Slavery in any form is very apt to cause a great deal of physical distress and mental anguish with even the strongest of any individual. My own definition for an opiate, for the sake of this particular treatise,  is "anything that is capable of inducing quietude, calmness, complicity or simply altering the state of consciousness in order to induce some artificial euphoria." Contemporary drug dealers set out to enslave their chemically oppressed clientele by creating a dastardly habitual dependency for whatever narcotic they are pushing. I am just as convinced that many religions push their own brand of spiritual prescriptions in much the same devious manner, and in the contrived course of cleverly seducing their countless victims they have reduced many of them to a spiritually catatonic state in which most simply cease to autonomously function; they sadly achieve a reduced state of existence that resembles what might be designated as a spiritual zombie. These mostly naïvely captivated spiritual zombies have been malevolently stripped of not only any chance of recovering any personal empowerment, they have been denied the potential love that one should have for who and what they are in reality.  And certainly the most tragic consequence is that most of these sad individuals are simply denied any form of salvation.
     I do not suggest that the only appropriate answer is to methodically rid our society of religions or churches. Instead, what we so desperately need is to change the ideological course of these churches and place that narrowly congregated power and moral authority rightfully back into the rightful hands and hearts of the individual. If the masses are not sufficiently pacified and their internal pain adequately masked, there is aptly to erupt a gigantic revolt that could possibly dramatically destabilize the already questionable status quo of our society.  Having no other viable choice the ultimate individual resolve is likely a hateful outburst against their perceived oppressors or even of greater concern is that ultimate act of suicide. But perhaps the most tragic of all possible scenarios is the lethal combination of the two, where the unsuspected outcome of such an overwhelmed victim of maligned oppression simply reaches some breaking point and then maliciously attacks the often-innocent bystanders and then takes their own life out of sheer desperation.  This spiritually oppressive form Christianity that still prevails over the majority had its insidious inception in year 325 A.D. for no other reason than to serve as an opiate to the ninety-percent slave population of the Roman Empire.  So, why don't we simply get with the program, and as Bishop John Shelby Spong so prophetically suggests, "Why Christianity Must Change or Die."  Do we really have a choice?  
     Society nowadays has most unwittingly devised several strategies that can usually defuse these internalized hostilities that usually lie dormant and undetected by others and often denied by the individual. Beginning specifically with the individual, there have been great advancements in the fields of psychology, which interesting enough had their starts with the studies of Freud only in the very last part of the nineteenth century. I find it amazing that this field of study came so late in the overall intellectual development of mankind. Of course, before the study of human psychology there were those renowned Catholic priests that performed ritual exorcisms of daemons as a routine remedy for the often pathological behavior of individuals that appeared to have no rational explanation for their otherwise bizarre actions.  But at the same time it has only been in the latter half of this past millennium that man has had his greatest advancements in nearly all fields dealing with his veritable physical universe. I know from my own studies in counseling and psychology that most individuals never really address the inner most issues that sometimes fly in the face of this oppressive environment. We are smack-dab faced with ominous taboos that too often successfully prevent most of us from ever successfully challenging the very sacred cows most likely responsible for our almost endless presence of anxiety and stress. Many clients often skirt over the surface of their root problems while still recognizing that there exists a major incoherence between what they feel may be the truth and what they are impugned to believe as their given realities. My approach in the past to solving this unfortunate dilemma was the suggestion that they could cognitively reduce the amount of experienced stress between the two opposing tension points of expectation and reality. It was suggested that they alone had the choice to make a change in position of either point by bringing either expectation or reality closer to and in the direction of the opposing point. I likened it to reducing the maximum stretch of a rubber band to its relaxed state. Of course, this seemingly naïve approach only dealt with these symptoms of stress and would have rarely successfully addressed the underlying causes. If I had to describe the overall general need of most distressed clients, it was the reconstruction of their own sense of worthlessness into a more meaningful identity. Simply, learning to love themselves for who they remarkably and singularly are and not for what society or others had so wrongly impugned on them was and should always be the initial jumping-off point.
