Later, in an e-mail, he elaborated: "It is said that a true 'hero,' or we could even say 'role model,' is the one who conquers his own self. I am not sure if this makes good material for a sports magazine, but it vibrates in me as the truth. It is the reason people drink and people smoke. They come home feeling like they lost something, or that something is missing, a couple of pulls from the jay and their consciousness is moved from the outside material world to the inside world of deep feeling and light.
"Instead of going there every once in a while, I choose to work on being there all the time, without the aid of mother nature, or problems from the authorities. I was thinking about things and I came up with this example: I was in India for six weeks engaged in intense spiritual practices, meditation, chanting, study of scripture and yoga. The result of my practice was about the same of smoking a jay of the best Cali weed, the difference being that the high I got from smoking only lasted a few hours and I found myself right back where I started from -- with a little added frustration because that feeling was gone. The high I get from spiritual practices lifts my consciousness up and gives me the knowledge and experience to keep it up there."
