Rastafarians and Ganja

Paul Nolan
Senior Lecturer in Social Work,
University of Central Lancashire,
Preston,
Lancs.
PR1 2HE
United Kingdom

Rastafarians believe that Ras Tafari, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethopia who was crowned in 1930 is the living God. Their belief system originated in Jamaica in the 1920s and is heavily influenced by the work and writings of Marcus Garvey. The belief that Ras Tafari is God is most usually based upon an alleged prediction of Marcus Garvey. This belief was reinforced by selective interpretation of Biblical prophesy, particularly the Book of Revelation. For believers, true salvation can only come to black people through repatriation to, or spiritual identification with, Africa. The smoking of ganja by Rastafarians is one aspect of the process by which they attempt to gain and develop insight into the central tenets of their beliefs.

The centrality of ganja to an understanding of the movement is confirmed by Barrett (1977, p. 216) who suggests that

The real centre of the movements religiosity is the revelatory dimensions brought about by the impact of the 'holy herb'.

This paper will examine the practice and implications of the use of ganja by the Rastafarians. Brief consideration will be given to defining the drug, to examining its history and to analysing its effects. This will be followed by the Rastafarians' justification for its use, its early use within the movement and the location of this use within Jamaican culture at that time. Consideration will also be given to the development of its use within the movement and to the current situation. Particular attention will be given to those aspects which are perceived as having a spiritual or religious context.

There will be an analysis of the role of ganja in non-Rastafarian settings and an attempt to consider the drug in the context of the history of psychedelic substance use for religious purposes. This will involve a description of these substances and an analysis of the nature of psychedelic and mystical experiences. Specific consideration will be given to the work of Walter Pahnke and to the implications of his research.

Finally, there will be a consideration of the possible dysfunctional effects of smoking ganja, with specific reference to the 'amotivational syndrome'.

Ganja is the name given to a particular portion of the female species of the plant Cannabis Sativa. It most usually represents the leaves, stalks, stems and flowers from the top of the female plant. Taken in small doses cannabis induces peacefulness and relaxation and in larger doses it has a psychedelic effect.

Rastafarian use of ganja as part of their religious rituals is usually grounded in their interpretation of certain verses of the Bible. These verses are numerous but the following are most often cited:

... and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
(Genesis 1:12)

Better is a dinner of herb where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
(Proverbs 15:17)

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of Man...
(Psalm 104:14)

Hall (1985, p 285) notes that

The doctrines of Rastafari are based on a detailed exegetic decoding of the Sacred Book

The Rastafarians use the concept of 'reasoning' to describe the process by which a complex chain of metaphorical inferences are used to infer the 'truths' contained within the Bible. The use of ganja is based upon this mode of exegital argument and when ganja is used in ritual contexts it is known as 'The Holy Herb'.

The early history of ganja as part of religious ritual is unclear but Barrett (1977, p 128) notes that it was most probably formulated 'during the wilderness experience in Pinnacle' (Leonard Howells' commune near Kingston). Leonard Howell, who was a follower of Marcus Garvey was a leading figure in the early development of Rastafarian ideas. He initially developed a following in the slum areas of Kingston and was subsequently arrested for what were construed as seditious activities by the government. Upon release from prison, in an attempt to avoid police harassment, he moved with his followers to the hill country near Sligoville, about twenty miles from Kingston. As part of the crops that they cultivated for use and for sale they planted ganja. This event is also noted by White (1991). It seems largely by inference that Howells' commune was seen as the starting point for Rastafarian use of ganja.

Again, although seemingly undocumented, ganjas adoption for religious purposes could possibly be construed to have been partly a protest and partly a form of communal identity, at a symbolic level. It is important to note that although the nature of ganja use by Rastafarians is quite specific, its relatively widespread use by the Jamaican poor would have been common in the 1930s when Howell and his followers moved to Pinnacle. Cannabis had been brought to Jamaica by the East Indian indentured labourers who replaced slave labour towards the end of the 19th century.

According to local historians, cannabis, known as ganja in Jamaica, was first introduced to Valley between 1910 and 1920 by travelling East Indians and by local farmers who made visits to coastal cities and the Capital.
(Schaeffer 1975, p363)

The area which Schaeffer refers to as 'Valley' is in Jamaica's Eastern Blue Mountain range, which is a similar geographical location to Pinnacle. Interviews with men aged over sixty by Comitas (1975) confirm ganja use in their youth. It seems a reasonable assumption that ganja use had a level of cultural normality amongst Howell and his followers and that they may have been smokers before the development of Rastafarian beliefs. The transition from this form of smoking to a Biblical justification for its sacred use seems undocumented.

