How Does Cannabis Affect the Brain and Meditation?

HOW DOES CANNABIS AFFECT THE BRAIN AND MEDITATION?

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or more precisely (−)-trans-Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol ((6aR,10aR)-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), is the principal psychoactive chemical within cannabis. After inhalation or consumption, it travels through the bloodstream to the targeted brain cells where it binds with specific molecular targets on brain cells, called cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are ordinarily activated by chemicals similar to THC that naturally occur in the body (such as anandamide; see picture, above) and are part of a neural communication network called the endocannabinoid system. These receptors influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, and sensory and time perception.  

Meditation is a process where one can silence conscious thought, quieting the physical realm, and making a doorway to spiritual awareness.  Cannabis aids the meditation process by clearing the mind from cluttered thought, and creating a quieted calm which is conducive to the mediation process.  Can one meditate without cannabis?  Yes, of course.  However, one might wonder the benefit of using cannabis during meditation.  

Cannabis not only provides the mental ripening necessary for meditation, but it opens the doorway to spirituality and spiritual experience.  The psychoactive properties alter mood, create peace, and propagate a wave of subjective experience to all the senses of the moment in time and space which the spirit travels during the experience.