ABA AZIZ MAKAJA: LOVE-EROTIC (UN)EDUCATION AND DRUG ADDICTION
held on the symposium «Youth and drugs» in the University of Zagreb, Mai 1999 and the «15. World Congress of Sexology» in Paris, June 2001

Introduction
This presentation on “The Young People and Drugs” is based on the experiences and understanding of my work as a spiritual teacher with young people aged 18 to 30 for over a quarter of a century (over 70% of my clients). The theoretical and practical knowledge acquired on the promotion of health and development of awareness in young people is the result of long systematic activity in about ten European countries, Australia, and lately in America.
I had never thought I would deal with drug addicts, but they started coming to me, following their dreams about better life, happiness and truth. In this way, practically by itself, developed the love-erotic therapy with its basic elements

1) basic technique of komaja meditation,
2) loving (love meditation),
3) maituna,
4) theatre of truth,
5) polytherapy,
6) togetherness
7) absolute disregard of addictions.

By means of this technique, in the last ten years, some 1500 to 2000 young people have freed themselves from tobacco addiction and have permanently stopped taking alcohol (“Tobacco is drug No 1, followed by alcohol” – from the Report on Drugs and Addiction, Federal Ministry of Health, Republic of Germany, 1998); some 200 to 300 have permanently freed themselves from heavy drugs (hashish, marijuana, etc); also 15 to 20 persons under the age of thirty have permanently been liberated from addiction of very heavy or heaviest drugs like LSD, heroin etc. The number of addicts who have regularly attended komaja’s spiritual education over 12 months and who have freed themselves from addictions is over 90%, regardless of the type of addiction – cigarettes or heavy drugs.

Objectives of this presentation:
1. draw attention to the main causes of addiction in young people,
2. draw attention to some new possibilities of prevention and disease, rehabilitation and re-socialisation of young addicts.

Causes of addiction
The fact that the conference of “Young People and Drugs” of the Student Centre, Zagreb University, never even mentions the word “cause” among its seven main objectives, clearly depicts how the whole western civilisation, its medicine, psychiatry, psychology have gone astray. In short, here are the seven objectives: 1) manifestation and extent of addiction, 2) addiction in student halls of residence, 3) impact of addiction on the young people, 4) prevention of addiction, 5) treatment and re-socialisation, 6) legal and penal aspects, and just from the title “highlight the problem of addiction in the young people from all aspects” we can deduct the identity card for the analysis of causes of addiction in the young people.

Why do once powerful colonial countries now have great problems, on one hand, with the growing fascistoid right wing extremism, and on the other hand, with an exceptionally high rate of crime and a-sociality of their former slaves and servants (e.g. American Negroes, Australian Aborigines)?!
Why do technologically most developed countries of the world “enjoy” the plankton-free seas and ozone-free atmosphere?!
Why, in spite of the amazing advancement of world medicine and psychology are there fewer physically and mentally healthy people ((e.g. coronary and heart diseases, metabolic diseases, cancer, AIDS, sexual, nervous and mental diseases, addiction diseases)?!

The answer: Because most human beings have not yet reached the degree of development where each potential action (both of an individual and of the community) is understood as a cause of something from one’s own near or distant future. On the example of medicine and psychology, this means that their research and activity should possibly consist of 70% preventive and just some thirty percent curative character, and this ratio should naturally be accompanied by adequate social contributions.
A positive development in this direction can be noticed in Switzerland this year. According to the data by “Professional Institution for Alcoholism and Other Drug Problems” (SFA), over a million people in Switzerland do not have control over their alcohol consumption. On the federal level, the first national campaign was started – the “Everything under control?” programme. In the framework of this four-year programme, nearly 4 million Swiss francs have been planned for public awareness for 1999. Although such state programmes and investments in the nation’s health are praiseworthy, they still do not free one from the duty and necessity to recognise and eliminate a series of important causes of addiction.

The causes of drug addiction can be classified into five broad categories, each of which can further be divided into a series of sub-categories.

