models often fail) because recovery relies on reconnection to the spirit and the self.
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It may seem paradoxical to use mind-altering substances to treat substance (and other) addictions but experience tells me that they can be extremely beneficial.
We need first to suspend any notion that ‘mind-altering’ equates with ‘bad’. The fear of taking consciousness-expanding plants is as old as the Bible and in Genesis is thematically expressed as the Fall. The fruit of the tree of knowledge had the ability to transform a person into a God but eating it for this very reason was thought to be bad. The Indians of the Amazon, where I live, also view plant medicines as a means to empowerment and the experience of the divine but their beliefs around this are somewhat different to our own: they regard such plants as nourishment for the soul and venerate them for their healing properties.
I have also seen such plants have the remarkable effect of freeing a person from otherwise destructive patterns of behaviour as part of my research over a number of years to find a method of treating addictions that had a better success rate than the often-quoted 30% of Western treatment models.
Despite their low rate of success I have great respect for 12-step programs but suspect that their achievements are due, for the most part, to their openness to individual spirituality and the opportunity they provide for the addict to deepen his or her connection to a more spiritual life.
This is certainly my own experience. I was born in Australia in 1960 and after a traumatic childhood started using alcohol and