Sacred Plant, Distracted Use

The cannabis paradox in spiritual communities

Let me start by being clear: this isn't an article promoting or condemning the use of cannabis. It's an exploration of something I see everywhere in spiritual circles but rarely discussed honestly.

Cannabis - or Santa Maria as it's known in many ceremonial contexts - is a powerful plant medicine that can bring both healing and destruction into our lives. Like any substance that affects our consciousness, it can serve as medicine when used intentionally, or as a firefighter strategy when parts use it to escape.

The difference between these two is razor-thin and requires a level of honesty that can be hard to grasp.

The Question That Changes Everything

In my workshops, I often ask people this: Are your parts using cannabis to escape, to get away from feelings, from other parts - or are they using it to connect, to truly connect?

The answer lives inside you. And it requires radical honesty to discover.

How Firefighter Parts Use Cannabis

Let's look at some patterns that might sound familiar:

The Daily Soother Smoking every evening to "relax" after work. Nothing wrong with wanting to unwind, but what feelings is this helping you not feel? What's underneath the need to change your state every single day? What would happen if you sat with the stress or overwhelm without immediately reaching for relief?

The Emotional Escape Reaching for cannabis whenever emotions get too intense. Feeling sad? Smoke. Feeling angry? Smoke. Feeling anxious? Smoke. Feeling too happy? Smoke. The part using cannabis this way has learned that difficult feelings are unbearable and need to be softened immediately.

The Social Lubricant Only feeling comfortable in social situations when high. This part might be protecting against anxiety about being judged, not being interesting enough, or feeling disconnected from others.

The Creative Crutch Believing you can only access creativity, spirituality, or insight when using cannabis. This part has forgotten that these capacities live inside you naturally.

The Life Overwhelm Buffer Using cannabis because "life is just too much." This part is trying to create a buffer between you and reality when reality feels overwhelming.

None of these are moral failings. They're parts trying to help in the best way they know how.

The Spiritual Bypass

Here's where it gets particularly tricky in spiritual communities: cannabis can be used for spiritual bypassing just as easily as any other substance.

Spiritual bypassing happens when we use spiritual practices or substances to avoid dealing with painful emotions, difficult relationships, or challenging life circumstances.

With cannabis, this might look like:

• Using it to feel "connected to the universe" while avoiding connection with people in your actual life

• Getting high to access "higher consciousness" while ignoring practical responsibilities

• Smoking to feel "peaceful" instead of addressing the sources of conflict in your life

• Using it for "meditation" when what you really need is to feel your feelings

The plant isn't the problem. The issue is when parts use it as a way to bypass the messy, difficult work of being human.

The Slippery Slope of Justification

In spiritual circles, it's easy to dress up firefighter behaviors in ceremonial language.

"I'm not getting high, I'm communing with plant medicine." "I'm not escaping, I'm expanding my consciousness." "I'm not avoiding my problems, I'm gaining perspective."

Sometimes this is true. Sometimes it's not. The only way to know is through brutal self-honesty about what's actually happening inside.

When Use Becomes a Cycle

Here's how the cycle often develops:

Life feels overwhelming. A part discovers that cannabis provides relief from the overwhelm. This works, so the part returns to this strategy more frequently. Gradually, the part becomes convinced that cannabis is necessary for managing stress, creativity, social situations, or emotional pain.

Other parts might start to worry: "Are we using too much? Is this becoming a problem?" But the part that has found relief doesn't want to hear this criticism, so it develops justifications for why the use is necessary or beneficial.

Meanwhile, the underlying issues that created the original overwhelm often remain unaddressed. The stress, the anxiety, the creative blocks, the social fears - they're still there underneath the cannabis use.

The Thin Line

The difference between medicine and firefighter behavior really is incredibly thin.

The same person might use cannabis as genuine medicine one day and as emotional escape the next. The same substance, the same person, but completely different intentions and effects.

Medicine use tends to feel:

• Intentional and conscious

• Connected to specific healing or spiritual goals

• Occasional rather than habitual

• Enhancing rather than replacing natural capacities

• Supportive of engagement with life rather than escape from it

Firefighter use tends to feel:

• Automatic or compulsive

• Driven by the need to escape discomfort

• Regular or daily

• Necessary for basic functioning

• Creating distance from reality rather than engagement with it

But even these distinctions can be blurry. The same use pattern might serve as medicine during one phase of life and as firefighter behavior during another.

The Honesty Practice

If you use cannabis and interested in exploring your relationship with it, here are some questions for honest self-reflection:

What am I feeling right before I reach for it?

Am I using it to connect with something or to disconnect from something?

What would happen if I didn't use it today? What feelings or experiences would I have to face?

Am I using it to enhance capacities I already have, or because I believe I can't access those capacities without it?

Does my use support my engagement with life and relationships, or create distance from them?

If I stopped using for a month, what would I discover about my natural state?

These aren't meant to create shame or judgment. They're meant to create awareness.

Beyond Right and Wrong

This exploration isn't about determining whether cannabis use is "good" or "bad." It's about understanding what parts are driving the use and what those parts are trying to take care of.

If you discover that firefighter parts are using cannabis to escape difficult feelings, that's valuable information. It means those parts are carrying pain that might benefit from attention and care.

If you recognize that you're using cannabis to bypass challenging life circumstances, that's also valuable information. It might be time to ask what you're avoiding and how you could face it with support.

If you realize that your use has become automatic rather than intentional, that's worth exploring too. What would it look like to bring more consciousness to when and why you use?

The Spiritual Community Challenge

For those in spiritual communities where cannabis use is normalized or even celebrated, this exploration can be particularly challenging. It requires questioning not just personal patterns but community norms.

It means being willing to look honestly at whether the "plant medicine" language is serving actual healing or just making firefighter behaviors sound more spiritual.

It means having conversations about the difference between conscious use and unconscious consumption, even when those conversations might be uncomfortable.

This Week's Reflection

Whether you use cannabis or not, this week I invite you to explore the broader question of spiritual bypassing in your life:

What substances, practices, or activities do you use to avoid difficult feelings or challenging circumstances? (Meditation, Breathwork, Yoga can also be those activities by the way :).

When do these serve as genuine support for your growth, and when do they serve as escape from your life?

What would change if you brought more honesty to these patterns?

Remember, the goal isn't to eliminate our parts or to judge yourself for needing support. It's to distinguish between their strategies that genuinely serve your healing and those that keep you stuck in cycles of avoidance.

The plant medicines of this world can be powerful allies in consciousness and healing. But like any powerful ally, they deserve to be engaged with respect, intention, and radical honesty about what parts are showing up in relationship with them.

What do you notice when you bring this level of honesty to your own relationship with substances, practices, or strategies that alter your state of consciousness?

In gratitude,
Anna

Transformational IFS Coach @ www.annamilaeva.com & Co-founder @ www.fino.website - Incubator for Self-leadership.

---