Original subtitles

>> American astronomer Carl Edward Sagan was best known

from his show called "Cosmos," as the spokesman

for the responsible use of science,

his interest in extraterrestrial intelligence,

and the eloquent way he simplified complex concepts

to the world.

However, a little known fact about the late, great thinker

was his ritual use of cannabis.

His love for this plant caused for a few quotes of his

to be immortalized regarding the absurdity of its illegality,

the ability for its effects to improve experiences

of food, art, and lovemaking.

He spoke of the possibility that cannabis,

or the textile producing parts of the plant known as hemp,

as humanity's oldest cultivated crop,

and that it may have led to the invention of agriculture,

thereby leading to its roots of civilization.

Could a simple psychoactive and textile

crop have been given so much acclaim,

or is there more to this plant than meets the eye?

>> Cannabis, in my view, is another of the great

and powerful teacher plants.

We cannot really argue that cannabis is a psychedelic,

although at high dosages, with--

particularly with individuals who

are not experienced with cannabis--

the experience is pretty close to a full

on psychedelic experience.

It can be.

But you know, I think that the natural world

has been bounteous to us.

It has provided us with--

well, of course, all our food and clothing and everything

comes out of nature, and has provided us

with these substances that alter consciousness

as well, which humanity has had a long relationship with.

>> There are so many terms for this plant today that it seems

each passing generation and cultural clique refreshes its

terminology.

>> It's called ganja.

>> The combination of mindfulness and marijuana--

>> We hang out, we talk, we kind of break the ice.

>> The class opens with students sampling cannabis products.

>> But how far back can we find evidence of man's use of hemp

or cannabis, and what might our ancestors have called it?

>> Well, as far as evidence of hemp--

you know, hemp fibers and the use of hemp--

that goes back, according to the foremost expert

on ancient textiles, Elizabeth Whalen Barber, to about 25,000,

28,000 years ago.

And this is in the form of tools used

for breaking up hemp fibers.

We have evidence of hemp cloth going back

at least 12,000 years, very, very widespread, you know.

The use of cannabis can basically

be followed by the spread of Indo-European language,

and we're talking about the root language of French,

German, English, Sanskrit.

Wherever it goes, as soon it's there,

it starts taking on new names.

You know, the giver of delights, the end of sorrow, the gift,

the secret, you know, all these different names

start coming into play.

>> In 1936, a Polish entomologist an anthropologist,

Sula Benet, proposed that the biblical term kaneh bosm was

misinterpreted by the Greek and Latin translators as being

the marsh root calamus, which commonly grew everywhere

throughout the Middle East.

But cannabis was not native to this region.

>> In the Old Testament references,

a kaneh is specifically described as something coming

from a distant land and that's why I would suggest that

the Indo-European term, kaneh, followed it.

It came with that name as an item of trade,

and we know that Scythians and other groups

were trading in the area of the region

from archeological evidence.

>> The term Scythian identifies a collection of nomadic tribes

that were cannabis using tribes.

They even were over in India and dominated in northern India

from about 400 BC to about 200 AD.

And it's interesting, because Ithithians in India

adopted the worship of Shiva, a god associated with cannabis.

Some ancient texts refer to Buddha as a Sacae,

and Sacae's the Persian name for the Scythians.

And so there's this whole connection

that he may have been a Persian prince.

And in some of the older accounts,

it's also written that he survived on one hemp seed a day

before coming to his divine revelations.

>> Why would this single plant be found in so many ancient

cultures, riddled throughout religions,

and seen as a divine sacrament?

Could a psychoactive experience be worth enough

to trade this plant across a 5,000 mile stretch of land,

or is there more to this plant than we've been told?

>> There are so many uses of this amazing plant,

cannabis sativa.

You could eat the leaves.

A lot of people don't know that just eating the leaves

could be juiced, and made into a salad.

You can eat the seeds, they're high in protein.

They're high in essential fatty acids.

You could be feeding this plant for livestock feed

to your goats and chickens and horses and cows.

We could be using this plant to make a rope.

It makes a very, very strong rope.

>> The use of hemp for cordage and rope has been seen

in hunter gatherer groups all the way up until World War II.

>> Thus plans are afoot for a great expansion of the hemp

industry as a part of the war program.

This film is designed to tell farmers

how to handle this ancient crop, now little known

outside Kentucky and Wisconsin.

This is Manila hemp, from the Navy's rapidly dwindling

reserve.

When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again.

Hemp for mooring ships, hemp for towlines.

