Has Anyone Ever Experimented...

[JR]

Has anyone ever experimented with LSD or any other type of supplement that supposedly heightens your conscious awareness?  Seemingly acid has affected writers and artists in profound ways.  I've never tried it myself, but I'm curious if anyone has.

If this subject disturbs anyone, I apologize and will understand if it gets removed from the forums.

[Rob]

It doesn't bother me. I can't see why it would be ignored. Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The West Wing" just admitted he's been basically high as a kite for years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/22/aaron-sorkin-the-hardest-_n_734967.html

No wonder everyone walked and talked so fast on that show.

As for me... I've got drunk a few times when I was in the Army but I never developed a taste for alcohol. I don't even drink beer or wine.

I'm too much of a control freak to play games with illegal substances so I'm not the droid your looking for. But I've had surgical procedures where anesthesia was required and I will say that IV valium is REALLY relaxing. 

[Gibson]

JR, I doubt it's going to come as much of a surprise when I say I have, but I'll say that the only real affect it's had on my writing is the knowledge of what it's like to do those drugs. I can't say there was any mystical enlightenment. I did write a short piece while I was high on mushrooms once, and while it was riotously hilarious to go back and read later, it was due mostly to the varying letter sizes and curiously placed punctuation. I've known other writers who have made claims to being enlightened by drugs, as well as artists and musicians, but it's always just another -head justifying his next fix. From what I experienced and from what I've heard said by others who do claim some magical journey, hallucinogens only have that kind of effect on douchey little twats who like The Doors a too much, and even then it sounds mostly like twaddle. Those people are going to find anything deep if someone tells them it's deep.

Now, I'm not saying it's never happened that people's creativity has been tapped while high, I know it has, but it's not a substitute for talent and work. Plus, regardless of how responsible you are as a drug user, any time you make it necessary, you make yourself an addict. Drugs can certainly heighten your awareness, but they call them hallucinogens for a reason...they make you see shit that isn't there.

I exclude alcohol and marijuana from all of this, just because the kind of intoxication with those is fairly mild and I've used both to help me focus and open my brain a little. In those cases, it's the mellowness offered and not so much the consciousness-awakening that is the help. Honestly, though, the things that help me write most are coffee and cigarettes. A little music playing in the background doesn't hurt.

Aaron Sorkin is a really good writer who uses drugs. To my knowledge, he doesn't use drugs to write. A whole lot of writers are like that...in fact, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a writer worth reading who doesn't indulge in something, and I guess that's the other side of the coin. Many people working in the entertainment arts have a tendency toward getting their heads bent in some way or another, it seems to be the nature of the beast, but most, I think, understand there's a big difference between using drugs and using drugs at work. Drugs are fun, but for every writer who makes drug use work, there are a dozen and more that become cracked-out paranoiac junkies.

[Gar]

I find a little weed makes drawing more fun, which is pretty helpful, but that's about it. Never really tried anything harder so I can't speak for or against it.

I'd say drugs are bad (mmkay?), everyone's raised to know that, but if you're going to experiment with them, you may as well throw creativity into the equation. Just go back over your writings when you're sober to see if they're as brilliant as you thought they were at the time. Also don't go for anything that's horribly addictive or known to permanently change people.

[jeffa]

OK, I'm a really boring guy who has never done any drugs. Having said that...

After I had my gall bladder removed I spent a week working from home while taking pain medicine. I don't remember which kind it was, but it was very good stuff...

During that week I was jamming out Java code. I was CONVINCED that this was the most brilliant code ever written by man. It TRANSCENDED function and soared into the heights of true art. Code for the ages, it was.

Now... the next week when I was back on earth, I looked at the code and had NO idea what it was supposed to do. It compiled. It ran. It did... something. Had to throw it all out.

Can't say how applicable my experience was to others or other substances, but I do wonder how many people have been convinced incorrectly that the work they did was sheer genius. In my case there was nothing subjective that I could try to justify. The code did NOT do what it was supposed to do. If I had been writing or drawing, I might have tried to talk myself into believing it was super deep or some such.

[Funderbunk]

I never used it, but my grandpa used to grow shit in his backyard and I saw plenty of the sort of people regular users become.

Don't do it.