Hi Everyone
I'm asking a general question here to better understand K processes.  I have an experience to share, and also a theory to (in)validate.  Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.
For a time in my teens and early twenties I drank a lot, mostly to deal with childhood pain but also because I was a performing musician so it was in the environment, plus I was young and in party mode.  I never felt I was an alcoholic or that I had a problem, but nonetheless I was at least a heavy binge drinker and possibly a person with some kind of alcohol issue.  Anyway, drinking really fell by the wayside when I got serious about my yoga practice cause you just cant do yoga with any kind of a hangover.  It wasn't a struggle, more like a choice that I just didnt feel like drinking any more.  That was about ten years ago.  In between then and now, I pretty much avoided alcohol completely because I noticed that whenever I had even a few drinks the alcohol would "make me a lesser person" or "lower my vibration"  basically I did not like what I saw in myself after a drink or two.
Now, what happened recently, is that I tried to get drunk, I was on vacation and it seemed like a good idea, just to experience that loopy state.  It didn't work.  I drank an entire large bottle of tequila and....nothing happened.  I didn't feel drunk, nor did I appear intoxicated to others.  I did however get a nasty hangover.    I didn't feel that I was a lesser person or lowered in any way.  Didn't feel much different actually.
Now.....here's my question.  Any one else noticed this?  Mystress, do you still (if you choose to) have the ability to get drunk?  If not, is there a way we can capitalize on this skill to swindle people at poker (just kidding) 
I am by no means addiction free, I wage an on and off battle with smoking cigarettes though quitting has become significantly easier lately.
My theory is this:  alcohol disinhibits us.  That ugly side we see coming out when drunk is just our shadow, free to appear due to the disinhibition.  When we learn to love/integrate our shadow side that ugliness becomes unnecessary. 
Even if that's correct, I think there's probably more to it than that.  Wondering if something occurs on a physical level.  Perhaps it is connected to the physical effects of the grad ritual in some way as well, but I don't feel its appropriate to go into detail about that since its not shared information.  Anyway, just really curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this.
Namaste,
Jen

Interesting question!
In some ways alcohol is a door opener; You partly named it: artists, musicians, writers: all people in need for some *inspiration* can profit from spirituous specialties as even language reveals.
Mystress says the shadow is a boundary made of fear, and indeed fear is also reduced. And it's a tried and tested household remedy if you have to surgically remove bullets and nasty things from fleshy parts, which is probably also related to fear. (So better not to empty all of the tequila bottle, tsts)
Less fear, less boundary, more transparancy/permeability; --->access to deeper realms, more creativity -- probably with a connection to the hangover(if my memory is right, a little refresh test couldn't hurt).
I spent some time in a forgery, where one worker was a unique sensation: he was a genius for certain kinds of work and irreplaceable for the factory; he was only one time high and that was ananimously *always*; and he had the freedom to do so.
So once the door is open, alcohol can't do much of a change in that regard, just dehydrating the brain and shit.
So one may get wise and loopy at the same time, but not wery vise hi slink!!  lolcalil aynt evil needsit alol, mhhhh,  att all,  light???*/\1´´

juelgre

   I was a bar rat in my 20's, typical party type with an extraordinary capacity for alcohol... 2 or three zombies and a half dozen shooters and I was ready to go dancing.

  However these days my tolerance for alcohol is extremely diminished, wine gives me a headache assuming I don't throw it up after half a glass. Good vodka, neat like a Russian spy or with fruit juice if I feel like drinking, and usually only one or two.

   Sometimes a bit of Baileys in my tea ... maybe 1/3 shot and the heat evaporates most of the alcohol... I just love the taste.  Mostly cut it though much since I noticed even a sip makes me feel very weak.  Kinesiology type weak. Some chemical in it I think. 

  I got drunk online a few months ago in solidarity with an sl friend who is an alcoholic, and then again a few days later with another who understood that it was actually the best cathartic way to deal with that particular grief issue.  The first night I invented a shooter I call Black Forest Cake.  Smirnoff's cherry vodka with a small squirt of chocolate sauce.  The sugar hangover was much worse than the vodka. Both times from the same 750ml bottle and there was still some left so.. I'm a cheap drunk.

   Hangover symptoms are mostly from dehydration, a tall glass of warm water before you sleep,  makes a huge difference. Drinking water before you sleep is good for Kundalini too, it is often active when you sleep plus the body is cleansing itself.

  A pagan friend said to me recently, that what she really likes about my rituals is the very yummy alcoholic beverages... I had not really thought about it but, ... it is true on many occasions I have found myself tending to a large vat of Wassail or grog... usually very weak stuff because I do not want to get people drunk, but to loosen up and become a bit less self conscious makes better magic.  Alcohol mixed with warm water and sugar hits the bloodstream fast: lightly euphoric not intoxicated and for a similarly brief time.  but warming with spices and fruit and yes very yummy.

