GHB is very subtle. The descriptions that abound on the Net and the street tend to be first off, analytical, scientific and, after awhile, similar.
There's the historical facts-Formulated originally as a precursor to the neurotransmitter gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) that could pass thru the blood brain barrier by the father of modern neuropharmacology, Henri Laborit, gamma hydroxybutyric acid has enjoyed more than 30 years of safe usage in Europe for a wide range of conditions. There were many interesting and useful the side effects of GHB. In fact it is the unforeseen physical side effects that accounts for the wide usage. These would be anaesthetia and deep sleep without disruption of normal cycles, cervical relaxation for childbirth, relaxation of neuromuscular palsies and spasms, removal of addiction reflexes among others. These are well documented and available on the Net. What really interested Laborit and colleagues like Rifat were the psychological and spiritually uplifting anti-depressive effects of GHB. This is the subject of this paper.
Because it is of the same class as MDMA (Ecstasy) there are some similarities between the two. There are, however, fundamental and significant differences between E and GHB.
Unlike MDMA, with GHB there is no stimulation or urge to action. If one chooses to move, there is abundant energy. Many athletes and ravers report almost a sense of infinite energy. If, on the other hand, one wishes to kick back, it is equally nice. GHB removes both inhibition and compulsion. It is very difficult to describe.
Psychologically, users report a deep openness to others and more significantly, to themselves. Many people report permanent resolution of long term inner crises and problems. People get over stuff they couldn't get over before. Many report a definite improvement in social relationships and personal character. People say that they are more like who they want to be. This is one concrete effect of GHB that appears to be crucial and beneficial for all, users and non-users alike. The healing of one person has an exponential effect on the people they encounter. Call it good karma or as my mad, wise friend, Spencer, who turned me onto GHB, prefers to call it-The Cascade of Resplendence.
The how of it is unknown, of course. There's the usual scientific blah blah ... of course. But, to quote another friend, "...nobody knows nuttin"..." its all guessing despite what anybody, including (especially) scientists tell people. This is called modeling. The purpose of constructing models is to increase understanding and the chances of constructing yet more accurate models and so on. The dominant regime always tries to legislate the accuracy of their model of reality and outlaw other competing models. I find it difficult to understand why the absurdity of this seems to escape most people. But as Robert Anton Wilson says, you know how dumb the average guy is?. well it is mathematically certain that half the people are even dumber than that. GHB appears to be the latest subject of the now classic reefer madness media disinformation campaign. There are currently few satisfactory models of why GHB does what it does. I propose this model for the effects of GHB for your evaluation.
I believe that the drug's various effects can be reduced to primary reason: the dissolution of fear. Consider fear for a moment. Consider exactly now vast a factor it is in our lives. Consider the mental and physical effects of fear. It may not be inaccurate to say that fear is THE factor governing people's lives. Now consider what your life might be like if, for a brief period of time, fear was vastly reduced. Guards dropped, shoulders relaxed, eyes unhooded, pelvis' unlocked, gaits loosed, hearts slowed, breathing smoothed, adrenaline absent, stomach unclenched, soul opened. Uncringed.
Mental and emotional problems express themselves physically, that goes without saying. And it is widely accepted now that the releasing of physical tensions result in the releasing of mental and emotional tensions. This didn't use to be the case. The first person to propose this radical theory and the father of modern bodywork as we know it today was Wilhelm Reich. He was the first of his profession to touch his patients and work on them with his hands. Bodywork pioneers like Rolf and Alexander were original Reich disciples. Rolf begat Heller of Hellerwork.
Reich was a first disciple of Freud along with Jung. He broke away and formed his own school of Natural Science. He believed that the physical and mental and social dis-ease (his term) is due to unresolved effects of fear and pain. The cringing of the body's muscles from trauma, armouring for protection, becomes habitual and characteristic, and themselves form the basis of lifelong physical, mental and emotional neuroses, independent of the long past trauma itself. The release of body armouring leads to the release of emotional and character armour and the reintergration of the individual with himself and society.
