What's the effect of alcohol on spiritual growth?

[kever]

I'd like to know the degree of influence alcohol has on one's spiritual growth (assuming there is one). So for example if you meditate every day for an hour and drink once a year/month/week/day.. How much of a set-back is it? How much work do you un-do? Or do you automatically come back to your previous high consciousness level?

[Recursoinominado]

6 minutes ago, kever said:

How much of a set-back is it?

Not much more than when you eat junkie food or something.

Only a temporarily lowering in consciousness, but it can be socially valuable, so I still drink socially once a week or less.

It is just fun.

My point is: relax, it is fine.

[Snader]

It's not like if you drink X bottles of beer you lose Y amount of consciousness which equals Z hours of meditation.

Alcohol does lower your consciousness. When you're drunk, you're not much conscious, obviously.

In the long run it also lowers your base-level consciousness, but you need to take a look at how it does that. What does this substance exactly do to you mentally and physically and what is your relationship to it? Obviously, all the time you spend wasted is away from your time to do spiritual practices, but there are lots of other factors that lead to your loss of consciousness. 

Look at what it does to your health, then look at the role that health has in different aspects in your life and how important those aspects are to your capability to do spirituality, not to mention basic personal development. Look at how much alcohol plays with your emotions, how much it clouds your judgement, how it tricks you to make decisions that are not aligned with your higher-self, that you are later married to.

I'm not saying that quitting alcohol completely is the solution. It pretty much depend on where you're at and what your relationship to alcohol is, but by looking at those factors mentioned above, we can make the statement, that if you want to maximize the amount of consciousness work you will be able to do and the gains you get from it, you want to work your way to minimum, and eventually zero alcohol consumption.

[kinesin]

@kever  Avoiding alcohol completely outside of rare social occasions/celebrations is probably the best way to use it.  I do believe that when used very rarely, alcohol can have certain spiritual benefits, and also creates a brainstate which loosens inhibitions among groups which leads to greater cohesion.  Anyone who's ever gotten drunk with friends and shared intimate information with one another knows about that.

As far as drinking more often than that, it depends on how much you trust the data on its safety.  In the UK for example the official medical advice is that anything less than 14 units of alcohol per week is pretty much safe (though not 100% obviously).  14 units is 7 glasses of wine or 14 single shots of 40% spirits.  I would imagine that those numbers would be very different if the UK didn't happen to be a drinking culture, however.  Why do I mention physical safety when you asked about spirituality?  Well, keeping your body healthy is part of the spiritual practice.

Another thing to consider would be how alcohol affects you personally.  Does having a drink lead to changes in your behaviour, thinking, or the things you do?  Are those changes spiritually beneficial or detrimental?  Do they help your spiritual progress, or hinder it?  Only you can answer this question for yourself.

Acutely speaking, alcohol is utterly incompatible with traditional spiritual practices such as meditation, yoga or prayer.  Don't believe me?  Have a couple of drinks and then sit down to meditate, and see what happens.  The 'monkey mind' is greatly increased, focus and awareness are practically gone.

Edited June 10, 2021 by kinesin

[Snader]

3 minutes ago, kinesin said:

I do believe that when used very rarely, alcohol can have certain spiritual benefits, and also creates a brainstate which loosens inhibitions among groups which leads to greater cohesion.  Anyone who's ever gotten drunk with friends and shared intimate information with one another knows about that.

I wouldn't call paralyzing your prefrontal cortex to lose your capability to do proper reasoning spiritual.

The aspect of feeling unity is nice, but the way you do it is far from spiritual. It goes to a category of ''drinking a bottle of Vodka to last longer in bed is spiritual, because it promotes intimacy''.

I do get your point there though.

[kinesin]

@Snader This is why I said it should only be used very rarely.  Personally I do ascribe to Nietzsche's view that the Apollonian and Dionysian modes both play valuable roles in the optimally lived life and that there's huge benefits to be found in occasionally throwing off the shackles of reason and rolling around in the dirt like a dog.  Sure you won't be doing any theological research in that mindset, but that isn't really what it's for.

Getting drunk once a year with friends is perfectly compatible with a spiritual life, and possibly even enhances it.

