Essay

Can the use of entheogen's and psychedelic substances be used as a way to access higher levels of creativity in an individual??

introduction

“life lived in the absence of the psychedelic experience is life trivialised, life denied, life enslaved to the ego” (T.Mckenna) For many years now our modern society has had this potentially misguided view on entheogen’s, naturally occurring psychedelic substances. Because these mind altering substances have been made illegal, the majority of the population seem to have a very negative outlook on them and they constantly have bad connotations through the media because of this. Entheogen’s and psychedelic experiences have been used throughout history across the world in many different shamanic cultures that can be dated as far back as 9000 B.C or potentially further. Today there is an ongoing controversial feud as to wether these substances and experience can in fact be beneficial to the human mind leading to a new form of heightened perception, or wether these drugs are dangerous and harmful. Throughout this essay I will be discussing the effects, possible benefits and dangers that surround the consumption of these Entheogen’s and the role they can play in our society and whether or not they have the capability to increase an individuals creative output or destroy it. 

To fully understand the power of entheogen’s, we must first go back in history to talk about the uses with psychoactive substances in ancient cultures. The psilocybin mushroom known today as ‘magic mushrooms’ is found in over 190 varieties in many different countries around the world. Today in our society they are well known and used for recreation to induce hallucinations and other uses, but there is in fact a more ancient origin of the use of these psilocybin enriched sprouts of fungi. From mayan mushroom stone carvings to the ancient Spanish rock painting that clearly depict the mushroom form as far back as 9000B.C, there is strong evidence that would suggest mushrooms, potentially psychedelic have been used within these cultures especially during  spiritual, and religious ceremonies as a method of healing and connection to the ‘spiritual dimensions’ as practiced by the shamans. Mushrooms along with other forms of entheogen’s such as peyote and ayahuasca are widely believed to have been experimented with and used as a respected means of spiritual growth within many traditional cultures. The Shamans believe that these substances that create alternate states of mind provide us with gateways that can lead to the infinite stream of energy that exists in all forms of life in the universe. ‘The godfather of psychedelics’ Terrence McKenna proposed a very controversial theory called ‘the stoned ape’ that suggests that the psychedelic mushroom has played a big part in the evolution of the human consciousness and has been a big factor to the development of language and speech. “We ate our way to higher consciousness. To me it begins and ends with these psychedelic mushrooms, The first stages of consumption of psilocybin in the human diet has brought us out of the animal mind and into the world of articulated speech and imagination.”(T.Mckenna) In this theory McKenna suggests that our contact with psilocybin mushrooms could have started with the neanderthal man and that through the discovery of the sensory enhancements that they are capable of, the mushrooms could have provided humans with the right steppingstone for cognitive evolution. Wether or not this is true, it is however a known fact that mushrooms and other entheogen’s have, and are still being used by countless cultures across the world. The amazonian tribes have been using ayahuasca(DMT-Dimethyltryptamine) since possibly around 3000B.C and this is a sacred brew that is known to be the most powerful, profound and visionary of all entheogen’s, many westerners are now starting to take this ancient medicine as a way of fighting drug addictions, depression or for a way to become a more spiritually aware individual. For thousands of years now, the shamans of Amazonia, North America, Asia, Meso America, Europe and more have used these substances as a way of naturally inducing an altered state of mind for specific reasons. Spiritual leaders of tribes and shamanic cultures would take these substances in order to have a visionary or ‘mystical’ experience and then bring guidance, wisdom and healing to the people. Because these traditions are so ancient and wide spread, it is clear to suggest that many of our modern spiritual and creative belief systems may have derived from shamanic cultures and therefore psychedelic substances.

“One who looks outside dreams, One who looks inside is awake.”(C.Jung) The psychiatrist Carl Jung said this in reference to a psychedelic experience. He, along with many others believed that in order to gain a true insight of the world and yourself, you can never find it by searching the external world. For a person to gain a true sense of insight, connectedness and personal growth, one must look within your own mind and spirit and through uses of psychedelics and entheogen’s, one is more able to open up and look deeper inside, then we can gain a pure sense of creativity.

Psychedelic chemicals especially LSD,DMT and psilocybin can play a very important role in the development of an artist or creative person. The use of psychedelic substances can and have been known to help an individual to think without the blockage of our usual defences. Psychedelic experiences can potentially help a creative to put aside the usual defensive filters such as fear and anxiety, resulting in a more free and pure form of expression/creation. The artist more open to hear the inner voice. Psychedelic substances also allow us to think completely out of the usual cognitive patterns that can otherwise hold creatives back from reaching there true creative potential. Undergoing a psychedelic experience caused by entheogen’s and modern research chemicals, a person is able to momentarily break free from the framework of time, space and perceive sound, colour, emotion and consciousness from a whole new perspective that can also open new ways of communicating ideas which is essential for an artist. For creative enhancement it has been recommended to be more effective to consume relatively low doses of psychedelics, so the individual is able to channel the abstract thoughts that are acquired into transferable ideas and not just getting lost in the chaotic world of psychedelia. The knowable benefits that are outlined through higher levels of awareness from use of entheogen’s, if not providing you with a sense of instant insight, can alternatively be transferred or more realised by the individual once back to the ordinary mind-body state.

