Does an altered state of consciousness = creativity unleashed?

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talking to myself

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Hi everyone -

At work. Lunchtime.

There is an older thread here somewhere that polled AWWC SSS mavens about drug use.

It occurred to me: I'd love to see a poll that asks whether you believe [your personal] drug use/method of attaining an altered state of consciousness enhances your writing creativity. AND a poll that connects writing success with drug use would be slick.

I mean, let's face it. It worked for the Beatles, The Stones, etc., etc...

Disclaimer: I am not in any way condoning or promoting the use of illegal substances.
 

PrincessofPersia

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Actually, it didn't work for The Beatles. In numerous interviews on the Anthologies, they said that the stuff they did while on drugs was absolute rubbish. It helped them to think more outside the box, but nothing they did while actually high was usable or even listenable.

I've smoked a little weed, and I did acid once. I could not have written anything while on acid, but I definitely feel like I could use the parts I remember as inspiration for something cool. I couldn't get high on the weed, so I have no idea.
 

Caitlin Black

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I've never tried writing while on drugs. Except coffee and cigarettes. I always have caffeine in my system while writing, and pop out for a smoke every 45-60 minutes while writing.

A guy I once knew said opium was good for writing poetry, because it makes you heaps relaxed and weird ways of depicting common things/emotions pop into your head. *shrug*
 

WriteKnight

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Lots of ways to alter consciousness. Drugs of course, meditation is good. Massive doses of adrenaline are very very powerful. Not many people can write anything creative while surviving adrenaline rushes, but some war correspondents have penned some impressive missives.

I think it's the thinking after the alteration, that feeds into the creativity. Pretty much any 'life changing' experience will alter your conciousnes, change your point of view.

Doing much of anything 'while under the influence' - is going to allow you to alter your perspective. Is that what you're referring to?
 

FocusOnEnergy

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On adrenaline: I got caught in the middle of a police chase and had a front row seat for the take-down. Prior to that I was shooting when a couple of gang members decided to assault a rival with a chunk of split rail fencing-they took turns with it. The tunnel vision adrenaline causes does help with photography, unfortunately, the shaking of my hands does not. I can't imagine being able to write anything while having an adrenaline rush like that, I'm completely on auto-pilot. Once the danger is over, it takes a while for that chemical to get out of my system and for me to even remember what happened clearly.

Years back, when my mother was still alive, we'd have a little happy smoke from time to time and we always kept a pen and paper handy. We'd occasionally get good ideas from our discussions (usually one-liners) and if we didn't write them down, they would be gone forever.

I've had very good results with meditation, on the other hand. I find that definitely enhances creativity.

YMMV.

Focus
 

talking to myself

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Lots of ways to alter consciousness. Drugs of course, meditation is good. Massive doses of adrenaline are very very powerful. Not many people can write anything creative while surviving adrenaline rushes, but some war correspondents have penned some impressive missives.

I think it's the thinking after the alteration, that feeds into the creativity. Pretty much any 'life changing' experience will alter your conciousnes, change your point of view.

Doing much of anything 'while under the influence' - is going to allow you to alter your perspective. Is that what you're referring to?

Yeah, like that. And yes, the qeux isn't just about drugs. I think meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis, etc., are also valid.

I was actually trying to get a good discussion going on the topic. These are all interesting responses.
 

dpaterso

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Moving this from Screenwriting discussion to AW Roundtable for wider audience.

-Derek
 

Jamesaritchie

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Hi everyone -

At work. Lunchtime.

There is an older thread here somewhere that polled AWWC SSS mavens about drug use.

It occurred to me: I'd love to see a poll that asks whether you believe [your personal] drug use/method of attaining an altered state of consciousness enhances your writing creativity. AND a poll that connects writing success with drug use would be slick.

I mean, let's face it. It worked for the Beatles, The Stones, etc., etc...

Disclaimer: I am not in any way condoning or promoting the use of illegal substances.

I doubt it works for anyone, even the Beatles and The Stones. Some are simply able to create despite drug use, not because of it.

The same silly claims are made for alcohol, and you name it.
 

NeuroFizz

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The euphoria from many drugs can make a person view creative crap seem brilliant. It may not be creativity that is unleashed by drugs but the person's perception of creativity that is altered.

No matter how many shortcuts people try, writing damn good stories still requires a fleet and agile mind, as well as some serious work ethic.
 

timewaster

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I have lost three attempts to reply to this.
I wanted to say that I have experienced an altered consciousness only when stone cold sober and totally engaged in what I'm doing. In that state I lose self awareness and am entirely focused on the story so that when I finish it feels almost as if I've been dreaming. I think it is what people call being 'inspired' and I've never managed to make it happen on purpose. I'm not sure what I've written in that state has been any better than my usual stuff but I write more quickly and more fluently when I concentrate like that. It is about being more alert and together not less so.
 

quicklime

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Hi everyone -

At work. Lunchtime.

