Sensual Enhancement
Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:06PM Sensual enhancement of physical activities is the most pronounced feature of cannabis intoxication. Anecdotal reports of recreational marijuana users abound with the notion that being “high” makes every activity better. Walking, talking, eating, sleeping (dreaming), reading, writing, watching, viewing, listening, playing, painting . . . virtually every field of activity can be a pot user’s paradise of sensory stimulus. It is almost as If the color, hue, and volume of perception were subtly increased with a few puffs of smoke. Tactile sensations are also intensified, leading some people to a more enthusiastic participation in many facets of life.
A study by sex researchers Masters and Johnson found that cannabis enhanced sex for most users. Of 1,000 cannabis users surveyed, 83% of men and 81% of women reported that cannabis enhanced their sexual experience. [1] Historical records document the aphrodisiac properties of marijuana in many different cultures. In Hindu Tantra of Northern India, for example, marijuana is ingested during ritualistic sexual yoga as a means to increase perception of prana, the “breath of life” that underlies human form.
Marijuana patients who ingest large amounts of cannabis for medicinal purposes are often lacking prana, (also called chi in China and ki in Japan).as a result of their illnesses. This deficit of health-energy may be corrected by the same sensory-intensifying effects that appeal to recreational users. Pain levels of seriously ill people are usually quite severe. The sensation-enhancing effects of cannabis use generally helps to correct pain levels without causing sensory deadening as do opiates, narcotics, barbiturates, diazepam, and other drugs commonly prescribed for pain.
With continued exposure to cannabinoids, marijuana patients develop a tolerance to the psychoactive effects. Chronic cannabis users do not get high. Instead, they are attempting to restore their sensory conditions to normal.
Related sections: Fertility, Psychoactivity, Tolerance
[1] Conrad, “Hemp: The Natural Flower of Health.” Source: Mount, ed. “Cannabis and Childbirth.” http://www.snowcrest.net/stlight/