“I learned more about my brain and about its possibilities and more about psychology in the first five hours of taking these mushrooms than I had in the preceding fifteen years studying psychology.” (T.Leary)

“At first I was skeptical, then I had what I simply could not deny being and experience of cosmic consciousness, the sense of complete, fundamental, total unity, forever and ever with the whole universe.”(A.Watts) 

“It opened my eyes, we only use one tenth of our brain just think what we could 

accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world if the politicians were to take LSD. There wouldn't be any war or poverty or famine.”

(P.McCartney) 

“Visionary art requires the development of our inner sight. To find the visionary realm, we must use the intuitive inner eye: the eye of the soul. All the inspiring ideas that we have as artists originate here”(A.Grey) 

“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. It reinforced my sense of what was important - creating great things instead of money, putting things back into the stream of history and of the human consciousness as much as I could.(S.Jobs) These quotes on psychedelic experiences range from writers,Psychologists, philosophers, famous musicians, artists and many more. They clearly outline that these experiences have essentially played a big role in the exploration of there work and development of there own being. There are countless creative people varying in many different subjects that have used and drawn inspiration from the psychedelic experience. It is without doubt that through the use of psychedelic experiences, many creative people have been able to gain new and original ideas that are then channeled throughout the world which can also play a big role in changing society and the way we chose to live our lives.

“We are beginning to identify the biological basis of the reported mind expansion associated with psychedelic drugs”(R.Carhart-Harris) Robin Carhart-Harris is the head of psychedelic chemical research at the Imperial college of London and is the first person in the UK to have legally administrated doses of LSD to human volunteers. He has conducted controlled experiments that show how psychoactive substances such as psilocybin and LSD can greatly enhance the electrical communication between specific parts of the brain, especially within parts of the brain that are known to generate senses of imagination/creativity and emotional intelligence. He also goes on to mention that it is very hard to get a true authentic test on a persons creativity on psychedelics in such controlled environments, he says that you can loose a lot of the real life validity by trying to isolate and examine rather than being let free for pure creative outlet.”Just ask a painter to make a world class painting in an MRI machine” Many scientists such as Carhart-Harris who have studied these hallucinogenic chemicals have argued that they are not simply something that should be used for fun or as a recreation. They claim that the mind altering effects of psychedelics, if treated with respect, could be utilised in a very positive way. In theory they could be purposely used to generate and fuel a persons creative output. 

The psychologist William Harman also conducted a study to test the creative enhancing abilities of entheogen’s. This was a study of problem solving that included various professional mathematicians, physicists, architects, furniture designers, and artists with a range of provided problems to work on and solve. These people put in groups of three or four were given a controlled dose of two hundred milligrams of mescaline, a naturally occurring psychedelic entheogen extracted from the peyote cactus. They then were told to listen to a range of calming musical pieces and then came back to the groups to discuss the given set of problems and then proceeded to work on them individually for a timed four hours. As a result of the psychedelic cognitive enhancement, the results seemed to be very impressive with a higher level of creative problems solving due to the mind altering benefits of the entheogen’s. William Harman concluded that psychedelics can actually have major practical uses in the overall cognitive and technological development of the human species.

Thomas B. Roberts Ph.D is a professor of educational psychology at Northen Illinois university and is also the author of the book ‘The psychedelic future of the mind, How entheogen’s are enhancing cognition, boosting intelligence and raising values’ (T.B Roberts 2013)  “My life project is how to bring uses of psychedelics to the community beyond the walls of the medical perspectives” This book explores the spiritual, medical and the aspects of science that are centred around the usage of entheogen’s, this book outlines the use of entheogen’s and how they can be used to enrich the mind, sense of morality and even enhancement of creativity and spirituality. ‘The psychedelic future of the mind’ goes on to imagine a future that could possibly see the psychedelic experience in a new light, one where it is embraced and used as a powerful tool for personal growth, cognitive development and even for business purposes rather than benign constantly repressed by the media for being harmful and dangerous. However, psychedelic psychotherapy has recently gained much notable recognition through the research that has been taken from the universities and medical establishments such as the ‘John Hopkins medical institute’ and ‘Belleuve hospital.’

