Creativity enhancers

[tedzr]

Alcohol - Long recognized as an excellent lubricant of the mind.

I will attest to it's creative glory in music making and creative writing / rambling. It's also apparently used in the shamanic tradition. I remember reading an article on (I think) Nepali shamanism where the shaman would get firey pissed on grain alcohol and commune with the spirits through musical trance, burning cow shit incense and stuff all in the same arduous session. I think the fact that alcohol lowers inhibitions can help give it some 'creativity'.

Really I think creative agents are anything that make you think outside your box. This can be as simple as concentrating at the right place at the right time and simple reflection. Life is a creativity enhancer. Experience is particularly useful, travel, reading, thinking, learning. Mind altering substances aren't the only way to be creative but I think they can certainly help act as a catalyst for assembling thought and expression in a way that is outside the realm of our sober normality - the important thing is to actually record it!

[tedzr]

Stan Grof's drawings of a tower during an LSD experience:

http://www.erowid.org/culture/art/artist/grof_stan/grof_stan_8a_tower__i2010e0062_disp.jpg

 

I like this one:

http://www.burtshonberg.com/PurpleOnion_mural_Shonberg_2.jpg

source

[opiumfreak]

There is only one answer to this question and I think Terence McKenna will agree with me: ayahuasca godammit

[gwalchgwyn]

I concur with opiumfreak ~ actually, all of the harmalines have good creative synergy ~ good news for people in places where particular ones may have legal considerations.

The effects in the proper moderation are like a Joycean epiphany, or like a readjustment when the record of life seems to be skipping. Getting one's groove back. Or like when the moving fractal bifurcates and another dynamical direction attracts energy for a new composition. even though tangential, the effect is thoroughness of vision, as opposed to confusion. like a tentacle mold that fills all of the nooks for a whole. somehow all the parts fit back, in the aura of coming down, to a complete vision ~

The most common allies in this family are the above Caapi (even, and for some no doubt, when not combined with the colorful additives); the famous neon Peganum; the much more accessible (legal, taste, moderate) Passiflora spp. (Edulis var Flava a good choice); and the herbal Hypericum. This last is usually associated with being an antidepressant, which I believe to be limiting of the character of the plant; points to usage and not synergy; typecasts the plant to a roll which ignores its other attributes. It would be comparable to calling Caapi an antidepressant while ignoring its entire Cosmology.

The precautions, well known yet worth repeating (as with any ingestion), is knowing how harmalines function in the body. as MAOIs, they are not recommended for foods containing tyramine (fermentations like cheeses, wine, aged meats, pickled foods). The harmalines are also extremely light sensitive for days after ingestion.

Perhaps it is just this focus of light sensitivity that allows one to find creative vision restored ~

[planthelper]

.

The precautions, well known yet worth repeating (as with any ingestion), is knowing how harmalines function in the body. as MAOIs, they are not recommended for foods containing tyramine (fermentations like cheeses, wine, aged meats, pickled foods). The harmalines are also extremely light sensitive for days after ingestion.

 

more modern reports don't support, this view.

hope someone here knows, where i'm heading, and can express, the newer findings about mixing maois and cheese and fermented stuff!.

anyway, i would recommand a slight diet and less alcohol, before experimentation.

Edited December 26, 2011 by planthelper

[nabraxas]

alcohol itself can be a great aid to creativity, especially if you throw some opiates into the mix.

in vino veritas

[gypsy]

I'm a big fan of cacao (chocolate, in the most unprocessed form you can find it) for clear, creative thinking. It's a more blissful feeling stimulant than coffee and safe to use on a regular basis. If you're engaged in daily creative work, it's a great plant to consume for a little boost. Try to find raw cacao beans, nibs or powder.

I also agree with tedzr that alcohol can help loosen up inhibitions for the creative writing process.

[gwalchgwyn]

more modern reports don't support, this view.

 

well, different reports anyway. it has been discussed in various places on the forum. the issue regards the difference in type of MAOI and whether it is a reversible type, and the quantity of tyramine foods taken. For some people evidently there is no food concern whatsoever and that's the end of discussion. I guess I advance a more cautious attitude.

the main problem I have is not in difference of experience, but in the patriarchal mindset that receives information without regard to experience. the 'latest news' is sufficient to sway the entire crowd. in most scientific matters one report, based on experience, may go in the entirely opposite direction of another, also based on experience.

in the Caapi Cultural center, diet is very important surrounding its ingestion. I think that our nascent cultural interaction, especially with so many types of foods that don't exist in the plant's various original cultural settings, is well advised to be cautious.

and in much of the Harmala's Cultural area a few Peganum seeds are eaten with food (in places where dairy is a mainstay of the diet).

Perhaps people worry over an ER scene, but in my experience with intentional ingestion of various amounts of tyramine-heavy foods, the real concern is discomfort; there is some binding afterall, and it is unpleasant. Having a little cheese? probably not a problem. But to ignore other peoples' experience is bad science (especially when it invokes science!)

The bigger concern is the light issue that can be downright painful. It is as if the eye's aperture is fully open for a few days!

Edited January 6, 2012 by gwalchgwyn