it's nice, but it won't get you anywhere

[DonnieDarko]

I guess my first thoughts were drugs, but as I thought more about it, I took it a bit further. No one will doubt that drugs are nice and fun, but the fact is that doing drugs won't get you anywhere. it's a counterproductive habit. Drugs can show you beautiful things, but if you keep on using them they haven't really done anything for you. Inside, you may be experiencing heaven. To an outsider, however, you may look like a fool. I suppose certain drugs can be used as sources of inspiration, but some people get caught up in their appeal and become wastes of life. If you experience something beautiful, it would be nice to share the experience with others. If you experience something beautiful and keep it to yourself (drugs, particularly), others may end up getting hurt as a result. Addiction hasn't been a personal experience for me, but I'm aware of the potential for it. Why would someone ever want to stop doing something that is so beautiful? If you're not growing from it, you become useless. In the end, it comes down to responsibility. Are you mature enough to be responsible and use drugs as a catalyst or will you depend on them for your own desires?

[fear + loathing]

You do not know the potential of drugs. You obviously have never had any sort of mind altering experience.

doing drugs won't get you anywhere

Do you have any idea how many lives have been changed by drugs? Aproximately 6.2 billion plus almost everyone who has died before. They are a part of evolution. But then again some horrible things have come from them like "religion".
I suggest you go read some of the positive mushroom, lsd, peyote, dmt, etc at www.erowid.org and see how many lives it has changed and opened up. Don't be missguided because all im talking about here are the hallucinogens. I do look down upon stimulants and depressants etc.

[paraflux]

I think the point being made was, if you continue to use drigs (and I know it was an all-encompassing term, which probably should not be used) you end up living in a shell. If you took acid every day, even every week, or mushrooms, do you think you would be able to live very well? Could you communicate with anyone, and live an otherwise normal life with societal interaction? I have taken acid and shrooms many times, and the last time I took acid my intuition told me it was enough. I have learned what I needed to, everything else I can figure out on my own without stimulation from chemicals (and even if it is organic, there are still chemicals and toxins). I am a supporter of hallucinogens, I think they can help people discover their potential, I think the organic ones are here on purpose. But like anything, you learn what you can and then you apply the knowledge to gain more knowledge, If you keep visiting the same place over and over, you never progress, and that's the harm done.

[megadan]

I don't think we should be so quick to slam an opinion like that, i'm inlcined to agree with DonnieDarko that drugs can be counterproductive. They are usful yes, and it is entirily logical to argue that natural drugs are here for a reason, considering all the variables that had to balance to create the universe exacly as we know it, it seems unlikley that something like that would happen without a reason.
But using drugs constently and habitually, even natural ones, can and will have detramental effects. Eating too many carrots will have detramental effects. Doing to much of anything isn't good for you. I think that's the danger, drugs are a pandoras box. Opening them will give you a benifit, arguably, of understanding etc. but it also opens up adiction and many negative effects on the body and mind. Caution is the important thing here, and i think that's key. I also think (since this is an opinion forum) that Tool's music is NOT about encouraging drug use. i think it's about using whatever means deemed nessicary to understand yourself and the world. Songs like Undertow, which seem to highlight the negative aspects of drugs, under some interpretations, when contrasted with songs like Third Eye, which seems to have a positive drug message, shows that, imho, the overall effect is to encourage free choice and present many options in the hope that we choose the one that is right for ourselves.

[joshhh...]