Quite simply Boot and Salewicz (1995 p. 50) suggest,

the use of marijuana as a sacrement and an aid to meditation is logical in a country where a particularly potent strain of 'herb' grows freely.

Sadly this speculation adds nothing to the limited available data. Taylor (1995 p. 249) also suggests

this belief emanates from the fact that it first grew in the grave of King Solomon, hence the name, 'wisdom weed'.

However evidence of this fact is not forthcoming. The most comprehensive analysis of the process by which ganga became sacred is offered by Chevannes (1995 p. 84) who suggests that

up until the 1950s ganga smoking was not an identifying mark of the Rastas.

His belief is that the smoking of ganga became formalised by the group, Youth Black Faith. This group founded in 1949 were active in attempts to reassess basic Rastafarian beliefs. They were public in their ganga use and Chevannes (1995 p. 84) says that

by giving it ritual sanction they were in fact expressing their contempt for the state and society.

However Chevanne's evidence is limited and cannot be taken as a definitive analysis. Availability, recreational use and peer group reinforcement would explain its continued use within the commune. Also of importance would be the rebellion implicit in an illegal activity and a visible symbol of freedom from the laws of 'Babylon'. ('Babylon' is the term used for the various forms of state oppression of black people.)

As the Rastafarian movement grew, the acceptance of use of 'the holy herb' appears to have grown with it. Since the 1960s the use seems intrinsic and the reasons for its use unquestioned. Bob Marley said that the smoking of ganja was to 'aid dere meditations on de truth' (White 1991, p. 25). Barrett quotes a Rastafarian as saying

It gives I a good meditation: it is a door inside, when it is open, you see everything that is good
(Barrett, 1977, p. 136)

Peter Clarke quotes a Rastafarian who says

Ganja is correctly used when Rastas wish to become more aware, more receptive, when one wants to assimilate something one has just heard or read or seen, and this is best done in groups, at reasoning sessions.
(Clarke, 1986, p. 89)

These 'reasoning sessions' are also called 'groundings' or 'grounations'. Such sessions have a historical link with the Rastafarian 'Universal Convention' held in Kingston, Jamaica in March, 1958. The nature of these sessions will depend upon many variables and a reasoning session held in the Jamaican Blue Mountains will be markedly different from one held in the tenements of a large inner city. Nonetheless, the essential purpose is similar, i.e.

Members come together in informal social interactions to discuss spontaneously practically any issue concerning them personally and how this related to the movement.
(Cashmore, 1979, p. 64)

Such discussions are aided by the insights offered by ganja.

Barrett also emphasises the use of ganja to afford insight into the issue of the Rastafarians black identity. The drug is said to help to de-construct the brainwashing of white imperialist institutions and to enable the emergence of a true black consciousness and black view of the world.

This done ones true identity can be experienced, including the revelation that Haile Selassie is God and that Ethiopia is the home of the Blacks.
(Barrett, 1977, pp. 216-217)

0f primary importance is the use of ganja to develop insights into God and the Universe. According to a leading Rastafarian:

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 with God.
(Barrett, 1977, p. 217)

Joseph 0wens reports a similar statement from another Rastafarian:

When we are oppressed, when we are hungry, we smoke our little herb and we meditate on our God.
(Owens, 1984, p. 159)

The interviewees in 0wen's study make a number of comparisons between their use of ganja and forms of worship in other religions. The smoke from the burning herb may be compared to the smoke from incense and the use of the communal pipe (Chillum) may be compared to the sharing of the communion cup. Taking the herb is seen as

...the purest and most natural form of attaining communion with God.
(Owens, 1984, p. 160)

The pipe is usually taken with the prayer

Glory be to the Father and to the Master of Creation
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be
World without end: Jah Rastafari: Eternal God Selassie I.

This prayer has similarities with Hindu rituals in which as the Report of the Indian Hemp Commission in 1893/4 suggested, there is a ....

.... common practice of invoking the deity in terms of adoration before placing the chillum or pipe of ganja to the lips.
(cited by Leuba, 1972, p. 10)

A significant aspect of ganja use amongst Rastafarians is the possibility that it may induce a mystical experience in the user. The ingestion of certain drugs to induce mystical states is extensively documented. (Zaehner, 1961; Parrinder, 1961; Leuba, 1972; Staal, 1975)

The drugs that are most commonly used in religious contexts to produce mystical experiences are those which in modern language are termed psychedelic (literally mind-manifesting).

