Jellyman64
Δ Kavanaut Δ
Main Idea:
So I have some curiosities surrounding spirituality and Kava, in regards to our minds and souls. I would like to open these questions to all of you, for any kind of interpretation and answer, all is welcome. If you believe in a deity and have a strong view on what the soul is, I would love to hear what you have to say. If you are an atheist and deny the existence of the soul, I also welcome your dialogue. It doesn't matter what you believe or what you practice, I am looking for any kind of answer. I am a big believer in looking at a question from many different points of view, and I believe that you, the reader, can help me!
Questions:
A) Is kava inherently spiritual or psychedelic?
B) How does kava interact with the ego?
C) How is the soul affected by kava?
My Take:
I will preface this by saying I consider myself an open-minded agnostic, in that I think the divine could exist, but I haven't found any compelling evidence that allows me personally to understand it. I also have a rather material view of the universe, that things are comprised of matter and energy. So I do not feel as though the soul is this mystical, etherial wisp, but I also do not deny that the soul exists. I see it more in a metaphorical and psychological sense - that the consciousness, frame of experience, and the sensation of any given person is completely unique and cannot be replicated by anything else. For me this means that someone's brain is a big part of this "soul" which is in between the lines, so to speak. The soul for me is a representation of the sum and sensation of one's given memory, personality, consciousness, and active existence. I have a marriage of psychological concepts and of metaphor as my understanding of the soul.
That being said, let me try to address my curiosities with my own beliefs.
A) Is kava inherently spiritual or psychedelic?
I have seen quite a bit of anecdotal writings on kava being used in spiritual ways, as a way to cleanse bad emotions, or to heal the body. But I haven't heard much about specifically what people believe on how kava has spiritual properties. Is it solely because of the psychoactive constituents, or is it something else? "Pure" kavalactone extracts found by various scrupulous vendors seem to have a very barebones psychoactivity in most cases - and so my idea is that perhaps the full range of constituents needed to induce the mood altering feelings, and thereby the "full" kava experience, aren't simply just kavalactones. The plant Piper Methysticum surely has much more complex and complicated amounts of various compounds, all of which can't yet be fully understood as to how they affect the metabolization and effect of kavalactones. The traditional prep is somewhat of a ritual, and is the best avenue to a full spectrum of the experience.
I also have to wonder how expectation plays into the properties of kava's spiritual nature. If one is to already see it as a mystic root enabling expansion of the mind and soul, then perhaps that belief influences the user's experience. This is basically like the placebo effect, except on an already psychoactive drink, which means that perhaps the effect could be augmented and multiplied by the real chemical effects. Kava is used as tradition in many countries, and that leads me to wonder if it has a reputation which emboldens the idea of it being spiritual. Such tradition would also effect the user's expectation, surely!
Some people have even touted that heavier kavas used in large amounts have a near psychedelic quality, and so again it makes me wonder as to why this would be, when kavalactones from a purely biochemical perspective do not induce hallucinations or any other markers of a psychedelic agent. This is where my idea dips into the spiritual - or maybe a form some would view as pseudo-science. Perhaps the mind itself creates the experience in tandem with kava's psychoactive constituents. Kava is known to speak to people, in many accounts, (such as the phrase "listen to the kava") and so perhaps it interacts with the subconscious in a much deeper, less strictly chemical way. Maybe the more potent effects people feel are a manifestation of the desire to grow and feel well, as in the altered state the unconscious seems to be more readily accessible. This is true for many substances, but many times directly in the mind-altering effects. In kava it seems again to be an emergent property from within the experience of the kava drinker.
While not fully explaining why kava can have these properties, it seems to be a worthwhile idea - in the unconscious one's personality and memories are interacted with differently while the brain is affected by kavalactones. This could cause a number of phenomena which are fully psychosomatic. I wouldn't argue that this is a false experience or that is a trick, because these experiences are as genuine as it gets.
B) How does kava interact with the ego?
This question is more tied to how kava shines a light on the drinker's personality. As we all know, Alcohol which is metabolized similarly to kava (but is infinitely more dangerous and toxic) has ego-boosting effects. They call it "social lubricant" for a reason, and this can be a positive effect for many and a destructive for even more. Since kava is a depressant which acts through the liver and inebriates the user in some fashion (although less in cognition, and more in body) it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that, like alcohol, kava has some kind of impact on a person's ego. This is where the similarities end, however, because kava is well-known to not induce the stupor and fiery bombasticisms that alcohol does in high quantities. As a tradtitional Hawaiian proverb goes, "The man who drinks kava is still a man, but the man who drinks liquors becomes a beast." It would take an already vindictive and angry person to drink kava and decide to fight a stranger. So while many people say that kava has a social aspect, it doesn't have the volatility of effect on the ego that alcohol does. But with the assumption that it does indeed influence the ego, the bigger question is how?
