Deepak Chopradelivers an excellent lecture, elegantly touching on topics like theoretical physics, neuroscience, and Buddhist meditation. He goes on to explain how these have all contributed to a new science of consciousness.
Chopra spends the second half answering questions on diverse issues like love, healthcare, dreaming, the joys of music, business philosophy, and his experience with LSD, plus more. The whole video is a little over an hour, but it is chockful of good information and definitely worth checking out. To see Chopra so lucidly integrate such a vast scope of knowledge is truly an incredible experience.
“Thomas Szasz (born April 15, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary) is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a prominent figure in the antipsychiatry movement, a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism, a term first used by social scientists Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek. He is well known for his books, The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement (1970) which set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.”
Personal notes:
I first read Thomas Szasz in an article of his on the libertarian blog LewRockwell.com. I seriously could not believe what I was reading; every one of his ideas resonated a truth I had always known, but simply never heard spoken to me before. I immediately went to my local library, picked up the book “The Myth of Mental Illness” (1960), and began reading it.
Szasz, although a psychiatrist, had a disdain for the growing spirit of his own profession. He saw the term “mental illness” being used as a political tool, a way to stigmatize others and inhibit their freedoms: a truth that has probably existed ever since the birth of human thought. In 1973, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year.
You can read more of my thoughts on this subject in the article, “Mental Health, Brain Science, and Habits Of Living.”
Some great Thomas Szasz quotes:
“It is easier to do one’s duty to others than to one’s self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish. ”
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”
“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.”
“If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”
For many of us who already understand the unintended consequences of the “War On Drugs” this video covers most of the main arguments; however, it puts it in a way that I think almost any rational thinking person could understand.
At the very least those who are still for the WODs must acknowledge that it hasn’t come without its fair share of consequences. In fact, it would be hard to prove that the WODs has been working at all. It certainly hasn’t succeeded in deterring others from experimenting with drugs and, if anything, it has only added more dangers to society by creating a black market and an environment susceptible to gangs, violence, and other criminal behavior.
One could of course make an argument for WOD reform, but it isn’t nearly as compelling as the argument to just get rid of prohibition entirely. America’s past history with alcohol prohibition is the best example anyone will ever need that drug prohibition simply doesn’t work: it doesn’t make people safer, and it doesn’t get people to make healthier decisions.
We are going to need to change our approach if we have any desire to build a better society.
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“Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisers for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University’s Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a non-profit institution supporting Visionary Culture in New York City.”
This is the third time within the last couple of weeks that Judge Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” has covered the War On Drugs, and its utter failure as a government motive to protect its citizens from substance abuse. Even though I already reported on one of these segments at Legalize It? Director of NORML on Marijuana Prohibition, because this is a topic I find very interesting, I decided to report on this latest update as well.
Jacob Hornberger, the founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation , a non-profit libertarian educational facility, says Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman predicted the failure of the War On Drugs back in the 1970s, back when then-President Richard Nixon first defined the movement. Since then, Hornberger argues, the WOD has proved itself to be a failed war. He claims the best way to fix this mess is to do the same thing we did with alcohol prohibition – end it!
Napolitano agrees with Hornberger; he believes the War On Drugs is unconstitutional, a waste of time, and a waste of the American people’s money and resources. As a result of some of these laws, innocent people’s lives have been ruined by the hands of the state.
NAPOLITANO: Is it controversial for people in the public eye to come out in favor of the legalization of the private use of recreational drugs?
HORNBERGER: Well when I was bringing this up 20 years ago on radio talk shows I could light up the phone calls. People were just shocked at the possibility that drugs could be legalized. Twenty years later it is now a legitimate position…What do the drug warriors have left? All they have is their good intentions, and that is not enough. They have made the situation worse.
According to Hornberger it is not uncommon today to see police officers, federal judges, prosecutors, and lawyers against the War On Drugs.
HORNBERGER: We have argued for 30 years now, Judge, that the free market would put these drug dealers and drug cartels out of business instantaneously. And the article to which you are referring, where the private sector is having these marijuana farms, is proving that. These cartels are having a difficult time competing against these legitimate marijuana farms. Which leads us to believe that if you legalize the whole market, [then] these drug gangs and cartels would go out of business overnight.
According to this CNN poll conducted earlier this year 95% were in favor of marijuana legalization.
Is it time politicians start listening to the American people? Can we ever return to a society that respects the individual’s freedom to choose his own pursuit of happiness, as long as it does not undermine the liberties of another? What is stopping legislators from legalizing drugs like marijuana and regulating it similarly to how we regulate alcohol? Over the last decade I have noticed a surge in people speaking up on this issue – hopefully we can come to our senses sooner rather than later. America, let your voice be heard!