Personally, I choose good healthy living over drugs and alcohol mostly because it’s more balanced and stable in terms of overall effect- with the big high the big low is soon to follow etc.

However creativity seems to come from observation and one’s unique perception. No matter what your choice of mind-regulation/alteration may be, creativity is ultimately made up of your own experiences.

With that in mind, to say that drugs are good or bad is merely giving something a label- a judgement and means nothing in terms of the results of your creative work.

May The Floors Beneath you!

A.J

I understand you about the different drugs. Not sure I’d recommend people experiment with drugs in order to improve creativity, though I can’t say I’ve never done that myself. I think most anything you can get from drugs and alcohol you can get without them and having gotten there without them you end up in a better place in both life and creativity.

That’s not meant to be a moral thing on my part. People should be allowed to live their lives how they want. It’s just that in my own experience getting there without the extras ends up leading to better work.

Maybe that’s specific to me and to each his own.

MDMA is the best for creative work, weed is ok but can run into paranoia, so be careful. Speed is a good all-rounder and Ketamine can be good to rush through those creative blocks we all hit from time to time.

Healthy living, Alcohol and drug use can all serve the creative purpose just as long as they’re intended for creativity and not anything else.

Check Coryherter.com

A. Jay Leggate

Sometimes we get concepts or problems which require really obscure, non-obvious steps or metaphors and I’d say that more than half of the conceptual breakthroughs I’ve had in the last 2 years have come after 1am, last night I could suddenly see in my head where I’ve been going wrong on a quantum problem question and then 2 minutes later realised a metaphor for gaussian variance.

Your reasoning is also the same as mine- when I’m tired my brain is more relaxed and open, I get out of the rut where I follow the same path over and over.

I’m torn on whether to try taking some drugs (LSD, grass, alcohol?) to recreate the effect.

It might be that as I’ve gotten older I’m more aware of my natural aversion to risk and understand that for the most part the consequences are never as bad as you imagine. It gets me to take a few chances I might not have in years past.

For me it’s not the lack of interruption since I’m pretty goof and controlling that, but I definitely censure myself less and spend less time editing when I’m tired and less inhibited.

It’s interesting you say feeling sad makes it more difficult to write. I used to find that made me write more and I know a few people who do their best work when they aren’t feeling their best emotionally. I guess it depends on what you have to say though. The poems I wrote when I was feeling down came easily, but weren’t exactly the happiest poems in the world.

childlike without boundary

That’s what it is for me when I’m tired. The lack of inhibition is akin to a more childlike state. I get too tired to realize how far I might be going and just go with it.

No need to apologize for a long comment. I like long comments. especially when you have something to say.

When your post is written feel free to stop back here and post a link to it.

I wouldn’t recommend chemical dependents as a way toward creativity, though I’ve seen it help some people. I’ve also seen the very negative consequences it can lead to as well.

I tend to get most creative at night, probably because, as you said, I’m less likely to worry about what other people might think. I also get interrupted less at night, which means I have more time to follow a thought to its conclusion.

Interesting post. I think you may be on to something here.