Re: should you smoke marijuana on your aikido journey
I think (my two cents) that the bottom line is: how can we reach an altered state of conscience that may lead us to superior experiences or a diverse and more profound perception of the meaning of a kata?
The question in itself could be legitimate, the means not.
We often label as "geniuses" persons who suffer of a mental pathology that makes them able to perform, for instance, amazing calculations that "normal" persons can't do mentally. Autism is one of such pathologies: at the price of being utterly unable of social interaction, a few of these persons become able to perform extremely complicated mathematical operations mentally.
However, labeling them as geniuses, is a misnoming. In these persons a mental barrier fell and they now reached a type of neural network where these computations can be made overcoming instantly the resistance that in "normal" people is there.
And yet it's a pathology. Why? because the mental resistance that is there must not be vanquished instantly - as a pathology or a drug could. It needs to be conquered consciously.
There seems to be a significant difference between attaining an "alternative" mental status while you still possess the integrity of all your mental faculties and you overcome your inner resistances with their cooperation, and attaining it while your faculties are compromised and the resistence, rather than conquered, is simply abolished.
So, you should not be high on the mat - however, you may strive to train so hard that the mat sets you high.
I read that in some traditional schools you had to train till complete exhaustion. Then you had to train a few hours longer, for _that_ was the real training and the rest was preparation.
if you want an aiki drug, then _that_ ought to be your drug of choice.