   Or in one case, trying to duplicate Maman Brigittes (Voudon version of a Celtic Goddess)  hot pepper rum, really quite painful... which means I almost got it right.

   Sure, alcoholism, poisoning your liver, hiding out from your problems with booze, drunk driving,... these things are all bad but that is about people, not alcohol. It just Is. A glass of wine with dinner will help digestion and stave off heart disease. Three drinks at Happy hour on a TGIF with friends is not a bad way to shed the stress of the work week.  When I travel I like to party with my hosts when I arrive, so they loosen up get over being nervous around me.  It is *effective.*

  Alcohol in small doses is an effective muscle relaxant and has been part of various types of spiritual worship since the ancient Greeks discovered grapes can ferment and thanked Dionysius. I think your experience was just to make that point to you. Nothing to do with the grad ritual. 

  The effects of alcohol, or stages of drunkenness are well documented; in small doses it lowers social inhibitions, is a euphoric and mild muscle relaxant and a depressant in larger doses.

   I don't think it is fair to say it brings the shadow out, because the shadow is what people deny and think they are not ... and drunks imagine they are witty and popular, good singers etc... 

   Any muscle relaxant can release karma tension in the body, so people ending up crying in their beer over something from the past that seemed irrelevant yesterday after a few too many, is no surprise.  It also follows that people with less karma to release are less likely to become maudlin or violent drunks, but that is not the same as shadow stuff.

     Blessings... 

   

I think the Shadow wall has both: limiting and protective functions as well, and that alcohol is taking away from that wall, so the effect will be diffuse and unpredictable at large, with some special cases as Mystress is detailing: cases of some typical experiences; and there may be very individual conditions of experience in dealing with alcohol, to the extent of cases where one might talk of *alcohol artists* (or morons).
Kind of a  norm is that "head workers" tolerate less alcohol than typical body workers like peasants and construction workers. But what's the worth of a norm with exceptions ...and exceptions certainly there are?
The alcohol consumer may have a bunch of motivations but concentration and discipline is certainly not part of that, like is the case in shadow work.
But all the examples given so far, seem to indicate that a.  has an effect on the Shadow; at best a confirmation for the existance of it, and it might be  confirming  its general role/function of protection and and limitation).
Of course The Mystress's lowered tolerance may give rise to wild speculations such as that self realized people can't relish 'the spirit from the bottle', or that they are kind of 'permanent-drunk', but what's the use of it?
Speculative  considerations are rather of academic interest and may fall for us  into the category of 'ugly macramee owls'.
Interesting topic anyway 

juergen

Interesting topic. I used to be a heavy drinker also in my 20's. Normal Finnish young woman alcohol user, meaning almost every weekend a lot. When I awakened my hangovers turned into a nightmare. Deep fear, anxiety, my mind trying hard to figger out who did I insult somehow. Usually I didn't do much worth to mention, especially when I was a bit older, but self spanking was intense. That made me gradually slow down. Couple of drinks can change my K flow from bliss to anxiety. Lately I haven't been drinking much. I ended being drunk last summer in local rock festivals. I slept almost two days after that shock to my system. I have also experienced that I don't get drunk sometimes. But I still get the hangovers
Cigarettes....tell me about it

   I don't think it is fair to say it brings the shadow out, because the shadow is what people deny and think they are not ... and drunks imagine they are witty and popular, good singers etc...  Smiley

Now that the surface of my mind has smoothened a little with regard to this matter, i find You are again right, what a big surprise

In most instances the purposes of taking a proper drink are to:
confirm wytya (when "on form")
or
restore wytya (when "down")

Confirmation even takes place when fear has to be overcome, for instance with shy people: actually you "are da man or da woman" already, it needs just a little push to bring it forth; alcohol is also the drug of big excuses(you can't stop at one...). Glossing over!
For the effective period it's an euphoric drug, and euphoria goes with ego, not shadow.
It's the "pick me up" or "southern comfort", in german even "soul comforter(Seelentroester)", which may be the reason that we(germans) have an extra problem understanding or getting a grip of what the soul is.

One special purpose may be, like is also reported in the posts here, just the curiosity to check what it actually does, like visiting an old friend. Or a gap of memory which is to be filled: "How was that again..".
My way with practically all addictions is choosiness
In this way one by one they fall thru, i only enjoy the ideal, however without the hangover; then again nothing substitutes a nice hangover
With me alcohol has usually the effect of feeling a little better about myself, a certain spur, however i already need to be in good shape in order to relish.
I was never reported of events with a blackout, and usually keep quite clear, which has been of advantage at a few police controls when driving.

