Psychedelic Drugs and Creativity

This comprehensive review (1985) of the literature on psychedelics and creativity spans most of the research that had been done before the doors of perception were shut for 40 years.

No abstract is provided for this paper.

Author: Stanley Krippner

Notes

The paper is very good overview of the studied that had been done up to that date. Here are things that stood out:

• Only nine (pilot) studies had been done on psychedelic drugs and creative performance
• Berlin and colleagues (1955) asked painters to paint whilst on mescaline which produced works of art that had “greater aesthetic value”
• Barron (1963) found his subjects (creative individuals) to be engaged under the influence of psilocybin, but some saying judging afterwards that the work was not inspiring
• Janiger (1967, 1959) asked 60 prominent artists to paint a picture of an American Indian doll, which were judged as more imaginative but of lower ‘craftsmanship’
• Leary (1963) gave LSD to 65 writers who also responded positively
• Fischer, Fox and Ralstin (1972) gave psilocybin to 21 college-age volunteers and reported on a measure of brain damage (“one’s brain damage is another person’s creativity”)
• McGlothlin, Cohen and McGlothlin (1967) reported on 72 graduate students who were given LSD who showed no changes on creativity tests at two weeks and six months later
• Zegans, Pollard and Brown (1967) found that 30 graduate students did better than the control group on word associations, but no other significant results were found
  • “[LSD] may increase the accessibility of remote or unique ideas and associations while making it difficult for subjects to narrow their attention on a delimited perceptual field.”
• Harman and colleagues (1966) found that professionals could get more work done and their fluency of ideas went up significantly
  • They were given mescaline (200mg) and methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, so unfortunately contaminating the experiment quite a bit
  • And I don’t know how much Fadiman, one of the co-authors, mentions the latter in The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide (as far as I can see it isn’t mentioned at all)
• Krippner (1977, 1970b, 1969) took a survey of artists (180) and musicians (27), many of which agreed with his definition of them being a psychedelic artist
  • “Some (<10%) didn’t do psychedelics but got to the same state in a different way
  • Of the artists surveyed, 131 said that there had been a noticeable improvement in their artistic technique resulting from their psychedelic sessions: A greater ability to use color was the example mentioned most frequently
  • Of the artists, 142 attributed a change in their creative approach to the psychedelics.
  • In conclusion, this author’s interviews indicated that very few artists and musicians created or performed during a psychedelic experience. However, most of those interviewed felt that the experience itself had been of artistic value.”
• And in conclusion, “What is more typical is that the creative person uses the psychedelic experience as raw material for an eventual painting, composition, poem or invention (Ebin 1961)”

Summary

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The use of drugs to facilitate creativity has a long history. Stone sculptures from 1500 B.C. depict hallucinogenic mushrooms from whose stems emerge the heads of gods.

The physician Samuel Hahnemann claimed that the mushroom Amanita rnuscaria heightened poetic abilities, the neurologist S. Weir Mitchell rhapsodized on the properties of peyote, and William James tried the cactus buds and became nauswus.

LSD has been utilized in a psychotherapeutic session to facilitate creativity. Ramona Davidson, a pseudonym, participated in an LSD-assisted intervention, and nine months after the session, she was able to terminate nearly three years of psychotherapy, had obtained a promotion in her work, and reported improved relations with her husband and children.

The program has changed the way I write. It’s no longer a terror/ecstasy state, but a matter of fact, and I’m just there when I do it.

When her neurotic drives vanished, Davidson felt matter of fact about writing and focused in the “present moment”.

Salvador Roquet used LSD and similar drugs to treat creative individuals, including Pedro Alatriste, Fred de Keijzer and Rodolfo Aguirre Tinoco. Alatriste, de Keijzer and Tinoco described how their work with Roquet led to a “confrontation with death” and a return to painting.

Humphry Osmond and Kyo Izumi used LSD in the designing of a mental hospital and realized that traditional buildings were unsuitable because they created spaces of unusually intimidating qualities.

STUDIES OF PSYCHEDELICS AND ARTISTS

Similar personal accounts and case studies exist in the literature, and scientific approaches to the topic initially centered around the notion that a “model psychosis” was produced by LSD and similar drugs.

LSD users were able to use primary process mechanisms to create highly imaginative, albeit bizarre, images, but were unable to use secondary processing to put the imagery to creative use.

Nine major research projects have been reported on the effects of psychedelic drugs on creative performance, with most of them being described as pilot studies rather than full-scale experiments with conclusive results.

