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The Book of the Damned

by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher





February 7, 2024



In the early 1900s, Charles Fort wrote "Book of the Damned," in which he mentioned how science is an attempt to systemize our knowledge while keeping basic assumptions in mind. Any data that does not serve to substantiate those assumptions is "damned," i.e. ignored. But Charles Fort "didn't know from damnation." Since his day, the Drug War has damned a whole pharmacy worth of evidence by pretending that psychoactive substances have no positive uses for anyone, anywhere, ever. Click the links below to listen to and/or read this classic book1.

By the way, Wikipedia's summary of this book is insufficient, to put it mildly.

Wikipedia tells us that "the book is historically considered to be the first written in the specific field of anomalistics." But this is a very shallow book review. The book is actually a harsh satirical criticism of modern science, which as Fort believes, does not investigate anything at all -- but rather sets out to prove things that it already believes. This explains why science today ignores (or "damns," in the language of Fort) any positive stories about drug use -- because it is not interested in investigating drugs per se, but rather in establishing that drugs are bad.

This is why we have a National Institute on Drug Abuse rather than a National Institute on Drug Use. The facts about positive use -- dating back to prehistoric times -- have been damned (ignored) by modern science. Science's goal in our time is to systemize knowledge about drugs based on the assumption that drug use is always unnecessary, dangerous and bad in the long-term: in other words, science is dedicated to "proving" puritanical beliefs about drugs and ignoring the fact that all tribal peoples have used drugs, for both personal and sociological improvement, as noted by the first ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes2.

Fort's book, by the way, is quite amusing, at least to non-materialists. Here are a few of my favorite quips.



"Sometimes cannonballs are found embedded in trees. Does not seem to be anything to discuss; doesn't seem discussable that anyone would cut a hole in a tree and hide a cannonball, which one could take to bed and hide under one's pillow just as easily."

"The volume of smoke that went up (from the Krakatoa volcano of 1883) must have been visible to other planets — or, tormented with our crawlings and scurryings, the earth complained to Mars; swore a vast black oath at us."

"I think it looks very much like what I think it looks like."

"He 'identifies' this matter as sand from an African desert — but after deducting organic matter. But you and I could be 'identified' as sand from an African desert, after deducting all there is to us except sand."


Click here to read The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort.

Click here to listen to The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort.

Author's Follow-up: October 29, 2024

picture of clock metaphorically suggesting a follow-up


Those interested in the philosophical implications of Fort's Book of the Damned will appreciate The New Inquisition by Robert Anton Wilson. 3



Notes:

1: The Book of the Damned (up)
2: Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers (up)
3: The New Inquisition (up)


Charles Fort




In "The Book of the Damned," Charles Fort compiled a long list of factual stories that science had "damned" (i.e., ignored). He focused almost exclusively on the many published reports of unusual substances "falling from the sky," including stones, axes, animal matter, resinous residue, blood, frog spawn, beef, coal, sulfur, limestone, etc.

"There are so many records of the fall of earthy matter from the sky," wrote Fort, "that it would seem almost uncanny to find resistance here, were we not so accustomed to the uncompromising stands of orthodoxy--which, in our metaphysics, represent good, as attempts, but evil in their insufficiency."

In other words, modern science is blind to the facts that do not serve to advance existing hypotheses and theories.

Why is this relevant to the topic of drugs?

Because Charles Fort did not know from damnation! He lived before the western world had damned all stories about the positive uses of drugs.

And why did the west do so?

Because scientists had their own beloved theories of behaviorism and reductionism, by which they felt they could understand the world. They therefore insisted that we must look under a microscope to decide if a drug has REAL beneficial uses. In other words, scientists could ignore all positive anecdotes about drug use, they could ignore all positive historical use, and they could even ignore psychological common sense. Their job was not to investigate reports of positive drug use, but to prove that positive drug use was impossible -- at least until such time as science found a non-obvious way to prove that drug benefits actually exist, one that could be quantified and shown in a PowerPoint presentation to research funders.

And so billions have to go without godsend medicine because modern science cannot wrap its materialist mind around the glaringly obvious fact that psychoactive drugs have benefits -- indeed, their benefits are only limited by our imaginations in employing them.

To repeat and reiterate, then: Charles Fort did not know from damnation! No facts have ever been more thoroughly and ruthlessly "damned" than those that suggest positive uses for outlawed psychoactive medicines.








  • Charles Fort Didn't Know from Damnation
  • The Book of the Damned
  • The Book of the Damned continued





  • Ten Tweets

    against the hateful war on US




    Only a pathological puritan would say that there's no place in the world for substances that lift your mood, give you endurance, and make you get along with your fellow human being. Drugs may not be everything, but it's masochistic madness to claim that they are nothing at all.

    Problem 2,643 of the war on drugs: It puts the government in charge of deciding what counts as a true religion.

    The DEA has done everything it can to keep Americans clueless about opium and poppies. The agency is a disgrace to a country that claims to value knowledge and freedom of information.

    Most people think that drugs like cocaine, MDMA, LSD and amphetamines can only be used recreationally. WRONG ! This represents a very naive understanding of human psychology. We deny common sense in order to cater to the drug war orthodoxy that "drugs have no benefits."

    Magazines like Psychology Today continue to publish feel-good articles about depression which completely ignore the fact that we have outlawed all drugs that could end depression in a heartbeat.

    Drug-designing chemists have no expertise in deciding what constitutes a cure for depression. As Schopenhauer wrote: "The mere study of chemistry qualifies a man to become an apothecary, but not a philosopher."

    Antidepressants might be fine in a world where drugs were legal. Then it would actually be possible to get off them by using drugs that have inspired entire religions. In the age of prohibition, however, an antidepressant prescription is usually a life sentence.

    Someone needs to create a group called Drug Warriors Anonymous, a place where Americans can go to discuss their right to mind and mood medicine and to discuss the many ways in which our society trashes godsend medicines.

    The outlawing of coca and opium is a crime against humanity.

    Now the folks who helped Matthew get Ketamine must be sacrificed on the altar of the Drug War, lest people start thinking that the Drug War itself was at fault.y


    Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us






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    Copyright 2025 abolishthedea.com, Brian Quass

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