Warning: Naughty language ahead.

It’s been close to 40 years since Guns N’ Roses released their epic tune.

Since that time, this phrase has cemented its infamy into the folklore of humanity’s most recent generations.

It referred to fulfilling our taboo desires. It personified our rebellious calling.

Let’s see how it has evolved.

Sex, well, that’s self-explanatory.

The lusty feelings which can arise from even just glimpsing the luscious curves of a woman or the sculpted muscles of a man are a very natural part of being human. God is a fucking legend.

Yet in some ways our cultural understanding and practice of sex has changed.

Women are more independent and more in control. Porn has gone mainstream and so has anal. BDSM is hitting middle class bedrooms.

Yet there are also more and more people going back to the the ancient art of participating in tantric love and lust-making practices.

Sex is a world of yin and yang.

Drugs, on the other hand, aren’t so self-explanatory.

What the concept is now referring to is a rebellious altered state of consciousness, not necessarily the consumption of illegal substances. 

The evolution of altered mind states happened in this chronological order.

First, we dreamed.

Then the tribal civilizations were experimenting with trance. Sometimes they would use drumming and dance to invoke altered states and at others they would use pain-causing mechanisms to force the experience.

Inevitably they found shrooms, cacti and other natural psychotropic plants.

Once they began taking these heaven sent gifts, the evolution of humanity’s culture took a quantum leap. Symbolism and the conceptualization of alternate realities began to occur. Art was born in the guise of rock-paintings.

Fast forward thousands of years and we arrive at the production stage of drugs. We made alcohol. We made cocaine. We made other substances which altered our minds.

Then we started to synthesize our trips. MDMA, LSD and DMT are a few examples of drugs that were born out of the lab. The hippie counter culture movement of the sixties was birthed.

The eighties and nineties counter culture scene then moved into a more amphetamine and cocaine based affair. It was more egocentric and a less utopian phase. If you took these substances, you could drink as much as you want and stay up as late as you want. You could fuck like a champion.

These are the sort of drugs that was originally meant when living the ideology of Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll.

But now it’s evolved in some ways. In the naughties and twenty teens, the party recipe continues to have these types of ingredients, but the mind expansion movement has resurrected and have gone back to the infamous psychedelics. 

Shrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescaline, LSD and DMT are the front runners of a rebellion. They facilitate personal mind and collective consciousness expansion which rebels against a spiritually-disconnected mainstream society.  

It is against the hypocritical and failed war on not just drugs, but the war on the freedom of our individual consciousness.

On top of that, they also heal. Marijuana—a mild hallucinogen—has many medicinal benefits, including being an alternative cure for cancer. The stronger psychedelics have shown in studies that they can cure mental illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and help the seriously addicted to overcome their life-destroying habit.

They are also well known as a cure for a poor philosophical attitude.

Therefore, taking drugs isn’t just about having a good time; it’s a practice which also reflects the growing enlightenment and empowerment of contemporary humanity.

Now to rock n’ roll.

It will never die. It has evolved in many ways but the spirit of it continues and will always remain.

But when we now consider it in the subculture of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, we also are talking about a resurgence in primitive dance.

The tribal world did it best. Dancing then dissected into artistic and party variations. This ancient tool which was used to connect with the divine was capitalized on as entertainment.

The disco scene of the eighties was a very necessary stepping stone, however painful it was to watch. Thankfully, it then developed into a more tribal style in the nineties and naughties.

Now rock n’ roll in the twenty teens also refers to a dancing culture that has gone back to the basics of bass. The sound of those drums sends us into a trance. Surrounded by a non-judgmental and near egoless community on the dance floor, we’re free to invoke the infinite power of our own inner divinity.

Ultimately, the lifestyle of Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll has evolved with the common theme of returning to ancient wisdom and practice, which means that it has never been so valuable for the evolution of our global culture.

It’s now bad-ass and enlightening.

*Note from Author: this article is not a recommendation for the use of mind-altering substances as that is obviously the free choice of each individual to make according to his/her own unique circumstances.

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Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: niteprowl3r/Flickr