Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

Addiction #01 – Freedom from ALCOHOL
Alcohol is the oldest drug in the world. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars have
revealed that beer was produced about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran, and it is safe
to say that it was brewed long before that as well.
Even more poignantly, alcohol is the most widely used drug in the world. Well over half
of all Americans over the age of 12 are regular imbibers, and there are currently many
millions of alcoholics in the U.S. alone. Indeed, more than 100,000 Americans die each
year alone due to their alcohol consumption. Even more disturbing, there are currently at
least 60 other countries that imbibe more alcohol per capita than the United States!
Even in moderate amounts, drinking alcohol impairs vision, warps memories and
irreparably damages the brain. Consuming alcohol also elevates one’s blood pressure,
increases the likelihood that you will suffer a stroke &/or a heart attack, and enhances the
chance that one will contract mouth &/or throat cancer. Various liver diseases caused by
alcohol abuse kill over 25,000 Americans each year, and even moderate use has been
shown to damage the pancreas, the kidneys and the immune system.
Much more importantly, however, are the effects alcohol has on our mental clarity and
emotional state of being. Alcohol is a powerful depressant, and an equally powerful
obscurer of reality. It impairs discernment, garbles verbal communication, intensifies
feelings of apathy towards others, and leads to feelings of meaninglessness towards one’s
own existence.
“I am more afraid of alcohol than of
all the bullets of the enemy. “
~ Thomas Jefferson
But this is no big deal for most of us,
right? After all, it is only “those
alcoholics” that have these problems,
not us “moderate drinkers” …
Well, you can believe that
rationalization if you wish, and yet a
delusion it remains. You might very
well not be a classic “alcoholic”, and
yet every ounce of alcohol you imbibe
– be it in drink one or in drink twenty,
obscures your ability to live with clarity
in your life, and thereby obscures your
ability to act in harmony with the
inclinations of your True Self.
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