Documentary explores righteous ganja living

In the global trend towards increased consumption of marijuana and psychedelics, the spiritual lifestyle of ganja smoking is getting lost amid the rush just to “get high”.

In the ButSeeYa Righteous Ganja Living documentary – directed by Joelle Powe – Maxine Stowe explores the idea of righteous ganja living.

ButSeeYa Righteous Ganja Living is first in a series of short online documentaries that highlight the wisdom of controversial voices in the Caribbean. This is Maxine Stowe’s second mini-documentary in the ButSeeya series.

Stowe is a perennial provocateur who has not only agitated against the strictures and rules of Babylon’s systems, but also asks why modern Rastafarians are content to simply walk and talk without undertaking any real radical work to overthrow the system. A once revolutionary philosophy seems to have lost its verve.

Rastafarian principles of simple living, respect for nature and the body, community reasonings, and ganja smoking as a means to raise consciousness are now everywhere, taken to be the path of righteousness. But Rastafari people are not at the forefront of these global movements. In fact, Rastafari is not even at the table in these discussions.

There is no question that there has been a seismic shift in human consciousness. The obsessive attraction to material consumption has started to feel very hollow. Disunity and anger are rampant. Spiritual bankruptcy is a hallmark of our age. People are in search of different pathways to peace and happiness.

ANTIDOTE

Could the ganja lifestyle be the antidote to what ails our modern civilisation?

Stowe explores this idea in her personal reflections as a user and distributor of ganja over many decades.

Her journey with the plant makes for riveting online viewing. She wants to create a clear demarcation between the people who simply want to get high to forget versus those who wish to understand themselves better and their place in the universe and with God. Stowe explains in the documentary that raising one’s consciousness and awareness is an entirely different enterprise than searching for hedonistic pleasures, which dangerously mixes weed and booze.

The commercialisation of ganja, according to her, has focused primarily on the “tripping” aspect by artificially increasing THC - creating a global rise in zombies and compulsive partying.

A ganja life that leads to a smoker doing nothing and being comfortable with doing nothing, Stowe argues, is a misuse of the plant as it was intended. India’s ancient sadhus (holy men) and Shamanic traditions and have used cannabis for centuries as a gateway to ponder deeply religious thoughts to achieve enlightenment. It creates a deeper understanding by allowing the user to access the subconscious better.

Jamaican Rastafarian philosophy, when properly explored, has laid out key principles for righteous living. Understanding what type of ganja to smoke, how much to smoke, when to smoke, and how if properly used, cannabis can enhance your inner tranquillity while improving your interest in life and personal productivity.

Ganja is not about blocking out. It’s about letting in.

ButSeeYa Righteous Ganja Living will be premièring on YouTube on Sunday July 23 (today) – which is also the birthday of Haile Selassie I – on AdtelligentTV channel.

Follow Powe on IG: www.instagram.com/joellesimonepowe or visit her website at www.joellesimonepowe.com