>> But as technology compounded upon itself

in the post-industrial era, newer and more useful

applications of the hemp plant have emerged.

Radio host and researcher Max Egan

has been using this plant medicinally for himself

and his community for many years,

and speaks publicly around the world about its many uses.

>> We can make plastics out of cannabis.

We can make paper out of cannabis.

The best quality materials, as strong as denim and as soft

as silk.

Everything you can think of, we can make of this plant.

Half of old Cairo is built from cannabis.

You can get the hurd, mix it with lime, and it petrifies.

What other plant will petrify into stone

and allow you to build houses from it?

This is what this plant can do, it's an incredible plant.

And you can grow out in three months,

and it'll produce a crop that will do all that stuff in three

months rather than tearing our forests down and ripping up

our landscapes and doing all the things we're doing.

>> Logging has become a multi-billion dollar industry

and employs almost 1 million people in the US alone.

In the past 30 years, human activity

has destroyed a plot of land the size

of Germany in the Brazilian rain forest alone.

If industrial hemp weren't so heavily restricted

in nearly every country as well as resisted

from corporate interests, much of these issues

could be diminished or resolved completely.

But for some reason, this highly useful plant

is shunned on a cultural level, illegal on a federal level,

and feared on an industry level.

>> The reason cannabis is banned is because it would destroy

most of the most profitable businesses on the planet,

were it legalized, and unfortunately these are all

some of the most pollutive businesses on the planet

as well.

>> So, I can see why this is really a threat to a lot

of industries.

There's one plant that could solve so many

of our environmental problems and grows so easily.

I don't know another plant that does this.

>> The benefits of cannabis have been speculated for generations

that existed in times less bound by the burden of scientific

proof.

Today, as several countries around the world

are loosening the restrictions around cannabis,

the scientific data is pouring in.

Dr. Joe Cohen has been researching the many healing

qualities through case studies and personally overseeing

the results in patients.

>> Most of my research related to cannabis actually comes from

patient experiences.

I've been practicing cannabis medicine

for close to eight years and I've

seen thousands of patients.

So I often see patients with chronic pain,

and one area that I work a lot with is autoimmune disease.

>> Autoimmune disease is characterized by the body

producing antibodies, which in turn attacks its own tissues.

This confusion of the immune system

is often seen when diet is poor, vaccines are overdone,

and the health of the gut microbiome

has an imbalance of unhealthy bacteria and not enough healthy

flora.

However, great advancements in treating the symptoms

has been seen with the many compounds found in cannabis.

>> So, there is over 400 different parts of a cannabis

plant, chemicals in the plant, of which probably 85 to 100 are

cannabinoids, like THC, and cannabidiol, CBD,

which has become very popular.

And then on top of that, we have probably a couple

hundred different terpenes.

Terpenes are in a lot of plants and fruits,

that gives flavor and odor to things.

So when you smell the cannabis plant,

you're actually smelling terpenes.

They actually modulate-- modify--

the effects of the cannabinoids in the plant.

And then there's flavonoids.

So, we're talking about over 400 compounds in this plant,

and they all kind of work together

to give the effect that you are looking for.

>> As with all other psychoactive plants,

the different chemical properties alter the types

of feelings and effects one receives,

creating a symphonic effect where no one ingredient is

given full credit for the high.

The THC molecule found in all strains of cannabis

affects the body and mind the same way across the board.

So, the reason every strain of cannabis

affects people differently has to do with the terpenes.

And this symphony of biochemistry

also accounts for the numerous beneficial applications being

found in clinical research.

>> The most profound thing that I see regarding cannabis is how

it can treat so many different disorders,

and that's really related to the fact that we have

an endocannabinoid system.

We produce our own cannabinoids.

Animals have been producing cannabinoids

for 600 million years, and the plant

didn't arrive until about 25 million years ago.

>> The endocannabinoid system in our body contains specific

receptors in the mammalian brain and throughout the nervous

system that not only allows humans to enjoy

the psychoactive effects, but also serves to maintain

a healthy homeostasis and immunity.

One of the hallmarks of this effect

is most notable in the increase in appetite

after ingesting cannabis.

>> Why does weed make you hungry?

Why do you get the munchies?

And it's because you have a chemical mechanism in you that

keeps you alive that says, hey dude, you're kind of running

low on nutrients, and if you want this machine to keep

running, fuel me up.

And the longer you disregard that internal chemical message,

the more that chemical pain increases and chemically

forces you to eat.