[RMQualtrough]

When you get wasted, you're just getting God wasted. God is what feels your drunkenness. God is what feels your sense of self and separation. God is what feels your spiritual leanings.

There is no escape from God, so it is all fine.

[Moksha]

Eckhart Tolle's advice is moderation. If you can have a glass or two of wine and stop there, go for it. If it leads to a deluge of drinking, don't drink at all. Addictions are antagonistic to spirituality. They are bondage, when what you really want is freedom. Rather than asking whether alcohol inevitably inhibits spirituality, ask whether it is addictive for you.

[impulse9]

Alcohol can raise your consciousness to significant levels, the only problem is that the price is very high.

[Snader]

37 minutes ago, kinesin said:

 there's huge benefits to be found in occasionally throwing off the shackles of reason and rolling around in the dirt like a dog.

Sure, I'm all up for that. Practically it's really useful in many cases and even mandatory in some. But if we take a look at that activity closer; why is there the need to do that in the first place? Apparently, it's just to get strong contrast from what you do most of your time so that you can keep your head straight, but there is no absolute reason it should be drinking alcohol per se. If you need a break and want to release some fumes from time to time, I think there would be other ways to do that than getting drunk. Although if you were e.g. a philosopher who's life is all about having a clear mind and your bread on your table depended on that, then maybe getting drunk and fucking up with your brain could be the way to go, but I don't think that's what spirituality is. I think if you were a natural human being without any social conditioning or any other altering of mind, you wouldn't have the need to release and let off. I think the need is caused by something ''non-spiritual''.

In today's mainstream society where alcohol is a fundamental social aspect, I agree that it is useful to get drunk once in a while for the sake of balance, especially if you are doing personal development. But still, alcohol doesn't pass my standards for spirituality.

[Bob Seeker]

It ain’t good for your brain. 
I avoid it entirely.

 

[Nos7algiK]

I would say outside of daily heaving drinking or having some type of dependency on the substance, the worse effect it can have on you is the guilt you may feel after for drinking it. Guilt itself can be a very low consciousness emotion and can/will lead to further suffering or more low conscious actions. So if you wish to drink with moderation or in a social setting, go for it. Just try not to feel bad about it after and things will return back to normal fairly quickly.

If you want to never drink again go for it. But, to stop something yet always have the thought of wanting to do it can be counter-intuitive and cause other issues to rise to the surface. If you can not drink and also not really give drinking much thought then this is a much more healthy way of going about it.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Nos7algiK

[Endangered-EGO]

I'm an alcoholic. Take my word.

I am kind of spiritually lucky. Experienced nothingness with 16 and remember infinity during feaver when I was a child.

I drink 2-3 liters of beer every day. Even when you're sober you cannot meditate. You need abstinance to have your maximum level of concentration/consciousness.

 

Alcohol makes you depressed. When you're drunk you can't be conscious, and thd day(s) after you're drunk you can't be conscious or meditate.

 

Of course it depends on the quantity. But this only damages your "progress" tremendously. I have an EEG at home I can show you the difference in brainwaves when I am drunk, when I drank the day before and when I am sober for a few days. The difference is ENORMOUS.

 

So take my advice alcohol will not bring you 1 millimeter further, in fact it will bring you miles away from consciousness. It's ridiculous how big of an impact it makes.

 

If you need further proof I can document it with my EEG and my personal experience. But until I find the motivation to do it, you'll just have to trust me when I say that for enlightenment/awakening, alcohol is the biggest hindrance possible (unless you  take other drugs I haven't tried)

[kever]

@impulse9 In my experience it only dims my senses, don't see how it would increase consciousness?

[kever]

Thanks for all of your input, people!

[impulse9]

7 minutes ago, kever said:

@impulse9 In my experience it only dims my senses, don't see how it would increase consciousness?

By lowering your inhibitions and letting your subconscious out. "In vino veritas" isn't just a cute saying. Not that I recommend alcohol for spiritual purpose, but think about how alcohol is literally called "spirit" - ever wonder why?

In any case, don't under-estimate alcohol. It's a very dangerous, addictive drug with nasty side-effects.

[kever]

@impulse9 Yes, you lower your inhibitions because you become unconcious of them as I see it. The etymology of alcohol is indeed interesting. Thanks for the info!