I'm done with drugs and alcohol

[godwide_void]

If you use drugs you feed your animal body. The mind rationalizes that there are spiritual teachings in it.And the spirit will feed you spiritual teachings. But the mind follows the body and the spirit does it's own thing. It is better to have the body follow the mind and have that follow the spirit.

However, to dismiss any potential spiritual gnosis ascertained from the usage of natural sacraments as being a figment of the mind is

Returning to the addressing of Ali's quote above, you seem to be placing some sort of division on spiritual lessons and implying that the body and mind have no role in this.

You're missing my point godwide... I am not saying there are no spiritual lessons to be had. In fact I stated quite the opposite. I'm saying that unless the spiritual body controls the mental body and the mental body controls the physical body you are not having any spiritual lessons.

You're then just getting high and just getting stupid. And the only lesson to be had there is that on the long run it is not worth your time and energy.

When all bodies are properly aligned and the locus of control is from the top down you can do pretty much anything you like provided it does not disturb the locus of control.

If you take a drug because your body craves it. Not because a spiritual experience is waiting to come in. But your intellect rationalizes it as spiritual experience anyway.. Then you're just fooling yourself wasting your time, and claiming you're very spiritually active.

Spiritual experience and spiritual growth do not require the use of any drugs. Some may find their shamanic use facilitating. But that's all... The shamanic use of drugs is also totally different from the use of drugs we know in the west today. There is a whole lot of preparation required and body of knowledge associated.

To say that just ingesting a substance will lead to spiritual growth is naive at best and dangerous at worst.

I am in utmost agreement with you, especially in the notion that ingestion of a sacrament will constantly and consistently contribute to spiritual evolution, which it will not; I merely implied that these sacraments can produce such experiences for particular individuals, whether intended and sought or unintentional and spontaneous, not that every single instance of ingestion will lead to a spiritual experience by every single person whom partakes of them. Sacramental usage of entheogens runs the gamut of effects ranging from visionary states to communion, or as simple as extreme clarity and a more enhanced intuition. It must be considered however that there resides some form of intelligence in these plants which would explain why the results of symbiosis with them vary so widely.

If one's intention is to enter and utilize the experience for spiritual growth then chances are that spiritual growth will be attained in some form. Though it all comes down to set and setting, which further supports your statement that 'just' ingesting a substance will lead to spiritual growth. It isn't as simple as that.

The primary difference between the shamanic usage of substances and Western usage is in the mentality. Whereas the former predominately approached these sacraments with reverence, with the intention to grow closer with nature and strengthen their divine bonds and achieve spiritual ecstasy, the latter retain a mindset conditioned by Western culture and hold skepticism in regards to the effectiveness of how plants could possibly have such profound benefits, especially plants that our ancestors many millenia ago used and derived vast amounts of plant gnosis from.