Alcohol Education

WED., APR. 14, 1982, 5:44 AM
WHITEWATER, SHERWOOD FOREST

You are here with a special opportunity, o son, to renew your expertise and credibility in your original sub-field of study. You know that I purpose for you to continue to be recognized for contributions other than in relation to spirit. So, yes, I have a hand in your being here. Also be assured that there can be a mixture of your older interest and your newer focus. What is alcohol education to be when the concept of spirit is included? Taste and see.

The fundamental dimension of being is spirit. It is that which ties the continuity of life and lives together in the individual, that which relates most intimately to and with others, and it is the unifying, coordinating dimension within the person. When alcohol exerts its effects, spirit is involved.

Now, I have told you before that alcohol’s major effects are on the mind and body… the adverse effects. The mind slows in function, memory is less accurate, and judgments are less predictable. Physical coordinations deteriorate, and the senses are dulled and diminished. But as the power and influence of the mind is ebbing, and inhibitions, which are learned, are also waning, spirit is showing forth. So, true, how a person “is” in a drunken state is an evidence of spirit. This concept should be part of alcohol education.

Drunkenness allows rather than causes. It allows the spirit to direct, and therefore the motives and attempted actions are evidences of the nature of developed spirit. Let’s consider the two extremes.

Persons with highly developed spirits may not drink at all because the felt influence of spirit is a regular “high”. Others may, for social identification… because they like people and see no reason to invoke the barrier which not drinking may represent. Then there are some highly developed spirits intermixed with personalities that have not been allowed to develop or have been stunted in development… so that drinking may be almost necessary to allow spirit to reign.

When such a person does drink he or she shows more interest in and concern for other people, is more kind and generous, and more willing to do for others things that the sober mind would say are unnecessary or too risky. Conversations run to more important, spiritually related matters, even if there is some loss in coherence. Such a drunken person may still cause harm to self or others, but it is without intent…except where harm to self comes in doing for others. This needs to be a part of alcohol education.

The other extreme (and know that the two extremes may not be distinguishable from one another in the sober state) may also not drink at all… because he or she is aware of and truly appreciates, with the mind, the unpleasant results of drinking… in self and others.

When persons with poorly or negatively developed spirits drink, again, the mind is diminished and the spirit is allowed to direct. Concern for self is evidenced, either in withdrawal from others or in inordinate demands for her own rights. Hostility to others may be evidenced, with verbal abuse, perhaps combined with attempts at physical abuse.