That's what hunger is, and it's keeping you alive,

and it's this natural balancing mechanism.

And it's balanced on cannabinoids.

The heaviest amount of cannabinoids

that humans produce is in breast milk,

cause it feeds the building blocks of life to children.

Balances also all of your receptors--

your electronic mechanisms.

We were always told in school by the $1.3 billion

monopoly a year, DARE, that cannabis kills brain cells.

Well, it's the opposite.

It's actually neurological protectants.

>> It's what we call an adaptogen.

An adaptopogenic herb is something that tries to create

balance in our body.

So, this is an herbal medicine, a plant medicine,

that actually has the same chemical

structure as our own cannabinoids,

and it tries to keep everything in balance.

Cannabinoids travel in a reverse direction.

They go retrograde through the synapse,

and by going retrograde through the synapse, what they're

actually doing is they're slowing down the hypersystem

and they're speeding up the hyposystem,

and therefore creating balance.

>> The beauty of this adaptogenic herb is

in the intelligence of how it knows to bring biological

processes back into balance.

It has an ability to listen and respond to its environment

in order to bring balance and growth.

Through our endocannabinoid system,

we are hardwired to listen and respond,

meaning we have an ancient symbiotic language

with cannabinoids.

And the fact that a specific tree that

can grow to full maturity in one year with healing

properties in its very structure is truly remarkable, even

for the whole of the plant kingdom.

Although cannabis is not a classic psychedelic that

works on the serotonin 2A receptors,

it's the ability of the flowers of this tree

to bend the mind in so many different ways that

deserves deeper investigation.

>> Cannabis is much more, in my opinion,

about sensual experience, about realizing the full potential

of our sensuality.

And when I say sensuality, I don't only mean sex,

I'm also talking about appreciation

of food, appreciation of music.

Stuff that our ears and our eyes have been shut off to

suddenly comes in and we realize what majesty we live amongst.

Cannabis can play that role.

>> When used with the right set and setting and the right skill

set, cannabis can mimic psilocybin.

It can mimic Ayahuasca and DNT.

It can also mimic the empathogens, like MDMA.

And so from my experience, it's also a little slower

than other psychedelics, so we can

have a capacity to develop those skill sets like navigation

or capacity or focus in overwhelming situations,

or the capacity to engage strong emotional experiences.

And then those skill sets can then

be translated to other psychedelic medicines.

So, cannabis is like a bridge to other psychedelic medicines,

but it's also its own sacred substance.

Its own sacred medicine.

It's gentler on the body.

It has shorter experiences, so people

who have compromised physical bodies can use it safely,

and it can also be used more regularly

than other psychedelics.

>> The fact that cannabis can elicit different effects

depending on the way it's ingested,

the mindset going in, and the type of setting it's done

in, shows a versatility not typically seen with other

psychoactive plants.

Cannabis can induce visuals, euphoria, relaxation,

or even heightened alertness.

However, it can also cause anxiety, paranoia,

and short term memory fog.

But these are not always adverse side effects,

as they mimic the ability of psychedelics

to dredge up trauma from deep in the psyche.

Some of the skills people bring to these kinds of difficulties

are breathing techniques or movement like dance or Qigong.

In modern applications, biohackers and extreme athletes

have come up with their own uses for cannabis.

Personal trainer and podcast host Ben Greenfield

has been using this plant to aid in his highly

competitive sports lifestyle.

>> I'm a hard charging, high achiever,

trying to live this limitless life of racing and traveling

and speaking and writing, and it's hard to turn the mind off

at the end of the day.

And I initially found cannabis, and frankly, CBD, not even

THC to be useful for that.

I began micro dosing with smaller amounts

prior to workouts.

CBD is an interesting molecule in that it currently

is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Association

or by the US Anti-Doping Association or many

of the governing bodies of sport,

which, for me, as a professional athlete,

is something that's important, because I'm able to use it

for those purposes without having

to worry about in-season pee tests or anything like that.

And for CBD, there's a host of research

now on not just the relaxation and the anti-inflammatory

effects, but also the beneficial hormonal effects,

the beneficial effects on muscle response the training,

the beneficial effects on everything from testosterone

to a slight increase in fat mobilization

to all sorts of things that serve an athlete well.

But when you look at something like off season use

of cannabis, I began to realize that THC, the more psychoactive

component, is actually something that served me quite well

for writing and for creativity.

And so I would say that from a creative production standpoint,

I've found that both micro and admittedly macro dosing

with THC has been something that's been

really helpful in that regard.

