From Pain to Joy (Part 2)

Our addictions offer intriguing lenses through which we can examine shared reality and even collective consciousness. Addictions manifest in various forms—physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual or energetic. Regardless of the behavior, belief system, emotion, or substance involved, addictions serve to numb, empower, or alter parts of our inner being, shaping our lived experiences and external reality in some ways.

Addiction acts as a universal tool and an omnipresent strategy for self-preservation and the safeguarding of our inner powers.

In truth, most people—if not all—are addicts in one way or another. The key distinctions lie in how skillfully, consciously, and masterfully they navigate their own addictions. It also depends on the nature of the addiction and the extent of its influence within the broader macro-system or our shared community.

There is nothing inherently wrong with being an addict. Addiction can be a powerful strategy for survival and self-preservation. However, the crucial task is learning how to approach our addictions with consciousness, flexibility, and responsibility. This involves understanding which addictions we choose to embrace and why, as well as ensuring they align with our continued and desired evolution.

You cannot completely eradicate “addiction” from your life. Instead, you can transform it into a more pleasurable, coherent, and conscious pattern. You can become a better, smarter, and more creative addict, but an addict to something nonetheless. What you can change is the "something" you are addicted to—shifting it into forms that bring joy, coherence, and growth.

Eventually, you might even become a healthy, conscious, and deeply happy addict to Life and Love itself.

While all addictions share similar mechanics and dynamics, each is deeply unique in how it manifests and is experienced. Substances or behaviors tied to addiction are complex systems that carry ancestral and collective consciousness content within them. Each interacts uniquely with your nervous system and belief structures, exerting a specific kind of influence or power over you.

Take smoking a joint, for instance. Your experience of being "high" depends not only on your state of consciousness but also on the collective beliefs surrounding it. It is a blend of individual and shared consciousness.

Furthermore, every substance carries its own "consciousness bubble" or informational and energetic blueprint, which influences you differently. For example, smoking industrial weed cultivated by machines will affect your body, mind, and spirit differently than smoking weed grown with love, respect, and care for humanity and nature. These contrasting origins create entirely different experiences and impacts on people who choose to consume cannabis in some form.

Marijuana can either be a destructive drug and a painful addiction or a magical medicine that regenerates aspects of our deep consciousness—depending on how, by whom and why it is used.

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The "problem" with weed addiction in our society closely resembles the challenges posed by opium.

In some cases, both substances are remarkable natural medicines and powerful tools that can save lives and alleviate profound suffering. However, they can also become strategies for denial, numbing, and controlling entire populations, leading to collective self-destructive patterns of addiction. These substances have the potential to either improve one’s quality of life in significant ways or bring one closer to despair and even more painful inner suffering.

The key difference lies in your personal and intimate relationship with the addiction itself.

The more conscious and self-aware you are, and the more you honor your inner addict part with respect and wisdom, the better you will naturally discern what is beneficial or harmful for you and why.

Your body intuitively knows how to interact with the substances you consume, aligning their effects with your intentions, desired states, or experiences. If your intention is to numb or escape, the drug will work in tandem with your mind to achieve just that. In such cases, you risk becoming an unconscious addict, allowing the substance to hold power over you.

Conversely, if your goal is to use a plant, medicine, or drug to facilitate inner healing, transformation, or consciousness expansion, your “addiction”—when approached with awareness—can greatly support you in these endeavors.

By becoming a conscious and self-aware addict, you retain your personal power, flexibility, and sovereignty. In this dynamic, the substance becomes a collaborator rather than a controller, fostering a "power-with" relationship with your addiction rather than a "power-over" one.

Everything in life remains open to possibility. It is essential to stay humble, maintain an open mind, and be ready for the surprises life has to offer.

When you have clarity about the true "why" behind your actions and align fully with it, you can achieve inner peace. In this state of coherence, there is no need to fear. Whether it is a substance, behavior, or belief, as long as your “why” is authentic and aligned with your true desires, you can navigate life’s complexities with true confidence. You will manifest the reality you seek, embrace its gifts, and take responsibility for the unpredictable, mysterious, and unknown consequences that come with it.

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As you already guessed, I am talking about the very curious industry of cannabis. Politically speaking, Canada is a very interesting country. It was the second in the world (and the first G7 nation) to legalize recreational cannabis at a national level back in 2018.

Nationally, about 27% (approximately 1 out of 3 people) of Canadians aged 16 and older reported using cannabis in the past 12 months, consistent with previous years (2023 statistics). Daily or almost daily cannabis use is reported by approximately 25% of users, indicating stable patterns since 2018.

This means that one person in a group of 10-12 people is potentially a severe addict to weed in this country. No matter where you are or what you do—in your office, residential building, or school—there is probably someone who smokes or eats drugs during lunch breaks or even while working or studying.

You might never even suspect who it could be or their personal "why" for using this drug in such a way, but they are here, among us. And it is now pretty much normalized, socially acceptable, and even glorified in some communities.

Cannabis has been officially legal for only six years, yet its usage and daily consumption already rival the statistics for alcohol and tobacco in this country.