I used to be a heavy drinker also in my 20's. Normal Finnish young woman alcohol user, meaning almost every weekend a lot.

Glad to be no young Finnish woman who has/had to undergo this each weekend

again a little tipsy with writing so quickly byebye
juergen

Glad to be no young Finnish woman who has/had to undergo this each weekend
Changing lifestyle meant basically no friends for me at that time, and it took long to take that step completely. You´re from Germany, I suppose you've heard stories about how Finns drink Kids here don't seem to make it better, only change is that now they use also drugs. Drugs weren't so available when I was teenager/young.
Ofcourse not everybody here drinks to get drunk. But considerably more here than for example in central Europe, where folks drink much but it's divided evenly, few glasses of wine every day. Here it's a norm that if you're pregnant you don't drink at all, and many women start to live quite sober life when they have kids. But yeah, it's hard on women body to drink alcohol like that... I was a bit weak, because I never could drink more than one evening at a time

Mari,
You're adding an interesting cause for drinking. Social etiquette, etiquette drinking. Competition(betting) comes also in the account, social amusement. Since the 60'ies women have developped a lot of need to catch up on in many ways, which may also account for extreme drinking. Hehe i've seen a tv report, no it was more of a talk show, anyway it was about what women can do better and what men can do better, so men can tolerate more alcohol was listed against women would generally take more variables into considerations...; and girls can sometimes have strange ambitions, buy that nonsense(as if something were to prove) and start competing with dudes in alcohol consumption(One must only have goals).
As to extreme drinking, in Germany the highest contributions are certainly from rural areas, and Finnland is at large more a "rural" country i think,  or at least with not so many big cities .
Then it depends on the stuff in detail: is it more hard drinks or more long drinks; i would make a guess that for deliberately getting drunk, it's more the stuff >40%vol.
When You evaded conformism, You had good environment conditions to show some character i would say.
If you show some discernment you are quickly a "sociopath", that's normal and you have still some power to balance it.
But seriously: usually problems are no problems at all and things turn out well by themselves.
The megabooze will probably stop sooner than a macramee explanation has been found.

Btw, I practice for 2 or 3 years now a drinking method i can recommend: drinking time is only 2-3 hours  in the evening 1 hour after last eating; it's good to have this done at about 9 o'clock. This trains the body-cells to store the fluid; after an initial phase, ya will not even dream of having an intake outside that time and become thereby distracted by all sorts of specialties. Some will however call it antisocial, but someone finds always something...
(Lol, maybe not antisocial enough ).

Waves~~~~~
Juergen

Since the 60'ies women have developped a lot of need to catch up on in many ways, which may also account for extreme drinking.

brings to mind that woman from Radiers of the Lost Ark who at the beginning of the movie was busy drinking some fat guy under the table. (incidentally they brought her back for the most recent Indiana Jones movie)
Incidentally, again, drinking has become a topic for me as of late. I have been going out with the guys every friday for some time now, and last friday I got really sloshed. I have some issues that surround an old girlfriend of mine, who still comes to hang out with the guys on friday (a more recent development)
Sometimes I worry I'm putting her in danger by promoting a drinking lifestyle (even if it's only on fridays). We still have some old attatchments and she is scathing and passive-wrathful towards me. And I have to admit I do get a little jealous (not even sure if I do or not) when she's got a new boyfriend she's sleeping with.
Now she's sleeping with my friend Robin (sleeping with, I'm not sure about sex, but it will probably come to that eventually) who is "one of the guys" that I booze and kick it with on Fridays. I remember Robin making a sort of word of mouth promise he would never think of sleeping with Elisen. Haha what a bunch of hogwash.. I would never say that to his face (I don't think) I'm very anti-confrontational (might just be me being a pussy, but oh well) and try to avoid bringing up something that's only going to cause conflict if anything. Well this has veered off topic, I was supposed to be talking about drinking. Anyways, I drink with them on fridays, and like I said, last friday I really got hammered. I'm trying to find the middle path (and maybe I have found it, by gosh, I didn't get alcohol poisoning last fri [I've been close to doing that at least once in my life]) It does raise the question??? Where is this drinking habit going?
I have so many deep insights and wonderful experiences while I'm drunk. Problem is, they only seem relevant during the time I was hammered, not afterwards... afterwards... it's back to Sober Life!

I have so many deep insights and wonderful experiences while I'm drunk. Problem is, they only seem relevant during the time I was hammered, not afterwards... afterwards... it's back to Sober Life!

Well said!
The good of it might be, that at least an idea is  given of something deep and wonderful, and this idea somehow remains.  Then it will probably show up that better means must be sought in order to get closer to the real thing.