1. De-naturalisation of the modern man

- lack of movement and inadequate movement
- air pollution and excessive noise
- being surrounded by unhealthy materials and radiation (at home, in the street, at work)
- inadequate exposure of senses to natural colours, sounds, smells, flavour etc
- lack of togetherness
- crime, often by authorities (politicians and police are often involved in the traffic of destructive and deadly "relishes")
- other

2. Sexual and love-erotic causes

- sexual abuse by parents and immediate relatives
- sexual abuse by other persons
- transfer and reflection of sexual and love-erotic retardation and/or parent deviation on the child
- sexuality and love-erotic parent relationship (e.g. "Dad never hugged Mum in front of us")
- silence, repression and aggression instead of love-erotic education (both at home and at school)
- the so-called "love problems"
- intensive adolescent turbulences
- physical and/or mental sexual deficiencies and/or anomalies
- generally low level of sexual and love-erotic culture, resulting in sex vulgarisation and sexism
- etc.

3. Religious sources

- rigid adherence to dogmas and/or precepts contrary to natural and divine laws (e.g. witches should be burned, or, nowadays, each abortion, interruptio graviditatis, is a sin)
- religious exclusiveness and intolerance
- attitude of religion to human sexuality:
a) anatemising
b) suppression
c) wrong attitude to sexuality (e.g. sex should serve only for the preservation of the species)
d) sexual abuse of young people of both sexes by priests
- other

4. Stress

- over-demanding curriculum
- the so-called "Leistungdruckkultur", i.e. culture with pressure that everything must always be done in the best possible way
- glutted senses, nervous system and spirit with stimuli of city life, media propaganda and computers
- materialism, i.e buck-chasing, racing for fortunes
- racing for pleasure and sensation
- other

5. Inadequate diet

- consumption of dead animals and fish
- in this connection - intake of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides and heavy metals
- food which inspires basest passions (e.g. onion, garlic, strong spices)
- excessive use of medicines
- etc.

The above causes of addictions are crossed in an individual in different combinations, proportion and amount. It is up to the individual’s natural disposition, both genetic and mental, and a series of external factors (education, social environment etc.) where he will become an addict in a definite combination of circumstances.

Conclusion: A radical elimination of addiction causes necessarily implies radical intervention in the very foundations of our civilisation. This means the establishment of a new culture of living, new religion and philosophy, new sexual and love-erotic culture, new diet, new ethics and morality. And naturally, since undoubtedly good begets good and evil begets evil, any serious therapy should necessarily include those who bear and educate the young – i.e. parents! In the first stage it is necessary to create separate therapeutic groups for the parents and for the young people. In the second stage, the two groups should be treated together. All this holds for the prevention therapeutic groups.

Prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and re-socialisation Owing to the lack of knowledge on one’s true nature, a disease is born, known as egotism. An epidemics of egotism results in an ailing society, which in turn causes an ailing civilisation. An ailing civilisation results in racial and religious intolerance, wars, ailing forests, rivers, seas and atmosphere; ailing science and culture; ailing parents whose fruits are ailing children. Thus, the only right ecology is a personal ecology, and the only right personal ecology is spiritual ecology. Spiritual ecology starts from the fact that the Supreme Spirit, God or the Absolute is the basis of all life, all phenomenal forms of life at all levels of existence. The Supreme Spirit manifests itself as the Human Spirit, and at lower levels of cosmic existence this manifests itself as the soul (consisting of a mental and an emotional sphere, aura, vehicle) and the body. Mens sana in corpore sano! A sound mind in a sound body! Thus, to view and treat the body and the material universe separately from their mental and spiritual matrix [1] ultimately leads to self-destruction and destruction of the world.

