Regular readers of the Dutch-Smart blog know by now that psychedelics are among the most extraordinary substances in the world. They are special in countless ways. For instance, they can reveal the depths of your soul, provide a spiritual experience like no other, and even help you with various aspects of daily life. One of those aspects is creativity—something that a new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology now demonstrates.
Psychedelics and Creativity
Psychonauts and casual users of psychedelics such as magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca, mescaline, and magic truffles have known this for a long time, of course: these substances allow your brain to see the most extraordinary things. But what they may not know is that psychedelics also make you think and act more creatively.
To investigate this, researchers at Leiden University previously analyzed the results of various creativity tests that participants took before and after using psychedelics. The study found that psychedelics do indeed make you more creative. The tests showed that participants who had consumed psychedelics were better able to come up with new ideas, were more flexible in their thinking, and were better at devising original solutions to problems.
New research to measure creativity
However, researchers Isabel Weißner et al. believed that previous studies lacked a rigorous methodology for measuring creativity, which led them to design a more uniform conceptualization of creativity to ensure greater accuracy in the results.
The researchers sought to improve the assessments of creativity, similar to those used in a study from the late 1950s, in which participants were tasked with painting a Kachina doll prior to and one hour after the administration of LSD. The painted dolls were examined by a professor of art history who critically assessed the effect of LSD on artistic creativity by comparing the differences between the two dolls produced by each participant.
For this new study, 24 healthy participants took part in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study in which they received either a placebo or 50 µg of LSD. At the point when the psychedelic was at its peak of effectiveness, the participants were given a list of creative tasks to complete, including a pattern meaning task, an alternative use task, an image concept task, a creative metaphor task, and a figurative creativity task. They were assessed on factors such as divergent and convergent thinking, semantic distance, and data-driven special functions.
Creative boost thanks to psychedelics
The results were clear. The individuals who had actually received a psychedelic substance experienced three distinct phenomena:
- 'Pattern break' was reflected in the participants by an increase in novelty, surprise, and semantic distances;
- Reduced “organization,” which manifested as decreased utility, convergent thinking, and marginal effects;
- The “Meaning” test showed an increase in symbolic thinking and ambiguity in the data-driven results.
Researchers concluded that the three psychedelic-induced phenomena they recorded—pattern break, disorganization, and meaning—have a fundamental influence on creative cognition and behavior, indicating a shift in cognitive resources. In other words: the entire process of thinking and acting in the realm of creativity was influenced and altered by the psychedelics.
Can microdosing also make you more creative?
People who want to become more creative through the use of psychedelics can also opt for microdosing today. Microdosing psilocybin—a practice involving the ingestion of a sub-perceptual dose of a psychedelic drug, often hallucinogenic mushrooms or "shrooms"—is becoming increasingly popular as people seek ways to boost their creativity.
Many people believe that microdosing promotes creativity and problem-solving skills by “breaking through” the mind’s routine and allowing new ideas to flow more freely. Others claim that it simply makes you more relaxed and open to new experiences, which in turn can lead to more creative thinking. There is still a lot of research to be done in this area, but current evidence suggests that psilocybin may be a valuable tool for boosting creativity. Definitely worth a try!
