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Great ideas/inventions inspired by drug use

D

dingleberries

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 24, 2001
Messages
244
Last night i was having a discussion with my mum about drugs and the heightened sense of awareness they can provide, allowing us to explore areas of our consciousness that we would normally leave ignored.
To which she replied "well then name one invention or great idea that was inspired by the use of drugs". Now im sure there are heaps, but i couldnt think of any! And also heaps of historical figures who used psychedelics too...
 
One thing to keep in mind w/ that...even if someone did come up with an incredibly cool idea on a substance--chances are that they aren't gonna tell the whole world "yeah, and I thought of that while on ___"
:)
Thus,the world may never know.
 
Aldous Huxley, one of the foremost thinkers and writers of the 20th century experimented with mescaline....The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell are both based on that experiment and are both incredibly articulate and well-written books...not to mention Brave New World which i'm pretty sure is read in just about every high school in america....those aren't really "inventions" but there's still something to be said for their contributions to society in general....hope that helps....
 
I believe the man who invented the PCR machine (A machine that replecates strains of DNA, it allows minute samples to be reproduced billions of times) thought it up while on LSD...My daily does of useless trivia...
 
The best example of drug induced creation that comes to my mind is the late, great Mr. Walt Disney. Some of his greatest films were inspired by mescaline. Fantasia, probably the most noted. Of course, the only proof I have of this is a statement made by a former cartoonist for Disney Studios, and if you've ever watched a Disney cartoon while tripping.........well, could there be any doubt??
I wouldn't call it an invention, per se, but my basement is full of model railroad conceived, constructed, and operated while smoking weed and occasionally acid. Most of the technical problems were solved whilst 'under the influence' as well as the inspiration for the 'artistic' scenic work. The link to it is in my profile, for anyone who wants to check it out.
Granted, these aren't inventions, in the strictest sense of the word, but........?
 
There's a theory that William Shakespeare was a pot-smoker himself. Also... ever hear of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? It's often read by high school students, and it was written by Ken Kesey. Ken and his Merry Pranksters are famous for basically starting the acid revolution (on the west coast... I know Leary did a lot on the east). And the book? Completely "straight"... a great book without much trippiness.
[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: Meky ]
 
read that book again brother, pay attention to the walls, etc, there is a ton of trippyness involved, just gotta look for it! It's Kesey, come on!
 
Well... from someone's point of view who hasn't experienced psychedelics and doesn't know who Ken Kesey was the book would appear completely normal. However, there are a lot of little things about it that can add to it. I suggest reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test if you wanna find anything out about Kesey. The main character, McMurphy, is supposedly based on Kesey's own experiences at a clinic where he was administered psychedelics and tested as a psychological patient. But... I don't want this to become one of those posts where people just end up bickering about like... books.
[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: Meky ]
 
ah of course, i forgot about Lewis Carroll.. anyone here NOT think that Alice in Wonderland was LSD-inspired?
oh and what about that psychologist who was into nitrous, william something??
 
It's mostly art that's inspired by drugs. Sam Taylor Coleridge opium, Yeats tried Peyote, Lester Bangs and speed, William James's philosophy etc. Pretty much all good rock music. I think there's a few people in the computer industry, Paul Allen at microsoft? who said psychedelics gave him some ideas.
I don't think the drugs can help an idiot create, you could give Britney Spears all the drugs in the world and she's never going to write a good song. For people who are talented anyway they might give a new perspective on writing. Otherwise, forget it.
 
hang on dingle, LSD wasn't even invented when Lewis Carrol wrote Alice in wonderland.
 
I disremember the name of the architect, but the guy who created the basic design for modern mental hospitals did so while on LSD. Makes sense does it not?
 
Originally posted by dingleberries:
ah of course, i forgot about Lewis Carroll.. anyone here NOT think that Alice in Wonderland was LSD-inspired?
oh and what about that psychologist who was into nitrous, william something??
didnt Alice eat some shrooms off the ground before she started her trip?
Click to expand...
 
I've heard Picasso did some mescaline in his time. Hell, look at Starry Night and tell me he wasnt hallucinating. Whether those hallucinations were drug induced or not is what I dont know. Maybe he was just that much of a fuckin nutball.
 
^^
starey night is Van Gogh, buddy. And he was a disturbed painter working within the techniques of the post-impressionist, not a drug user.
Cubism is one of the most anylitical, non-spiritual art movements ever, so I doubt that Picasso was staking anything more than absinthe during his cubist stint in Paris. I think later on, like in the 20s and 30s he may have taken hallucinogens, but It didn't really impact his work.
Oh, and Lewis Carrol was a paranoid schizophrenic, not a drug user.
 
Man I wish Lewis C. WAS a drug user, cause Alice in Wonderland is my god. Yeah, Alice ate something like 5 different mushrooms throughout the movie, but none came before the trip.
The only thing I can think of is that most of the greatest music of the 60's and 70's was drug induced, inspired, etc. I doubt even the harshest drug skeptic could deny that the music of those days was and still is pure genious.
 
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