It’s no secret to marijuana usersthat the giggly healing herbholds enormous potential toenhance creativity and inspirethe imagination, as many

highly acclaimed artists, scientists,writers, musicians, and other free-thinking people have clearly demon-strated for well more than a century.But now, for the first time, new scien-tific studies have begun to confirmthese claims, and researchers are start-ing to understand the psychologicalmechanisms behind how cannabis canimprove the creative process.

What Does the Science Say?The Beckley Foundation (beckleyfoun-dation.org)—a nonprofit organizationin England that supports pioneering,multidisciplinary research with cannabisand psychedelic drugs—is presentlyfunding a two-part study on cannabisand creativity. Although this study re-mains in progress, the results so far indi-cate that marijuana use can indeed havea positive influence on creative perform-ance, according to Beckley Foundationfounder Amanda Feilding.

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Does using marijuanalead to dramatic insightsand meaningful inno-vation, or does gettingbaked just make you

feel more creative?By David Jay Brown &

Maria Grusauskas

Cannabis

&Creativity

Sputnik cannabis oil paintingby Cathy Lee.

The first phase of the study, conductedin 2010 by neuroscience researchers at theUniversity College London, tested 160adults who smoked cannabis and foundthat subjects linked distantly relatedwords and concepts significantly fasterwhen under the influence of marijuana—a cognitive process that psychologistsconsider fundamental to creativity. This“hyper-priming,” as the researcherstermed it, provides solid evidence that theflow of loose associations reported bycannabis users is indeed real and not anillusion. In the second phase of the study,

neuroimaging techniques will pinpointthe specific mechanisms at play in thecannabis-influenced mind.

Additionally, research at SaskatchewanUniversity demonstrates that THC canspur neurogenesis, or new brain cell for-mation. This relates to medical science’semerging understanding of neuroplastic-ity—how the brain can reorganize neuralpathways and rewire itself in order to be-come more efficient at processing infor-mation. Until relatively recently, evenleading neurologists believed that it wasimpossible to grow any new brain cells at

all, but we now know that the brain is, infact, continually rewiring itself, and thatit’s always possible to grow new cells andlearn new skills, processes which may playa key role in creative thinking.

Still, despite the accumulating scien-tific evidence that cannabis can boost cre-ativity, many skeptics steadfastly stick totheir largely cultural belief that such ap-parent cognitive enhancement is merelyan illusion of the “stoned” test subject,often by pointing out that there’s a bigdifference between being more creativeand simply feeling more creative.

The late astronomer Carl Sagan, how-ever, refuted that argument head on in anessay published in Dr. Lester Grinspoon’sbook Marihuana Reconsidered.

“There is a myth about such highs: theuser has an illusion of great insight, but itdoes not survive scrutiny in the morning.”Sagan, identified only as Mr. X, explained.“I am convinced that this is an error, andthat the compelling insights achievedwhen high are real insights; the mainproblem is putting these insights in a formacceptable to the quite different self thatwe are when we’re down the next day.”

It’s telling that one of the most cele-brated minds of the 20th Century felt theneed to don a pseudonym simply to dis-cuss such matters, even among his fellowscientists. Fortunately, many of the mostinnovative artists of all time—from TK toBob Marley —have been more than happyto let us all in on their secret to success.

For example, the late comedianGeorge Carlin told us that marijuana“fostered offbeat thinking... I becamemore myself. The comedy became morepersonal, therefore more political, andtherefore more successful...So, suddenly, Ialso became materially successful. Peoplestarted buying albums. I had four Goldalbums in a row.

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PLX Green Tone cannabis oilpainting by Monika Lea Jones.

Little Buds, a trio of small oil paintings by Monika Lea Jones.

The list of accomplished creative peoplewho have claimed a positive influence fromtheir use of cannabis goes on and on, butthat doesn’t mean you have to be an artisticgenius to make use of this important bene-fit. Creativity is a fundamental aspect ofevery person’s life, and staying engaged withthose impulses—whether at home, at work,with friends, family, or lovers—just mightoffer the true secret to lasting happiness.

Historical HighsFrom 1844 to 1849, members of the literaryand intellectual avant-garde met in Paris toexplore the creative potential of hashish andother psychoactive substances. Known as LeClub des Hashischins, this elite Parisian so-ciety gathered once a month to get high to-gether, and consisted of such literarynotables as Charles Baudelaire and Alexan-dre Dumas, who both claimed thatcannabis extracts held great poetic and cre-ative potential. (Something to ponder over abowl of OG Kush and a copy of The ThreeMusketeers!)

In 1857, American writer and explorerFitz Hugh Ludlow wrote The HasheeshEater, in which he eloquently described en-chanted journeys and incredible flights ofthe imagination from his experiments withcannabis extracts.

And so it’s no surprise that by the timethe jazz age “rolled” around, leading musi-cians like Louis Armstrong were not onlyusing reefer on the regular, they wereprominent advocates of the still legal herbalintoxicant. In Louis Armstrong: An Extrav-agant Life, biographer Laurence Bergreenwrote that the inventor of modern jazzloved marijuana, and “smoked it in vastquantities from his early twenties until theend of his life; wrote songs in praise of it;and persuaded his musician friends tosmoke it when they played.”