Such natural products were ingested by a priest, Shaman or witch doctor to induce a trance for revelatory purposes: sometimes they were taken by groups of people who participated in sacred ceremonies.
(Pahnke, 1971, p. 146)

Pahnke mentions use of the peyote cactus, whose chief active ingredient is mescaline, by the Aztecs as early as 300 BC and confirms its current use by the Native American Church as a vital part of their religious ceremonies. 0ther natural psychedelics used for similar purposes include ololiuqui (a variety of Morning Glory seeds) and a wide variety of mushrooms whose active chemical is most usually psilocybin. Less frequently used substances include

.... cohoba snuff, made from the pulverized seeds of Piptadania; the drink Vinho de Jurumens, made from the seeds of Mimosa Hostilis: and the drink Caapi made from Banisteriopsis.
(Pahnke, 1971, p. 146)

Cannabis can be viewed as part of this same tradition and the use of various preparations of the plant for religious purposes are similarly documented. The Rastafarians are not the first religion to use a preparation of the drug Cannabis Sativa in their religious rites.

The Report of the Indian Hemp Commission notes

The hemp plant is popularly believed to have been a great favourite of Siva and there is a great deal of evidence to show that the drug in some form or other is now extensively used in the exercise of the religious practices connected with this form of worship.
(cited in Leuba, 1972, p. 10)

Zaehner (1961, p.1) writes

It is, of course, a well-known fact that certain drugs,...modify human consciousness and produce what can literally be called ec-static states...Indian hemp and hashish have long been used in the East to produce precisely such a result.

Such evidence confirms ganja as a substance used for religious purposes in a similar manner to mescaline and psilocybin.

Alan Watts (1971, p. 131) notes

The experience resulting from the use of Psychedelic drugs are often described in religious terms.

Watts had used both mescaline and psilocybin for mystical purposes as well as dimethyl-tryptamine (D.M.T.) and the very powerful L.S.D.-25. However, he found cannabis to be the most suitable drug for inducing what he terms to be 'cosmic consciousness'. This is interesting as cannabis is most usually considered to be a less powerful psychedelic substance than mescaline and psilocybin and certainly much less potent than L.S.D.-25. It has been noted earlier cannabis is most usually used to induce relaxation and not frequently taken for the profound effects of the other, stronger psychedelic substances. Nonetheless, in large doses, cannabis may have a profound effect upon the user.

The reported effects of the drug Cannabis Sativa as a strong psychedelic substance are usually based upon the experiences of those who have taken hashish (hasheesh) and who have taken it orally and in large quantities. When the female plant flowers, the flowers contain a sticky substance usually known as cannabis resin. When the resin is removed and compressed it is most commonly known as hashish or hasheesh. While the Rastafarians smoke the top of the plant containing this resin, the compressed resin is potentially a much stronger preparation of the drug. It can subsequently be crumbled and smoked mixed with tobacco or on its own in a hookah pipe, but it can also be eaten. When eaten in larger doses its effects are fully psychedelic.

Some of the most vivid accounts of the effects of hashish are to be found in the literature of French writers who were members of Le Club Des Hachichins in Paris in the mid nineteenth century. Most notable of these are Theophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire. Club members met, usually at The Hotel Pimodan to eat a confection called dawamesc whose main ingredient was hashish. The administration was usually supervised by Dr. Jacques Moreau de Tours, a psychiatrist who pioneered the therapeutic use of the drug in the treatment of emotional and mental disorders.

Gautier (1969, p. 209) describes some of his experiences while under the influence of the drug:

Beyond fantasies of droll dreams confusedly danced about: hybrid creations, formless mixtures of men, beasts and utensils; monks with wheels for feet and cauldrons for bellies: warriors in armour of dishes, brandishing wooden swords in birds' claws...alchemists with their heads arranged as bellows...bawds made up of bizarrely knobbed squashes...Everything writhed, crawled, skipped, grunted, whistled as Goethe says in his Walpurgis Night.

A similar picture is presented by Baudelaire (1858). Notwithstanding the then fashionable rococo form of prose in which these texts are written, they convey similar experiences to the accounts of having taken mescaline by Huxley (1959) and Zaehner (1960). Leuba examines the work of Dr. Weir Mitchell and Havelock Ellis in comparing mescaline and hasheesh. His conclusion is 'no other drug approaches mescal so nearly as hasheesh' (Leuba, 1972, p. 25). There seems to be some reasonable justification for considering various preparations of the plant, Cannabis Sativa, to be a substance which could potentially be used to induce a mystical experience similar to other psychedelic substances.