Barron administered psilocybin to a number of highly creative individuals and recorded their impressions. Some subjects were wildly enthusiastic about their apparently increased sensitivity during the drug experience, only to discover, once the effects wore off, that their production was without artistic merit.

Janiger asked 60 prominent artists to paint an American Indian doll before and after taking LSD. The LSD paintings suffered in craftsmanship, but received higher marks for imagination.

Leary administered psilocybin to 65 writers, musicians and artists. They reported that they had undergone “a creative experience” and appreciated the “intense and direct confrontation with the world around them.”

Hartman administered LSD to 20 well-known artists in West Germany, and the results varied. Friedrich Hunderwasser simply refused to work in the LSD condition, and Gerd Hoeh-man experienced severe pain in his head.

In most cases, however, differences were observed, subdivided into those in which the difference was mainly formal and those in which it was principally thematic. In some cases, the artists’ behavior changed, while in others, their artwork changed.

30 artists were subjected to an experiment where they covered the paper with drawings. The results were placed on display in a gallery in Frankfurt.

Fischer, Fox and Ralstin administered psilocybin to 21 college-age volunteer subjects. They found that sensitive intuitive subjects with large perceptual-behavioral variability and a field independent cognitive style had creative experiences during the drug-induced state, while insensitive, practical, field dependent subjects merely “got stoned”.

Six studies indicate that creativity is not automatically enhanced by psychedelic drugs. Technical execution and evaluation often suffer, but certain aspects of creative behavior sometimes change in positive directions.

LONG-LASTING EFFECTS OF LSD

McGlothlin, Cohen and McGlothlin (1967) made an intensive study of 72 volunteer graduate students. No significant changes in creativity were noted following a 200 kg LSD session.

In 1967, 24 subjects were divided into three groups, with one group receiving 200 pg of LSD per session and the other two receiving 25 pg of LSD per session. They were tested on a battery of psychological tests.

The experimental group’s aesthetic appreciation of music, museum visits and musical events attended increased significantly, but their art test scores did not.

The creativity tests showed no evidence to substantiate the subjective report that the LSD experience had enhanced creativity.

The other tests showed provocative results in regard to personality variables and the ingestion of LSD. The LSD subjects showed a significant decrease in scores on the Draw-A-Person Test after six months.

LSD AND CREATIVITY TEST SCORES

Zegans, Pollard and Brown ( 1967) administered LSD to 30 male subjects and observed the effects on creativity test scores. The subjects were then given alternate forms of the same creativity tests previously given, and the physiological measures were again recorded.

Zegans, Pollard and Brown (1967) administered LSD to a group of people to enhance their creativity. The results showed that the LSD group performed significantly better on the word association test, but performed badly on the tachistoscopic test, the title design test and the hidden figures test.

MESCALINE AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Harman and his colleagues employed mescaline to facilitate the creative process in professional workers in architecture, engineering, commercial art, furniture design, mathematics and physics.

A formal study was initiated following a pilot study in which both LSD and mescaline were used. The subjects worked alone and in silence, but were assisted by two or three other subjects.

The Purdue Creativity Test showed that subjects’ fluency of ideas increased under mescaline, but only in the instance of fluency of ideas.

The Miller Objective Visualization Test asks a subject to envision a two-dimensional outline figure folded into a solid. Most subjects used a visualization approach to solve the problems, and all improved under mescaline.

The results of the Witkin Embedded Figures Test were highly significant: subjects improved from field dependence to field independence.

Questionnaires and subjective reports were analyzed, and 11 factors were found to be associated with positive reactions while under the influence of mescaline, including a reduction of inhibition and anxiety, an enhanced fluency of ideas, a heightened capacity for visual imagery, and an increased ability to concentrate.

An architect visualized a shopping center he was to design and subsequently brought the variables into play which could bring that result about. This confirms Bowers and Bowers’s conclusion (1972) that “unrealistic or fantastic experiences” may occur in the context of a creative act.

McGlothlin, Zegans, Pollard & Brown, Fischer, Fox & Ralstin 1972, Kipphoff, Janiger, 1967, 1959, Harman et al. 1966, Barron 1963, Leary 1963, Berlin et al. 1955, demonstrated an enhancement of creative functioning.

PSYCHEDELIC DRUG USE AMONG 180 ARTISTS AND 27 MUSICIANS

In 1969, there were only a few federally approved research projects concerning psychedelic drugs. As a result, many artists took psychedelic substances illegally.

In order to discover the types of psychedelic drugs being used as well as the subjective reactions and opinions of the users, 180 artists were interviewed. Most were from the New York area, but some lived in other cities in various parts of the U.S., Canada, England, France, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands.

