Herbs

 

The Herb Is the Thing
If it is agreed that the God-figure Haile Selassie may not be the most dominant force in the movement's ideology, what then is the real center? The real center of the movement's religiosity is the revelatory dimensions brought about by the impact of the "holy herb." Under this influence the person of Haile Selassie is transformed into that supernatural reality or a cosmic significance befitting a racial redeemer. To the Rastafarians the average Jamaican is so brainwashed by colonialism that his entire system is programmed in the wrong way. He is thus unable to perceive of himself as a Black man; his response to the world is conditioned by unseen forces due to European acculturation. To rid his mind of these psychic forces his head must be "loosened up," something done only through the use of the herb. The herb enables one to see one's true self. A true revelation of Black consciousness brings about the proper love for the Black race; it rids the mind of social and psychological "hang ups" by altering one's state of consciousness, revealing the true nature of the world to the inner consciousness. This done, one's true identity can be experienced, including the revelation that Haile Selassie is God and that Ethiopia is the home of the Blacks.
According to the Rastafarians, the structure of Jamaican society is inhuman and cannot provide the psychic nutrients demanded by the Blacks who originated in the satisfying cultures of Africa. They see Jamaica as death oriented; redeeming values for human life are absent; success in the society is defined largely in terms of having money and a certain standard of living. To them the work roles which yield this money and standard of living are spiritually demeaning and unsatisfying; so, rather than strive for this kind of upward mobility, they have opted for the simple life. This poverty, however, is voluntary, free from the pressures and dictates of a dying culture. By withdrawing from the acquisitive society into a counterculture, they believe that they will be able to redefine themselves and restructure their values with new norms and goals.
The herb is the key to new understanding of the self, the universe, and God. It is the vehicle to cosmic consciousness; it introduces one to levels of reality not ordinarily perceived by the non-Rastafarians, and it develops a certain sense of fusion with all living beings. According to a leading Rastafa-rian:
Man basically is God but this insight can come to man only with the use of the herb. When you use the herb, you experience yourself as God. With the use of the herb you can exist in this dismal state of reality that now exists in Jamaica. You cannot change man, but you can change yourself by the use of the herb. When you are God you deal or relate to people like a God. In this way you let your light shine, and when each of us lets his light shine we are creating a God-like culture and this is the cosmic unity that we try to achieve in the Rastafarian community.5
The Rastafarian movement is presently alive and well. The movement has not been visibly affected by the death of their deity. If anything, his death strengthened the group, for the real source of the movement's vitality is not in a belief but in an experience brought about by a liberating ideology. The hallucinogenic state caused by the herb reinforces this.
256 The Rastafarians
The sacramental use of the herb has the similar effect of the spirit-filled consciousness of Christianity; it is the vehicle to the spiritual world, the revealer of hidden things, and the comforter in times of distress. Through this energizer of life great feats are accomplished. The totality of the Rastafarian experience, as they themselves report it, seems sufficient to establish the movement's existence as a religious alternative for its followers. The future of the movement can only be predicted with caution.
Predictions about the shape of a socioreligious movement like the Rastafarians are risky matters, but other movements of this kind provide some guidelines. Caution must revolve around the fact that no two cultures are alike. Thus observable models developed in the United States may be inapplicable to Jamaica. And too, movements' behaviors are erratic to such an extent that most of their declared objectives may change almost overnight, thus making one's predictions useless. A case in point is the radical change in the Black Muslims' attitude toward Whites. One of their strongest rules was that no Whites could visit their temples, all Whites being devils. This doctrine was changed without warning.6 We are, however, sure that most movements of this type undergo change when reasons for their emergence no longer exist. Thus, the strength of revitalization movements is directly proportional to the stress experienced in the society. When the stress no longer exists, the movement may either fade away or it may organize itself into a benign organization merely celebrating those values it once represented. Many church organizations of our day fall into this category.
Jamaican society is now undergoing dramatic social changes, many indirectly brought about by the challenge of the Rastafarians to the plastic lifestyle that once existed. The resistance to these changes is adamant. Should the forces for change be successful and a "steady state" come into being where all its citizens are seen as equally meaningful to the future of the island, then the repressed energies that go into movements of resistance will be set loose in creative channels for the good of the whole; only then will movements such as the Rastafarians have outlived their usefulness. But, as this "steady state" seems to be a Utopian dream not likely to appear anywhere on earth, we envisage that four basic developments will eventually take place in the Rastafarian movement. First, a unique Rastafarian church is likely to emerge as one of the sects of the island; second, an equally large body of what Professor Rex M. Nettleford calls "functional Rastafarians"7 will continue on the island, secularizing the movement further from its strongly religious orientation; third, a large body of Rastafarians will opt for the Ethiopian Orthodox church as a syn-cretistic religious body; and fourth, the movement could become the vanguard of resistance should the socioeconomic situation in Jamaica be reversed.

Legal Herbal Highs - Jamaican History - Rastafarians - Rastafarians in the 1980's - Rastafarian Church - Rastafari Eastern Caribean - Rastafari Herbs - Rastafari Movement in the USA - Rastafari Religion - About Rastafarians