Going with the previous idea of how spiritual the experience with kava can be, it is tempting to say that kava reduces the drinker's ego. Most psychedelic compounds are believed to dissolve the ego in some fashion, and so if kava truly can allow for an emergent effect on at least a fraction of that depth, then it is reasonable to assume kava does at least slightly reduce it. Another tempting association to make is how the depressant effects in of themselves seem to encourage slowing down and relaxing, so surely the ego is in a lowered state! This could be a compelling association if the much heavier depressant effects of alcohol lowered the ego more - but this simply is not true. So perhaps its nature as a depressant has no bearing on how it interacts with the ego inherently, and the effects are more related to the other emergent properties of the experience.
As I suggested in the previous section, the experience of having kava seems to operate on a subconscious level as well as a conscious one. Maybe then, instead of the noticeable psychoactive effects being the cause of the egoic interaction, it is the subconscious effects that truly shine. The lasting anxiolytic effects even after the initial ones seem to suggest a lasting property on the mind. Is this purely because of the chemical reaction, or is it a psychological response to the serenity that kava brings? It is hard to say. The research suggests a few options:
"A psychophysiologic study of kavain (Klinge Pharma, Munich, Germany) found pharmacodynamic peaks at 1-2 hours and eight hours, suggesting active metabolites. Peak levels occurred at 1.8 hours, with an elimination half-life of approximately nine hours and a distribution half-life of 50 minutes." Link to study >
However, " In a study of the metabolism of several kava lactones in male rats, it was observed that about one-half of the 400mg/kg dose of dihydrokavain administered was found in the urine in 48 hours." Link to study >
I am not personally familiar with the effects of each kavalactones, but this seems to correlate with the effects - the initial effects, which are mostly conscious, stop distributing after 50 minutes. Then the anti anxiety effects seem to linger for much longer, some have said 48-72 hours. No doubt there is still the constituents in the body at that point, but what about the initial session's illuminating effect on their own self-understanding?
Personally I feel more in tune with my body and soul when I have kava, and this effect lasts longer than the kava stays in the body. For me this means that I have had an illuminating experience with the kava, and that as a result of nature's gift to me, my ego is lowered, and I am much more humble and open minded. I am not sure if this is across the board for others here, but for this reason alone I feel it has immense benefits to a spiritual and philosophical perspective on life. So the experiences themselves seem to grant new knowledge, allowing your mind to make new associations which might not have occurred had you not decided to have a shell. For me this allows spiritual growth in my understanding of my relationship to this wonderful root, and thereby to the outside world.
C) How is the soul affected by kava?
I'd say this is a more spiritually-oriented question than my previous two, and relies much heavier on perspective and beliefs. This can be opinion, but remember that this too can be just as powerful as the more physical examination of the effects, because someone's experience is absolutely unique, it is the all encompassing and genuine marker of a soul's interaction with existence.
So, even though I do not believe in any astral plane or celestial beings, I do admit that many topics cannot be explained by human understanding. Like how the vast and complex network of neurons of a brain can coalesce into a conscious being which can produce information that is more vast than itself. We can grasp the abstract through language, a complex system of referential and representative symbols pointing to 'ideas' or descriptions of experiences. We have a lot of power in this existence even though we as a species are minuscule compared to the vastness of the cosmos. Our own experiences make up the meaningfulness of the very universe we inhabit. If we think based on the old question, "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?", the answer is yes, of course, but the bigger question is "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it matter at all?" and this is much more difficult to answer. Perhaps it is arrogant to say we are the reason the universe has meaning, but I am simply saying in more specific terms that we are the reason our experience of the outside universe has meaning. Without us to experience it, there is an empty theater in the dark, basked in the glow of the cosmos, with a lonely abyss of empty chairs. I am not saying that we are the most important thing to the universe, but certainly to ourselves in reference to the universe. We are us.
All this being said, as we illuminate ourselves by drinking kava, we also illuminate the kava itself. Without our selection for and breeding of Piper Methysticum, this life form would be just another plant in the vast forests of the natural world. We have given this plant a purpose, and an avenue to illuminate and enrich another species. Much like how our experience of the universe gives meaning to the universe itself, our experience of kava gives meaning to kava itself. In my opinion, our soul is uplifted and healed by kava's embrace. Not only does it heal our bodies and our minds, but it reinforces the cycle of meaning in the universe, by granting us new sensations and experiences. Kava is a wonderful root and has helped me immensely in understanding myself and my meaning to the universe.
I hope that you all find my ideas insightful! I would love to discuss differing ideas about this topic, which I am so passionate about. Thanks for taking the time to read!
