The first highs are the best highs. These are at the summit of the Lowarchy. These highs correspond to the Self Actualization Needs on Maslow's Pyramid. Achieving the Actualization Needs involves a life of effort and self-exam. All you have to do to achieve these initial highs is, get high, take the drug, smoke it, drink it, snort it or inject it and this is as good as it will ever get! These initial highs I call the Arrogant Highs.
They are not called the Arrogant Highs because people who get high are arrogant. Some perfectly humble people just might decide to get high. The high they experience will not be so humble. It may give them an on top of the world feeling, euphoria. But these people are not on top of the world they're just high. And that's why these highs are called the Arrogant Highs. Some examples may help to explain the Arrogant Highs.
If you wanted to meet a room full of experts on any subject where would you go? If you wanted to hear from experts on economics, geopolitics, marriage, national defense and auto-mechanics where could you go to find experts on all these and many other subjects? A university? A library? A church? No! None of those places have all the expertise readily available. However you can walk into almost any bar in any town, anywhere and find a room full of experts on these and many more subjects as well. These experts will gladly and endlessly share the vast knowledge with you! But, are they really experts, or are they just drunk?
You might be a shy, reticent and self effacing individual the essence of humility. But snort a line of cocaine and SHAZAM! You are the coolest, smartest, sexiest person around! The life of the party.
A number of years ago a lady brought her son to see me. She was concerned because he regularly smoked marijuana seemed to be developmentally stuck and was going nowhere fast. He was 20 years old, a high school dropout, unemployed, and lived with his mother. I met with him in private. With his mother away this young man confided in me that besides his routine use of marijuana he had recently begun experimenting with LSD.
This young man told me that on his most recent acid trip he had gotten "the answer." I asked, "The answer to what?" He responded, "No it's not like that man." I queried, "Do you mean like, the answer to God the universe and everything?" He said, "Yeah like that, the BIG answer!" I asked, "What is it?" He replied, "I could tell you, but you wouldn't get it." He continued, "So I am going to write a book and as you read the book the answer will gradually occur to you," adding, "and I'm not even going to charge any royalties for this book, because I just wouldn't feel right about it!"
Now my friends, the above is a great example of an Arrogant High! Here was a young man, 20 years old, unemployed, a high school dropout, who smokes pot every day and lives with his mother and he has the answer to everything! If I have any questions, any at all, about anything, I am not going to consult this young man, what can he tell me, fire up a fat boy and chill? Yet despite all the evidence to the contrary his Arrogant High has him believing he knows the inside dope about everything.
The Arrogant Highs are really good highs. If you question someone using for an Arrogant High about their drug use they will actually feel sorry for you. They will find you pitiful. After all you just don't get it you are a square an object of scorn.
A person using drugs for an Arrogant High will not work to meet their Self Actualization Needs. Why should they? using a drug puts them on top of the world without any real effort on their part.
Sooner or later the Arrogant Highs fade. They are replaced by another set of highs. Highs not quite as good as the Arrogant Highs but, still pretty good highs. These next highs correspond to slightly more basic needs. They displace these needs, just as the Arrogant Highs displaced the Self Actualization Needs. More about them next time.
Russell P. Mai, LCDC, AAC
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