Alberta Police Can't Tell Ganja From Daisies

[alphacat]

Oopsy daisy

Test confirms plants seized from northside home were not marijuana



He doesn't blame police for thinking his daisies were pot, but he doesn't understand how they made that mistake.

Ryan Thomas Rockman said he's relieved but not surprised that Lethbridge police dropped one criminal charge against him after they found out that the plants they seized from his backyard garden three months ago weren't actually marijuana. Back in July, Lethbridge police accused Rockman of harbouring the biggest outdoor marijuana grow operation in the city's history, even though Rockman has repeatedly insisted all 1,624 plants seized were only Montauk daisies - a fall-blooming shrubby perennial that he's been growing for 10 years in his yard in the 900 block of 13 Street North.

"It made me look like a villain and it made them look silly," Rockman said Monday afternoon, explaining police had let him know earlier in the day that they would be dropping one of five charges against him.

"Everybody makes mistakes. I still scratch my head over how," he said. "It baffles me, to be honest. At the same time, I don't want to try to point the finger of blame at them either because they're still just trying to do their mandate and make it home every day," he added. Rockman also said he'd support relaxed laws on marijuana use so that police could spend their time on what he sees as more serious crime in the community.

"I just hate that the whole situation happened and I wish that it didn't happen and there's nothing I can really do to change that at this point. I don't really wish to fling mud at them either," he said of police. "They're in a situation every day in their job where they could potentially be risking their life or dealing with situations that other people don't want to deal with," he added. "The police do an important job in our community. Everybody is human."

Samples of the plants police had sent to a lab in B.C. tested negative for marijuana, so police have dropped the most serious charge against Rockman: producing a controlled substance, although the 41-year-old still faces charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, and possessing proceeds of crime in relation to 697 grams of dried marijuana, 6.3 grams of cannabis resin and some cash that police also allegedly seized during the investigation.

Rockman's lawyer, Art Larson, said he expected the dropped charge to help his client's case, but added Rockman's reputation was tarnished from the moment police put out a news release on July 31 declaring the bust the largest outdoor marijuana grow-op Lethbridge had ever seen. "I've never seen anything like this with such deliberate publicity," Larson said. "It's very disappointing that it was made such a big deal to the extent that his name gets blasted on the front page of the Lethbridge Herald with what turns out to be not marijuana."

The test results didn't confirm that the plants were daisies, only that they weren't drugs, said a spokesperson for the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), which investigated the case. "All we know at this time is that it's not marijuana," Jill Baird said. Because the remaining charges are still before Lethbridge Provincial Court, she declined to comment on whether the outcome of this case will change the way police investigate drug busts, but she said she's never heard of this kind of mix-up happening before. "I can't recall this happening in the past, at least not here at ALERT," she said.

On July 30, Lethbridge regional police knocked on Rockman's door to check on a court-imposed curfew for one of his relatives, who wasn't there. Instead, police found Rockman had, admittedly, been smoking marijuana, which led them to a search of his property, where they ripped out the plants. Brent Allen Oczko, 43, was also charged with one count of possession during the raid.

[nowaysj]

You'd think that they'd show the officers like a photo of a pot plant before they EXECUTE THE LARGEST OUTDOOR GROWOP BUST IN ALL TIME.

==

Drug test to receive public assistance... IQ test to serve on the police force? Seems balanced.

[volcanogeorge]

maybe if police got high more they'd know what a marijuana looks like yeh

[wormcode]

A waste of money & time x2.

[alphacat]

maybe if police got high more they'd know what a marijuana looks like yeh

^THIS x100.

Plus they might recognize how absurd some of the laws they're enforcing are.

Not gonna help wif de donuts tho, gotta be honest.

[Raggles]

At the same time, I don't want to try to point the finger of blame at them either because they're still just trying to do their mandate and make it home every day

Yeah because letting a pot plant grow is putting the officers in danger. Better go rip them all out the ground or they not be making it home to the kiddies.

[Raggles]

Every day a pot plant is left to grow, an officer dies.

[Raggles]

Pot kills.

[mo_respect]

I live in Alberta, so maybe I can make this make a little more sense.

Lethbridge is essentially the mormon hub of the province (possibly country tbh). Its a weird place

[bigfootspartan]

I live in Alberta, so maybe I can make this make a little more sense.

Lethbridge is essentially the mormon hub of the province (possibly country tbh). Its a weird place

Truth, I worked with a lady who said the city just south of Lethbridge (which is essentially 100% Mormon) moved "New Years" (i.e. all the community celebrations) from a Sunday to a Monday because it would be sacrilege to have celebrations on Sunday that weren't related to church...

[alphacat]

If this is true, it would be ironic in light of the fact that some academics think the Mormon founding fathers might have used Jimsonweed and other mind-alterants early on. There was a guy who'd written a whole thesis paper on it called "Mormon Elixirs." Unfortunately, he might've been shut down by the church... his site's gone. This is the closest thing left.

http://web.archive.org/web/200810160128 ... ixirs.org/

http://web.archive.org/web/200802251938 ... ixirs.org/

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 207AAp63tf


Oh what the hell... edited for size if you can believe it.

Restoration and the Sacred Mushroom

Did Joseph Smith use Psychedelic Substances
to Facilitate Visionary Experiences?

Presented at the Sunstone Symposium, August 2007

by
Robert T. Beckstead

Revised Abstract

Did hallucinogens facilitate Joseph Smith's visions & those of early Mormon converts? In his 1975 book, Hearts Made Glad, Lamar Petersen carefully documented the use of intoxicants by Joseph Smith and early converts to the LDS Church. While mostly interested in the consumption of various fermented and distilled alcohols, Petersen also noted strange behaviors associated with the sacramental use of what seemed to outside observers to be medicated wine. It appears that soon after the Church was organized in New York and later in Ohio, members partook of wine in sacrament meetings which occasioned visionary states and strange behaviors not typically associated with alcohol consumption or intoxication. It is my thesis that beginning at a young age, Joseph Smith experimented with psychedelic plants and that many of Joseph Smith revelations and much of his behavior can be attributed to the use of psychedelics. Following Joseph Smith�??s death, the pragmatic Brigham Young had no interest in psychedelic material, or was unaware of its use, and hence it did not become a part of Utah Mormonism. However, James Strang and Fredrick M. Smith (Joseph Smith's grandson and president of the RLDS Church) perpetuated the use of psychedelics in their branches of Joseph Smith's original movement. The use of psychedelics by the Strangites and the RLDS Church could not be sustained.