Once marijuana became federally illegalin 1937, it became increasingly difficult forthe most successful users to talk honestlyabout their positive experiences, but enoughof them did so anyway, from the Beatles,Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys, to NormanMailer and TK that it’s hard to believe potsmokers still suffer under the “lazy and un-motivated” stereotype.

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About the Artist: cathy Lee

How Does Cannabis Boost Creativity?Theories as to how marijuana enhancescreativity abound, but almost all of themfocus on the herb’s role in effecting whichmemories, thoughts, and perceptions makeit through our mental filters, and howthey’re subsequently integrated.

Penn State professor Richard Doylecalls cannabis “an assassin of referentiality,”likening its influence to a ‘Butterfly Effect’in thought.” Made popular by chaos the-ory, the “butterfly effect” describes the way“a butterfly flapping its wings in China can

cause a hurricane in the Caribbean.” Andso Doyle suggests that cannabis sensitizesour minds in a similar way, allowing a freeflowing chain of uncensored thoughts toripple through the brain with often sur-prising results.

Filmmaker and Current TV host JasonSilva agrees, adding: “Essentially, marijuanacan extend the range of our free-associativecapacities. It increases the novel ways inwhich we find connections between ideas,and extends the range of ideas that wemight somehow relate to one another.”

In other words, creativity requires theconnection of memories, ideas, or imagesthat are seemingly unrelated; a processcannabis appears to accelerate.

Cannabis also slightly increases alphawave activity in the brain, along withblood flow into the right hemisphere, bothassociated with holistic, nonlinear thoughtand meditative consciousness—a mindstate scientists have identified as the mostfertile for creativity.

Science writer Jonah Lehrer, author ofHow We Decide, has written extensivelyabout such divergent thinking, including inpraise of cannabis as a creative tool. He toldHIGH TIMES MEDICAL MARIJUANA thisaltered state of mind may be familiar toeven non-users, “When you wake up firstthing in the morning your right hemisphereis overactive, which is why people often re-port having really good ideas when they’restill half-asleep lying in bed.”

How Can Cannabis Be UsedMost Effectively For CreativityEnhancement?It turns out all those marvelous ideas youget after you smoke some Lemon Hazeshouldn’t be tossed aside so easily after all.So how best to retain them?

Start by keeping a notebook and penwith you at all times—but particularlywhen you use cannabis—in order to writedown all of your highdeas before they es-cape into the ether. And it might help to al-ready be immersed in your creative processbefore adding marijuana to the mix.

According to Lehrer, it’s also advisableto engage your herbal muse sparingly, inorder to avoid upsetting the delicate psy-chological balance necessary for good cre-ative performance. In other words, don’tget totally blazed.

“You don’t want to be too high; you’reprobably going to be too distracted, andit’s going to be hard to even focus,” He ex-plained. “But there is that sweet spotwhere you are just relaxed enough, you’rethinking in unconventional ways, and yourright hemisphere is probably a little moreactive—all of these conditions are great forhaving moments of insight.”

Psychedelic Epiphanies orJust Staring At Your Hands?As with cannabis, there’s no shortage of an-ecdotal reports from artists, writers, musi-cians, and scientists, claiming thatpsychedelic drugs have been important for

creative inspiration. Steve Jobs called drop-ping LSD one of the most important thingshe ever did. Francis Crick acknowledged de-ciphering the double helix structure of DNAwhile on an acid trip. So are these apparentinspirations merely day-glo hallucinations, ordo they have some genuine validity? Whatdoes the scientific research say?

Before psychedelics were made illegal dur-ing the mid-1960s, a number of studies sug-gested that these controversial substances doindeed hold great promise as creativity agents.

In 1955, psychiatrist Louis Berlin in-vestigated the effects of mescaline andLSD on the painting abilities of four na-tionally recognized artists. Although thestudy showed that the artists’ technicalabilities were hampered, a group of inde-pendent art critics judged the experimentalpaintings to have “greater aesthetic value”than the artists’ usual work.

Two years later psychiatrist OscarJaniger asked 60 prominent artists to painta Native American doll before takingLSD, and then again while under its influ-ence. A panel of independent art criticsand historians then evaluated the results.Members generally agreed that the crafts-manship of the second set of paintingssuffered, but many of those pieces receivedhigher marks for imagination.

In 1965, psychologist James Fadimanand colleagues at San Francisco State Col-lege administered mescaline to workers invarious fields as they sought a creative so-lution for a professional problem. Aftersome psychological preparation, subjectsworked individually on their problemthroughout their mescaline session. Psy-chological tests, subjective reports, and theeventual industrial or commercial valida-tion and acceptance of the finished prod-uct or final solution measured the outputof each volunteer. Virtually all individualsproduced solutions judged highly creativeand satisfactory by these standards.

For a thorough examination of the issue,check out James Fadiman’s recently pub-lished book, The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide,which reviews the latest research on psyche-delics, while providing helpful guidelines fortheir therapeutic and creative use.P

To support ongoing research on psyche-delics, visit maps.org

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About the Artist: Monika Lea Jones