1. This is the reason why love-erotic therapy both as a preventive method and as a method for treatment, rehabilitation and re-socialisation of the addicts is based on meditation. By regular meditation, the practitioner establishes or re-establishes a permanent contact with his own higher nature (supernature, selfhood, Human Spirit), and in this way the perverted libido (thanatos) becomes again what it is: libido – instinct and will for life. The individual starts loving – both himself and the world around him. In front of his mind, enlightened by his own Spirit, there flashes a deeper understanding of the meaning of loving his neighbour as much as himself. The basic technique of komaja meditation is made in such a way that it can equally easily be adopted and used both by people belonging to different religions and by atheists.
2. Loving or love meditation is an additional technique, accelerating the process of broadening the consciousness at the expense of sub-consciousness, as well as the development of a person into a truly loving person. This is public group training and development of virtues of conscious love and falling in love. In his book Paartherapie und Paarsynthese: Lernmodell Liebe, M. Coellen also says: “It is not only the aspiration at enjoyment (Freud), aspiration at power (Adler), aspiration at security and food (Maslow) and aspiration at meaning (Franks) that are the basic impulses of human action; aspiration at love ranks at least equally with all the other basic motivations. The way of developing and modelling love and intimacy decisively create and form personality, the modern world and the society,” [2]             With quality guidance of graduate teachers of komaja meditation, the positive effects of the two techniques bring immense joy and delight to the practitioners, and even to the persons in the same household. [3]
3. Maituna (f. Sanskrit: maithuna – sexual intercourse) is similar to the old Indian ritual sex act of the same name only in that both of them serve the same purpose, i.e. realisation of a higher consciousness in a lower nature by using love-erotic play. The rest is komaja’s original “product”, offered both to materialists as a help in the development of the sex technique, orgasmic ability, and also as a new kind of art  - as love-erotic art. [4] Understanding of the connection between the sexual and the spiritual is not alien to the modern psychoanalysis today. In his book Liebesbeziehungen Otto F. Kernberg says, ” Both in enjoyment and in pain there is a search for more intensive experience, which at times obliterates the limits of individuality, for experience which can provide a basic meaning to life, for transcendence where the sexual encounter and the religious ecstasy are interconnected, for  experience of freedom beyond the pressures of everyday existence” [5]
4. The fourth basic element of love-erotic therapy as preventive and curative therapy is what is known as theatre of truth. This technique is an exceptionally important, inseparable and unavoidable ingredient of maituna. As the word itself suggests, it is about bringing to light (of consciousness) secret, forgotten, suppressed, forbidden, unusual, etc. contents, both of the mind and of the body. This is equally valid for sub-human, human and super-human contents. To express publicly, to express, display everything that hurts and makes one happy, everything that is or would like to be …
In this connection, Otto F. Kernberg also says, “It is more and more obvious that the integration of the libido and aggression, of love and hatred, is the main aspect of ability for love relationships, as well as of their pathology (p. 96). I would like to stress the importance of the libido and aggression, love and hatred in the three main areas of a couple’s interaction, where love must overcome the hatred” [6] . Also: “Despite my best intentions, indisputable evidence makes me warn about the great importance of aggression in this treatise on love. However, on the other hand, an insight into complex forms where love and aggression merge and interact, also puts light on the mechanisms through which love can integrate and neutralise aggression and even triumph over it in many constellations”. [7]

To a certain degree this theatre of truth reminds of erotolalia, however it is at the same time much more than that. This is what it is about:

Scene 1 – Theatre of Truth
The play where the mind, the soul and the body of the woman and the mind, the soul and the body of the man are at the same time the only viewers, listeners, “players” and authors – this is the komaja confession or theatre of truth.

5. Polytherapy is a spiritual, manifold therapeutic method. In the twenty-odd years since I have been applying this original method [8] of psychotherapy, I have noticed young people (until 30 years of age) gladly and successfully undergoing it. In order to achieve best effects it is ideal, if possible, to make the following age groups:

a) beginning of puberty to 16/17,
b) 16 to 26 years of age
c) 20 to 30 years of age
d) 25 to 40 years of age
e) 40 and over.

Obviously there will and should always be exceptions which often very favourably have a dynamic or a pacifying effect on the group where they are the “odd ones”. Only when a certain psychological maturity and routine has been achieved can final polytherapeutic groups of “children” and parents be formed.

Scene 2 – Polytherapy

6. Togetherness is a notion denoting the virtue of quality living in a community. From his first origins, the human being is primarily a social being (from the evolution point of view: a pack, a horde, a village community, a spiritual community), and just in this framework and only as a part of this framework he is an individual, and usually a conjugal, or family being. Without the continuous existence and development of the human community, the present so-called individualist cannot be imagined at all. Compared to a true individualist who undoubtedly presents the next, a higher stage in the development of the human community, the present individualist is absolutely unthinkable. Compared to a true individualist who undoubtedly presents the next, higher stage in the development of a human individual, the present one is just a tragicomic imitation – like a child who, by a combination of circumstances, has to take the role of an adult in the serious and complex life. The present-day individualist frantically tries to:

- be different from the others,
- excel at other people's expense,
- dominate over the others,
- during his life, build himself a pyramid or at least a tomb.