Introduction

According to the official web site of the LDS Church, in the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith offered a simple prayer that set into motion a series of events leading to the restoration of the true Church and the truth about life’s greatest questions.1 But for many early LDS coverts, learning about truth was a second rank endeavor. Instead, seeking for a personal visionary experience was primary. According to LDS scholar, Richard Bushman, early Mormon converts were “seekers” whose

… greatest hunger was for spiritual gifts like dreams, visions, tongues, miracles, and spiritual raptures.2

These early Church members sought direct experience with God and believed that Joseph Smith had the power to grant their desires. Confidence in their Prophet was not misplaced. Between 1829 and 1836, under the supervision of Joseph Smith, many early Mormon converts enjoyed heavenly visions and spiritual raptures. While the nature of these visions are a matter of debate, there is no doubt as to the amazing number of visions experienced by Joseph Smith and early converts during these seven years.

However, after Joseph’s death in 1844, the great visionary period of Church history came to an end.3 The only vision recorded in Church of Jesus Christ of LDS scripture (D&C 138 )is that of Joseph F. Smith dated October 3, 1918. Since 1918, there has be no visionary expereince recorded by any of the subsequent presidents of the LDS Church. Interestingly, the vast majority of Mormons living today believe that Joseph Smith-like visionary and revelatory experience continues amongst the living "General Authorities" of the Church, but in secret. However, an Apostle of the LDS Church admitted in 1985 that he had never had such an experience and he was unaware of anyone living who had. (Inperson interview of and LDS Church Apostle by the author)

So stark was the dearth of visionary experience that in 1864, twenty years after Joseph Smith's death, members would ask Mormon Apostle George A. Smith,

... why it is that we do not see more angels, have more visions, that we do not see greater and more manifestations of power?4

The mystery seems to center around Joseph Smith himself. According to Richard Bushman, it was Joseph Smith himself that connected converts to heaven by some power that he possessed, a power that remains a mystery to this day.5

Indeed, after the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, the only vision recorded in LDS history is that of Joseph F. Smith dated October 3, 1918. (D&C 138)

But is Joseph Smith’s spiritual power to connect converts with heaven really beyond our ability to investigate and understand? Over the last 50 years Joseph Smith-like spiritual power has come under examination by an ever-increasing number of anthropologists, religious historians, ethnobotanists and ethnomycologists. It now appears that spiritual power comparable to that of Joseph Smith can be acquired in the course of consuming visionary plants, mushrooms and cactus. Otherwise known as psychedelics and hallucinogens, when these visionary materials are taken in a religious setting, they are often referred to as entheogens. An entheogen is any substance, such as a plant or drug, taken to occasion a heavenly vision or spiritual rapture.6 Entheogens can induce visions during an altered state of waking consciousness and out-of-body and near death eperiences.


What would motivate Joseph Smith to use entheogens? One possible answer is that without entheogens, most visions and raptures come only after years of disciplined meditation or severe physical austerity. Ake Hultkranz, retired professor of comparative religion16 explains that the popularity of entheogens … is partly due to the fact that visions are rendered easily accessible, and fasting, isolation, and self-torture17 are unnecessary.

Terence McKenna, speaker and philosopher, is widely know known to be experience in the use of psychedelics and the meditative arts. McKenna believes that medative and other spiritual practices were developed as tools to enhance and guide the psychedelic experience. His views in a small discussion group are summarized (with minor editing) as follows:

Q. Are you against meditation in favor of the psychedelics experience? A: If by meditation you mean lying down or sitting up and close your eyes, I do that a lot and I like it but would never confuse it with the psychedelic enterprise. I think they are completely different realms of human activity. With meditation, you don't hallucinate. [Some may] say you do, but they aren't very convincing. [And when you fail to hallucinate with meditation] the monks rush over and explain that you are doing it wrong.

Q. Do you think you have the same revelatory experience with meditation? A: I really don't. All these spiritual techniques are not substitutions for the psychedelic experience but trade offs. I think that all of these techniques ... work incredibly well in the presence of psychedelics leading me to suppose that what these are are tools that were developed in the paleolithic world of psychedelic magic and all we have now is all these tools but we don't have the original engine that drove them. I am very bored by spiritual practice unless I've taken a psychedelic; then mantric chanting is beyond the power of mind to encompass or describe. [Psychedelics] seems to be a general functional enhancement [of spiritual techniques]. Acoustical driving (druming) is also a tried and true tradition. Its not about the exclusivity of methods but the combinations of method. What you want to do is beat your drum while sitting in yum, yum [position] while stoned on "x", while at the holy mount, while the astrological configuration is correct and then line it all up and push it through, that's the way to do it.

While most will not achieve a "revelatory experience" with meditation alone, there are techniques which may facilitate such experiences in a limited number of devotes. For instance, William Buhlman has developed several out-of-body meditation techniques that has been successful in some cases. Techniques developed by Stephen LaBarge are able to produce lucid dreams. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer becomes conscious during the dream and in some cases may be enveloped in a religious epiphany. Joseph Smith is known to have used a seer stone to see buried treasure and to "translate" the Book of Mormon. The technique is called scrying and as discussed by Clay L. Chandler, is another technique to enter revelatory realms.

... if Joseph Smith employed entheogens, he met the requirement to place himself and early Mormon converts in the express lane to spiritual powers without the need for years of meditation, repetitive religious ritual or severe physical austerities.

Access and Training To Administer Entheogens

How available were entheogens to Joseph Smith. In 1998, Richard Evans Schultes, former director of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University and the “father of ethnobotany” identified three culturally important entheogens available in the area Joseph lived and traveled: Datura plant, Amanita muscaria mushroom and peyote cactus.

