Bottled Spirits: WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS
The author gets down to brass tacks about what to expect and explains that the person who undertakes any of the procedures detailed in this book are responsible for their own decisions and actions.
Consider this both a stern warning and an entirely serious legal disclaimer:
Some of the ingredients referenced in these recipes may be illegal, unhealthy, dangerous, unethical, unheimlich, or downright impossible to obtain or handle, and some of the procedures detailed to prepare these ingredients for use in their final products may also be illegal, unhealthy, unethical, unheimlich, or likewise impossible. In every case it is your responsibility to research and know these risks and issues—and in particular the legalities for your locale—before you begin to attempt to obtain the listed materials or follow any of these procedures.
Furthermore, the recipes in this compilation are not intended to be used for food or beverages or medicine. In fact, consumption of any of the products described in this book could range from irresponsibly unwise to physiologically and psychologically dangerous to outright impossible. The consequences of any decision to apply the substances of any of these recipes to your person—or anyone’s person, with or without their consent—either externally or internally are entirely your own should you attempt it.
Additionally, the laws of the United States (and in many other places with a comparable bureaucracy) are quite clear concerning making claims that a product or service conveys nutritional or health benefits to any consumer. As in, you will be prosecuted for doing so if you can’t provide unassailable documentation of what deliverable nutritional elements your product contains and in what quantities, or that your product or service conveys a statistically significant benefit above that of a placebo when administered in repeatable and repeated double-blind trials—and also you must clearly state and make available lists of side effects that may have come up in the trials.
That’s the line in the sand for physical medicine, in any case, and for therapies intended to address DSM-documented mental illnesses in any beneficial way as well.
That said, religious and spiritual institutions (and vaguely religious and/or spiritual individuals operating independently) regularly flout these entirely sensible regulations all the time, promising worshipers a significant chance of relief from physical or mental complaints as long as the faith of the patient is sufficient—i.e., it’s the victim’s fault if they don’t get any better—and/or if the hypothetical deity in question feels like making the effort. And if the deity isn’t up for a cure? The implication is the same—i.e., the victim is to be blamed for not making their case appealing.
The ethics of the above scenario is beyond my ability to justify, but it sure seems popular.
Meanwhile, evidence-based studies of the effectiveness of faith-based remedies have determined them to be exactly as effective as placebos. The reason for this is a bit technical, but I’m sure you can work it out if you’re clever.
Fortunately for the entire hokum industry, the US FDA has neither the mandate nor the authority to regulate claims that address the health of your soul or spirit or fortune or fate or wyrd or whatever. If you believe you have any of those—or perhaps you have a general quality-of-life issue or a quirk or a particular aspect of your lifestyle—concerning which you might be convinced to pursue the possibility of making a positive change, then you’re in luck. Assuming you believe in luck.
…and that’s also assuming you agree that the authors and distributors of this or any other source of hokum are not to be held responsible for any ill effects—or lack of effect whatsoever—you might suffer from attempting to follow any procedures detailed or advice offered. Obviously such a failure would only occur because you’d have done something wrong, don’t you think? Since the sources are so authoritative and wise and everything.
÷
So no, these recipes aren’t for food or beverages or medicine—at least, not for any of those things as they might be defined and governed by the regulations of the US FDA. No, in contrast, these recipes and procedures are designed to produce objects intended to be the focus of strong psychological or emotional (or spiritual or religious or metaphysical or what have you) associations—especially for the person or persons who know about or participated in their various constructions.
In fact, if there are any results that come from the construction or use of these items, I’d expect those results to be about (or, well, exactly) on par with the placebo effect—or its less-well-known evil twin, the nocebo effect. That’s not nothing. I say this in all seriousness, because those who study the placebo effect have documented that placebo substances and therapies provide substantial and significant improvement in medical cases about 25% of the time.
To me this means that there is an evidence-based case to be made for learning to exploit the placebo and nocebo mechanisms and attempting to improve the frequency, duration, and strength of their respective effects.
This collection is an exploration of doing precisely that.
You have been warned. Now suit up and get to work.
—Laszlo Xalieri
May 1st, 2024
Los Baños, Laguna
Rizalian Republic of Luzvimindas