Reich's revolutionary social theories of the sexual guilt causes of the emotional plague, (the worship of the cult of dominance), dis-ease, and his discovery of practical technologies for weather control and free energy led to his persecution and the burning of his lab and books by the FDA. Reich died in prison. He was the Nikola Tesla of psychology and like Tesla, Reich's works are still taboo in North America.
If he were around Reich might have to consider GHB as another, simpler way to release armour besides bodywork. The effects he noted when his patients dropped their armour are almost exactly the reports of GHB users. An ability to move freely, really freely, for the first time ever, with full, deep feeling. I have connected to significant insights within my body, permanently, myself. Abundant energy released from holding habitual tension. The monsters under the bed looked at levelly and without fear, exposed as what they have always been, the mere terrors of a child. The fear that the body remembered as that child, finally relaxes and the child joins the adult in the present.
People on GHB feel able to move and to express themselves freely in the moment. They feel carefree and childlike in their trust of others and themselves. Depressives report an enhancement of life and sociability and a weaning from prescription mood drugs. Things are just much better all around it seems on GHB.
The other physical aspects of GHB are in rejuvenation and longevity. The results reported by athletes, especially older ones are astounding. Personal records tumbling like old growth redwoods. "Walls" smashed at whim. Yogic feats of power. Performance curves rising steeply where there was age related decline. I recently qualified for the main draw of a pro beach volleyball tournament. I was 44 and only 5'7". Alas, my 20 year post surgical trick knee ran out of tricks and we had the honour of getting creamed by the reigning olympic bronze medallists. My friend S. swims for 2 miles, holds complex and vigorous yogic headstands for a hour, then outruns marathoners half his age, all on the same day. His improvement curve really steepened 6 weeks after he started taking GHB. He's 48. Major buffage.
Recovery from performance is simply astonishing. As athletes get older, the dreaded morning after gets worse. With GHB, the ache and stiffness just isn't there. The feeling is one I describe as rebuilt. The enhanced growth hormone secretion effect (during the deep sleep cycle-up to 16 times of base level has been recorded) is apparent. This part of the sleep cycle is when repairs take place. It is significant to note that this is the part that decreases in duration with aging. Recovery and repair at teenage levels. Lean muscle mass increase, fat decrease. Deep healing sleep. These are some the critical aspects of longevity and rejuvenation. Oh, did I mention sex?
Men report stamina of wife-pleasing duration and multiple orgasms of unique and delightful difference along with the recovery abilities of a teenager. I have found that its tricky getting it just right. On GHB, I've experienced 5 orgasms in one night as well as absolutely no interest in passion. Just wanted to cuddle. Yep, you read that right. The women that I know, on the other hand, are unanimous in praising GHB for passion, intensity of sensation, height of climax, depth of intimacy, heat of er.. certain.. parts, soul connection. You'll have to talk to one yourself. It appears that most women's natural inhibition get in the way of them from expressing themselves sexually as they wish. I stress that GHB is not an aphrodisiac, it does not give sexual excitement. It merely allows it. The ability to allow another into one's defenses makes for deep connection. Whether this is all good or not depends on the individuals naturally. For me I think its a blessing. As Rifat so aptly says, to men on GHB, all women seem like goddesses and to women,all men seem like gods.
One of the paths of magick, a path to Oneness with the Self and All Creation, a path ancient, secret and vilified by fundamentalist religions is Tantra or the Way of The Sacred Union. The Way of The Union of Yin and Yang. There are many ways to tune and charge the human nervous system to resonate with the Cosmic. One of the most available and powerful ways is sex magick.
The excitation and harmonizing of the female and male sexual energies is combined and managed with esoteric breathing techniques and postures. The male climax is maintained at the edge but not allowed to crest; the female climax is brought to a peak and held there in one continuous undulating wave. The postures are designed to facilitate the connection. The breathing is to synchronize and resonate the energy.
It is interesting to note that GHB creates the same qualities that are desirable for the practice of Tantric Yoga.
Any thoughts or response on this?
