The Path Ministry

  Topic: The Spiritual Value of Getting High Connection or communion with your Higher Power can be achieved in various ways. Some people pray, some meditate, and some augment those practices with psychoactive substances, both natural and synthetic. The most important thing is the state of mind, not the method that gets you there. As you all know, my personal preferred method for reaching that elevated state of mind is Cannabis. I’m something of a Weed Jesus; I like to preach its many benefits, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today. We have evidence of both medicinal and spiritual use of cannabis for thousands of years; it has been used spiritually in India probably since prehistoric times. Multiple cultures have included Cannabis in their sacred observances, including Rastafarians in Jamaica, in Judahite worship in Israel dating back to the eighth century, and in China about 2500 years ago. (Source: Journal of Cannabis Research) Cannabis has evolved alongside humanity; w...

  Topic: Finding Your Own Higher Power The Path itself is atheistic; it does not recognize any one god or set of gods in its practice. The sixteen individuals who make up Pantheon of the Path are more like patron saints than gods. However, this does not mean a follower of the Path cannot find and recognize their own Higher Power in their own way. You are encouraged to seek your own connection to the greater, Divine aspect of the Universe, in whatever guise in which it reveals itself to you, and to call it by whatever name you prefer, whether it be “God” or something else. Of course, you are also free to attribute your own characteristics to your Higher Power. Even as an atheist, I still pray; all I do is open myself up to the Divinity that is what I consider the collective cosmic consciousness. This collective consciousness is made up of everything that lives and generates energy, including humans, animals, trees, and even the Earth itself. It also includes any extraterrestrial...

Topic: Capital Punishment This can be a sensitive issue for many people. Path doctrine is not exclusively for or against capital punishment, but only the most heinous crimes, committed by the unrepentant -such as serial killers, especially if cannibalism was involved, or people who murder their children- should qualify for what is essentially putting down a rabid animal. In those cases, the death of a murderer may be the only way the victims’ families may have some sort of closure.   Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer come to mind as examples. We also need to develop a humane and painless way to perform executions. If we must resort to killing somebody, we need to do it with as much Compassion as possible. Not only for their sake, but for our own as well, to prove to ourselves that we are not also monsters. Remember that Compassion requires a certain degree of emotional distance; we only seek vengeance when we allow our emotions to overrule our rational selves. Path doctrine is to al...

  Topic: A Meditation Upon the Nature of Truth “Truth remains true, regardless of how unpopular it may be. When Galileo first discovered that the earth actually revolves around the sun, he was declared a heretic by the Catholic Church and put on house arrest. His discovery did not match the Catholic version of the world, and was therefore wildly unpopular. However, that truth remains true to this day, and is even recognized as truth by the very church that fought against it so vehemently. When it was discovered that man evolved from primitive apelike creatures, that finding was also considered heresy. Now it is considered scientific fact in most respected circles, and its opponents are ridiculed and largely ignored by the enlightened community. Once again, the truth has overcome its suppression by those who would see mankind blunder about in the darkness of superstition. It seems that every scientific discovery that shows pre-existing supposition to be wrong is doomed to supp...