So I have some curiosities surrounding spirituality and Kava, in regards to our minds and souls. I would like to open these questions to all of you, for any kind of interpretation and answer, all is welcome. If you believe in a deity and have a strong view on what the soul is, I would love to hear what you have to say. If you are an atheist and deny the existence of the soul, I also welcome your dialogue. It doesn't matter what you believe or what you practice, I am looking for any kind of answer. I am a big believer in looking at a question from many different points of view, and I believe that you, the reader, can help me!
Questions:
A) Is kava inherently spiritual or psychedelic?
B) How does kava interact with the ego?
C) How is the soul affected by kava?
My Take:
I will preface this by saying I consider myself an open-minded agnostic, in that I think the divine could exist, but I haven't found any compelling evidence that allows me personally to understand it. I also have a rather material view of the universe, that things are comprised of matter and energy. So I do not feel as though the soul is this mystical, etherial wisp, but I also do not deny that the soul exists. I see it more in a metaphorical and psychological sense - that the consciousness, frame of experience, and the sensation of any given person is completely unique and cannot be replicated by anything else. For me this means that someone's brain is a big part of this "soul" which is in between the lines, so to speak. The soul for me is a representation of the sum and sensation of one's given memory, personality, consciousness, and active existence. I have a marriage of psychological concepts and of metaphor as my understanding of the soul.
That being said, let me try to address my curiosities with my own beliefs.
A) Is kava inherently spiritual or psychedelic?
I have seen quite a bit of anecdotal writings on kava being used in spiritual ways, as a way to cleanse bad emotions, or to heal the body. But I haven't heard much about specifically what people believe on how kava has spiritual properties. Is it solely because of the psychoactive constituents, or is it something else? "Pure" kavalactone extracts found by various scrupulous vendors seem to have a very barebones psychoactivity in most cases - and so my idea is that perhaps the full range of constituents needed to induce the mood altering feelings, and thereby the "full" kava experience, aren't simply just kavalactones. The plant Piper Methysticum surely has much more complex and complicated amounts of various compounds, all of which can't yet be fully understood as to how they affect the metabolization and effect of kavalactones. The traditional prep is somewhat of a ritual, and is the best avenue to a full spectrum of the experience.
I also have to wonder how expectation plays into the properties of kava's spiritual nature. If one is to already see it as a mystic root enabling expansion of the mind and soul, then perhaps that belief influences the user's experience. This is basically like the placebo effect, except on an already psychoactive drink, which means that perhaps the effect could be augmented and multiplied by the real chemical effects. Kava is used as tradition in many countries, and that leads me to wonder if it has a reputation which emboldens the idea of it being spiritual. Such tradition would also effect the user's expectation, surely!
Some people have even touted that heavier kavas used in large amounts have a near psychedelic quality, and so again it makes me wonder as to why this would be, when kavalactones from a purely biochemical perspective do not induce hallucinations or any other markers of a psychedelic agent. This is where my idea dips into the spiritual - or maybe a form some would view as pseudo-science. Perhaps the mind itself creates the experience in tandem with kava's psychoactive constituents. Kava is known to speak to people, in many accounts, (such as the phrase "listen to the kava") and so perhaps it interacts with the subconscious in a much deeper, less strictly chemical way. Maybe the more potent effects people feel are a manifestation of the desire to grow and feel well, as in the altered state the unconscious seems to be more readily accessible. This is true for many substances, but many times directly in the mind-altering effects. In kava it seems again to be an emergent property from within the experience of the kava drinker.
While not fully explaining why kava can have these properties, it seems to be a worthwhile idea - in the unconscious one's personality and memories are interacted with differently while the brain is affected by kavalactones. This could cause a number of phenomena which are fully psychosomatic. I wouldn't argue that this is a false experience or that is a trick, because these experiences are as genuine as it gets.
B) How does kava interact with the ego?
This question is more tied to how kava shines a light on the drinker's personality. As we all know, Alcohol which is metabolized similarly to kava (but is infinitely more dangerous and toxic) has ego-boosting effects. They call it "social lubricant" for a reason, and this can be a positive effect for many and a destructive for even more. Since kava is a depressant which acts through the liver and inebriates the user in some fashion (although less in cognition, and more in body) it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that, like alcohol, kava has some kind of impact on a person's ego. This is where the similarities end, however, because kava is well-known to not induce the stupor and fiery bombasticisms that alcohol does in high quantities. As a tradtitional Hawaiian proverb goes, "The man who drinks kava is still a man, but the man who drinks liquors becomes a beast." It would take an already vindictive and angry person to drink kava and decide to fight a stranger. So while many people say that kava has a social aspect, it doesn't have the volatility of effect on the ego that alcohol does. But with the assumption that it does indeed influence the ego, the bigger question is how?