all things in moderation....drugs can be a shortcut to expanding your perspective. In this instant gratification society we live in most people don't have the will power, discipline, or respect to do things the hard way and take responsibilty for their own personal growth. Most are content to have their lives run for them, and sure they'll bitch occasionally about this and that but never do anything proactively on their own to change it. This system we are born and raised in does not nurture free thinkers, or those that speak their mind and question those in positions of power, thay want their control of the masses, and as we all know they do an excellent job of keeping us ignorant to the truth behind everything....government, religion, education, everything. It's a do-it-yourself asthetic we all need to adopt in order to be truly free from imposed restrictions on thinking and understanding we all have secretly been born into. Think about it, we are basically bred to be controlable. Don't think I'm some conspiracy theory fanatic but everything I'm saying here is common sense if you open your eyes and educate yourself. I'm not perfect and I'm not like"look at me I know the secret truth" because I don't have all the answers and that's alright, but I guess the point I'm making is I'm trying, you know. I've got the balls to scrutinize and question things that are handed to me and not just accept it on the basis that "that's just how it is." Read a book, be proactive with your own education, take risks, look like a fool sometimes, make your own rules, your own "goods" and "bads" aside from what your parents and your preacher prescribe for you, "think for yourself, question authority", do research, be a rebel. Do all this but never become stuck in your ways, always take the time to consider and relate to another point of view before you just dismiss it, you can learn something form everyone. My dad always tells me he is a "good bad example" and he is right, I've learned a lot from him that I might have otherwise had to learn the hard way. Be conscious in everything you do. Have courage and faith in yourself. Trust your gut feelings and use your intuition but balance it with reason and thought. Don't sell yourself short and settle. Be passionate and compassionate.Get outside of your box and put yourself in an uncomfortable situation sometimes and learn how to deal with and overcome that. Sorry for all the disjointed thoughts, I tend to ramble. I'm not trying to be a "be the ball" type of guy or some hypocrite, I just care. Don't knock me and assume something about me as if you can know me and my motivations from one long winded paragraph with run on sentences and bad punctuation and/or spelling, I don't care. Dave Navarro once said "you can't know someone else's reality" and that's one of the truest obvious statements you can make, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life because it has served me well. Try to be happy here people for your own sake at least, if not for those who share this mysterious place with you as well. Life's a motherfucker I know, but just bitching about it solves nothing and only makes you more upset, and frankly people get tired of hearing it after awhile, take some action and help yourself. What does all of this have to do with Tool you might ask, well I think each member of the band would wholeheartedly agree with everything I've said here, which is one reason why I like them, aside from the music itself which originally attracted me. They have a very rare and powerful combination, magical if you will. In my opinion they've duped a lot of people in a way, not intentionally at first because they couldn't have known the complete course of things to come but more in the sense of doing the best with the situation they've found themselves in. What I'm referring to here is mostly aimed towards Maynard's role in the band, since he is in a lot of ways the voice of the band, the front man who people look to to represent the views of the group, the "god" to some.( I know I've gotten myself into a spot here where I'll have to explain myself well so I'm not misunderstood with what I'm going to say) This band unintentionally and by way of their mysterious nature draws people into that direction that makes them want to know the band personally, which is what they were trying to avoid in the first place by using that approach, but obviously that doesn't stop people from doing it, actually it made it worse in a lot of ways. Maynard now though I believe has found himself in a position where he has to try something else to get people to get the message of "think for yourself, question authority." I think he over exaggerates how rude and cruel he can be(we all are, I'm not insulting the man) so after awhile you get the impression that that's how he really is and you realize that you probably wouldn't like the guy if you met him on the street and he wasn't in Tool. I think he is really clever by doing this, because after you figure out that this guy you've been trying to get to know everything about so you can be like him is an "asshole",(because most people don't aspire to be an asshole) that forces you to get the message in the music. You can't worship someone like a God who is telling you to "think for yourself and question authority", that defeats the purpose of what he's trying to do for you. He has adopted the stance of "I have to do what I have to do" which for him involves only offering and exaggerating the negative side of his personality so once you get to "know him" you don't like him as a person, but you get the message so clear in the music once you get to that point. That's what I meant when I said they have "duped" a lot of people, he made them learn the hard way. He's made a lot of people, in my opinion have these little epiphanies(myself included) that force the message on you. Like I said, very clever. In a perfect world, he wouldn't have to do that, but I'm sure he gets a kick out of it now. We all know he really cares, you can't fake something as powerful as Tool's message, people aren't that stupid, I for one can read people well and can tell when someone actually means and feels what they say, and I hear total conviction in this man's lyrics, and I'm oviously not alone. He's made many people who get the message want to be better people, and only truly good people can give you that feeling and type of motivation legitimately. He is genuine. He has developed a unique approach that I'm sure keeps him very entertained and at the same time doesn't "spill the beans" so to speak. Like he said, he's not going to spoon feed you anything, that would be cheating you as well as himself. So quit pursuing his personal life so much, because if we were all Maynards, we would be bored and boring. He's the real Slim Shady, leave him alone. Again I apologize for my rambling and long windedness, I like to get things of my chest in "shitloads." And yes I realize I didn't even cover the real topic I was responding to here, which was drugs, but again, I don't care, who cares and so what, I'll cover it later. Besides I've written too much already and my manager is looking at me suspiciously. If anyone has anything to say about any of my spelling in this essay understand that spelling is mostly memory based, and who's memory, with the exception of Aleister, is all that great anyway? I'll close with one last qoute that everyone needs to remember when listening to anyone or reading anything...."Don't listen to a word I say."

[fear + loathing]

i got a little caught up with what i was saying and wanted to add that it is important to not let a pattern develope or to use them until you have found what you are searching for like paraflux said.