There is an older thread here somewhere that polled AWWC SSS mavens about drug use.

It occurred to me: I'd love to see a poll that asks whether you believe [your personal] drug use/method of attaining an altered state of consciousness enhances your writing creativity. AND a poll that connects writing success with drug use would be slick.

I mean, let's face it. It worked for the Beatles, The Stones, etc., etc...

Disclaimer: I am not in any way condoning or promoting the use of illegal substances.


Did it? You have a parallel Stones and Beatles that avoided drugs to compare to?

The problem is, "They used drugs and did extremely well" doesn't really prove any causal relationship. They wrote lots of stuff while fucked out of their gourd and did well; who can say if by staying straight they would have done better, worse, or the same?

I'm not rabidly anti-drug, but I do get tweaked by false inferences like this. Personally I don;t believe mind-altering drugs are gonna help me write a realistic world, even a realistic fantasy world.

If you'd really like to read about it though, King discusses a lot fo this from his perspective at least in On Writing.....he doesn't think he's lost anything by going straight, and while i'd have argued that with his first couple post-rehab efforts, I think he was just finding his confidence and legs again.

Quick
 

Susan Coffin

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Hi everyone -

At work. Lunchtime.

There is an older thread here somewhere that polled AWWC SSS mavens about drug use.

It occurred to me: I'd love to see a poll that asks whether you believe [your personal] drug use/method of attaining an altered state of consciousness enhances your writing creativity. AND a poll that connects writing success with drug use would be slick.

I mean, let's face it. It worked for the Beatles, The Stones, etc., etc...

Disclaimer: I am not in any way condoning or promoting the use of illegal substances.

In my opinion, a poll would be silly. However, you can create polls with threads, I believe.

I doubt it worked for the Beatles, Stones, or anybody else. You may be able to get that "writing high," but it's all false and lasts for awhile, then you're back to living life on life's terms.

Read Stephen King's On Writing. He talks about his use of drugs for part of his career. He's very blunt about the downfalls.
 

kuwisdelu

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Not so much with writing, but alcohol seems to make me a better programmer. Seems to help with understanding mathematics and physics, too. For me, anyway.
 

talking to myself

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How do you hypnotize yourself?

Hi Livin -

Hypnosis pertains to one of my character arcs so I've been researching it online.

Apparently a lot of our impressions (mine at least) about hypnosis (picked up in movies!) are wrong.

Hypnosis is simply an altered state of consciousness similar to yoga, meditation etc. Long story short, I guess the theory is that if you can do yoga and meditate you can hypnotize yourself.

Hypnosis is basically the power of suggestion so I guess the more malleable and impressionable a person is, the more open they are to hypnosis.
 

Diana_Rajchel

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On drugs/alcohol, I can't write. I actually restrict drinking to times when I know I can't possibly work right after because I get so irritated by my altered-to-sluggish brain. I will add a caveat the properly diluted absinthe will let me work - if and only if I want to work during a migraine.

Natural methods that get endorphin release, like meditation, exercise, etc. on the other hand work really well for me. If I'm relaxed but alert, I can make it work.
 

aruna

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Meditation, specifically self-enquiry. Not so much an "altered state of consciousness" but a decluttering of the mind and fundamental grounding that allows creativity -- which I believe is inherent -- to flow. Couldn't live (or write!) without it.
Hate that word flow btw. It sounds so stupidly New Age. But can't be bothered to be creative right now.
 

shaldna

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I've been on several prescription painkillers that effectively ended my creativity. I just couldn't even concentrate enough to turn on the computer, never mind try and write.

I've written drunk, and had to scrap the lot.
 

gothicangel

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I have to agree with those that say it actually stifles creativity.

I was on anti-depressants about two years ago, for some strange reason my marks at university went from 2:1 to firsts. But writing my novel? That just totally ended. No ability to write and when I looked back at what I had from before the depression it looked like utter crap.
 

Layla Nahar

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Well, I think it the altered perceptions may jar a person's psyche and for those who have any kind of creative inhibitions (iow blocks) the resulting discombobulation may allow things to flow better, for a while at least. But then again, many people say that travel, for example, does the same thing. A friend of mine said of perception altering drugs that you learn a more about the drug (eg how it alters you) than about yourself. I guess you might get a neat angle or image to inspire you, but like Neurfizz says, the actual creative work is work, your linear brain has to sit down & crank it out.
 

AlwaysJuly

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I've never wasted a good drunk on writing. Maybe I'll have to try it sometime.

I've never done any drugs, so I don't know about that. I find that I'm often more creative when I'm exhausted though (if I can force myself to stay on task) because my self-editor is too sleepy to interfere.
 
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