, even a good wine, is just not what it used to be!

[AE-vurz]

Love your channel, thanks for sharing

[christofl]

I abused alcohol when I was in my teens and twenties but rarely ever drink now and never get drunk in my 40's.

[silexvi]

It seems that people drink a lot almost everywhere, but I grew up and now live again in the east coast of Canada, a region with a big Celtic - Scottish and Irish - influence, and despite my last name I'm mostly Irish in heritage. Drinking is popular here, to put it mildly.
I took a long break from marijuana, but not from alcohol. In my life I have experienced quite different drinking cultures. I lived for six years in Germany, having followed a lovely lady there, where I studied and taught English. It was fascinating and refreshing to experience the much more liberal attitude to alcohol there, like two business men in suits sitting at lunch on a bench in a park, sipping their big cans of beer. Coming back to work after having had a few glasses of wine or beer was an absolute non-issue - the idea being, just don't drink so much that it is impairing your work. And the drift of that I think sums up my feeling about it. There are many people who drink, or even drink heavily, who get by in their lives just fine, because they are maintaining their focus, attending to what really matters - love, development of their craft, putting integrity into practice; they simply do not allow alcohol to get in the way of that. Doubtless James Joyce drank so much that it probably led to a prematurely early death, but he certainly 'could handle his liquor'.
There is a notion that culturally used to be more front of mind it seems to me - 'self-possession'. You could compare it with 'mindfulness', but I would argue that, more than just a passive awareness, it entails inwardly focusing on one's faculty of discernment, or on the faculty of clear focus itself, which has the effect of enhancing that focus - that direction I would say is akin to the tantric practice of 'turning poison into elixir'. It can be extraordinarily fascinating to deliberately regain precise clarity with an inner act while 'rather inebriated'. But, and there are always buts, there then arises the dilemma of not being limited by the potentially sloppy physical and social effects of drinking which otherwise may slow you down in terms of intake, and also of being an example to others who don't have the same capacity. I suppose that leads back to the general notion of 'responsible drinking'; examining what it is for you, and taking the initiative in deciding how to approach it responsibly.
Just as a further anecdote, when I taught English in Germany I would bring in interesting articles to read and discuss with my advanced students. I discovered a Scientific American article on the history of alcohol in Europe. Amusingly, the conclusion was that, because the water was so untrustworthy, most of European history was drunk... Everyone, including children, would drink water mixed with wine or other alcohol, that being on top of the general habit of just drinking for the sake of it. Seems to explain a lot doesn't it?!

[peggyharris]

Are some addictions more righteous than others? Eric Clapton said in an interview that "sugar was the gateway drug to cocaine." He was deadly serious.
The negative health implications from obesity are as serious as alcoholism.
Is it only when others can see that you have a problem, that the addiction is labeled as such.
I am guilty of thinking about this too much. The End.

[AnthrYrslf]

My sister, last nite, DUI, and with her children. 2 charges now

[sharryhope]

I would be interested in listening to you interview researchers who have studied the effects of meditation or guided imagery on people with drug or alcohol addiction.
Thank you for your interest and honest presentations in these and other areas.

[Flanalb]

Where I came from (at the same time as you, Jeff), only the bad boys went on beer busts. Of course, my family were practically Puritans, so that judgment was probably way right of center. Even though my grandparents came from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, I don't think they got up to all that in the early 1900's. It has to be one of the greatest tragedies to bring up a child to the age of eighteen and have him kill himself in a new car on graduation night. It happened every year in our town in southern New Mexico.
My friend Richard Howard, PhD. (formerly of Univ. of Nottingham) has studied the effects of teenage drinking on the development of anti-social behaviors. He has strong evidence that early alcohol use increases the likelihood of later violent criminality by a significant amount. Also, a high tolerance for an intoxicant tends to make one more susceptible to using larger quantities more frequently, given an enabling social context.
Twelve-step programs have been touted as the only really successful means to counter the effects of a variety of addictive behaviors. David R. Hawkins, M.D. (who apparently knew Bill W. personally) used to say that AA was at a consciousness level of unconditional love. That was higher on his consciousness scale than scientific geniuses like Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton. It takes more than genius to solve the problem of addiction (and I don't think AA can do it for everyone, either).

[sarahhoward]

I have been a full fledged alcoholic since about age 15 at least. Only then I was a needle junkie addicted to morphine and the fifth or two of whiskey a day seemed irrelevant. I didn't eat and it gave me ulcers. Anyway I'm not a junkie anymore (psychedelics helped me overcome the depression that caused that). I still drink beer and will occasionally have a shot. Now to the interesting part. I have been drinking alone for the better part of the last 5 years, but my mom has just opened a night club and I have been learning to bartend. I look at these plastered people losing their car keys and IDs, while I'm straight and sober of course, and think, wow, who would want to be like these superficial oversexed apes? It is driving a wedge of Wisconsin cheese right between myself and alcohol. I can't believe I ever acted like that. I have not seen it kill as many people as I have seen opiates kill. It is tragic when it does happen. For a perfect picture of what alcohol does, read the chapter "The Drunkards Den", a colorful picture from the mind of John Uri Lloyd in his book entitled Etidorpha. Wonderful book by my favorite pharmaceutical chemist. He was obviously influenced by psychedelics as well. There are towering mushroom forests and useless seers. Thanks for sharing your story Jeffrey, there's mine. Would love to meet you.

[shmnpiot]

I have partied hard with Bacchus. Rites of passage in the U.K for many a community.
Deep down I always preferred a good up in smoke. My attention now is completely elsewhere.

[LilyRoseMyrtleAndMarigold]

What are the psychic/paranormal effects of alcohol compared to pot, lsd, etc? I think alcohol may be opening ppl up to negative forces which can cause them to become aggressive, violent and self-destructive. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you.