LSD & Intelligence / IQ

[gymstud]

Out of interest off topic do any of you think mdma lowers iq

 

[pofacedhoe]

i think intelligence can be seen through intelligent behaviour and iq tests are narrow ways of limiting yourself.

intelligent behaviour results in the end goals you wanted.

surely the most basic intelligent behaviour is the capacity to keep oneself alive

 

[clubberdude]

Out of interest off topic do any of you think mdma lowers iq

No, well not from my own experience. I have done huge amounts of MDMA when younger, have calmed down a lot now though, using MDMA fairly occasionally. I've not noticed any cognitive issues or significant memory problems as a result of my MDMA use. Of course, I may well be the exception than the rule, but can only really speak from my personal experiences. DOC interestingly, has appeared to increase my intellectual fluidity a fair bit, though again, this may be an exceptional response.

 

[Dr.DruNk]

My theory is that LSD can affect creativity and IQ indirectly by catalyzing developmental processes of the brain and mind that may lead to low latent inhibition.
Low latent inhibition, can be one of the key ingredients for heightened sensitivity to creative and analytical thought processes. The more intelligent people are the more likely they are to handle LLI effectively, the less intelligent people are the more likely they are to get overwhelmed by stimuli and impulses and this sensitivity can drive a person quite insane if they don't have the capacity to channel it.

This is interesting. I'm going to look up LLI now. However, in my experience, this is true. Smart people handle LSD (and other hallucinogens) better and get more out of it. I don't think it makes you any more or less intelligent directly, but the experience might influence your life perspective in a way conducive to improving yourself (or not).

 

[wazup7]

I don't think it's smart people you are referring to, I think it's people who are psychologically fit and prepared for the experience. If you are properly prepared, you can make pretty much whatever you want out of the experience, once it's run it's course. If you are taking LSD to get fucked up, you are evidently not prepared, so in that case, good luck.

 

[huolesoh]

do any of you think mdma lowers iq

i dont think lowers IQ, but i do think it can leave people burnt out. i think the serotonin system is quite fragile, and MDMA is really forceful, based on personal experience, and observation. i certainly do not think MDMA is benign

however, anne shulgin took MDMA extremely regularly for a year and a half or so, and she seems truly healthy nowadays, so maybe if you are careful not to dose too high you can get-away-with-it ?!

as for LSD i think it's simply a matter of how it is used

 

[LucidShroomDmtier]

i have aromatic wipes and at morning i toched one ... and triping on the hill 30mins later it took me alot time to remember where the smell came from...

 

[mersault]

Does LSD create new brain cells?
No. It's more likely that it creates new synapses in areas which aren't usually used. It would make more sense but I have no proof for this.

Does it make you smarter?
I believe it's quite the opposite. It makes you realise that you're more stupid than you think you are and because of that knowledge you act different (and better) and, in the eyes of others, it results as people seeing you smarter.

having only taken my first trip just now -this seems closest to what LSD actually does

- as to whether anyone will start seeing me as smart now, well, stranger things have happened i guess

 

[weadazoid]

It alows you to see the the world in a new perspective. To look at a tree and realize it is in fact a living breathing organism. It opens one up to a greater ability to comprehend abrstract thought.

My mom went through an alchahol induced depressive state when her mom, my grandmother died. While she had never done LSD it was like she was caught in that bad trip thought loop of despair. It was a real kind of phychotic episode that landed her in AA and that was a good thing. I was able to help and really understand what she was going though only due to the experience of my own bad trip. It was simply put a spiral of negative thoughts whirlpool.


In this way LSD can open doors to different mental states both positive and negative, but both generate a greater understanding of oneself and ones suroundings. If anything it enlightens more then brightens so to speak....

 

[TheAppleCore]

Well, it can certainly help you understand yourself.

 

[majorigpa]

after reading the title of this thread, no.

 

[Foreigner]

I've read the LSD has uses for preventing the onset of dementia. I don't think it increases intelligence but it does increase connectivity and novelty.

My abstraction and creative thinking abilities are way, way higher now than they used to be. My creative mind can now produce answers non-linearly seemingly from nowhere, without the need to concentrate and think about it semantically/logically.

I also believe that if you can learn to navigate a heavy LSD trip then your mind and instincts must indeed be sharper.

 

[TheAppleCore]

I also believe that if you can learn to navigate a heavy LSD trip then your mind and instincts must indeed be sharper.

True that. I think part of the LSD euphoria results from having developed a certain strength of mind in order to fearlessly navigate the chaos.

 

[6apbhmm]

I agree. It helps remove the intellectual arrogance and overconfidence in humanity's ability to objectively study and understand the universe which is so prevelant in our 'scientific age' of technology and 'progress'.

Why those apostrophes though? Always laugh at people who whine about speed of progress and technologies and artificial/unnatural world, yet they don't move a muscle without using car everywhere, buy new iphone every month which they don't even need and spend half a day whining on facebook or skypeing...

 

[cascadehighlander]

I think the original claim was that patient at Spring Grove hospital in Maryland that were given LSD in a study by Dr. Kurland had an increase in average IQ of 10%. This wasn't Leary's study.

That said: before he got involved with LSD Leary did a lot of rather substantial work. The big study of Leary that has been panned is the one one prison recidivism. I question the refutation of that study on grounds they really didn't quite duplicate what Leary did. Leary was flawed man-but he was a decent professional psychologist when he worked in that field.

Albert Hoffman also claimed that LSD had temporary nootropic effects when given in small doses.

 

[rickolasnice]

Next time I take LSD.. I will take an IQ test before (by a few days) and after.. I'll post the results here

 

[Solipsis]

Common topic so mega-merged.
I realize some timelines are running together, but they should only cross, not mix up.

 

[xx001]

Psychedelics certainly do have the potential to positively affect mental processes, but I am not sure if IQ is one of those. IQ is a strange thing. It is measuring something, but we don't know just what. "Smarter" people tend to have high IQ's but intelligence is something that can't be measured on a single numerical scale. We really don't have a good definition of intelligence or what abilities constitute intelligence. There are different types of intelligence that depend on different neurological functions.

I like to think about intelligence in terms of a brain-computer analogy. Intelligence(IQ perhaps) measures the power of the hardware, giving a maximum potential of what is possible. Intellect, personality, creativity, motivation, discipline, etc. are analagous to the software, or what can be done with the hardware.

Outside of treating mental illnesses, I don't think any available drugs, psychedelic or otherwise, are going to do much for the former. Genes and early life health are the main factors in what hardware you get. However, there is no doubt that the latter can be affected by drugs.

So no, lsd isn't going to help you do your calculus homework any faster, but it can help you in less linear disciplines.

 

[---]

Why those apostrophes though? Always laugh at people who whine about speed of progress and technologies and artificial/unnatural world, yet they don't move a muscle without using car everywhere, buy new iphone every month which they don't even need and spend half a day whining on facebook or skypeing...

so? theyre right. next thing youre gonna tell me you laugh at people who smoke and tell their kids smoking is bad for them

 

[Solipsis]

Well if you say one thing but do something else, there goes your credibility.

But even for lazy people, they can complain about things as consumers but not always as members who help progress.

I'd like to get back to some main point please, if you track back these quotes of answers of quotes this appears to be becoming a tangent. Could you, ---, or 6apbhmm transparantly restate a claim so that we understand better what it is all in reference to?
The other possibility is of course returning to the title topic of the thread and the question: "Does LSD either increase intelligence or IQ, or does it speed up any kind of personal development?"