Narcotics
[related: Narcissus, Nepenthe, Narc] [disambiguation: My Nepenthe]
A specific set of psychoactive compounds known to induce forgetfulness and mild euphoria [1], though the term was also later applied to nepenthe, a substance of unknown origin described at length in the writings of ancient Greece. Although the ubiquity of narcotics in the Western World declined after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the 1980's saw an explosion of cocaine-based narcotic use in the United States. Television producer Steven Bochco, an amateur scholar of antiquities, noticed parallels between the ancient and modern worlds, giving rise to the television series My Nepenthe. The term "narcotic" was originally taken from narcissus [2], a plant known to induce trance-like states and hallucinations, leading to the etymology of the term "narcissism[3]" after the myth of an intoxicated youth that drowned after falling in love with his own reflection in a shallow pool of fetid water. Throughout history, narcotics and other psychotropic drugs have played a central role in mythologically-based mystical practices including astral projection and levitation. Although they have been categorized by the United States government as extremely harmful and problematically addictive, various medical scholars, most notably Sigmund Freud, have enthusiastically prescribed and ingested narcotics in various forms.
- ↑ Debate continues to surround the "source" of narcotic-induced euphoria, with some experts attributing the occasional appearance of euphoria in narcotic users to temporary freedom from the Labyrinth via loss of discrete "self" (as opposed to acute chemo-neurological processes in the brain).
- ↑ A genus of carnivorous plant found throughout the Old World tropics, was later named after the mythical drug, in part based on its technique of intoxicating small lizards and other reptiles into submission and then drowning them in dew-filled monkey cups.
- ↑ It should be noted that severe (often impermanent) narcissism often accompanies the onset of schizophrenic and/or non-specific psychotic episodes, a commonality that, according to Buddhist doctrine, can be attributed to the ailing mind being entirely pervaded by an errant sense of discrete, inherently existing "self".