Culturally Significant Major Entheogens
Accessable from Where Joseph Smith Lived
According to Richard Evans Schultes

Peyote Cactus


Amanita muscaria


Datura species


It is possible that AmerIndian Shaman were mentors for Joseph Smith in his use of entheogens. There is reason to believe that Joseph Smith was familiar with Indian chief. Charles M. Larson writes that a fragment of the Egyptian papyrus purchased by Joseph Smith in 1835

was given to an Indian chief as a token of respect. (Charles M. Larson, ... by his own hadn upon papyrus: A new look at the Joseph Smith Papyri, Institute for Religious Research, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1992, p. 78, note 230 states, "This was the basis for the article in the February, 1968 Improvement Ears, p. 40-A throught 40- G...")

Mircea Elliade, during his early work, was not convinced that the use of psychedelics was an important aspect of indigienous shamanic work. However, just before he died, he reversed his position recognizing the nearly universal use of psychedelics by indigenous shaman.

Michael Cole, the Charles J. MacCurdy professor emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University and curator emeritus of the Division of Anthropology at the school's Peabody Museum of Natural History also believes that Joseph Smith is best described as a Shaman. Speaking of Joseph Smith, Cole explains

This extraordinary man, who put together a religion -- probably with many falsities in it, falsehoods, so forth, to begin with -- eventually came to believe in it so much that he really bought his own story and made it believable to other people. In this respect, he's a lot like a shaman in anthropology: these extraordinary religious practitioners in places like Siberia, North America among the Eskimo, the Inuit, who start out probably in their profession as almost like magicians doing magic. (PBS Interview, May 16th 2006)

Algonquin Indian shamans inhabiting the region from the Atlantic seaboard running north through eastern and central Canada and south to the Ohio River are known to have used both Datura plant and Amanita Muscaria mushroom in their religious ceremonies.20 Since Jess Groesbeck has shown that many aspects of Joseph Smith’s visionary career is consistent with Amerindian shamanism, it is possible that Joseph Smith was mentored by an Algonquin shaman.

John Heinerman has demonstrated Joseph Smith’s interest in Thomsonian herbal medicine. Thomsonian medicine was inspired by early American root doctors using magical plants to occasion cures. According to Catherine Yronwode, “root doctoring” is an admixture of the hoodoo magical practices of African-American slaves mingled with the botanical knowledge of the Amerindian medicine man.21 Root doctors are known to have used the visionary Datura plant in their magical practices.22 A possible mentor for Joseph Smith in the use of Datura was Black Pete. Black Pete, an African-American was called a revelator and a chief suggesting that he was also a root doctor. Black Pete was initially from Pennsylvania and in 1825 may have met the young Joseph Smith digging for buried treasure. After leaving Pennsylvania, Black Pete became one of the earliest converts in Kirtland Ohio joining the Church in early 1831. Black Pete was present during the Kirtland visionary period of early 1831 when the strange manifestations likely associated with Datura plant ingestion were particular pronounced.

D. Michael Quinn and Lance S. Owens have shown that Joseph Smith incorporated elements of ceremonial magic and alchemy imported from Europe.23 Alchemists are believed to have employed the visionary Amanita muscaria mushroom in their occult practices24 and Lance Owens identifies a possible alchemical mentor for Joseph Smith by the name of Dr. Luman Walter. 25 Quinn writes,

As previously discussed, folk magic and the occult involved training, practice, and inner "gifts" to be an adept. Academic magic required occult texts,
hundreds of which were available in English by the 1800s (see ch. 1, and above). Folk magic's universal source of instruction was the occult's oral tra-
dition which summarized centuries-old writings for all classes of people. Many people gained occult knowledge from both directions. Aside from verbal transmission of occult knowledge, some adepts also furnished practical training to interested persons. (Quinn. Early Mormonism. 116)

There is evidence that Joseph's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, used seer stones, and Joseph may have gained most of his knowledge regarding their use from her, but Quinn also points to the probability that Joseph had one or more occult mentors, Luman Walters being primary among them. (Clay L. Chandler, Scrying for the Lord: Magic, Mysticism, and the Origins of the Book of Mormon. DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT, VOL. 36, No. 4, WINTER 2003. p. 43)



Joseph Smith may have also been in contact with Amerindian shaman familiar with the use of the visionary Peyote cactus. The Peyote cactus grows in an extensive area surrounding the middle and lower Rio Grande River. Amerindian Peyote cults spread northeast from these areas to the plains states many years after Joseph Smith died.

However, an ancient Amerindian trade route led from the Peyote fields through a major trade center to the Northeast where Joseph Smith resided.26 It is very probable that Peyote was transported along this route and found its way into Joseph Smith’s hands because at the time of his death, Joseph possessed a seer stone shaped in the form of the visionary Peyote cactus button.

Use of Entheogens to to Discover and Translate the Gold Plates

It has been reported that Joseph Smith was typically intoxicated while discovering and translating the Book of Mormon. According to Lu B. Cake, Joseph Smith was intoxicated during his "vision of Moroni" dated September 21, 1823. LeMar Petersen notes,
At what age and in what capacity Vermont-born Joseph, Jr. arose to prominence is a moot point among his biographers. Mormon historians have dated his fame from the vision of the Gods in the Sacred Grove in 1820.* Others, less credulous, have insisted that Joseph's notoriety sprang from participation in necromantic arts accompanied by frequent tilts of the bottle. Joseph's self-admitted foibles were not charitably viewed by critics who were willing to place the worst possible interpretation on them. I. Woodbridge Riley, in a Yale University thesis for which he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1902, accused:
"What took place between the first and second visions was described by Joseph as the 'weakness of youth, foolish errors, divers temptations and gratifications of appetites offensive in the sight of God.' Stripped of verbiage this means, for one thing, - drunkenness." 12
A lurid monograph certain not to win a degree for its author was Lu B. Cake's Peepstone Joe Exposed which appeared just prior to Riley's psychological study. Adding an introduction to the presentation of a manuscript by Reed Peck (an officer in the Danite band whose testimony helped put Joseph in Liberty jail in 1838), Cake wrote:
"September 21, 1823 Joe got drunk, swore, lied and swindled, contrary to revelation. Train up a child in the way he should not go and when he is eighteen years old like Joe Smith, he will not depart from it. Yet Joe claims that while in bed this drunken September 21st, an angel came to him, told him the history of the ancient inhabitants of America was engraven on gold plates and hidden in a hill be­tween Manchester and Palmyra, in western New York. Whether it was angel, or alcohol, that gave Joe inspiration is the question; for although drunk on September 21st, yet on September 22nd he claims that he found the plates in the place to which he was directed."14 Inasmuch as Peck had not referred to Joseph's inebriety in the MS, itmay be that Cake obtained his information by direct revelation. (LeMar Petersen, Hearts Made Glad: Crarges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. 1975. Self Published. Salt Lake City. 44-45)
Intoxication can explain Joseph Smith's visionary experiences but not intoxication with alcohol. Having worked in an Emergency Department for over 30 years, I have never seen an intoxicated patient who was actively hallucinating unless there was pre-existing alcohol induced central nervous system damage. If we accept that Joseph Smith was intoxicated and link that intoxication to visions, the only intoxicant class capable of doing that is psychedelics such as Amanita Muscaria mushroom, Datura and Mescaline containing cactus.