Most folks would agree with me when I offer that emotional openness is desirable. It feels good. It feels good to feel. It feels good to feel good. Everything appears to be subtler, more sensitive, more complex and sophisticated. Most of us I think, have tried to figure out how to feel more, to be more open in our hearts.
Let me tell you, it ain't easy. OK it's a bitch. But worth it. At least speaking for myself. For one thing I am beginning to understand women and appreciate the heretofore alien emotional milieu they exist in. It had taken a very painful series of events to reach my tender but armored heart.
It was the usual, you know, betrayed and divorced by the woman of my life and mother of my son. I thought, why not go for it since we're already through the first, most painful cut. OK, it was more like flopping around like a dying fish and being dimly aware that nothing could be worse than this.
My strategy had run something like this. Feel everything to the utmost. Starting with the pain. If you try that sometime, you might very well find that not only is it more horrifying than you imagine, its more horrifying than you could imagine. This is a door I, like most people, had long avoided. The pain, the despair, the pain, the sadness, the pain, the pain, I understood, my body understood the pain of everything, more than that, I felt my true pain. I wept for a week.
And it felt great. I felt more alive than I had ever felt before. The colors were brighter, the air sweeter, my heart lighter. It was a feeling I had never encountered before, a deep soul peace and a sense of connection to all of existence. Hey, could it be?... Yes, I think it might be this thing I heard about. I think this might be.... joy.... This is SO COOL I can't believe. And so I felt joy. And so I felt my life had meaning, real meaning for the first time. Gut meaning. Soul meaning. Yeah, I started using the S word alot more. You see, it now was the paramount consideration of my life.
If something isn't soulful in some way; if there isn't going to be joy at some juncture; if it isn't going to concern depth and the infinite aspects of spirit, I have no interest in it. I am only really interested in the infinite, soulful aspects of existence. At this time an extraordinary book Thomas Moore's Care Of The Soul came into my life.
To get to the point finally, I value most of all, openness. I understand that to leave oneself emotionally open is the most courageous act of all. Armoring one's heart against hurt also armors it against everything else. You cannot select to feel only joy without also being vulnerable to pain. It is the eternal dilemma. There are no other choices-joy and pain or ...nothing at all. My heroes are musicians and actors who are able to reach deep inside themselves and expose their emotional selves for the edification of others. It is no accident that acting, dancing and singing were the first social arts. These soul shamans explore on our behalf the primal depths of our souls and help us all connect more deeply within ourselves. Next time you see or hear a soulfully authentic performance ask yourself how you know it is in fact real and why is it that you are so moved. The answer might be that the pain we all feel is the same pain. The love we all feel is the same love. These shared feelings, they are the basis of our true common humanity. {Note:Wilhelm Reich was the first western scientist who studied the sociological effects of mass character armouring or what he called the emotional plague. His ideas on lifeforce or Orgone (ch'i, mana, prana, etc) and dis-ease was so threatening to the establishment that he was imprisoned, his lab destroyed and books burned. Reich died in Lewisburg Penitentiary.}
Every waking moment we have to choose-remain open or close up.When I am on GHB I am open. Open. Unedited. Unfiltered. Available. Connecting. Connected. Inviting. Invited. Loving. Loved. Tender. Alive. Joyous. Present.
I enjoy especially connecting with those fascinating creatures, females. I enjoy the emotional landscape they have always lived in and which I am only just discovering. I am like a kid in a toy store all the time. I am able to communicate much more effectively. Makes me realize most women are much more open emotionally than men and that is their power. And their vulnerability of course. They can simply understand and see so much clearer from that open perspective. Flirting is wonderfully juicy and easy. GHB is it.
Recklessly flinging cliches about, I say that I have taken the road less traveled. The real rocky one. I feel that I finally have the right to the feelings I feel. I paid the steep price. I own them. I no longer doubt what I feel. I am finally, the authentic me. The impact of that on my life is indescribably profound. GHB allows me to temper my natural paranoia about opening up emotionally and to stay open. It makes it easier for me to continue my soul practice.
Col. W.E. Kurtz
9/12/97
Any personal reports, thoughts or response on this?