Of immense importance to the debates surrounding psychedelic drug use and mystical or religious experience is the experimental work of Walter Pahnke and it is relevant to consider his research in some detail. Pahnke describes his 'Good Friday' experiments in which he attempted to test the mystical potential of psychedelic experience. He states

The purpose of the experiment in which psilocybin was administered in a religious context was to gather empirical data about the state of consciousness experienced.
(Pahnke, 1971, p. 152)

The experimental subjects were twenty Christian theological students who volunteered for the research and were aware that drugs would be used. They underwent a physical examination and completed a questionnaire designed to elicit basic psychological profiles and also religious orientation and history of any previous religious experience. The subjects were matched according to religious predisposition and personality and divided into five groups based upon friendship and trust. Two leaders each with a level of psychedelic experience were assigned to each group.

The experiment was 'triple-blind' i.e. neither the subjects, leaders nor experimenters knew who got psilocybin or who got placebo, notonic acid. In a private chapel on a Good Friday, ten subjects and two leaders were given psilocybin (thirty milligrams for each subject and fifteen milligrams for the leaders) and they then listened to a two and a half hour religious service taking place in another part of the building. This service consisted of music, prayers and meditation.

Pahnke used a nine category typology of the mystical state based on the work of W. T. Stace. In summary, Staces conclusions (cited in Pahnke, 1971, p. 148) had been that

... in a mystical experience there are certain fundamental characteristics that are universal and not restricted to any particular religion or culture (although particular cultural, historical or religious conditions may influence both the interpretation and description of these basic phenomena)'.

The nine categories of the phenomenological typology of mystical experience (whether considered 'religious' or not) were:

1. Unity
2. Transcendence of time and space
3. Deeply felt positive mood
4. Sense of sacredness
5. Objectivity and reality
6. Paradoxicality
7. Alleged ineffability
8. Transiency
9. Persisting positive changes in attitude and behaviour

It is not possible within the scope of this paper to present a comprehensive analysis of Pahnke's findings but his results may be summarised as follows:

... under the conditions of this experiment, those subjects who received psilocybin experienced phenomena that were apparently indistinguishable from, if not identical with, certain categories defined by the typology of mystical consciousness.
(cited in Watts, 1971, pp. 51-52)

Pahnke (1971, p. 158) also notes:

The experience of the experimental subjects was certainly more like mystical experience than that of the controls... The most striking difference between the experimentals and the controls was the ingestion of thirty milligrams of psilocybin, which it was concluded was the facilitating agent responsible for the difference in phenomena experienced.

Similar experiments suggest some validity for Pahnke's conclusions. For example: Timothy Leary reports an experiment in which 69 religious professionals were given L.S.D. and concludes

at this point it is conservative to state that over 75% of these subjects report intense mystico-religious experiences, and considerably more than half claim they have had the deepest spiritual experience of their life.
(cited by Watts, 1971, p. 53)

The results of these experiments appear to indicate

that psilocybin (and L.S.D. and mescaline, by analogy) are important tools for the study of the mystical state of consciousness.
(Pahnke, 1971, p. 159)

The data contained earlier in this paper suggests that preparations of the drug Cannabis sativa could be added to these substances. However, it is important to note that the links between, drug-induced experiences, mystical experiences and religious experiences remain a topic of continual debate. The self-reports of various Rastafarians have confirmed their belief that the use of ganja is helpful in allowing them communion with their God. However, Pahnke (1975, p. 148) reminds us,

whether or not the mystical experience is 'religious' depends upon ones definition of religion...

A similar observation is made by Staal (1975, p. 179) who says,

Though there may be a connection between mystical and drug- induced experiences, it is clear that drugs have little to do with religion as a social institution or as a belief in gods or in God.

While this paper cannot comment on the validity of the self-perceptions of Rastafarians, it has attempted to show that these perceptions and beliefs do form part of a long historical religious tradition and that research has suggested some basis for their legitimacy. Nonetheless, even if ganja is a useful and legitimate aid to religious enlightenment, it may not be without problems for the Rastafarians.

Linton Kwesi Johnson, a British based West Indian poet who often recites his poems to a reggae back-beat offers a criticism of Rastafarians as he says:

It [Rastafarianism] had a great deal which is positive in so far as it brought back to the masses a sense of dignity. It gave them a sense of pride in their African heritage which British Colonialism has done a great deal to destroy. There are Rastas who...get high, and for a moment they can find themselves in Ethiopia at the foot of Selassie or sitting on the Golden Throne. But after the weed wears off...then it's back to the harsh and ugly reality of life.
(Turner, 1988, pp. 135-136)

Johnson is articulating the frequently held belief that the smoking of cannabis is escapist and serves little useful function for the user.