It is possible that Joseph was intoxicated with a hallucinogen during the visionary experiences surrounding his September 1923 vision and later enabling him to see sentences in spiritual light while excluding natural light using a seer stone placed in ain the hat. Joseph Smith was intoxicated while translating the Book of Mormon. LeMar Petersen notes:

One of Emma Hale Smith's cousins, Levi Lewis, son of Reverend Nathaniel Lewis of the Methodist Church, made affidavit that while Joseph was in Harmony, Pennsylvania he "saw him intoxicated three different times while he was composing the Book of Mormon."55

Another who reported that Joseph drank too much liquor while translating was Martin Harris, first scribe for the modern scripture. When the wine goes in, strange things come out. 64 But after censure from the High Council at Kirtlarid he amended the charge to "this thing occurred previous to the translation of the Book." Shalemanasseh (one of Martin's spiritual names in the Doctrine and Covenants 82:11) then confessed that his mind was darkened, and that he had said many things inadvertently, calcu lated to wound the feelings of his brethren, and promised to do better.57 (LeMar Petersen, Hearts Made Glad: Crarges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. 1975. Self Published. Salt Lake City. 65-66)

This is not to suggest that Joseph Smith wasn't frequently intoxicated on alcohol. The evidence is clear that he was. However, alcohol is an excellent vehicle to administer both Amanita and Datura. That Joseph Smith was knowledgable about the use of medicated alcohol is found in the Book of Mormon. LeMar Petersen notes,

The scene with the Missouri jailors is reminiscent of a scene concerning the wicked Lamanites in the first edition of the Book of Mormon:

"And many times did they atempt to administer of their wine to the Nephites, that they might destroy them with poison or with drunkenness. But behold, the Nephites were not slow to remember the Lord their God, in this their times of affliction. They could not be taken in their snares; yea, they would not partake of their wine; yea, they would not take of wine, save they had firstly given to some of the Lamanite prisoners. And they were thus cautious, that no poison should be administered among them; for if their wine would poison a Lamanite, it would also poison a Nephite; and thus they did try all their liquors.16
In Mormon belief the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon were the ancestors of the American Indian. It is fortunate the Lamanite wine-tasters of old were spared a sampling of the potent brew prepared for their Missouri descendants. This heady recipe for Indian firewater was given by "Teddy Blue" Abbott (born 1860) in We Pointed Them North:

"You take one barrel of Missouri River water, and two gallons of alcohol. Then you add two ounces of strychnine to make them crazy - because strychnine is the greatest stimulant in the world -and three plugs of tobacco to make them sick-an Indian wouldn't figure it was whisky unless it made him sick - and five bars of soap to give it a bead, and half a pound of red pepper, and then you put in some sagebrush and boil it until it's brown. Strain into a barrel, and you've got your Indian whisky; that one bottle calls for one buffalo robe and when the Indian got drunk it was two robes." (LeMar Petersen, Hearts Made Glad: Crarges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. 1975. Self Published. Salt Lake City. 150-151)

Intoxication and visionary experience is hinted at in the Book of Mormon. A more through discussion of the "bitterness" or bitter taste of psychedelics and the "opening" of ones eyes was tangentially expressed by LeMar Petersen.

Though Joseph's philosophy was only partially hedonistic a good case for sin could be made from certain Book of Mormon passages. The patriarch Lehi explained to his son Jacob that sin was necessary and desirable in the Garden of Eden, otherwise Adam and Eve

"would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery, doing no good, for they knew no sin."

Moral: To do good, one must sin; transgression is essential. This precept may well be the key to Joseph Smith's ambivalence in drink habits and in those areas of behavior generally defined as moralistic. He often affirmed that "what many people call sin is not sin," and "there must needs be opposition in all things." The most oft-quoted phrase in Mormonism, next to "The glory of God is Intelligence," is "Adam fell that man might be, and man is that he might have joy." In Mormon belief the fall was upward.34
In Joseph's scriptures Adam blessed God

"for because of my transgression [eating from the tree of knowledge] my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy," and Eve, the abettor, seconded, "were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil."

The Lord explained to Adam,

"Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good."

And though conceived in sin

"every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their
infant state, innocent before God."

Nevertheless, "since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself." The difficulty of reconciling such passages with God's first command in Genesis to "be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth" seemed not to disturb the modern Revelator.35
Did not God countermand his own word in,

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die?"

(LeMar Petersen, Hearts Made Glad: Crarges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. 1975. Self Published. Salt Lake City. 158-159)

The connection between eating, the initial bitter taste and eventual sweetness of joy while apparently metaphorical is also an excellent description of the effects of ingesting psychedelics many of which are bitter but eventually envelop the inbiber in spiritual raputures of love. How this might relate to Joseph Smith Senior's dreams and Joseph Smith Junior's "tree of life" will be discussed below.

Opportunity to Administer Entheogens

Is there evidence to suggest that Joseph Smith gifted new converts with visionary experience by adding a visionary plant such as Datura to sacramental wine? According to LaMar Petersen in his 1975 book, Hearts Made Glad the answer is probably yes.27 Petersen noted a correlation in early Mormonism between the ingestion of sacramental wine and visionary experience. In the very first conference of the Church in June 1830 at Fayette, New York,

Joseph Smith recorded

… we partook together of the emblems of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ … many of our members … had the heavens opened to their view, [and beheld Jesus Christ].28

Heavenly manifestations occurred in a March 18th 1833 sacrament meeting held in Kirtland Ohio under the direction of Joseph Smith.