“During deep meditation, I entered a state where all energy stytems in my body were completely aligned and flowing. It was this state that I envisioned Theologue. I was wearing s mindfold which allowed me to stare into total darkness. I stared into an infinite regress of electric perspective grids that radiated from my brain/mind and led me to the horizon. A mystical figure engulfed me. Across the horizon al I could see were perspective lines going into deep space. I was seeing both the perceptual grid of my mind on which space and time are woven, and the universal mind which was both the source and the weaving loom. At this moment, faintly, Himalayan mountains appeared. Transparent, but present, they formed a vast and beautiful panorama and then disappeared back into the grid.” This is a quote from the visionary psychedelic artist Alex Grey. In this he is describing a mystical, spiritual and psychedelic experience that is achieved through methods of deep meditation with the aids of entheogen’s. The 1986 painting named ‘Theologue’ is a very famous piece in the psychedelic community, Alex grey is an inspiring artist to all psychedelic explorers. Alex grey has constantly throughout his artist career been open about the consumption of psychedelic substances, Grey would argue that these experiences achieved by entheogen’s and LSD have played a very important role on his own creative practice, Without them he would not be the artist he is today and would certainly not have painted his most famous paining ‘theologue’. These drugs have allowed grey and many other visionary artist to draw inspiration from there own inner authentic spirit which leads to a pure form of artistic creation.

While there can be many creative, spiritual and personal benefits within the controlled consumption of entheogen’s and psychedelic substances, it is also a very important factor to address that there are some potential dangers and risks that have to be taken into account with these mind altering agents. The most obvious way a psychedelic drug can be potentially dangerous is through what is known as a ‘bad trip’. Bad trips are very hard to predict especially with LSD and psilocybin, this can be heavily determined by the set and setting of the user, meaning if the intention of the trip and the environment are bad, then there is a strong possibility that the individual can go through a very bad experience, in high doses of psychedelics and treated with a lack of respect a user can have adverse reactions that could include anxiety, paranoia, delusions, frightening hallucinations, depression and mood swings. HPPD (flashbacks to previous bad trips up to months/years after a bad trip) is also a rare but knowable potential side effect of the extended use of LSD. Many people will and have abused the use of psychedelic drugs and this can lead to potential addiction to substance (although it has been proven that alcohol and caffeine are much more addictive than any entheogen.) While majority of the dangers with these substances are psychological because of the psychoactive chemicals, there can also be some physical harms. This include increased body temperature, dehydration, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. These are some knowable physical effects that can happen during a psychedelic experience that many people would find to be hard to cope with. These side effects that can occur with psychedelics usually happens when a person takes higher doses but these physical effects can also happen with high amounts of consumption of alcohol so this is very debatable as to wether alcohol is more dangerous than psychedelics. Given these points about psychedelic drugs, it is also true that many legal drugs can have a very dangerous toll on a persons body and mind especially if abused. It is also important that for creative cognitive enhancement, an individual must not overuse and abuse the psychedelic experience there may come a time where if not careful, one can have a reverse effect on the creative mind that can be replaced with a spiral of addiction to drug use and mental disfunction. The uses of psychedelics can either be used for extraordinary benefits or equally heavy downfalls. “To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of a psychedelic. Psychedelics can be gateways to the most amazing heavenly experiences or the most horrifying, in either case the insights that they provide are priceless.” (Dr Humphy Osmond.)

In conclusion of this very widely debated and controversial subject, I have come to the realisation through research of this topic that the use of psychedelic substances specifically entheogen’s can in fact play a very big and meaningful role in the development of a creative person. Many different examples from ancient cultures to modern artists and even now scientific experiments prove this point. It is very clear that a psychedelic experience can actually enhance the cognitive function of a persons brain that can have direct links to imagination and creativity therefore these experiences can be seen as very beneficial especially for an aspiring artist looking for sources of inspiration that is from a pure place of origin. It is also very important to note that these are very serious substances and for a creative purpose should not be treated as recreation, they should in fact be treated with much care, caution and respect. If all of these are considered and the individual is open and ready for these sort of experiences then I think it should be down to the individual to make the decision for themselves as a way of connecting to the spirit. Rather than being oppressed and criticised in the media just because the governments are afraid of people breaking free from the system once having these visionary experiences. All knowledge is acquired through experiences so if one is willing to journey into the unknown then it should be accepted and embraced. “It is beyond doubt that all knowledge begins with experience” (Immanuel Kant)

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Book References

Thomas B. Roberts. 2013. The psychedelic future of the mind. Park street press

Image references

"Cave Paintings Of Mushrooms". Mushroom. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 May 2017.

"Soma In The Americas". HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 May 2017.

"Theologue - Alex Grey". Alex Grey. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 May 2017.