Do you realize the actual political, social, and economic power of this "drug" in today's world? Can you imagine the real scope of its influence and its impacts on local and global society? Do you understand how easily the "system" can use your addiction to weed to manipulate, control, and even abuse you?

By offering the "free market" to drugs like this, our governments are essentially creating an entirely new economic model based on unconscious addictions and the deep inner suffering of people. This economic strategy and political model aren't new. We've done the exact same thing with many harmful and self-destructive "drugs" we use casually today—sometimes even by purposefully polluting the food we eat and the water we drink.

What's different here is the substance itself: cannabis. This particular plant is very ancient, extremely powerful, highly systemic, and deeply embedded in the psyche of the local population here, and in the entire world to be honest.

The gap between past conditioning and the current context of how cannabis is publicly perceived and used might lead to even greater numbing, ignorance of systemic pain, and deep social confusion.

This creates opportunities for more efficient strategies to exert authority and control—not just over individuals but also over businesses, organizations, and even entire cultures. This could happen very quickly on a massive scale, and with profound systemic consequences for everyone in our community for a very long time.

With great power comes great danger. But if we are kind, wise and smart enough, we can minimize these risks and still use that incredible power to generate opportunities for future evolution and meaningful change in our world.

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The cannabis (and hemp) industry can also become one of the best strategic allies for macro-systemic transformation. By harnessing the potential of this plant and its unique properties, we can regenerate our bodies and even make entire systems more sustainable.

Did you know that hemp is one of the most versatile, flexible, and even magical plants in the world?

You can create almost everything with this one plant. You can eat its grains as a superfood, extract high-value oils and fats, and even build sustainable, comfortable houses with hemp bricks. You can wear hemp-based clothes or use it to produce strong industrial-grade cords and materials. Every part of this plant can be utilized meaningfully and purposefully.

Hemp has the ability to clean and detoxify polluted soils and requires almost no maintenance, specialized equipment, or care to be cultivated in most regions worldwide. It is incredibly easy, simple, and cheap to grow.

With hemp alone, you can essentially satisfy basic survival needs. You can wear it, house yourself in it, eat it, and even heal yourself with it.

The market potential for this plant is enormous.

But if it’s so amazing, powerful, and obvious, why do we mostly smoke it mindlessly instead of using it for something more productive and coherent for our times? If there is real market potential, why hasn't it been fully exploited yet?

Fair and accurate observation.

There are primarily two types of economic markets. The first is based on generating authentic value for consumers by producers. It is about the quality, efficiency and coherence of the services and products we provide to each other. The second, however, revolves mainly around creating new economic value—not for consumers or producers, but for the system itself. Here, the focus is on increasing financial numbers, boosting economic activity, and creating more jobs. It is not about our genuine needs as humans, and it is not about our planet either.

These two markets are deeply interconnected, but our global economy today prioritizes artificial numbers over the real and authentic needs of our humanity. Entire industries, multinational businesses, and even geopolitical schemes are built around always increasing GDP metrics, quarterly statements, and the very clever manipulations of virtual financial systems.

Hemp is so efficient and versatile that it holds little economic value or financial incentive for systems designed to maximize profits or control populations.

Responsibly using hemp to address basic human needs could dismantle very easily many complicated, polluting sectors and even entire industries. For instance, replacing concrete or plastic with hemp materials would make housing cheaper and reduce environmental harm. But it would also disrupt the economy by drastically reducing our national GDP, and other artificial financial metrics. It might even render many people jobless and make their entire career paths completely irrelevant.

Instead of fueling fictional numbers and creating unnecessary work, hemp directly enriches people's lives. It optimizes natural resources, radically simplifies supply chains, and fosters sustainable industrial practices. But these benefits, ironically, make it a serious threat to the profit-driven global system.

When a resource or technology has the potential to disrupt entire industries, what does the system do? It bans it. It makes it shameful, scary, and confusing. Through regulation, legal frameworks, and public opinion manipulation, it ensures that these super efficient "economic destroyers" are buried before they can threaten the status quo.

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We did this not only with hemp.

We’ve made countless things illegal, dangerous, or overly complicated for no particular reason—things that could otherwise be produced for a fraction of the price using simpler, faster and safer processes. The problem is, no one profits financially when something is truly simple, coherent, sustainable, and responsibly healthy for all. This is why we invented concepts like planned obsolescence in our engineering and management textbooks.

Take the humble light bulb as an example. When it was first invented more than 100 years ago, it was almost “eternal.” From the start, we had the technology to make light bulbs you’d never need to replace in your lifetime. But that was great for the user, not so much for the company selling them.

If a company can sell you 20 light bulbs instead of 1, it makes 20 times more profit.

Suddenly, we need more mines to extract raw materials, additional resources to produce those extra bulbs, more engineers to deliberately make them less efficient than originally designed, more shops to sell them, and more systems to manage the resulting waste.

Thanks to the concept of planned obsolescence, we created an entire multisectoral industry around inefficient, disposable light bulbs for no reason.

This logic has been applied to almost everything you buy today.

Most of the things you use—whether it’s electronics, appliances, or even clothing—are far more complicated, expensive, and lower in quality than they could or should be. We have the knowledge, technology, and capacity to simplify supply chains radically. We could feed, house, clothe, and heal the entire population with far less effort, resources and energy than we use today.