Bro Joseph … promise[d] that the pure in heart that were present should see a heavenly vision … after which the bread and wine was distributed by Bro Joseph after which many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the savior and concourses of angels.29

In the afternoon of March 27th 1833, Ebenezer Robinson reported that after the administration of the bread and wine

Frederick G. Williams bore record that a holy angel of God came and sat between him and Joseph Smith, Senior.30

A meeting in which visions were occasioned by the application of anointing oil, which can also be laced with entheogenic material31 occurred on January 21, 1836. Joseph Smith was anointed first and in turn he anointed several of the Brethren. Joseph reported that after the anointing,

The heavens were opened upon us and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell… Joseph said that many of the brethren “saw glorious visions also.32

Pentecost for Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling.
Thursday January 21 1836 A new kind of washing; one for the whole body was instituted, following OT practices. Joseph's journal: "We attended to the ordinance of washing our bodies in pure water. We also perfumed our bodies and our heads, in the name of the Lord" Oliver C gave a fuller description of the W and A. No spiritual, otherworldly things mentioned.

When the brethren met the following Thursday, they added an anointing with oil. Joseph and six other men attended to this. They poured the oil on the heads and then rubbed their hands over his anointed face and head. In Exodus it called for calumus and myrrh and sweet cinnamon. Cinnamon was all these poor saints could afford to mix with the oil. Hmmm?

After Joseph's anointing he wrote, "the heavens opened upon us and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell." "Streets of gold" "Alvin" etc. All through the night Joseph had visions. "Many of the other brethren saw visions also." JS. After the presidency Joseph anointed the bishops of Kirtland and Clay County with their counselors. Edward Partridge wrote "a number of them saw visions and others were blessed with outpouring of the Holy Ghost. The vision of heaven was opened to these also, some of them saw the face of the Saviour and others were ministered unto by holy angels." At 1am they sang a song and went home.

The next day no one could concentrate on school. They wanted to talk over"the glorious scenes that transpired on the preceding evening."
That evening the twelve and the seventy underwent same. Following the ordinances "toungs, fell upon us in mighty pow[e]r, angels mingled their voices with ours, while their presence was in our midst, and unseasing prasis swelled our bosoms for the space of half an hour." Joseph said "the spirit and visions attended me through the night."

Six days later they did anointings for high priests and then quorum. Through January and February, the brethren read Hebrew by day, and washed, anointed, and prayed, and beheld visions by night. He went home weary.

Some quorums did not comply with everything they were asked to do one Sat. early in Feb. They were not standing and speaking when they had a spiritual experience. Hyrum and Oliver went to request them to observe order but they said that "they had a teacher of their own and did not wish to be troubled by others." Joseph said, "This quorem lost the[e]ir blessing in a great measure." A "cloud of darkness" filled the elders' room, their minutes reported, while the more careful quorums "enjoyed a great flow of the holy spirit" that was "like fire in their bones."

At the temple dedication on Mar 27 they did all the tedious sustainings, then the dedicatory prayer. Some said they saw angels etc. But the
congregation did NOT see the face of God. The level of spiritual manifestations did not equal the outpourings of January and Feb. Bushman
says. Mar 29 washing of feet and sacramental wine. Holy Spirit, prophecying and giving glory all night in temple Mar 30 about 300 people joined them in the temple. More tubs more towels, bread and wine. Prophecying and speaking in tongues. Exhausted after the all
night session the presidency retired but the rest of the brethren remained, "exhorting, prophecying, speaking in tongues" until 5am. A few skeptics wondered if the brethren had become drunk on sacramental wine, but according to JS journal the nonstop Tues and Wed meetings were, finally, the endowment. (What they wanted to happen at the dedication) The next Sunday about 1000 people attended (they must have heard about that great wine huh?) the morning service. To their surprise (J and O?) the spiritual experiences in the temple were not over. Behind a veil J and O saw the Savior standing on the breastwork of the pulpit. Bushman says, What could this staggering experience have meant to J and O? (They had too much sacramental wine maybe) Joseph seemed to be stilled by the event. They saw Moses ELIAS and Elijah but after this no mention of the experience in D&C during J lifetime. The Book of Abraham's weirdo stuff started to happen after this two month high. No wonder it is such a messed up thing.

On March 30, 1836 during the dedication week of the Kirtland temple the Millennial Star reported that nearly five hundred brethren gathered in expectation of a spiritual Pentecost.

The bread and wine were then brought in… The Savior made His appearance to some, while angels ministered to others.33

Charles L. Walker recorded that when the brethren had

… partaken of the Lord's supper, namely a piece of bread as big as your double fist and half a pint of wine in the temple … the Holy Ghost descend upon the heads of those present like cloven tongues of fire.34

Following consumption of sacramental bread and wine on the afternoon of April 3rd 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery retired to the pulpit where a series of visions were opened to them including the appearance of Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias and Elijah.35

Then in a meeting on May 1st 1836, Ebenezer Robinson36 remembered

… when we partook of consecrated bread and wine … some testified of having the visions of heaven opened to their view.37

Can untainted wine and pure anointing oil have occasioned heavenly visions or spiritual raptures of early Church converts? The answer is probably not. Alcohol related hallucinations only occur after years of abuse and abrupt withdrawal. Therefore visions associated with the ingestion of wine argue strongly for the surreptitious inclusion of an entheogen such as the visionary Datura plant.

Evidence of Datura Use

What evidence is there that the plant Datura occasioned early Mormon convert visions rather than hypnosis, mass hysteria or spontaneous religious experience? Datura has been shown to be over 80 percent effective in creating a visionary experience whereas hypnosis is much less reliable, probably less than 10 percent. An even smaller percentage, likely less than 1 percent, will experience spontaneous heavenly visions. Datura would not only account for the high percentage of early Church converts having visionary experience following the ingestion of sacramental wine, but may also explain the accompanying untamed thoughts and behaviors that attended early Mormon sacrament meetings.

Lamar Petersen noted that the drinking of sacramental wine in the early days of the Church occasioned “unusual spiritual manifestations” of such a shocking nature they “impaired the image of the young Church among sober people.”38 In early 1831, sacrament meetings held at the Kirkland Ohio farm of Isaac Morley produced both visions and scandalous behavior. A Kirtland Ohio schoolteacher, Jesse Moss observed

They partook of the Lords supper at night with darkened windows and excluded from the room all but their own till they got through and then opened the doors and called the outsiders in to witness a scene far exceeding the wildest scene ever exhibited among the Methodists.39

What were the wild scenes associated with early Mormon administration of sacramental wine?