>> Cannabis, in my opinion, can be used as a performance

enhancing drug.

It tends to help me elicit flow states more readily,

kind of calms my mind, helps me relax.

But the mental clarity that really

comes from it is probably why I micro dose anything,

is for that mental clarity.

Really getting out of my own way,

stopping the self-judgment, stopping the self-criticism.

Those are really my biggest barriers.

>> Flow states are spoken about intensively in Steven Kotler

and Jamie Wheal's books, "The Rise of Superman,"

and "Stealing Fire."

They are typified by the zone that athletes, dancers,

musicians, and even meditators find themselves

in when the task they're performing becomes effortless.

Time slows down, analysis goes quiet, and intuition guides

each decision.

And though these flow states can be brought on simply

through mental discipline or breathing techniques,

another reliable way is through micro dosing psychedelic

plants.

But how is it that cannabis can enhance

mental clarity, when the cultural stigma claims

the opposite?

>> Innocently, they danced.

Innocent of a new and deadly menace lurking

behind closed doors.

[GONG RINGING]

>> Marijuana, the burning weed with its roots in hell.

>> The reefer madness stereotype is anti-hemp propaganda,

there's no truth to it.

And now that cannabis is legal in many places,

medical cannabis as well as recreational cannabis,

we have statistical evidence that violent crime is reduced,

that opiate use and opiate deaths are reduced,

and even DUIs and intoxicated driving is reduced.

So, the anti-cannabis hysteria is simply

propaganda to prohibit the production of hemp,

to protect corporate interests.

They used racism and showed out of control behavior

and put it on something that they couldn't otherwise

challenge.

>> Daniel McQueen founded medicinal mindfulness,

which specializes in the spiritual and therapeutic

application of psychedelics or breathing techniques

in the Boulder, Colorado area.

>> In regards to set and setting with cannabis,

we bring in a gratitude prayer when we imbibe the medicine,

and we sit in a circle.

And we're calling and energies and ways of being that

support a psychedelic journey work.

And this is far from--

like, the exact opposite extreme of recreational use

or unconscious use or habitual use.

We're not just sitting there feeling stoned or blissed out.

There's some real significant psychological, spiritual,

and energetically healing and life

transforming occurrences happening in the psyche

and in the body.

And we turn towards those experiences

instead of using the medicine to check out

from those experiences.

>> By creating a healing intention or a safe space

to enter deeply mystical realms, circles such as these are

dismantling the negative stereotypes and calling

in a revival of ancient ceremonial use of this plant.

>> I think the real big attraction of cannabis

for a lot of people is that esoteric element that it brings

into your daily life of you're starting to see

the synchronicity and patterns and all these elements.

I've currently writing a book about the role of cannabis

in Medieval and Renaissance magic and alchemy

and things like that.

And I notice a lot of references are

based around the use of cannabis with magic mirrors, right.

And the magic mirrors is kind of a splitting of consciousness,

you know what I mean?

As soon as you look in the mirror, you're schizophrenic.

There's you in the mirror, and there's you over here,

you know.

And I think that the use of cannabis

helps to break that veil between the subconscious

or the unconscious, and the conscious mind,

and that when you project your consciousness into there, then

you can kind of have that division where

you can reach down into lower aspects, deeper

aspects of your own psyche that you can't normally

reach in waking consciousness.

And in the same way that that happens in dreams.

So, the one talking to you in the mirror, the magic mirror,

is the one telling you your dream at night

as well, which is your own shadow or your subconscious

or your unconscious.

>> As cannabis has been attributed to lifting the veil

between the conscious and subconscious mind,

some believe that the concept of utilizing time rather than

being a passive and unwitting victim of its cycles began with

agriculture.

And as Carl Sagan and many others suggest,

agriculture likely started with cannabis.

An example of this lies in the equatorial region

of west central Africa.

>> In regards to cannabis and time,

one of the first things novice users experience is

a difference in time.

A minute seemed like an hour, or an hour

seemed like a minute type of thing.

>> Cannabis was used by the Pygmies,

and the Pygmies themselves say that God gave them cannabis

to be healthy and happy, and that they've been using

cannabis since the dawn of time, which likely means

their conception of time.

Another Congo tribe that used cannabis is the Bachilangue.

And when they began using it, they

burned all their cultic fetishes.

And they started convincing other tribes

to do this as well, and they joined together

in a brotherhood of cannabis called the [INAUDIBLE]..