Using planned obsolescence to sell more light bulbs, cars or smartphones is one thing. But applying it to essential systems—like the food we eat, public health, education, or elder care—takes this strategy to a deeply harmful level. When basic survival and well-being become unnecessarily expensive, inaccessible, or overly complex for the sole purpose of boosting economic numbers, it turns into a form of systemic violence and deep social abuse.

Choosing the growth of an economy over the well-being of people and the environment undermines our own survival. It prioritizes artificial metrics over real value, leaving humanity and nature poorer in every way. Yet, by making our systems truly efficient, resilient, and coherent, we could create a world where we work less, need less, and live with far greater wealth in health, happiness, and joy.

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Honestly, I didn’t set out to discuss the hemp industry or the lightbulbs when reflecting on widespread cannabis addiction. I’m still piecing together how it all connects in my mind. Yet there seems to be an underlying thread—a deeper interconnection between these ideas.

When you consume a plant, whether cannabis or another, you commune with its consciousness.

Each plant has a unique soul structure, a blueprint, similar to humans but potentially even more intricate. Some might argue that humans are more evolved than plants, but many biologists would disagree. From an evolutionary perspective, plants may be far more advanced in their consciousness.

Their genetic profiles reveal levels of encoding that are sometimes more sophisticated than those of animals.

Plants possess remarkable abilities for survival, reproduction, adaptability, and resilience. While they can’t physically move around like us, their capacity to sustain themselves using only light and water is far beyond anything humans could achieve anytime soon. They communicate chemically with their environment, react to sound and touch, and even exhibit complex social behaviors in their communities.

Plants aren’t “less evolved” than animals; they’ve simply taken a different evolutionary path. While animals went left, plants ventured right. In some ways, their journey may have taken them further. There’s growing evidence to suggest that plants possess consciousness. Some would even argue their awareness is deeper and broader than ours. Sensitive individuals have reported “talking” to trees, meditating with flowers, and feeling the energetic vibrations of vegetables.

This might sound strange or even absurd until you experience it yourself. By uniting your conscious awareness with something larger—by exploring wisely this natural interconnection we have with other forms of Life—you may find yourself surprised by the clarity and magic of it all.

You might begin to wonder if cannabis or any other plant has a soul. And perhaps you’ll start to question who’s more conscious, powerful, and wise: the plants you consume or you. By honoring the wisdom of all Life around you, Nature herself might reveal even greater mysteries to you. Her silent presence and stillness hold secrets waiting to be discovered.

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When you smoke a joint, you don’t just get "high." Many profound and fascinating things unfold in your deeper consciousness—things you might not even notice. It’s almost like connecting with a spiritual intelligence or an angelic presence. But instead of communing with it through prayer or reverence, you consume it—you smoke it or eat it.

Even if you’re not fully aware of what’s happening, the "soul" or higher consciousness of cannabis engages deeply with your being. A plant possesses its own consciousness, and plants can profoundly alter the consciousness of individuals—even entire communities.

Conversely, some humans have the power to influence, transform, or even manipulate a plant's consciousness too.

When we collaborate and co-create with plants on energetic and informational levels, they become tools for systemic transformation. However, this relationship can also be twisted into strategies for mass control very easily. We’ve long harnessed the power of plants within us—some consciously, others unknowingly. Some people innocently fall victim to their influence as blind addicts, while others deliberately seek to expand their awareness, using the plant as a guide.

These individuals approach cannabis with intention and respect, collaborating with it to regenerate their own deeper consciousness. They choose to consume with purpose, mindfulness, and even joy. Unlike those dominated by addiction, they maintain a power-with dynamic, rather than being overpowered by the substance. This balance allows them to explore their inner worlds in more depth while retaining the freedom to change or stop their relationship with the plant anytime they want.

Yet, the boundary between conscious exploration and unconscious addiction is perilously thin. Many who consider themselves casual or even "spiritual" users may still be deeply unaware of the extent of their dependency. The variations in experience are vast and complex, making the truth multidimensional and difficult to grasp with certainty.

By attuning to the true wisdom of cannabis, you can access the broader consciousness of the hemp plant, its evolutionary history, and even the industrial systems and communities surrounding it. This ability isn’t limited to cannabis—you could connect to the consciousness of tobacco, coffee, tomatoes, spinach, or any plant. Psychoactive substances aren’t required; it’s your intention and curiosity that matter most.

Why do some people prefer cannabis over, say, tomatoes for these spiritual or consciousness-expanding experiments? Perhaps it’s because tomatoes don’t offer the same excitement or systemic insights to some. At the level of consciousness, addictive or psychoactive substances often carry more intrigue and complexity. They’re riskier, but they can also provide profound lessons and deeper understanding when approached responsibly.

Drugs can be potent teachers, offering unparalleled wisdom and insight. But like all powerful teachers, they carry the risk of destruction. The choice to engage with them is yours, along with the responsibility for the associated risks.

The higher you aim to fly, the farther you may fall—and the harder it may hurt when you hit the ground.