Wielded the sword of Laban as expertly as a light dragoon
Acted like an Indian in the act of scalping
Slid on the floor with the rapidity of a serpent, sailing in boats to preach to the Lamanites.
Parley P. Pratt42

Swoons
Unseemly gestures
Cramps
Falling into ecstasies
Joseph Smith43

Insanity
Bound hand and foot in chains as immovable as a stick of timber
Getting on the stumps of trees and shouting Pursuing balls flying in the air and jumping of a cliff.
As shown in the table above, George A. Smith reported that members in Kirtland manifested unnatural distortions and extravagant and wild ideas.44 David Whitmer said that members wielded the sword of Laban as expertly as a light dragoon, behaved like Indians in the act of scalping, slid on the floor with the rapidity of a serpent, sailed in boats to preach to the Lamanites.45 Parley P. Pratt reported swoons, unseemly gestures, cramps and falling into ecstasies.46 Joseph Smith himself noted manifestations of insanity, members becoming immovable as though bound hand and foot.47

Joseph Smith reportedly was not present at these Kirtland meetings and disavowed the manifestations as being of a lying spirit. However, Joseph Smith’s own first vision was attended by similar strange thoughts and behaviors. Eldon Watson who harmonized Joseph’s nine accounts of the first vision notes the following aberrations from normal thinking and bodily function.48


A Harmony: Excerpted

For Full Accounts Click Here

Arranged by Elden J. Watson with References




All of these signs and symptoms described below can be produced by hallucinogens, especially Amanita Muscaria Mushroom and Datura Species!

Incapacitation (An effect of anticholinergic)

1839 I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was <siezed> upon by some power which entirely overcame me... But exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had siezed upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction, not to an imaginary ruin but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being... It [the light] no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound.
Normal Vision Impared, Darkened (Dilation of pupils, blurry vision, marked decrease in vision)

1839 I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was <siezed> upon by some power which entirely overcame me. Thick darkness gathered around me and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
1840 At first, he was severely tempted by the powers of darkness, which endeavored to overcome him;
1842B At first, he was severely tempted by the powers of darkness, which endeavoured to overcome him.
Anxiety and Strange Visuals (Early paranoia and unorganized visual distortions/hallucinations)

1842B The adversary benighted his mind with doubts, and brought to his soul all kinds of improper pictures and tried to hinder him in his efforts and the accomplishment of his goal.
Tongue Felt Swollen & Stuck to Roof of Mouth (Anticholinergic drying effect on mouth)

1835 My tongue seemed to be swoolen in my mouth, so that I could not utter
1839 and <had> such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak.
1844 his tongue was closet cleaveh to his roof--could utter not a word,
He heard strange sounds (Auditory Hallucinations)

1835 I heard a noise behind me like some one walking towards me: I strove again to pray, but could not; the noise of walking seemed to draw nearer; I sprang upon my feet and looked round, but saw no person, or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking.
Withdrawl from Physical Sensations (As Physical Incapitation Increases, Thinking Switches from External Sensations to Inner Realities)

1842B However, the overflowing mercy of God came to buoy him up, and gave new impulse and momentum to his dwindling strength. Soon the dark clouds disappeared, and light and peace filled his troubled heart.
1840 but he continued to seek for deliverance, until darkness gave way from his mind ... When [the light]first came upon him, it produced a peculiar sensation throughout his whole system; and immediately, his mind was caught away, from the natural objects with which he was surrounded; and he was enwapped in a heavenly vision,
1842A while fervently engaged in supplication my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision
1842B At this sacred moment his mind was caught away from the natural objects with which he was surrounded, and he was enwrapped in a heavenly vision,
Brilliant light (Extremely Common with Hallucinogens)

1832 a pillar of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me.
1835 A pillar of fire appeared above my head; which presently rested down upon me, and filled me with unspeakable joy.
1839 Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar <of> light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gracefully gradually untill it fell upon me.
1840 he at length, saw a very bright and glorious light in the heavens above; which, at first, seemed to be a considerable distance. He continued praying, while the light appeared to be gradually descending towards him; and as it drew nearer, it increased in brightness and magnitude, so that, by the time that it reached the tops of the trees, the whole wilderness, for some distance around was illuminated in a most glorious and brilliant manner. He expected to have seen the leaves and boughs of the trees consumed, as soon as the light came in contact with them; but perceiving that it did not produce that effect, he was encouraged with the hope of being able to endure its presence. It continued descending slowly, until it rested upon the earth, and he was enveloped in the midst of it.
1842A surrounded with a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noon-day.
1843 Directly I saw a light,
1844 -saw a fire toward heaven came near and nearer;
1850 While he was thus engaged, he was surrounded by a brilliant light.
Psychodramatic Theophany (The sought after psychedelic experience)

1832 and I was filled with the spirit of god and the <Lord> opened the heavens upon me
Content well known. See Accounts of First Vision
Return of Physical Sensations (Waning of the hallucinatory experience and gradual return of normal physiological functioning).

1839 When I came to myself again I found myself lying on <my> back looking up into Heaven... When the light had departed I had no strength, but soon recovering in some degree,
1840 after which, the vision withdrew,
1842B after which, the vision withdrew,
1843 The vision then vanished, and when I came to myself, I was sprawling on my back ...and it was some time before my strength returned.
1844 I endeavored to arise but felt uncommon feeble--
1850 after which the vision withdrew
Afterglow of Hallucinatory Experience (Antidepressant Effect of Psychedelics)

1832 and my Soul was filled with love and for many days I could rejoice with great Joy and the Lord was with me
1840 leaving his mind in a state of calmness and peace, indescribable.
1842B leaving his mind in a state of calmness and peace indescribable.
1850 leaving his mind in a state of calmness and peace.
Notes

Joseph's tongue would not function, he heard strange sounds and sprang to his feet but saw nothing, he was seized upon and could not move, his vision was severely impaired, he saw all kinds of “improper pictures”, he believed he was going to be destroyed, he felt a peculiar sensation course through his entire body, he lost consciousness and awoke to find himself sprawling on his back and was unable to get up for some time.