So, yeah, fascinating role.

It's not thought to have come into central Africa

until Medieval Muslim traders brought it in.

>> Not only was cannabis likely involved in some

tribes' conception of time, but also medicine, philosophy,

and even mystical experiences with their tribal lineage.

>> In China, cannabis appears in the oldest known pharmacopeia,

the Pen-tsao, put together by Emperor Shen Nung,

who recommends it for a variety of medical conditions that is

prescribed for today.

It was also used by Taoist priests

for astral traveling type journeys

to the Land of the Ancestors.

There's a great quatrain from about 2,500 years ago.

It goes "First a yin then a yang, no one knows what I do.

Jade buds and holy hemp for the one that lives apart."

And that's kind of like life has its ups and downs,

but you know, with cannabis I'm able to maintain

that steady road.

>> As cannabis trade likely occurred along the Silk Road,

it inevitably made its way into India.

>> Cannabis has an extensive history in India,

and is still used in religious rituals there.

Shivaratri, dedicated to the god Shiva,

cannabis is commonly consumed in temples.

At the Festival of Colors, where they throw paint and dyes,

whole villages are drinking Bhang, the traditional cannabis

drink from India.

Cannabis is particularly wound up with the cult of Shiva.

She was the oldest continually worshiped god on Earth--

also the god who is said to have brought yoga to humanity.

And to this day, you could go along the banks of the Ganges

and you will witness sadhus and holy men

partaking of a chillum full of cannabis in honor of Lord Shiva

before setting down to do their Yoga asanas.

So cannabis and yoga go way back.

>> There's actually a resurgence of cannabis and yoga today,

called ganja yoga.

As many states in the US rollback the prohibition

on the versatile and mind bending plant,

the trend is currently growing, but many places

are still on the fence with cannabis, culturally

and religiously.

>> Cannabis in Islam is very interesting,

because there's not any sort of specific prohibition

of cannabis in the Quran, like there is with alcohol,

so it's been a big matter of debate.

But it has been used by mystics of Islam,

such as Sufis and Dervishes since the very beginnings.

And generally they use it-- a lot

of times it'd be for reciting poetry and playing

music through the evening and drinking coffee

and using cannabis, and at other times,

in more powerful preparations, to obliterate the ego

and get down to the essence that animates us all.

>> From Africa to Scythian tribes commemorating cannabis

with a focus on agriculture and time, to groups in China,

India, and sects of Islam using it for spiritual and mystical

pursuits, why is this versatile textile crop that can likely

solve deforestation and many medical ailments seen as such

a devious drug to modern society?

Currently, the prohibition on cannabis

is slowly rolling itself back, state by state,

even though the federal government holds firm

on its prohibitory position.

>> So, it's a wonderful thing for me to see what's happened

in Colorado.

I do think Colorado is leading the world in this area,

in saying no, this is a fundamental human right

of adults.

Adults have a right to make choices over their own bodies,

they don't have to refer to the government as to

whether they can do this or not.

It's a very important step in the re-liberation of mankind

that is taking place in states like Colorado

and the other-- what, seven or eight states that

have legalized cannabis now and more than 23

or 24 where at least cannabis is available for medical purposes.

This is winding back the war on drugs, state by state.

>> I am deeply inspired by cannabis and it's important

to think of cannabis as not just one medicine,

but many medicines that the different plants and different

strains have different functions and capacities for healing.

>> I believe that cannabis has an amazing intelligent effect

to it because of the healing properties.

When you think about what cannabis does,

we're wired for this plant because we

have the same type of compounds that we

produce that are in the plant.

And if we can use this intelligence

in this plant in its natural form,

I believe that it's incredibly healing.

>> And since cannabis is an adaptogenic herb,

bringing the body into balance, perhaps its intelligence reads

and understands genetic and biological information in order

to act as a medicine to any and all that come into contact with

it.

Perhaps this is why cannabis has been revered

for longer than any other plant, side by side with humanity,

through the greatest leaps in the evolution of the mind,

technology, and culture.

And some even believe that this highly

sought after herb played a hand in the way

that humans think and behave today.

Cannabis, like any other plant medicine,

is a substance with highly potent chemicals

that rapidly alters body chemistry and thought patterns.

At present, cannabis trends are changing so rapidly

that only time will tell how humanity

will respond psychologically, genetically,

and even spiritually.

Anything with this power must be respected and used

with the wisdom it deserves.

Up next, join us as we explore the darker aspects and shadow

side of psychedelic use.