Many years ago I visited Zacatecas, an old colonial silver-mining town in northern Mexico with lots of historic architecture and stuff. And a strange thing happened to me back in Zacatecas as well. I met a young Mexican man named Vicente who belonged to some unpronounceable Native American tribe up near the US-Mexico border.
I had forgotten all about Vicente and my experiences in Zacatecas until the other day when I found an old wooden box containing my photos from back then. Here is the story of my encounters with Vicente. How could I possibly have forgotten about this!
Vicente was selling small bead-work craft items on the street in front of my guest house when I met him. “I’m on my way to the Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes,” he said, “to sell toad venom gathered by mis amigos in the northern desert.” Yuck! “Would you like to try some? It will change your world.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmwfylNDOlU
Change my world? Who could possibly resist such an offer. “Sure.”
You gotta remember that I was a young beatnik back then, it was a different time, LSD was still legal in the United States, there were no iPhones to distract folks with cat videos — and I was pretty much up for anything that might make me spiritual and wise. I inhaled the venom. I passed out cold. I saw visions. I was floating. I became an angel, a goddess. I saw colors and rainbows and stars. I loved this stuff!
I found out later that toad venom is called the “God Molecule” — clearly for a good reason.
https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/
That whole experience took about 45 minutes and then I was once again suddenly back on planet Earth — and equipped with the firm realization that my life was going in the right direction, that things were lovely and that I needed to keep up working for Peace on Earth. “Let’s do this again!”
Then there was the second time that I took toad venom. A totally different story altogether. It was like a dress rehearsal for Death. The best way to explain this experience was through the acronym P.A.N.D.A.
First I was physically Paralyzed. Couldn’t move a muscle. Just laid there. My brain was fully engaged but nothing else worked.
Second, I was given the clear realization that I was all Alone in this world. Period. No backup. No friendly friends, no family — just me.
Third, it became crystal-clear that I had No future. “Not even any?” I asked the toad. Nope. None.
Fourth, I was visited by Death itself. And death was a good thing, absolutely nothing to be afraid of. And on the other side of Death there lay a beautiful magical kingdom, Heaven, the Big Rock Candy Mountain, the Pure Land. “Wow!”
And, last, I found myself floating up through the stars, At one with the universe.
A half-hour later, I was back on this planet — and much, much, much wiser. “But Vicente,” I asked. “Isn’t all this exactly what a toad might want me to think — right before it eats me? Paralyzed, alone, with no future, not afraid of Death?”
Vicente just laughed and thought I was cute. He went back on the road to the fair and I went back to the Lower East Side where I was living at the time — feeling both more spiritual and a little bit wiser.
Maybe it’s time that we also gave our current government leaders in Washington some toad venom as well. It could either make them more spiritual and wiser — or else toads might come and eat them up too. P.A.N.D.A. But this would be a fate they totally deserve for being so ugly, greedy and evil — for starting all those endless and stupid “wars” for fun and profit, lying about almost everything and stealing food out of our babies’ mouths. Yep, let’s do it. The God Molecule don’t like ugly!
PS: Things have changed a lot since rmy trip to Zacatecas. No one in America today seems to be even the slightest bit interested in becoming either more spiritual or wiser. And for those of us who do try our best to become more like Christ or Buddha? We have no media megaphone at all — and in fact the screws on us are getting tighter and tighter. All too many of us are ending up in jail just for speaking the truth.
I just heard a talk by an author who, in desperation, had to turn to comic books and graphic novels to get his point across to Americans — that we are being used and abused by the non-spiritual and definitely un-wise dolts in DC who are currently at the top of their wicked pyramid scheme to steal our country’s wealth. The other author on the platform talked about weaving her heroine’s fight against disaster capitalism into her romance novels. Harlequin Romances goes rogue? Apparently so.
Perhaps they should also start making wiser and more spiritual cat videos too!
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