Smoking grass with picasso

[motherengine]

the talk on another thread reminded me of a debate i had with my uncle once concerning whether there is a connection between drug use and creativity. i still enjoy smoking marijuana though i understand and accept its unhealthy aspects. but for me there has allways been a definite connection between pot use and creative thought, though my experiences may constitute an exception to the rule (i have at least one friend who channels jeff spicoli when high). all throughout my childhood i was highly creative and had an almost pantheistic emotional connection to the natural world. atmospheres seemed to speak to me by inspiring a very specific yet indescribable feeling that even now i sometimes have when looking at a particular ray of light on a carpet say or a gust of wind through the upper branches of a tree. of all drugs marijuana seems closest in its effect on my brain to these feelings (though with the interesting if unpleasant side-effect of intensifying my perception). as the mystic feeling in my childhood drove me to write and photograph and experiment with sound so has thc inspired much of the ideas that provide the meat to the matter in my art. atmospherics and drug use seem to go hand and hand to me and as i age the relative easiness of finding wonder when a child is gone and marijuana is one way (though by no means the only way) to center my vision as it was then and to jump-start the creative engine. talking about this to a friend once i was gifted with a 'this is a symptom of a generational problem' speech which i feel evades and degrades the individual truth of the matter into a cynical psychoanalytical misfire of a viewpoint. there is something more complicated at work here than escapist fantasy. i find it unfortunate that drugs have been so demonized socially that many find it impossible to take the notion of their influence in art and even philosophy seriously. of course i may not be helping matters by meandering on here :) if so, oh well. to the point i pose the question 'is there a connection between drugs and creativity'?

[fusion]

In history many of the most creative people have been on some sort of 'Drug". Edgard allen poe was a alchoholic and Sherlock Holmes did crack.Here's an article I found of the net....

 

http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v10n3/10317hux.html

 

:)

[Fishteacher73]

It may be one of those chicken or the egg quandries...Historic records show that many great minds (art, sccience, lit.,etc) had at one time a drug or alcohol issue. Whether this as an escapism for the independent mind, or if these substances allowed them to remove some of the daily "filters" we use in our mind and allowed them to expand our understanding, who is to say?

 

(Also there were many that had various psychological conditions that usually is not brought up in textbook discussions about these thinkers).

[Turtle]

I'm two paranoid to be so blunt as MotherEngine, so you'll have to weed between the lions.

Fusion & Fish have shown, sufficiently I think, there is a connection, so I suggest the question moves to what is the nature of that connection.

Uhhhh...I though I was going to go on & answer that, but I see it's not that simple. Let me seek some creative spark & come back in a while. :)

PS Did Picasso puff tuff? I never heard that.

[Queso]

obviously you know it. and so do i.

i have heard that the human brain has thc receptors, which seems far-fetched.

is that true?

he must have been talking about neurons in general, because he thought that there were specific ones just for receiving thc.

which would be extremely interesting, but i doubt.

[fusion]

Responding to Orbsycle, Yes the Brain has millions of receptors neurons. :)

Another article on neurons receptors and the effect of drugs on our receptors

 

http://www.mirecc.org/science-articles/how-neurons-communicate-archive.shtml

 

Never do drugs!:D :D

[Queso]

i KNOW we have neurons. but this guy told me we have SPECIFIC THC receptors. THAT's what i had trouble believing.

[fusion]

Sorry Orbsycle. Here's specific info on thc and what it affects in the brain

 

http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/pictures/brn004.htm

[Queso]

amazing. so the brain actually has thc receptors.

so that means that thc has an affect on the evolution of the brain?

[fusion]

so Our brain has evolved from use of Marijuana :)

[Buffy]

amazing. so the brain actually has thc receptors.

so that means that thc has an affect on the evolution of the brain?

Well, its a chicken/egg problem. There's no question that there are receptors in human neurons that fit one side of a THC molecule, but as to whether evolution favored keeping this adaptation because injesting pot is beneficial, or whether its a complete quinky dink is open to interpretation. From what I've seen smoking joints would not be conducive to keeping lions from eating you out on the savanah, but who knows, maybe it made our ancestors better able to form complex human relationships. :)

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[Turtle]

No, not FROM the use;our brains evolved FOR the use of sativa. :) Discuss (muffled coughing, following by muffled chortaling)

[sanctus]

Orbyscli, if you want to be even more surprised our brain (actually not really the brain but a small organ I forgot the name of) even fabricate the substance that makes you high when on heroine, therefore we have got even receptors for the "heroin agent (forgot tha name as well)".

 

Actually you can experience the effect of heroine on you without having to take heroin, as your body produces it when you are in extreme situations. It arrived to me once: I was walking in the mountains in early spring, we slept outside in a tent, it was bloody cold, I didn't sleepmuch, I had new shoes so every step hurted, in the morning it was raining so even walking I kept freezing, adding to that we had cross some snow which was more than kneedeep. In the afternoon I remember how suddenly everything was good, it rained and every step hurt but I felt like I could keep on walking forever, I talked to the others and was just happy...

 

About a year later I heard what I wrote above in a bilogy course and then I understood what I had experienced.

[GAHD]

Yes, Sanctus, endorphins rock.

 

As to the pot analogy, there's a saying around my town:

"Pot leads to carpentry"

 

Referrs to how pot heads invariably go out and make random smoking devices from ingenious things; Ever try and make a pipe out of an 8"^2 tinfoil sheet and hairgell?

How ablout a balance scale using two pins, a pencil, and 2 sheets of 'loose-leaf' paper?

Just some examples of how I had applied science in the past...

[motherengine]

personally i think the connection has more to do with the chemistry of creative minds being attracted to altered states of consciousness rather than drugs causing creativity in people.

[Queso]

i agree. because not everybody can really feel the connection. it takes that certain "attraction."

[Turtle]

Further, in the case of marijuana, different stages of the creative process dictate (hypothetically, of course) use. If it's time to come up with a new idea, then pot may be just the thing. But once you have the idea, pot may be an impediment; power tools, hot metal, torches, etc. don't play well with weed.

I agree with MotherEngine: "personally i think the connection has more to do with the chemistry of creative minds being attracted to altered states of consciousness rather than drugs causing creativity in people."

Pot may serve as an adjunct, but the creative mind is going to create whether pot's there or not.

Anybody see that movie(fogot title) in B/W of Pablo Picoss creating ink paintings? And when they finished shooting the film, they destroyed the paintings. Anyone? It was quite good & I don't recall Pablo puffn' tuff or seeing anything but inks & brushes on his table. Very good film. :)