Healing
Before we get into this chapter, I’d like to mention that I believe that cannabis and “psychic healing” can be wonderfully effective, especially when used as a complement to the care and treatment from a medical doctor, but this by no means replaces a doctor! If you’re sick, see your doctor first!
In the New Testament it is told that Jesus performed a variety of miraculous healings, even raising Lazarus from the dead. He also turned his disciples loose among the people to perform healings. The biblical accounts suggest that some of the healing feats in these stories were a property of the cannabis-based holy anointing oil that Jesus may have distributed to his flock.109 And the New Testament is far from the oldest account of cannabis-related healing, nor is it the first in the historical record that documents even more miraculous methods. We find similar stories of hands-on healing throughout world history.
The earliest pharmacopoeia all include cannabis as an important medicine, a tradition that continued down to (almost) modern times when cannabis tinctures and medicines were available over the counter until marijuana prohibition began in the US in 1937. We’ve already addressed the importance of the endocannabinoid system and how cannabinoid chemicals help to maintain the dynamic balance of the various systems of the body. By encouraging homeostasis, the balance of all the systems and processes in your body, cannabis can act as a powerful medicine and can reset many aspects of the organism. There are also some important allopathic effects of cannabis, including improved metabolism and insulin resistance (important in treating diabetes),110 bronchodilation (important in treating asthma and other respiratory problems),111 lower ocular pressure (which helps to treat glaucoma),112 antitumor effects (important as an adjunct in cancer therapy),113 and much more.114 Cannabis can also activate the healing processes associated with laughter.
There are at least a couple other related healing mechanisms that can act in concert with the pharmacological and humor-inducing aspects of the herb. These are at the less-studied, more magical end of the healing spectrum: energy healing and belief change.
We’ve already discussed the reality-selection properties of the cannabis experience. At the level of the individual neuron, cannabinoids signal whether a new neural pathway is strengthened or deleted. Ultimately, the collection of all such strengthened neural pathways defines how we perceive and respond to the world around us. At the level of observable thought and behavior, cannabis gives us greater access to the super-position of choices that eventually result in the new neural pathways. In short, there’s a state of possibility, suspension of disbelief, and an openness to new ideas and beliefs.
Dr. Andrew Weil characterized cannabis as an “active placebo,” 115 a substance that has definite pharmacological effects that also support the actions of set and setting, belief, and expectation. If your set includes the belief that something will heal, the placebo effect suggests that it will heal. The effects of cannabis let you know that something is happening, and if your beliefs are aligned, you can accept that what is happening is the healing that was intended. One way of thinking about this is that cannabis makes the placebo effect more noticeable and reliable.
So along with the actual pharmacological healing properties of the herb, cannabis can heal by helping to create and manage the sense of possibility and the belief in that healing—which sounds like it could be a description of the much-derided practice called faith healing.
There are numerous methods that are used to create hands-on healing. Some are honest and likely effective. Some are scams—sort of. The most basic sort of faith healing scam uses what hypnotists call convincer strategies. That is, a situation or experience is created in which the subject becomes convinced that healing is taking place. This is not unlike the action of an active placebo—something is happening and because of the frame in which we encounter it, we can accept that what is happening is the intended healing. A strong belief that develops in this way can trigger a placebo response and cause real healing.
One often-seen method used by televangelists is more like a stage hypnosis routine than a system of healing. The preacher touches or gestures at a person and suddenly they feel weak or off-balance and they fall to the floor. To the audience (and maybe to the subject, too), it looks like the power of the preacher has knocked them over. In actuality it is a simple hypnotic technique that creates a unique feeling in the body and, if directed that way, weakness in the legs that allows the person to be knocked over easily.116 The hypnotic technique itself has little to do with healing, except that it can convince the subject of the power of the preacher (or the preacher’s favorite deity) and develop a belief that healing is taking place … a belief that can, itself, heal.
Other examples of trickery leading to belief and healing can be found in the classic shaman’s sleight of hand trick, seemingly removing an evil object from the subject. A more involved form of this might be the psychic surgeons who perform simulated surgery and “remove” all kinds of unusual objects and substances from the subjects. Again, it’s sleight of hand with an extra helping of theatrics, but some subjects do report healing.
More honest healing methods can be found in the fields of energy medicine, kinesiology, Touch for Health, Reiki, EFT, and others. These variously involve running attention along energy meridians, touching or tapping, massage, visualization of symbols in chakras, and similar techniques. While some not yet fully understood energy may be responsible for some of the effects, part of it may have to do with attention being directed to various parts of the body in particular ways.