     Often a part of that individually prescribed opiate was the actual use of clinical drugs usually employed to reduce anxiety and/or stress. Once again, these drugs never directly affected the actual source of the problem, but they were often sufficient in treating the symptoms and hopefully rendering the client to a more desired state in which psychotherapy might become more effective. The popular party line of many professionals was and still remains that many of these sufferers simply have an imbalance in their brain chemistry. I could concur with this often-shallow approach if they would also address the causes of these mysterious and numerous imbalances. There was a 1999 documentary presentation on cable television that reported the staggering statistic that some 60,000 Americans take their own lives each year as a direct result of clinical depression. I have no doubt that psychiatric chemistry can effectively deal with significant segments of this enormous human statistic, but I remain stubbornly concerned that the subliminal and probably understated problems are not being adequately or honestly addressed.  The great disparity between popular belief systems and reality often plagues the more intellectually curious and many of these individuals are hopelessly trapped in a spiritual vacuum where there are no compassionate comrades with whom to explore alternatives without the outrage of some "true believer."
     Another individual approach to calming the emotionally disturbed waters is the excessive and sometimes lethal use of alcohol and street drugs. Both of these socially grim problems seem to mount each year despite the futile efforts of our politically impotent government. The politically correct strategy has been thus far to make the sale and use of drugs illegal and then brutally wage another winless battle on both the purveyors and their tragically targeted victims. Once again, the root problem is not being at all correctly assessed or evens effectively addressed. There exists a significant contingency that honestly believes that our existing laws that criminalize the use of drugs only further contribute to the overall problem. The fact there is so many people who turn to drugs and alcohol should raise a blazing red flag and cause us to research the root causes for this too often devastating and sadly widespread human behavior.
     Fortunately there are a number of more useful and even constructive indulgences that don't usually produce such a travesty of despair on its participants. Sports and physically demanding activities are perhaps the singularly most effective and usually legitimate opiates for an emotionally stressed-out individual.  There is now common knowledge that exercise causes the production of endorphins that can serve to reduce stress as effectively as any prescribed artificial psychiatric drug. Most unfortunately there are far more ringside or armchair spectators than there are actual participants, and the overly sedentary life of most Americans sitting in front of and glued to their television sets doesn't serve much more than an adult-size pacifier that is less effective if the team being enthusiastically cheered ends up loosing the game. At least there are numerous paid programs on health regimens and workout equipment throughout the televised offerings that are constant reminders of the enormous benefit of caring for ones inevitably aging body. These televised gurus of improving your health are probably more in tune with a realistic existence than many of those pushers of religious dogma that only want your opiate drugged minds and any spare change that you dare part with. They all make claims that they are gravely concerned for the salvation of your soul, but what do they actually do to contribute to your finding a more enjoyable and fulfilling life on this earth. Their god loves you, but do they teach you to love your neighbor in the same unconditional manner that you should also love yourself? The gurus of good health nearly always take a proactive approach while religions seldom suggest an effective workout regimen designed to actually improve anything except lining their own coffers with your hard-earned money. But of course, they sorely need that money in order to continue their own personal ministries.  Any good charity should begin at home; first with looking out for yourself, then family and eventually your very next-door neighbor. Love alone should be the ultimate personal and social opiate.  That was the simple conclusion to which Jesus arrived after years of spiritual contemplation prior to his own ministry!
     There can be few remedies for life's more common stresses that are any more effective than the melodic tones found in nature itself like the various sounds produced by water. Consider the soothing sound of a softly running brook, the clatter of rain on a tin roof, the noise that is created by water falling off rocks into a pond and most certainly the powerful symphonic crashing of waves on the shores of a great ocean. There are other pleasant experiences in nature like the sound of wind blowing the leaves of aspen trees in the Rocky Mountains. And certainly there are those unmatched harmonious songs and sounds that emanate from our feathered friends. These are all natural forms of soothing distractions. It is no wonder that man himself has come to create his own music that is capable of passionately affecting his most inner feelings of tranquility and sometimes even stirring his innermost ardent desire for some physically expressed passion. Music is no doubt one of the earliest forms of entertainment and while it has the capacity to incite passion under some circumstances it is just as effective as a temperate opiate to an otherwise disrupted individual. Entertainment has been expanded beyond the realm of sound and has inculcated what might be referred to as the visual arts. Mankind has an equally long history with depicting his state of mind with visual imagery. It is obvious that his first intentions were to communicate something about his life and later his expressed images evolved into an esthetic expression of ideas and feelings. Art can often have the same hypnotic effect on our range of moods as any other opiate.
