Hippy Sanctuary - Head Log

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The Hippy Sanctuary is a living, changing place, a concept, an idea. If you missed our intro or need a refresher on how we came to be, check out:

An Introduction to the 'Hippy'

This web page is also a living document of who and what we are, what we've done or not. So, bookmark this page and return often.
Call me tinker, web elf of this site. My job here? To be a clear voice for this place, this idea. Nothing more, nothing less. The Head Log is our 'Current Affairs' page so scroll down to find out what's going on. The menu at the left will take you around the site. Look around, have fun!

Quick Jump to the Latest Head Log:
Sat, Jan. 29. 05:

Thur, Jan. 13. 05: Hippy New Year! I was gonna start this years first head log by saying that no news is good news but, as karma would have it, good news is better news... and here it is:

         Recently I was invited (quite out of the blue) to visit the medical marijuana garden pictured above. Even though the updated galleries of this garden have been the quickest growing part of our web site, I thought you folks out there weren't quite 'getting the picture'... so to speak. So, maybe this intrepid webelfs observations of the garden, in person, will help put things in perspective.

         My first impression when I entered the room was how clean everything was (we left our shoes out in the hall). There was lots of room to move around and all of the life support stuff (light, fans and watering equipment) was neatly arranged. The doc mixes fresh nutrients each time the plants are fed and waters each plant by hand. It's fine, even necessary, to control light, humidity and temperature with automated equipment, but the plants must be looked at, handled, examined individually to thrive and grow. That is what I saw done. If I closed my eyes for a minute I could almost imagine that it was a warm summer day with a nice breeze and the smell of open fields. The light looks more like sunlight then the pictures in the galleries might suggest. With the plants wavering in the breeze and looking at just the right angle, even with my eyes open, the illusion of a summer day was there. Inspecting the plants myself, I was amazed by how consistently healthy they all were. The healthiest 25 marijuana plants I'd ever seen in one place. No surprise, under the circumstances.

          But I've seen plants before. Don't get me wrong here, these are amazing plants! Awesome even. But it was the surroundings that they were in that had more of an impact on me. Clean, uncluttered, comfortable. Safe. This... beautiful garden is what can happen when you take fear completely out of the equation. This was not some clandestine 'Grow' or 'Lab' but a place of light, warmth... and the smell of open fields.

          Click on the picture above or follow the 'Medical Marijuana' link in the menu and go to 'A New Generation' for almost daily updates.

Thur, Jan. 20. 05: Recently the question has arisen as to whether The Church of the Universe is a religion and whether the Hippy Sanctuary is a Church.
           Not an easy questions to answer, but we'll give it a go.

          Are we a real religion? Because of the separation of church and state in Canada, it is not the place of the government or the courts to define religion. When they must consider the question, the courts and legislatures refer to both historic and current literature for their definition. From the Government of Canada web site the best definition of religion is:

        "A set of institutionalized rituals and an ethical or moral system identified with a tradition and expressing and/or evoking sacral sentiments directed at a divine or trans-divine focus seen in the context of the of daily life and at least partially described by myths or by myths and doctrines that also interpret primal experiences."
        (Read it for yourself: here in detail)

        Now, we have over a years worth of documentary evidence that clearly shows that we follow all of the criteria in the above definition. Videos, writings and individual testimonies that I'm pretty sure would hold up in a court of law. As for myths, our religion is not only firmly based in the Bible but believes that it's roots go back to the first agricultural culture, the Sumarians. Please check out our 'Church' page for more details.

        Are we a real church? Again, this is an area that government treats carefully. A church is defined as an institution administered by an ordained minister (no coincidence in that similarity of words there). An ordained minister is 'registered' with the government and given a 'charter number' for tax and other purposes where church meets state. You can see our reverends charter number at the top right of his ordainment certificate.

         The Hippy Sanctuary is operated by an ordained minister. The building has been consecrated as a church in accordance with our rituals. Enough said.

         Can you become a member of our church? Let's run through this little scenario: What if you wanted to become a Catholic? Really! How would you do it? Well, you'd probably first go to a church a few times (maybe two or three, shop around, you know). Then, you'd get around to talking to a minister, comment on his sermon, ask (nervously) about how to join the congregation..... "Oh, that's easy!" he says "Seen you around, you know about the Good Book and stuff. Sure, your in! But... we'll have to baptize you. How does next Saturday sound? You'll have to wait in line with babies, but it's quick, and we have snacks afterwards...."

    That's all there is to it.   We're not much different. Some churches have membership fees but the traditional way of being considered a member of a congregation is simply to have your name on the church 'Rolls', a list of members kept by the church.

        So, we meet all the standards set out by law and tradition. Furthermore, we believe that our religion is right and just, not only for ourselves, but for our community and the world around us. We are all about making the world a better place.... for everyone! We believe that The Tree of Life as a simple plant can go a good way toward improving our environment as an alternative source of fiber, oils and protein. As a sacrament, we believe The Tree of Life makes us better, more aware and compassionate people. We, at the Hippy Sanctuary, are working towards the freedom to use our plant in all it's wondrous capacities. We firmly believe that the laws against the free cultivation and use of The Tree of Life are unjust, unconstitutional and unenforceable. We will fight in the arena of honest debate, in the courts, we will never surrender! (with apologies to Winston Churchill)

        We are also willing to suffer persecution for our beliefs, like Jewish people and the Orthodox Christians in Communist Russia, to achieve our goals. Luckily, we live in a country that respects religion enough not to define it by law. But the government did create a law (Section 176 of the Criminal Code) to protect churches from persecution from the authorities. Sometime soon we may have to test that one in a court of law.  We believe that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will protect and vindicate us. Time is on our side. Thousands of years of history can't be wrong.

Fri, Jan. 21. 05: Just to add some fuel to the fire, We've added a page with part of the Ledain Commission Report on the non-medical use of drugs. This Commission was ordered by the Trudeau government in the early 70's. It covered all sorts of drug use in Canada and abroad (even alcohol). Since the focus of the Hippy Sanctuary is exclusively concerned with Cannabis, we have excerpted that part of the report for your reading pleasure. We feel that everyone (on both sides of the fence) should read this. Find it here or under our 'Law & Justice' page.

Fri, Jan. 21. 05: Someone left this at the Sanctuary the other night:

         Instead of engaging in honest debate, they left this.... trash behind.

         First off. Cowards!

Now, we had some debate amongst ourselves about how to deal with this. My first thought was to 'take 'em on', point for point. But, which of the many counterpoints for each point do I use? I wouldn't what to limit your education so. The reverends idea was to dig up some ugly post drunk-driving accident scene pictures and ask "Why are you even bothering with us... really!". Could of done that, even checked it out a little. But, I figure, the chances of them seeing those pics was pretty slim. They'll see enough of that crap if they survive being students (and maybe only then realize that they backed the wrong horse).

Here's how we'll deal with this. Shame on you..... this is our sacrament you're talking about! Most of us have spent a good part of our adult lives in close proximity to our plant. We don't need outside proof that The Tree of Life is not only harmless, but useful as well. We have lifetimes of experience to back us up. These 'nursing students' don't even have the time to become informed enough to debate us. Come on! Show us the studies, the paper trail, who funded what. We're ready for you, eager even.
Well, why not? How about you 'nursing students' make up for your intrusion by backing up the claims in the above document through debate. See if you can convert us! You'll noticed we've as good as published your rag without so much as even trying to refute it. Now all sorts of people will see it. Happy? As far as we are concerned, though, that document is a rag until it's claims are backed up by facts.

Until then, leave your hate literature at home!

(It really bugs us that they whored out our leaf for their purposes!)