Studies have demonstrated that giving attention to something that is happening to your body increases blood flow to those regions, while ignoring or being distracted from whatever is happening reduces blood flow.117 Simply put, if you concentrate on part of your body, more blood will flow to that part. More blood makes an area of the body warmer, more oxygenated, better supplied with neurotransmitters, better able to flush toxins, and so on. Combine this healing effect with a strong belief that healing will happen and seemingly miraculous things can occur.
Of course we are, once again, talking about neurosomatic energy, all of which suggests that cannabis may be a key to real and deep healing using these techniques.
Basic Energy Healing
Healing Yourself
Clear your space and your mind in whatever way is appropriate. Get high with your preferred method. Take a few minutes and simply sit or lie and, with eyes open or closed, become aware of your body–not only the problem area but the whole system. Take a few yogic breaths. As you continue to scan your body, notice how you represent it to yourself in your mind’s eye. Do different areas feel differently? Does your mind assign different colors to different areas of the body? Or vibrations and sounds? Notice the difference in how you perceive relatively healthy parts of your system compared with the problem area(s). Is there a particular feeling or color or sound that is associated with health? Focus on the problem area and allow that healthy feeling, color, or sound to flow into that area. Notice as the healthy perceptions fill that area. The method of meditation applies—if you break concentration, acknowledge the break and return to concentration. When you begin to tire or it becomes more difficult to keep the good energy flowing, then stop. Practice pranayama for a few minutes, then rest and notice any differences in how you feel.
Healing Others
Clear your mind and space as best you can. If appropriate and acceptable, both healer and the person to be healed can get high. If it’s not appropriate for both, then just the healer can partake. Increase rapport by pacing breath or other unconscious aspects of behavior. The healer then takes a few moments to practice pranayama or a trance induction technique. When a deeper altered state has been achieved, the healer sits quietly and, with eyes open or closed, scans the person to be healed. Simply allow your awareness to move from the person’s head down to their toes and back. Notice any impressions, colors, feelings, sounds, vibrations, etc., that you experience as you do this. Notice how it feels/looks/sounds when you scan healthy parts of the body and how it is different in the problem area. Then, breathing deeply and comfortably, concentrate on the subject’s problem area and imagine it filling with a flow of good energy that matches the energy in healthy areas of their body. Again, the method of meditation applies, and when you tire or find the concentration more difficult, then stop, breathe deeply for a few minutes, and rest. At this point, you can ask the person to be healed how they feel and if they notice any differences.
The Healing Yourself and Healing Others exercises can be practiced as often as necessary. It’s a good idea to only work on others when they agree to the healing and you are feeling healthy yourself. Check in with your own feelings and with the feelings of the others being healed and make sure that you or they are continuing to improve. And, again, consult a medical doctor for any chronic or recurring problems.
Of course, there are many more complicated methods and systems of energy healing. Most do not discuss the use of cannabis as a way to enhance the techniques,118 so I will repeat my general suggestion for exploration: learn the techniques without cannabis first, then combine carefully.
109. Bennett, 2010.
110. Di Marzo, Vincenzo et al. “Cannabinoids and Endocannabinoids in Metabolic Disorders With Focus On Diabetes.” Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, 2011, 75–104. https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/21484568/abstract/Cannabinoids_and_Endocannabinoids_in_Metabolic_Disorders_with_Focus_on_Diabetes_.
111. Pini, A. et al. “The role of cannabinoids in inflammatory modulation of allergic respiratory disorders, inflammatory pain and ischemic stroke.” Curr Drug Targets, June ١٣, ٢٠١٢, 984–93. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22420307.
112. Pertwee, Roger. “Targeting the endocannabinoid system with cannabinoid receptor agonists: pharmacological strategies and therapeutic possibilities,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0381.
113. Velasco Diez, Gulillermo et al., “Anti-tumoral effects of cannabinoid combinations,” patent application, GW Pharma LTD [GB]; Otsuka Pharma Co LTD [JP]. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/description?CC=TW&NR=201002315A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=3&date=20100116&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP.
114. Granny Storm Crow’s List of Cannabis News and Studies. https://grannystormcrowslist.wordpress.com/the-list/.
115. Weil, Andrew. The Natural Mind: A Revolutionary Approach to the Drug Problem. Mariner Books, 2004.
116. See my DVD set How to be a Megalomaniac (Hawk Ridge Productions, 2000) for demonstrations and instructions on how to do this yourself. It’s a very impressive trick at parties and useful if you want to start your own cult.
117. Meyer et al. “Attention modulates somatosensory cerebral blood flow response to vibrotactile stimulation as measured by positron emission tomography.” Annals of Neurology, Volume 29, Issue 4, 1991.
118. Although some systems, such as ayurveda, include cannabis as an important and useful medicine.