Psychedelics and creativity

[ProfessorGoad]

What are some of the more unusual theories you've come up with while on psychedelics? Have you ever created something while on a psychedelic that afterwards you still thought was worthwhile?

 

[xammy]

No, but then ive never been creative person at all. Id like to be. Do you have to be born creative or is it something you can learn?

I dont have that many trips behind me to start with so it was never the first thing in your mind when tripping as everything is so mind blowing on psychedelics that you just have to explore.

 

[Thanatos]

Psychedelics are the antithesis of a creative class of drugs for me. I can't concentrate on anything for an extended period of time with any vigor or passion. They are much more analytical in nature to me, even attempting to draw on a psychedelic is a futile effort.
My creativity lies in my intellect, not my sensory experiences.

 

[Jayman]

^-- On the contrary, using the visual proficiency allowed by a 2 hit LSD dose I suddenly saw the universe, and I saw myself. The molecular world superimposed onto a satellite view of the whole universe. Then it hit me. We are the universe, learning and finding itself!!! We are made of the same things as the everything around us, the same things making parts of the universe. Like it wanted to understand what it was, to know how it got there. Seems to be a constant theme with human life... thats the driver, the motivator to learn what it and us and everything really is. To know the universe is to know life is to know ones self. Leave all social conditioned beliefs behind. Shamans and hippys all had it right, man. I tell you it was an incredible feeling. To realize that at that instant... in less than a second it happened. It all just appeared out of nowhere. These chemicals are keys. The energy in an atom can provide alot of power... I also think i am onto something else about how the special chemicals activate the receptors in a certain energy pattern, thus creating its differential effects... The Soul of the Chemical.

 

[Thanatos]

^ that has absolutely nothing to do with human creativity.

 

[Jayman]

He asked for some "unusual" theories, so i obliged.


I've never painted or did any of the arts while on a trip, but did have that revelation of sorts.

 

[Thanatos]

That's not particularly unusual in the psychedelic community. And you were somewhat correct in that all matter is fundamentally just small packets of energy. Your spirit molecule postulation is non-sense and can be disproven by a simple understanding of neuroscience and electro-neural activity in relation to cognition, and biochemistry.

 

[Jayman]

I didn't mean that spirit molecule stuff like the documentary. I simply meant the way they bind and the way that each particular molecule interacts with neuronal sites is almost like they have each their own spirit or personality so to speak

 

[Factin]

The risks associated with psychedelic drugs are mostly psychological, not physical. For most psychedelic drugs, including the most commonly used ones such as LSD and psyilocybin and mushrooms.

 

[motiv311]

Jayman hit the nail on the head, (although off topic i guess)

When on ayahuasca , mushrooms and LSD I've written great music, songs I still play today. Cause like jayman said, I am one with the universe in those moments and the music / lyrics flow through me, as if i don't even deserve credit for creating it. I can sing in my "truest voice" and do things i normally can't ....

Thats usuallly on lower doeses though. Otherwise I use speed. : (

 

[no_id]

I do not find that psychedelic enhance creativity. Perhaps for some ppl, though.

Personnally I'm far more creative/passionnate/productive about music when I'm not in a drug (psychedelic or not) period...

The only stuff I need to be creative is to be passionnated/a bit obsessed with the stuff I'm into. When I'm into drugs my head think DRUGS DRUGS DRUGS DRUGS, I can't be creative with stuff like music.


Edit : I moderate a bit my remarks : it's true for myself that psychedelic open in some way some new way to be creative, you get new data, some new view and new type of sensation. I'm generally reluctant to admit that, I'm not in the "psychedelic open your mind" stuff, but when I go out my drugs periods (3 month or something in general), I go back little by litte in music, and I've to admit that even if psyche increase not directly creativity, it can give some new type of idea.

 

[wayab]

does it have to be during trip creativity ? during trip i never have created music only a few times some abstract paintings which was more just to see what the paints would look like when placing them on paper. i would say during trip creativity is at a stop but the mind is gathering all this new input and storing it and that's when post trip(could be days, weeks or years later) inspiration kicks in. i would say psychedelics do indeed boost creativity just not during the actual experience....
hmm but taking a second look at the op i understand that the posts above have made me go offtopic actually.

i have made some abstract paintings while on psychedelics that afterwards i could "translate" and help me point out to myself underlying issues at the moment

 

[no_id]

For myself doing music while tripping is more like a fun experience (wich can "accidentally" lead to good things), not a serious stuff & demonstration of creativity. Creativity and serious work go almost hand in hand for myself (contrary to the popular belief that ppl who do creative stuff are happy go lucky/merry/funny/detached/not serious for being creative), and this is not compatible with drugs for myself (I insist it's my case, I understand it can be different for other...)

 

[pupnik]

With psychedelics, I suddenly find previously ignored perspectives appear very interesting.

Such views can become very inspirational, and since they really are natural (uncontrived), my works get under the skin of people who view them. They do not look like psychedelic drawings or paintings at all, just raw impressionist portraits or street scenes with some extra accessible familiarity, as if you saw it that way too, but did not quite recall...

I find wonder while appreciating the mundane, and that comes out in artwork; I attribute that somewhat to my interest in psychs.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

Musical creativity is boosted to the n'th degree for me on psychedelics, but visual art definitely takes a back seat for me, nothing could compare with the beauty of powerful OEV's anyway

 

[Tryptamino]

They don't induce creativity in me while on them, however, doing them regularly (like once ever month or so) seems to vastly improve my creativity.

 

[perpetualdawn]

This is a really interesting thread...

Like a lot of people on here, my psychedelic experiences have been the source of a ton of inspiration, but it's usually it's in the days, weeks, months after that I act on it. A trip will often give a groundbreaking new perspective, or just a ton of energy and willpower to create. A few successes with creating while actually on a PD, but mostly I'm pretty passive while tripping.

Unusual theories? hmm.. nothing I can think of, more just cases of observing/realizing how nature works. By nature I mean in the broadest sense including music, humanity, physics etc..

 

[pupnik]

that means your work is enriched by your mindplay, I think that is what I am saying too,
but my dose moderation lets me paint while stoned as well as altering my non-stoned daily life in a creative way.

 

[Phaxius]

I find a marked increase in the rapid flow of free association during the psychedelic experience that makes wordplay especially fun at times. Sometimes really random scenarios will develop that lead to a kind of freestyle trippy story telling, often for the sake of humor. Hard to say how clever any of it really is after the fact though, since the specifics are generally fragmented. Also, at higher doses it is sometimes impossible to communicate well enough to relay these aspects of the trip in any (semi-)coherent manner to others. While I would imagine that this effect on the fluidity of free association could lead to a creative boost during the trip under the right circumstances, I still find most of the benefits on creativity to peak after the experience for me. I think it is more a matter of boosting inspiration than creativity per se.

During the experience you get to perceive parts of your mind that may not be normally accessable on a conscious level and make connections between things that may have seemed unrelated at the time. Sometimes after the trip these things still make sense to varying degrees. Sometimes they really don't. One of the strangest perceptual constructs I have ever had from psychedelics was once becoming convinced that I was all of existence and that the entire physical realm was completely comprised of facets of my consciousness. At the time I was flirting with a high level of ego dissolusion that didn't quite remove the "I". At face value this no longer made sense after the trip, but the experience did alter my view of the nature of reality to some extent in a lasting way.