Joseph Smith personified these strange manifestations as the actions of a being from the unseen world. This is consistent with Joseph’s analysis of the bizarre manifestations in 1831 Kirtland Ohio as being the responsibility of a lying spirit. However, Joseph would contradict this view in 1843 when he explained that evil spirits can neither manipulate the physical world nor occasion strange physical manifestations. Joseph explained to apparently worried Church members that if such a being was encountered and attempted to physically interact, nothing at all would be felt.49

Rather than the devil being responsible for the peculiar manifestations attending the first vision and early Church convert visions, it is much more likely that Datura plant was involved.

Clinical Effects of Datura

Correlates with LDS Visions

Hallucinations (83%) Visions
Pupil Dilatation Blindness
Dry mucus membranes Dry mouth, can’t speak
Vasomotor instability Facial color changes (initially flushed, then white as blood pressure falls)
Delirium, paranoia (central stimulation) Unfounded fears, feeling of impending death, acting like or preaching to Indians, crawling, wallowing, chasing balls flying through the air.
Muscle abnormalities (jerks, myclonic movements, choreoathetosis) Facial and body contortions, feeling bound
Unconsciousness (central depression) Coma
Onset: 1-4 hours Duration: 24-48 hours Experiences lasted hours to days.
As noted above, datura is over 80% reliable in occasioning hallucinations and visions. It also causes pupil dilatation and near blindness, dry mucus membranes making it difficult to speak; vasomotor instability with the face initially turning red then white as blood pressure falls; delirium including acting out inner visions and paranoid ideation; abnormal muscle movements including jerks and contortions and finally unconsciousness. Symptom onset is usually less than an hour and can continue for as long as two days.

The Independent Messenger published in Worcester, Massachusetts reported on May 27th 1831 that

Some [Church members] lie in trances a day or two and visit the unknown regions in the meantime; some are taken with a fit of terrible shaking which they say is the power of the Holy Ghost.50

In an early June 1831 Kirtland sacrament meeting, Joseph Smith alluded to possible mass visions and outright promised Lyman Wight that he would see Christ that day. Bushman explains what happened next:

Wight turned stiff and white, exclaiming that he had indeed viewed the Savior… Joseph himself said, “I now see God, and Jesus Christ”… Then Harvey Whitlock … turn as black as Lyman was white… his fingers were set like claws. He went around the room and showed his hands and tried to speak, his eyes were the shape of ovals “O’s”… [Then] Leman Copley, who weighed over two hundred pounds, somersaulted in the air and fell on his back over a bench… [Similar behavior was manifested by] people all day and the greater part of the night.51

In the Independent Gazetter published in Taunton, Massachusetts on January 11, 1833 it was reported that “in a few hours at a single meeting” there would be

… shoutings, wailing, fallings, contortions, trances, visions, speaking in unknown tongues and prophesying.52

John W. Gunnison who interviewed Church elders present during the 1836 Kirtland Pentecost reported that wine was administered …

… that had been consecrated, and declared by the Prophet to be harmless and not intoxicating. This… produced unheard of effects, if we may credit the witnesses of these proceedings. Visions, tongues, trances, wallowings on the ground, shoutings, weeping, and laughing, the outpouring of prophecies… these, and other fantastic things, were among 'the signs following' at Kirtland.’53

Joseph Smith’s standard response was to attribute foul manifestations to the adversary while the heavenly manifestations were attributed to God. But a more reasonable explanation may be that the visionary effects of Datura plant are frequently accompanied by rather unnerving physical and psychological side effects.


Some witnesses of these events came to the conclusion that the sacrament had been laced with a drug. On January 6, 1831, a letter to the editor in the Palmyra Reflector 54 accused Joseph Smith of legerdemain. Legerdemain means the practice of using “psychology, misdirection and natural choreography in accomplishing a magical effect.”55 In other words, Joseph Smith was being accused of using the sacrament as misdirection for the surreptitious administration of a visionary substance. In 1843, Henry Caswell wrote of “a pretended sacrament” associated with manifestations of power in early LDS meetings.56

After witnessing several sacrament meetings in Kirtland Ohio, Jesse Moss “became fully satisfied the wine was medicated” and one night attempted to steal a bottle but was caught. Immediately after his attempt was discovered, Moss made a public statement about how with drugged wine “angels could be manufactured & strange wonders made to appear in the night”.57

A member of the Church by the last name of McWhithey was reportedly present during the 1836 Kirtland temple dedication week. Obviously disgruntled, McWhitney complained that the wine consumed was actually "mixed liquor” and that “the Mormon leaders intended to get the audience under [its] influence” so that visions experienced were believed to be of “the Lord's doings.”58

The connection of wine with fits of psychotic thinking and strange physical manifestations attending heavenly visions and spiritual raptures argues strongly in favor of the covert inclusion of the visionary Datura plant in the sacramental meal and anointing oil administered by Joseph Smith.



Amanita Muscaria Mushroom

What about Joseph Smith’s own use of entheogens? As noted, the psychotic thinking and peculiar physical manifestations attending Joseph’s first vision are compatible with Datura plant ingestion. But another entheogen most likely was the intoxicant involved.

The Amanita muscaria mushroom may be one of man's oldest entheogens. According to Dan Merker, an academic with a background in religious history, an entheogenic laced sacrament existed in a Judaeo-Christian context.59 Clark Heinrich suggests there is evidence to believe the Amanita muscaria mushroom may have played a role, along with ergot fungus related to LSD, in occasioning the visions reported by Old Testament prophets as well as being employed in some early Christian Eucharist celebrations.60 However, these entheogens were not administered openly, but covertly within a more benign substance such as wine and anointing oil. To maintain secrecy, descriptions of Amanita muscaria mushroom use were cloaked in allegory and metaphor. (Listen to Clark Heinrich discuss the Amanita Mushroom.)


What is remarkable about this early Christian pictographic simile of the Amanita muscaria mushroom is its resemblance to the dreams of Joseph Smith Sr. and the early visionary experiences of Joseph Smith Jr. In 1802, Joseph Sr. gathered and crystallized more than $3000 worth of ginseng to sell in China.61 Ginseng, although not a major entheogen, was “attributed with secret and magical powers”.62 The ability to crystallize ginseng shows that Joseph Sr. was able to work with psychoactive material, changing it into a stable, storable form that could be administered at a later time.