Going with the previous idea of how spiritual the experience with kava can be, it is tempting to say that kava reduces the drinker's ego. Most psychedelic compounds are believed to dissolve the ego in some fashion, and so if kava truly can allow for an emergent effect on at least a fraction of that depth, then it is reasonable to assume kava does at least slightly reduce it. Another tempting association to make is how the depressant effects in of themselves seem to encourage slowing down and relaxing, so surely the ego is in a lowered state! This could be a compelling association if the much heavier depressant effects of alcohol lowered the ego more - but this simply is not true. So perhaps its nature as a depressant has no bearing on how it interacts with the ego inherently, and the effects are more related to the other emergent properties of the experience.
As I suggested in the previous section, the experience of having kava seems to operate on a subconscious level as well as a conscious one. Maybe then, instead of the noticeable psychoactive effects being the cause of the egoic interaction, it is the subconscious effects that truly shine. The lasting anxiolytic effects even after the initial ones seem to suggest a lasting property on the mind. Is this purely because of the chemical reaction, or is it a psychological response to the serenity that kava brings? It is hard to say. The research suggests a few options:
"A psychophysiologic study of kavain (Klinge Pharma, Munich, Germany) found pharmacodynamic peaks at 1-2 hours and eight hours, suggesting active metabolites. Peak levels occurred at 1.8 hours, with an elimination half-life of approximately nine hours and a distribution half-life of 50 minutes." Link to study >
However, " In a study of the metabolism of several kava lactones in male rats, it was observed that about one-half of the 400mg/kg dose of dihydrokavain administered was found in the urine in 48 hours." Link to study >
I am not personally familiar with the effects of each kavalactones, but this seems to correlate with the effects - the initial effects, which are mostly conscious, stop distributing after 50 minutes. Then the anti anxiety effects seem to linger for much longer, some have said 48-72 hours. No doubt there is still the constituents in the body at that point, but what about the initial session's illuminating effect on their own self-understanding?
Personally I feel more in tune with my body and soul when I have kava, and this effect lasts longer than the kava stays in the body. For me this means that I have had an illuminating experience with the kava, and that as a result of nature's gift to me, my ego is lowered, and I am much more humble and open minded. I am not sure if this is across the board for others here, but for this reason alone I feel it has immense benefits to a spiritual and philosophical perspective on life. So the experiences themselves seem to grant new knowledge, allowing your mind to make new associations which might not have occurred had you not decided to have a shell. For me this allows spiritual growth in my understanding of my relationship to this wonderful root, and thereby to the outside world.
C) How is the soul affected by kava?
I'd say this is a more spiritually-oriented question than my previous two, and relies much heavier on perspective and beliefs. This can be opinion, but remember that this too can be just as powerful as the more physical examination of the effects, because someone's experience is absolutely unique, it is the all encompassing and genuine marker of a soul's interaction with existence.
So, even though I do not believe in any astral plane or celestial beings, I do admit that many topics cannot be explained by human understanding. Like how the vast and complex network of neurons of a brain can coalesce into a conscious being which can produce information that is more vast than itself. We can grasp the abstract through language, a complex system of referential and representative symbols pointing to 'ideas' or descriptions of experiences. We have a lot of power in this existence even though we as a species are minuscule compared to the vastness of the cosmos. Our own experiences make up the meaningfulness of the very universe we inhabit. If we think based on the old question, "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?", the answer is yes, of course, but the bigger question is "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it matter at all?" and this is much more difficult to answer. Perhaps it is arrogant to say we are the reason the universe has meaning, but I am simply saying in more specific terms that we are the reason our experience of the outside universe has meaning. Without us to experience it, there is an empty theater in the dark, basked in the glow of the cosmos, with a lonely abyss of empty chairs. I am not saying that we are the most important thing to the universe, but certainly to ourselves in reference to the universe. We are us.
All this being said, as we illuminate ourselves by drinking kava, we also illuminate the kava itself. Without our selection for and breeding of Piper Methysticum, this life form would be just another plant in the vast forests of the natural world. We have given this plant a purpose, and an avenue to illuminate and enrich another species. Much like how our experience of the universe gives meaning to the universe itself, our experience of kava gives meaning to kava itself. In my opinion, our soul is uplifted and healed by kava's embrace. Not only does it heal our bodies and our minds, but it reinforces the cycle of meaning in the universe, by granting us new sensations and experiences. Kava is a wonderful root and has helped me immensely in understanding myself and my meaning to the universe.
I hope that you all find my ideas insightful! I would love to discuss differing ideas about this topic, which I am so passionate about. Thanks for taking the time to read!
