weed, alcohol, drugs, meditation..etc. They dim the mind, apart from other effects of their own. Meditation is maybe the only one which doesn't give you unbearable urge to smile or cry, or create lag in your movement and so on.

Effects of meditation last longer, for you gain them slower. Getting drunk happens relatively fast, and so does sobering up. But the result is same for all of them.

You'll turn into a child in wonderland and everything will be so much fun again, cuz nothing will matter.

@calonlan there is a difference between all of those things but if you did not experience them you cannot know it. weeds alcool drugs have only temporary effect on you.meditation you get to know your self in truth and solve your inner puzzle. and it as lasting effect that are all positive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation

Meditation has been linked to a variety of health benefits. A study of college students by Oman et al. (2008) found that meditation may produce physiological benefits by changing neurological processes. This finding was supported by an expert panel at the National Institutes of Health. The practice of meditation has also been linked with various favourable outcomes that include:

“effective functioning, including academic performance, concentration, perceptual sensitivity, reaction time, memory, self control, empathy, and self esteem.”(Oman et al., 2008, pg. 570) In their evaluation of the effects of two meditation-based programs they were able to conclude that meditating had stress reducing effects and cogitation, and also increased forgiveness.

Recent investigations of mediation have linked it to increased intelligence through physical growth of the brain. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and MIT conducted brain scans that reveal an increased thickness in the parts of the brain that deal with attention and sensory input processing. Using magnetic resonance imaging, they visualized variations in the thickness of the cerebral cortex of experienced Buddhist Insight meditation practitioners.

The data show that regular practice of meditation is associated with increased thickness in a subset of cortical regions related to somatosensory, auditory, visual and interoceptive processing. Further, regular meditation practice may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex, leading to longer lasting executive functioning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8wkQQ9qxsg The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. "Whoever has come to understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world." "Two will rest on a bed: the one will die, and the other will live." There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness."God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

@white tiger, I didn't say drugs, alcohol or weed are good for body. Just that they have the same result as meditation. It's a different mean, different path, to the same place. And I know there is a difference between walking through park, or a mine field. Still I walk through the mine field myself sometimes. Perhaps out of boredom, or to avoid routine. :)

@calonlan how can alcool and drug have the same result as meditation? since alcool and drugs is only a temporary effect on you that does not put you in truth about your self.alcool play with your inhibition and with your feeling bring it more to the surface, so you will feel more good or more bad,depending on what you experience at the moment. as for drugs they also each have different effect that are only temporary and play with your perception.

@white tiger, and when these feelings are brought to their max, you might be able to see absurdity of them and see past them. It's when you senses run on their max, you can see the imprisonment they hold you in. And in the end, once you know the lie and the truth, you can live in a lie without suffering for you'll always live in truth as well.

Alcoholism or drugs is only a problem if used as a solution.

@calonlan the only imprisonment,is the darkness (ego) that is the only thing that hold you anny where.the truth will set you free,once this is done nothing hold you anny where but your own choice.the wind blow where ever it wish you hear the sound it makes but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.as for alcool or drugs,if you always have the choice to take or not take then it is not a problem for you.it becomes a problem when you do not have the choice anny more.

the alcoholic as not the choice anny more to stop drinking and it is the problem. the people that judge someone that take a beer as alcoholic even if he is not are making that choice out of judgement and it becomes a problem. as long as you have the choice it is not a problem.After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you."

so make wise choice.

@Victtoria- on the subject of alcohol and getting high, i couldn't resist posting this quote by Hunter S. Thomson "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me"

@blu lol! which reminded me of the Henny Youngman's quote. "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." Then I went to Google & found a few more.This is for your bud Cal,"I don't do drugs. I am drugs."~Salvador Dali. For dear, dear wt who seems to obsesse about sin, "When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!" Brian O'Rourke Sweet Dreams

@ele- love it :D

@blubird two @ele

Haha -- amazing

@ele it seams that you did not read my comment.or if you have read it you did not understand it. we see sin differently. like jesus said you judge according to human standard. i see sin as when you do something bad to you or someone else from your own inner darkness.you have free will to drink or do what ever you want and are responsible of it.what you put in your mouth will not defile you ,what comes out of your mouth will defile you.

@white tiger Where is your sense of humor? Perhaps you will like this one better. A private joke between you & me. "When I heated my home with oil, I used an average of 800 gallons a year. I have found that I can keep comfortably warm for an entire winter with slightly over half that quantity of beer." ~ Dave Barry (no furnace yet & I really don't need one as long as the laughs keep coming)

@ele ha(!) cute

it may be that the altered state when initiated from the outside instead of from the inside is less pure. so do we let ourselves be feed off of as we feed our separation of body and mind or do we truly find it from self-consciousness