More Thoughts On Creativity - Micro Dose
Use of psychedelics drugs, like LSD, for cognitive enhancement including imagination, creativity and mental acuity. This is in addition to its use in treating mental illness, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress, etc.
For decades, claims have been made around use of psychedelic drugs to enhance performance. Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc have claimed benefits from using these drugs.
More recently, the concept of micro-dosing of these drugs has been growing in popularity. In particular some people in the tech industry claim that micro-dosing taps into deeper levels of thinking, ie to get an edge in business.
Some of these drugs are found in nature, ie
"...some of the strongest psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Victoria (Australia) are found in people's front lawns......the bark of the wattle tree has some of the highest concentrations of DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogen)..."
Prash Puspanathan as quoted by Yolanda Redrup, 2022
It is claimed that micro-dosing has helped people through complicated work projects, ie
"...there may not be an obvious pathway through it, sometimes you need to be open to thinking about something differently, in a way that's less mundane and administrative..."
Yolanda Redrup, 2022
"...a desire to improve concentration and do detailed tasks for hours at a time..."
Yolanda Redrup, 2022
There have also been claims of people showing increased empathy and understanding from using microdosing; increased clarity of mind, etc.
What the science is telling us:
"...Each person has what is called default network mode (DNM) in the brain - a network of interacting brain regions that is constantly operational in the background, but is most active when someone is resting, daydreaming, or simply letting the mind wander. When we are idle, our brains are actually the most active, with the DMN lighting up and connecting parts of the brain that don't usually interact..."
Yolanda Redrup, 2022
This helps explain why some of your best ideas occur when you are drifting off to sleep or engaged in an activity that does not require you full attention.
The use of psychedelic drugs can result in less activity in the DMN. This forces the brain to make new connections, ie connectivity in the rest of the brain increases.
Some of the negative impacts include
"...confusion, fear, hallucination, headaches, high blood pressure, nausea, tremors, a dry mouth, loss of appetite, delusions, paranoia, panic attacks, etc..."
Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia) as quoted by Yolanda Redrup, 2022
Need to be careful in using these drugs as they are still regarded as illegal substances in most countries and there is limited research on the long-term impacts of them.