The individualist of the future meets his need to give meaning to his life by:

- giving support to the uniqueness and creativity of the others,
- helping the others and the community as a whole,
- mastering his own body, feelings and thoughts (self-control),
- outliving himself.

The present-day individualist, with a weak and undeveloped Self, at the very thought of a union, he is frantically afraid that the union (love, marriage, friendship, communal etc) would swallow him, that his frail Self could disappear in the powerful energy of any group spirit. On the contrary, the individualist of the future feels challenged and invited to perfectly amalgamate with the community and to serve it selflessly like a player in an ideal football team, thus enriching both his own and the union’s spirit. Since he has experienced many times how the death of his Self out of love and for even greater love results in even greater mental maturity, even greater individual power, he unsparingly gives and surrenders himself. True love and giving himself to his neighbours is his life style.

The present-day individualist hopes for and is glad about his happiness.
The individualist of the future hopes for and is glad about other people's happiness.
The present-day individualist is narcissistically in love with himself.
The individualist of the future actually notices and assists everybody around him.
He is free, unconditioned, an aware, sustainable force in the nature.
He has realised that the collapse of the ego-structure by following the law of love does not only mean the death of the old Self, but much more, a birth of a new life, a much richer Self. He has turned into a butterfly like a larva, into a chicken like an egg…

This new type of man and fellowship is what essentially characterises komaja, both as learning and as a community. The realisation of this, and the scientifically and easily proven value of community in the struggle against different forms of addiction, are the basis of my assertion about the key position and necessity of a healthy community in fighting and treating addiction.

This is because usually the re-integration of a former addict into the community where (and often because of which) he first became an addict, soon results in the same or a new kind of addiction. Thus, heroin addiction turns into metadone addiction, an alcoholic turns into a workaholic, and all kinds of psychotherapists are very busy. We should not even mention psychosomatic disorders and diseases. I see no other way from this vicious circle of addictions (in a broader sense) but by creating a healthy community. As evidence of this, I am presenting komaja community and its successes in liberating from addiction, both in the narrow sense (drugs) and in a broader sense, which can hardly be surpassed.

7. Absolute disregard of addiction is the seventh, last basic element of love-erotic therapy.

All the institutions I know for the treatment of drug addiction continually speak about addiction in various ways. This is like telling a thirsty man that it is not good being thirsty, and about the dire consequences of thirst on the body, how one should not do bad things to oneself and to the others as a result of the thirst, and things like this. Instead, I would say, we had better give him a jug of fresh water. Consequently, instead fighting the addiction, we should teach the addict about the way to genuine freedom of the mind and the body, instead of endless psychobabble on the lack of love we should simply love him, instead of psychotherapy and group sessions we should engage him in collective sports and/or intensive physical work with a great deal of humour and fun. Together with this, we should also teach him about quality sex and eroticism and provide him with good company.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the following: last year only in Switzerland 8300 people died as a result of smoking, and about 3000 people died from alcohol. On the other hand, only 241 people died from illegal drugs in 1997. About 30,000 Swiss are addicted to hard drugs. At the same time, there are currently about 300,000 alcoholics and pill addicts in Switzerland. The Federal Ministry of Health of the Republic of Germany has published a report on drugs and addictions in 1998. The report says there are 17.8 million smokers (43% male and 30% female) and about 4 million alcoholics (8-9% persons aged 18-59). The same report says that three in four patients treated for drug addiction have primarily the problem of alcoholism. Furthermore, the rate of 12-25 year- olds with drug experience in West Germany has increased to 22% compared to about 17% and the end of 1980s.

All these data, together with data from other countries, warn about the fact that it is the human community that is ailing, rather than the young person that happens to be there.

Conclusion
Therapy is primarily necessary for parents because on the average in the West, one in two marriages ends in a divorce. Therapy is also necessary for scientists and business people who are still inflicting grave wounds to "Mother Earth", then to the clergy of the strongest religion of the Western civilisation, where in the last thirty years approximatly one man in four has left the order just to get married, etc., etc.

Every country needs a pluralistic, non-dogmatic research and elimination of potential causes, as well as systematic, spiritual and scientific fight of widely spread addictions.

Only in this way can we protect the physical and mental health of our own, innocent children, and in this way, the health of our nation.