yoga cannabis study done

Yoga and Cannabis – Set and Setting (Study)

Yoga has exploded in popularity across the Western world over the past few decades. An ancient practice rooted in Hindu spirituality, yoga provides a powerful pathway to physical fitness, mental clarity, and inner peace. Millions now flock to classes, hoping to reap the touted benefits.

Yoga's roots trace back over 5,000 years to pre-Vedic traditions in Northern India. The physical postures or asanas were originally just one component of a holistic system for balanced living and spiritual alignment.

But in the modern West, the physical dimension has taken center stage.

Through the 60s counterculture and subsequent New Age movements, Eastern contemplative practices like yoga, meditation, and psychedelics captivated Westerners disillusioned by materialism. Yoga offered an accessible route to transcendent states without drugs.

Cut to today, where yoga has become a booming industry.

Boutique studios popped up nationwide, targeting stressed-out urbanites. The Instagrammable athletic practice unfortunately often loses touch with yoga's spiritual core.

Interestingly, cannabis legalization has closely paralleled the popularization of yoga stateside. As prohibition crumbles, the plant returns to its ancient status as healing ally and portal to inner worlds. Just as yoga arrived in the West stripped of original context, cannabis is reunified with its roots and strains in holistic living.

Might yoga and cannabis synergize uniquely to conjure mystical states and find deeper meaning within? Does cannabis amplify yoga's physical benefits and mind-body awareness? Combining these ancient wellness practices (Yoguana to some people and in other parts of the world it is now known as Marijusana) may provide an enlightened path to whole-self healing aligned with the Earth's rhythms.

As legalization spreads, the cross-pollination of yoga and cannabis seems destined to bloom new forms of sacred inner exploration. Perhaps these unlikely bedfellows will guide us to obscured wisdom desperately needed in these chaotic times. The future, as always, remains for us to mindfully create.

Investigating Cannabis & Yoga: The Research Breakdown

A pioneering 2021 study published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice dug into the potential synergy between cannabis and yoga practice. While anecdotal benefits abound, formal research on pairing ganja and downward dog remained slim. This paper aimed to probe how setting and activity impact cannabis experiences.

The researcher, Sarah E.A. Daniels, speculated that contextual factors highly influence cannabis outcomes, mirroring psychedelic therapy frameworks emphasizing "set and setting." But such variables are rarely explored in cannabis protocols.

Daniels' study asked: does practicing yoga while high change a user's subjective experience versus just relaxing per usual? Quantifying this could reveal ways to maximize cannabis' therapeutic potential through holistic practices.

The setup was straightforward: 47 participants consumed cannabis twice in one week - once before yoga, once before typical activities like watching TV. During both sessions, respondents self-reported metrics including mindfulness, mysticality of experience, mood, and more.

Several key benefits emerged from the cannabis + yoga pairing:

Significant improvements in state mindfulness - 15% higher focus and awareness than baseline cannabis use.
Increased mystical feelings - greater sense of tranquility, eternity, and shifted time perception.
Enhanced physical awareness - feeling deeper connection to bodily sensations and movements.

72% of participants said they'd combine yoga and cannabis again based on these positive effects. They reported reaching novel states of body awareness and inner space exploration.

As Daniels summarized: "These findings suggest that paying attention to contextual factors and providing guidelines for therapeutic cannabis users may improve clinical outcomes when using cannabis to support mental health and well-being."

The results also counter the pharmaceutical view that cannabis' "high" is an unwanted side-effect. Participants subjectively valued the unique shifts in consciousness from cannabis, which yoga helped deepen meaningfully.

Unlike high-THC products, pharmaceutical developments tend to isolate compounds and minimize psychoactivity. But this study adds to evidence that altered states can powerfully facilitate healing when combined with intention.

Daniels concluded that prescribing controlled behavioral directions could be key for harnessing cannabis' benefits - activities like yoga provide accessible and uplifting rituals. Integrating mindful movement and breathwork intensifies cannabis' potentials.

Of course, more research is still needed on the nuances. But this pioneering work opens exciting directions for utilizing cannabis and holistic modalities synergistically based on individual needs and goals.

The intersections of inner exploration are infinite. With an open yet disciplined approach, cannabis becomes less casual substance, more mentor and guide. Yoga provides structure to journey safely into awakening.

Precursors to a Great Awakening?

Yoga's integration with cannabis represents an intriguing microcosm of the massive shifts in modern spirituality. As we collectively peel away old dogmas and recover lost ancient wisdom, these unlikely bedfellows synergize beautifully.

Might we be witnessing the first shoots of a great awakening taking root in the barren soils of materialism? The signs are all around us, if we have eyes to see.

Psychedelic medicine, demonized and banned for decades, returns to the mainstream to once again heal minds and souls. Cannabis rebounds as our benevolent plant ally, her gifts impossible to erase fully.

Meanwhile, Eastern contemplative practices like yoga, meditation, breathwork and mysticism enthrall Westerners exhausted by reductionism and emptiness. We instinctively turn inward for meaning as external structures crumble.

Even Western astrology and tarot surge in popularity as people seek new frameworks of significance. Disillusioned by monotheism, we explore varied spiritual technologies granting access to our richer inner dimensions.

Fundamental assumptions get questioned like never before. Non-duality, panpsychism, simulation theory - radical perspectives seep steadily into mass consciousness. The thirst for truth leads down rabbit holes revealing wonder worlds belying the mundane hologram.

Of course, entrenched hierarchies rush to fortify as their façades fade. Politicians and profiteers desperately clutch to maintain crumbling power. Divide and conquer shifts into overdrive, trying to distract from awakening.

Yet their efforts seem only to accelerate the inevitable realizations. Illusion always collapses under its own weight eventually. Eyes open, the emperor's nakedness becomes comedy, not tragedy.

What emerges on the horizon remains unclear. But when patterns converge synchronistically, it signals deep currents stirring our collective unconscious. The ancients knew to read such signs as portents of change coming.

Perhaps we collectively intuit how to weave forbidden wisdom into modern living; ancient roots nurturing new fruits. Maybe we are the ones we've been waiting for all along.

If so, our work is to master inner alchemy while modeling the just and equitable world we know is possible. Staying rooted in truth as the old collapses is our duty to future generations.

Sink into the earth. Breathe in spirit. Let your light burn bright through the smoke and noise. The awakening begins within. In each moment, we vote with how we choose to shine our consciousness. Darkness has no power over those who remember their brilliance.

The darkest hour comes before sunrise. Have courage friends; keep your lamps lit, and trust in the return of the light!