In 1811, Joseph Sr. reportedly had two dreams that are very suggestive of the Amanita muscaria mushroom. In the first dream, a spirit led Joseph Sr. to a box on the ground containing an entheogenic material. Of the box, the spirit said

the contents of which, if you eat thereof, will make you wise, and give unto you wisdom and understanding.63

In the next dream, Joseph Sr. was led to a tree whose “branches spread themselves somewhat like an umbrella” and released “particles … of dazzling whiteness” which fell to the ground. When he partook of fruit lying on the ground, he experienced something “delicious beyond description”. Then Joseph Sr. with his family “got down upon [their] knees, and scooped [the fruit] up, eating it by double handfuls”.64

Left: A rendition of the "Tree of Life" dream as told in the Book of Mormon. Notice that this depiction totally ignores the fruit of the tree" which was consumed.


In 1830, Joseph Smith Jr. published his own version of his father’s entheogen related dreams. In an early chapter in the Book of Mormon those who held onto the rod of iron ultimately “fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree” which represented the love of God. It is not a far stretch to think that a single entheogen is being described in these three related dreams.


The points where the Smith dreams appear to represent the Amanita Muscaria mushroom are …

1. the umbrella shape of the tree branches,

2. the brilliant white particles on the branches, appearing to fall to the ground arguably appearing as small brilliant white stones

3. the fruit that must be gathered from the ground, not plucked from the branches of the tree as would be expected

4. fruit that can either be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later consumption

5. magical fruit able to occasion visions and raptures bestowing divine wisdom and heavenly love.

The Amanita muscaria mushroom not only fits the images depicted in the Smith dreams, it also has the capacity to reproduce the early visionary experiences reported by Joseph Smith. The 1832 account of the first vision, written 12 years from when it reportedly occurred, had undoubtedly already undergone significant revision. The core event was arguably an experience of physical heaviness, visual darkness, an awe-inspiring light from above, a voice out of heaven, an experience with the unfathomable Godhead and feelings of unspeakable joy.65 Contemporary visionary experience occasioned by entheogens show remarkable similarity to that of Joseph Smith. For instance, a few years ago, after ingesting the Amanita Muscaria mushroom in the context of a Christian sacramental meal, Clark Heinrich reports a Joseph Smith-like first vision. Heinrich writes

I felt like I weighed thousands of pounds and could no longer sit up … in the midst of a great darkness and a great silence, the heavens opened above my head. In an instant I was flooded with light from above, light of the utmost whiteness and splendor that quickly dissolved everything in its glory. The bliss I had experienced prior to this new revelation now paled to insignificance in an immensity of light that was also the purest love. As the truth of the situation dawned on me the word "FATHER" resounded in this heaven of light and I was taken up and absorbed by the unspeakable Godhead.

The similarity of Heinrich’s vision to that of Joseph Smith’s is remarkable including immobility, darkness, light appearing from above, a voice out of heaven, an experience with the Godhead and the feeling of indescribable joy. James Arthur reports that the Amanita muscaria “mushroom is also a symbiotic with the Birch tree, the trees which were in the Sacred Grove”.66

On another occasion in which Amanita Muscaria mushroom was ingested in a sacramental setting, Heinrich reported an experience reminiscent of the February 16, 1832 joint vision of Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon. This singular vision was manifested as they read from the Book of John. Similarly, Heinrich and a friend partook of the sacred Amanita muscaria sacrament, opened the Bible to the Book of John and reported having a singular spiritual experience.

I picked up a Bible from the bookshelf, opened to the Book of John, and started reading aloud. What I had before considered ridiculously partisan prose and poetry (fiction really) was now revealed in a whole new light. It became for us an [Amanita muscaria] initiation document, speaking the living truth directly to us through the mists of the centuries, uncovering layer after layer of meaning artfully hidden in the text. We understood it all; all the references, all the metaphors, all the hidden wisdom… It was as though God had manifested from the book and was addressing us directly. And we couldn't have been happier.67


The Amanita muscaria mushroom may also have played a role in Joseph’s account of the Book of Mormon’s origin. This sacred mushroom appears in the autumn of each year coinciding with Joseph’s annual visits to the Hill Cumorah. Importantly, Joseph told his wife and his mother that he hid the gold plates in an oak and birch tree. Interestingly, Amanita muscaria mushroom grows in symbiotic relationship with both trees. The sacred mushroom is born underneath a tree as a small “pure brilliant white stone”68 which is then transformed into a woolly lamb, then a brilliant red fruit; a constellation of sun, moon and stars and finally a gold plate upon which appears to be written strange hieroglyphs. On the left is a freshly picked shiny gold Amanita muscaria mushroom in its potent entheogenic form. The photo on the right is a collection of dried gold Amanita muscaria mushrooms that retain their entheogenic potency for up to a year.69

(more on site http://web.archive.org/web/200810160128 ... ixirs.org/)

[mo_respect]

im going to read all that later, but here's how true it is:

there is a mormon temple like 30 minutes outside of lethbridge, and iirc, was the first one temple to be built outside of the USA (according to wiki). mormons are full or irony tho

[_ronzlo_]

Mormons and Manson... Very interesting read.

[SignalRecon]

I live in Alberta, so maybe I can make this make a little more sense.

Lethbridge is essentially the mormon hub of the province (possibly country tbh). Its a weird place

I've been to Lethbridge once, driving down from Ft. Mac when i worked the oil fields. This sounds pretty accurate for what I saw.

[SignalRecon]

Oh also, everyone in Lethbridge is super stoked about this bridge they have.

[sixs]

the town was just called Leth before it was built

[SignalRecon]

lol, maybe, I dont think there was anyone there before that bridge. I think the town was created after CN rail slaves built the bridge and the first pack of mouth breather settlers walked by it and decided to set up shop nearby so they could talk about the bridge.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Its a cool bridge tho. Looks wobbly tho

[SignalRecon]

Its a cool bridge tho. Looks wobbly tho

^ prob the best way to get into a fist fight in a Lethbridge bar imo?

[_ronzlo_]

The Use of DMT in Early Masonic Ritual