For women, drinking quiets our harsh inner voice But then it amplifies it.
“Drinking blurs the boundaries of the inner world.” Carl Jung.
I went to the kegger with an upperclassman. I was a freshman, and I was flattered that this older guy — with a driver’s license!- had asked me out.
I remember a few things from that night.
The first beer in a red plastic cup.
How cute the guitar player was.
Rolling around on the floor making out. Oh, not with my date. With the cute guitar player.
And my date dropping me off with these parting words: “Looks like you had too much to drink tonight.
The boundaries of my inner world dissolved.
My sense of right and wrong dissolved. My sense of loyalty and propriety dissolved. And my harsh inner critic for once shut up.
The inner silence was way more important than the shitty things I did.
But the shitty things added fuel to the fire of that inner critic, setting me up to want to shut her up even more intensely.
That blurred inner world is a simulacrum of true spiritual experience, in which we feel at peace and melted into the energy of the world.
