What enables the mind to perceive art more thoroughly?

[Mootoo]

I think it's a universal feeling that music etc. seems finer while high (along with the usage of other substances, dissociatives e.g.) - but why is this? Ideally we would decipher what exactly, from a neurological perspective, is happening. An increase in serotonin/dopamine (although cannabis doesn't seem to act as a direct agonist for either)? But then, what about NMDA antagonism, how does that enable greater appreciation of art? And how are cannabinoid receptors involved in all this?

From yet a different point of view, though... what if it's merely a byproduct of whatever chemical alterations occur and in reality it's merely the result of the differing perceptions themselves? Is this, then, something one can replicate (while sober) given enough convictions? (It is, though, quite difficult to change one's perceptions at will, obviously.)

 

[Egzoset]

Salutations Mootoo,

...why

Personally i consider it's the mind which enables itself, through learning since it happens the brain is good at it.

Nobody is born with genetically-inherited pictural culture, for example. A child looking at the same painting cannot be expected to feel emotions equivalent to those of its elder tutor standing right beside, etc. Chemical substances and receptors are like hardware in a computer: i use FF while my mother prefers MSIE, whatever. Tinitus (acouphen) would occur at that level i presume, which has very little to do with musical perception IMO.

...something one can replicate (while sober) given enough convictions?

To continue with PC analogies i think Cannabis adds some amount of fuzzy logic that's appropriate for musical decoding (and more). The people who explore music sensations acquire codecs that enable them to progress in their appreciation, long term exposure allows them to build their own sets of coder/decoder software... So, can one self-train in order to induce transe on music?

In my own case i'd say spatial perception does improve under cannabic influence and i'm not sure where that part fits. What i can tell is that it's not easy to split-open my antennas on fresh air and water alone...

 

[Ninae]

I dont think its especially connected to art. It seems more like anything that makes you feel better can make you enjoy ANYTHING more. Including crappy TV and people you dont usually like to interact with. So it seems like the object doesn't really matter and that anything you choose to focus on will become more enjoyable, including heightened art-appreciation. Compared to being in WD when you cant enjoy anything.

 

[Foreigner]

Well... since I am not a material reductionist, my philosophical view of this is that your mind is simply a lens for your greater being to experience. It's like the lens of the camera that the artist is looking through. The camera is not the artist, but the camera's filters can alter what the artists sees through it, and thus gives the artist a different perspective. The being exists without mind, as meditation demonstrates, but mind provides filters for experience.

Thus, when you take a drug, you change the filter. The experiencer remains the same but the in-flow of content changes. Note that the experiencer is not ego, since ego can be completely dissolved by entheogens. The experiencer is a silent observer. This is hard to convey intellectually because the intellect is part of mind, and mind is not part of the experiencer... but we can try.

I use sound in my healing practice. Certain frequencies resonate with the body and promote therapeutic influences. It's not just mind, it's a whole-being perspective. You can play a singing bowl that is tuned to a really deep vibration so that it resonates in the lower abdominal cavity, and it will ellicit feelings of groundedness, earthiness, and heaviness; likewise you can play something high frequency and it causes ethereal feelings because of the way it resonates on the skull and the inner ear. Sound is more than just mind, it is an energy state of vibrations. The faster and more dense the vibrations, the more active the energy state becomes; the more slow and loose, the more calm. Sound is a filter you can add to alter experience, just like tastes, smells, sights, etc.

So you see why I have a problem with reducing it to just biochemistry. I view the brain itself as the "technology" that the Being interfaces with, just like how the radio announcer broadcasts into the radio. He is not in the radio, but the radio is his vehicle. Saying that a different appreciation for art is merely NMDA antagonism is sort of downplaying it. It's not "merely" anything. It's an alteration of the perceptual filter which permits "you" (not ego you, but the Being you) to see the art differently. It's not artificial, or somehow cheapened as a result. It's just a different yet totally valid reality.