Masters and Houston define psychedelic experience as a state of consciousness in which awareness is profoundly different from the usual conscious waking state, from dreams and from familiar intoxication states.

Psychedelic art is defined as art that demonstrates the effects of psychedelic experience, which may or may not have been chemically induced. The 180 artists interviewed agreed with this definition, while two artists pointed out certain problems with the definition.

Allen Ginsberg noted that the type of consciousness produced by LSD or peyote resembles that produced by Yoga, religious discipline or peak experience.

Each of the I80 artists was asked if s/he considered himself/herself to be a psychedelic artist. 144 answered affirmatively and 17 gave a qualified affirmative answer.

Of 180 artists surveyed, 17 1 reported having had at least one psychedelic experience.

162 of the artists who answered the question had used psychedelic substances, while 18 had not. Many of the artists who had never used psychedelic substances reported finding creative benefits in their nonchemical psychedelic experiences.

The artists surveyed described their psychedelic experiences as stimulating and enjoyable, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Simon Vinkenoog, a Dutch poet, described the reason why his first experience was unpleasant: “a team of unqualified doctors-to-be messed up some of my most beautiful experiences ever”.

The painter Arlene Sklar-Weinstein had one psychedelic session and claims that it changed the content, intent, and style of her work.

The 164 artists mentioned marijuana as the most popular psychedelic substance, followed by LSD, hashish, dimethyltryptamine, mescaline, peyote, morning glory seeds, tetrahydrocannabinol, psilocybin, yage, diethyltryptamine and Hawaiian woodrose seeds.

The most provocative question of the survey asked the artists how their psychedelic experiences had influenced their art. Most artists stated that their psychedelic experiences had affected the content of their work, with the most frequently cited example being their use of eidetic imagery as subject matter.

13 artists said that their psychedelic sessions had improved their artistic technique. One painter said that his fear of using color was conquered after an LSD session.

142 artists claimed that psychedelic experience had changed their creative approach, and that psychedelic experience had given them greater depth as people and as creators. Some referred to their first psychedelic experience as a “peak experience”, while others stated that their work had become more abstract.

I walked through the door of myself into harpsichordal melodies, floorcracks filling caverns, and tussocky with fern, and became Bacchus juggling grapes.

A survey of artists found that half of them changed their artistic approach due to psychedelic experiences.

In 1968 and 1969, this author interviewed 27 pop musicians, most of them rock performers. Five stated a preference for smoking marijuana before performing, seven felt it impaired their performance, and the others claimed it had neither a positive nor a negative effect.

Some composers have combined drug-influenced mood, lyrics and texture to produce a song that the psychedelic enthusiast refers to as “a real trip.” These songs demand structure and interpretation from the listener who is in an altered state of consciousness.

In conclusion, most artists and musicians felt that the experience itself had been of artistic value, even though they realized the deleterious effects LSD would have on their performance.

In many instances, the effects of LSD and similar drugs have been long lasting. Arthur Hoener’s paintings have changed considerably due to the drug experience.

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES

According to the research literature on altered states of consciousness, relationships exist between responsiveness to test suggestions and propensity for involvement in imaginative activities. Experimentation with LSD often demonstrates these relationships, and the same factors may influence reactions to LSD in nonexperimental informal situations.

The chemical changes brought about by LSD interact with the situational variables to alter the amount and type of information available to the brain. This may be why artists experience enhanced creativity after taking LSD.

Exteroception and interoception deal with sense perception of the external and internal environments, and LSD has been observed to heighten colors and shift figure-ground relationships.

Horowitz (1964) has related figural forms with eyes closed to the retinal ganglionic network and the anatomic structure of the eye. Kluver (1966) has posed similar hypotheses, and Siege1 and Jarvik (1975) have described how the observer’s experience of sensory fields can combine with emotion and memory to produce unusual imagery.

LSD subjects report an experience of newness and strangeness, and both the nonartist and the artist can experience surprise and wonder as their information-processing mechanisms are altered, magnifying the strange perceptual and cognitive material that emerges in psychedelic experiences.

LSD-25 and LSD-2.5 have been shown to have an effect on attention and concentration, and motor performance. Angus, A., Barber, T.X., Spanos, N.O., Chaves, J.C., Bowers, K.S. & Bowers, P.G. have also written about the effects of LSD-25 and LSD-2.5 on creativity.

LSD may affect each of Tart’s 10 subsystems, and the creative products reflect the altered states of consciousness.

Since the recent advances in information theory, brain physiology and the study of conciousness, little scientific research has been undertaken with LSD. Now is the time for a resumption of research.