Within clinical analysis this view has become encapsulated within the 'amotivational syndrome' in which it is alleged there is a loss of desire to work, to compete and to face challenges. Also, even those people who use varieties of cannabis for pleasure and recreation do so for its relaxing effects. Schofield (1971, p. 39) notes that the user

is likely to experience a relaxed feeling of well-being, deeper awareness, heightened sensitivity, sociability and contentment which usually ends in a pleasant drowsiness.

Such a state, harmful or harmless, appears unlikely to result in purposeful social activity or political consciousness raising. However, there is an amount of appropriate literature which raises significant questions concerning the 'amotivational syndrome' .

The literature on ganja use in rural Jamaica offers fascinating evidence against the 'amotivational syndrome'. Lambros Comitas (1975, pp. 128-129) notes,

... ganja is regularly taken to increase work activity. Almost universally, users maintain that ganja enhances their ability to work, that is to perform manual labour, and they regularly consume ganja with this objective.

Informants told Comitas that ganja made them work harder, faster and stronger. Comitas hypothesises that, in fact, ganja in this setting might actually demonstrate evidence of a 'motivational syndrome' in that it permits individuals to face, start and complete a variety of laborious tasks.

Schaeffer tested the relationship between cannabis and work activity using written observations, audiotape, videotape and film. His findings are interesting although inconclusive. For example, in the job of weeding he found

Total space covered or amount accomplished, in the number of plants reaped, is usually reduced per unit of time after smoking. The number of movements per minute is often greater after smoking as is the total number of movements required to complete a given task.
(Schaeffer, 1975, p. 381)

These findings may indicate that the farmer does a better job because he enacts appropriate movements to remove all weeds. Alternatively the extra time needed may indicate unnecessary repetition of action. When shown videos of their work, the farmers commented upon the efficiency of their performance after smoking. Much seemed to be a question of interpretation. It is not relevant to pursue these findings in further depth, but the reason for their mention is to cast suspicion on the widely held view that cannabis may lessen motivation and purposeful activity. 0ne further aspect of Schaeffers work (1975, p. 386) that is also relevant is that he noted

a connection between cannabis use, cohesion in social and exchange relationships, and cooperative effort during work and leisure time activities.

Although the above findings may reveal a high degree of cultural specificity to particular areas of Jamaica they are nonetheless important. Initial ganja use amongst Rastafarians may well have developed in a cultural setting that led to both an increase in purposeful social activity and increased social cohesion. The above literature questions many commonly held assumptions made by both professionals and non-professionals regarding the 'amotivational syndrome'. The re- discovery of this research, which appears to have been largely ignored, and a testing of its hypotheses in other cultural settings could prove useful and add much to the debates concerning cannabis use.

The smoking of ganja as part of religious practice is, and is likely to remain, a controversial aspect of Rastafarian belief The hostility to the practice from outside the movement appears to be based upon stereotypical views held concerning both the nature of drug use and the legitimate content of religious ceremony. This paper has attempted to illustrate that these stereotypes ignore significant aspects of religion that have a long and comprehensive history and are well documented. The members of the Native American Church have argued for their right to use peyote in their rituals because

They feel that peyote is a natural gift of God to mankind, and especially to natives of the land where it grows and no government has a right to interfere with its use.
(Pahnke, 1971, p. 165)

The Rastafarians argue that ganja is a similar natural gift Whether or not the practice of smoking ganja may be dysfunctional for the Rastafarians is open to debate. One of the problems in studying the Rastafarians is the overall lack of cohesiveness or consensus of aims for the movement. Nonetheless, black awareness, black pride and a critical analysis of imperialism seem to have a level of centrality. If the smoking of ganja, even if only at the level of self-perception, does lead to the emergence of a black consciousness then it is clearly useful in facilitating the process of ethnic pride. If, however, as Linton Johnson suggests, some Rastafarian ideas are 'pipe dreams' (Turner 1988) then it may be arguable that ganja use clouds consciousness and diverts members of the movement from pursuing relevant social and political ends. Johnson's use of the phrase 'pipe- dreams' is significant. The term refers to the result of smoking opium and echoes Marx's criticism of organised religion. Whether or not ganja and other psychedelic substances do actually help users achieve religious insight is debateable and appears to remain without agreement in the massive body of available literature. However, in writing about psychedelic awareness, Watts (1971, p. 134) says,

one's normally compulsive concern for the future decreases, and one becomes aware of the enormous importance of what is happening at the moment. 0ther people, going about their business on the streets, seem to be slightly crazy, failing to realize that the whole point of life is to be fully aware of it as it happens.

This may be one of the reasons why western societies, particularly western capitalist and imperialist societies appear to be so condemning of psychedelic drug use. It would be ironic if Johnson's criticisms, the comments of a black man couched in apparently Marxist terms, failed to realise this.

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