     As we have evolved we have ingeniously combined the visual and the audio into performances that was probably commensurate with the introduction of the Greek tragedies being first performed in those ancient outdoor amphitheaters. Shakespeare certainly added a common touch to the stage performance and our classic musicians gave the theater another grand expression by combining words and music to create another form staged performance, the opera. Modern technology had now mass-produced these audiovisual performances first off on that large silver screen and later miraculously brought these grand performances over the airways into everybody's home with the awesome invention of television.  Now, that magical glass tube has hypnotically seduced many of us and most certainly too many of our children into a state of mindless oblivion. What a powerful opiate that this television has become to have so entranced and captivated so much of our attention and for so much of our valued and unrestrained time.
     It is the best of businesses and the worst of businesses. I have heard that the majority of new restaurants fail and at the same time the American preoccupation with going out for dinner continues to expand every year. Certainly the fact that more and more women are required to abandon their traditional domestic activities in lieu of their increased presence in the work place accounts for much of the increase in eating out. And in the same instant I believe that one of the largest classes of books sold  in any bookstore are on the preparation of both domestic and ethnic foods—cookbooks. There is no question that food itself is one of the most efficient opiates available to almost anyone. My own partner could easily be classified as a consummate chocoholic. As a therapist I have encountered a number of clients that routinely used foods as a reliable substitute for all sorts of basic needs. The same old greed factor of wanting more and more would for some eventually add up to pure gluttony and the resultant impact on ones' general health ranks right up there at the top of pole with other unhealthy addictions like cigarettes and drugs.  Of course this now widespread addiction to overeating supports a massive industry of "loose weight" programs, exercise equipment and diet gurus. 
     When the lights go out in New York City it seems that ones' clothes are immediately shed and everyone hops into the sack for a pleasurable romp. Maybe sex has simply become a lights-out kind of sport. There certainly is nothing intrinsically wrong with sex itself, but the unusual obsession has given rise to a major industry in America aimed at those who persistently seek anonymous sexual pleasure and gratification. This sex industry invades the full spectrum of our daily lives from the morning news to the explicated chat rooms on the Internet. I don't question the value of a healthy sex life and I even subscribe that a total lack of interactive sex is tantamount to the death of ones' most essential libido. The availability of sexual surrogates to the average individual may have from time to time served a legitimate need, but I fear that we have become as dependent on our expressions of sexuality as we have on other abused opiates employed just to escape our sometimes dreaded and loathsome feelings. Isn't it a crying shame that we have so demonized one of nature's greatest gifts of pleasure into an act that can even be considered criminal under a variety of deviant and abusive circumstances? We need to put love back into our intimate pleasures and have it be placed at center-stage when we are sharing our most private of human acts.
     When Karl Marx so intuitively proclaimed that religion was indeed the consummate opiate of the people he was only partially covering the immense and extensive problems of spiritual oppression. It is mankind's good fortune that he is so adaptive and creative in his constant encounter with survival. My beloved Sociology mentor at Georgia State College, Dr. Barbara Pittard, had written her doctoral dissertation at Emory University on the subject of poverty and the intervening role that the southern Christian churches had played as part of their ministering to the impoverished. She found that the expressed ideologies of the church often aimed at comforting those who had found themselves with less was couched in the familiar belief that the poor were actually better off in the eyes of God than the rich man. That scorned rich man was pictured as possibly being a spiritually undesirable soul likely encountering some insurmountable difficulty finding entry into heaven. This very vivid image emanated right out of that revered word, the Bible in those parable words that compared the plight of a rich man to how terribly difficult it was for a camel to enter through the eye of the needle into the city. Dr. Pittard had academically established that many of these churches were indeed distributing ideological opiates to its mostly trusting congregations as social, emotional, economic and spiritual pacifiers. This modern interpretation of Karl Marx and understanding of just how profound and even prophetic his observation actually was, demonstrates the involvement of ideological and spiritual opiates to influence one's secular life and the acceptance of economic oppression. I would like to believe that no one and no government had ever cognitively conceived such a sad state of human affairs. It seems to have simply arrived mounted on the unsuspecting backs of naïve religious clergymen in the form of an unwritten and unspoken manifesto.