[0:09]When we're considering cannabis or marijuana, we need to understand first of all that cannabis and its use is completely at odds with the Christian life.
[0:23]It's completely incompatible with living an Orthodox Christian life.
[0:27]Now there are many liberal modern groups that may disagree with this, but this is the Orthodox perspective.
[0:33]And so for Orthodox Christians, this talk really is an explanation of the spiritual harm that the person who consumes cannabis places themselves.
[0:44]The contemporary world, particularly in America, where many US states are now legalizing the use and sale of cannabis.
[0:53]The contemporary world is completely at odds with Orthodox thinking about this. It's one of the examples of the way in which Orthodox teaching is completely in conflict with what the world is telling us.
[1:07]And it's up to us to decide who we will hear. Will we listen to the world, or will we listen to the Orthodox faith?
[1:16]If we desire God, if we desire to make any kind of spiritual progress in the spiritual life, then we must understand that cannabis, marijuana, is a barrier.
[1:31]A barrier to any kind of spiritual progress.
[1:36]Now, there will be some people seeking God who now begin to say, why? Why would this be so?
[1:43]Many people when they hear this will be resistant to it because they enjoy it. They enjoy the feelings that cannabis brings to them.
[1:51]There may be those who, though they may say they are not physically addicted, will have a spiritual or mental addiction to it, and so they are resistant to this message.
[2:04]Cannabis in fact has been used in many non-Christian religions throughout the history of time.
[2:11]It's listed as one of the the five sacred plants in the Hindu Vedas. It's often associated, I know with, with Shiva.
[2:23]And Shiva is said by many Hindus to have used cannabis as part of the process of meditation, entering into a meditative state.
[2:33]And many other religions too, Zoroastrianism, some Sufis, say cannabis allows them to enter into the kind of spiritual state that they are seeking.
[2:47]And of course, many may pagan shamanistic cults and religions use cannabis as part of this process of entering into what is really an altered state, an altered state of consciousness, which, which they believe and argue is a spiritual state.
[3:07]This is at odds with Orthodox Christian teaching. Why then is Orthodox Christianity opposed to cannabis?
[3:16]Well, in the writings of the Church Fathers, one of the the main obstacles we're told to any kind of spiritual development is fantasy.
[3:27]The use of the imagination, particularly in prayer, opens us up to all kinds of deception, spiritual, demonic deception.
[3:38]The imagination is spiritually dangerous, it opens us up to the demonic realm, because it is at that peripheral part of the self that the demons are able to tempt us and create fantasy.
[3:54]And one of the main effects, of course, of cannabis is is the stimulation of fantasy.
[4:00]So, when a person uses cannabis, this develop, this this encouragement of fantasy is really directly at odds with what the Church Fathers describe as a true spiritual condition.
[4:15]In fact, sobriety of the mind is one of the key essential components of the spiritual life.
[4:23]And the Fathers warn us against everything that will distract us from this pursuit of of sobriety of mind.
[4:31]It reduces, cannabis reduces our ability to develop and maintain sobriety of mind, sobriety, which is a spiritual sobriety.
[4:46]And the Fathers do identify this as a one of the main impediments to spiritual change, to to to perception of truth.
[4:55]When a mind is filled with fantasy and imaginings, then to identify truth, the revealed truth of God, becomes impossible.
[5:07]Now some argue that cannabis opens us up to the spiritual insights that they believe they are capable of, or even dare I say visions.
[5:20]Some people will claim, particularly in these shamanistic cults, to have visions under the influence of cannabis, marijuana.
[5:29]St. John Cassian warns us that to attempt to open the noetic eyes through drugs is sorcery. It is sorcery.
[5:41]God has dimmed the noetic sight to protect us. It is for our benefit.
[5:49]There are greater ascetics, those who progressed in the spiritual life, for whom these visions are revealed, but for the majority of us, it is hugely dangerous to do anything to artificially open noetic sight.
[6:06]It leaves us spiritually vulnerable, and St. John Cassian describes it as sorcery, sorcery.
[6:13]And this is supported in in the fifth chapter of the, the Letter to the Galatians in verse 20.
[6:21]The word there that is translated in English as sorcery, the warning against sorcery, in Greek, the word is pharmakeia, pharmakeia.
[6:36]So we see a direct link, even in the scriptures, particularly in the Church Fathers, between the use of chemicals, and altered states of minds, and sorcery.
[6:51]To enter into the state, the Church Fathers warn, removes us from true prayer.
[6:59]The experiences, the feelings that we may gain are not true prayer.
[7:06]They are false, they are fake, counterfeit. We must guard ourselves against all of this because it is demonic deception.
[7:15]To enter into the state removes us from prayer and from God.
[7:20]It substitutes the reality of encounter with God and spiritual growth with these illusions, with feelings, with falsehood.
[7:32]It creates within us spiritual confusion.
[7:39]A spiritual confusion that can be to such a degree that the person experiencing it doesn't even recognize the confusion for what it is. This is its nature, the true nature of this confusion.
[7:52]The feelings, the fake experiences become to the person who's convinced of them the reality of spirituality.
[8:04]And it is deception, it is demonic deception. Of course, cannabis also has a, a spirit, a physical impact as well as the spiritual.
[8:16]And of course, we can't separate them completely. We are one whole person, and so when we affect ourselves physically, we are affecting ourselves spiritually.
[8:26]The use of cannabis categorically, it is known that it suppresses brain activity.
[8:34]The function of the brain is suppressed by cannabis.
[8:40]The brain has been scanned countless cases of in the tens of thousands of people have had brain scans, and it has been shown that cannabis ages the brain prematurely.
[8:54]This is not something many people realize. The number one cause of premature brain aging is schizophrenia.
[9:00]It can age the brain by up to 10 years, prematurely.
[9:05]But of all the different things that can prematurely age the brain, alcohol, tobacco, other diseases, cannabis is second. Cannabis is the second most aging impact on the human brain.
[9:27]We need to take this on board. The reason for this is because the use of cannabis slows down the flow of blood to the brain.
[9:35]And this has a physical detrimental effect, of course. So, it lowers blood flow, and as it lowers blood flow, the brain is being damaged.
[9:50]It has a permanent impact on the physiology of the brain.
[9:53]If we are to treat the, the body as the temple of God, then yes, there are many things that we should guard against.
[10:00]We should guard against excess of alcohol, of sugars and salts, and all these things that will harm us.
[10:09]But unless even alcohol, which can become habitual in alcoholism, frequent and constant use of cannabis, even twice a week, will permanently change the brain.
[10:24]The brain can recover from other things, but cannabis leaves its permanent mark.
[10:32]It has a detrimental effect. And and of course, teenage use of cannabis, it has been shown through many, many pieces of research that those who use cannabis in their teenage years are far more likely to suffer from depression and suicide, even in their early 20s.
[10:54]So we have to be careful. What we are facing here when we talk about cannabis is really the wisdom of the world versus the wisdom of God.
[11:05]The wisdom of God revealed to us through the fathers, through the teachings of the church. We are called always in every aspect of our lives to repent, to be obedient to the teachings of the church, because this is the way that God has revealed the road to salvation to us.
[11:24]And if we listen to the wisdom of the world, we are listening to the voice of death.
[11:31]The voice of life is there found in the teachings of the church. Now some people will convince themselves that cannabis is harmless.
[11:43]But this is self-deception. Do not be deceived by the things of this world. Let us know with clarity in our hearts.
[11:55]The use of cannabis is a sin, and if we use cannabis, we must repent.
