(Main opinion edited to current state from 'Psychedelics induce the expansion of creative thinking') The human mind in a conscious state is already extremely powerful for creating, but in an altered conscious state, the effects of the ideas presented through internal abstractions allow for an influential reactionary understanding of these ideas. Neurologically, the human mind has a plasticity that causes a response to the environment through sensory stimulation, but can the creative mind be changed by way of psychedelic substances to enhance neural plasticity and creative reflex? This change in brain function could be the source of influence on the presentation of creative initiatives in the mind. Through the access of altered states of consciousness (ASC) by way of psychedelic drugs, the creative process is affected by the change in the human mind’s reaction to presented ideas that the mind cannot appease in an unaffected state. During an ASC, cognitive function takes a new form that may make it difficult to identify a difference between reality and the interpretation of reality. In the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the impact of psychedelics on neurons and the connections between them are similar to the way the environment and certain experiences affect the mind overtime. Thus, the argument lies in the consideration of neural plasticity. Neurons respond to visuals and thoughts and connect them through cognitive and expressive responses while the context of the environment creates a vulnerability that affects the experience in ASCs [1]. Michael Pollan, psychedelics activist and author of How to Change Your Mind, refers to this through Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer’s experiments. These effects can be described specifically as sensory experiences. An early study of LSD’s effects on creative minds conducted by Zegans, et al. identified reactionary, sensory based experiences in which, “It [LSD] increased the accessibility of remote or unique ideas and associations to their [subjects’] conscious awareness” [2]. Pollan determines the concept that, “The increase in entropy [a decline into disorder] allows a thousand mental states to bloom, many of them bizarre and senseless, but some number of them revelatory, imaginative, and, at least potentially, transformative. One way to think about this blooming of mental states is that it temporarily boosts the sheer amount of diversity in our mental life. If problem solving is anything like evolutionary adaptation, the more possibilities the mind has at its disposal, the more creative its solutions will be” [1]. With an increased accessibility to thoughts, neurological responses triggered consistently continue to invoke the brain’s plasticity to the point where an ASC becomes an invitation for the openness to creative thought. Dimensions of creativity that can be correlated with psychedelics include counterfactual thinking and conceptual blending. Counterfactual thinking involves thinking against facts, but maintains the question of ‘what if?’ in mind. Conceptual blending identifies a basic process of thought and the creation of something new by a combination of ideas. New connections by way of psychedelics allow the mind to appease these thoughts through creativity and potentially present a counterfactual reality. With the introduction of psychedelics to a creative process, the mind may simply be more openly receptive to new connections than in sobriety. Creativity’s identifiable disassociation from personality traits considers the effectiveness of ASCs in the creative process on a larger scale. The inconsistency in the traits of creative people are always something to be considered, which makes studying the correlation of psychedelics and creativity more effective than studying the experience that occurs. Developed quantitative research has been limited for the studies of psychedelics, but in terms of creativity, “One is to separate creativity from other effects of the drug that may be mistaken for creativity. The second is to develop operational measures to quantify it” [3], as put in a review of psychedelic studies by Matthew Baggott, who makes academic efforts to document the effects of ASCs. However, in a study of the effects of psilocybin conducted by Katherine A. MacLean, Matthew W. Johnson, and Roland R. Griffiths, ‘openness to experience’ was the only trait that showed a significant increase in the pre-NEO-PI personality assessment on individuals who were given a higher dose [4]. This correlation reveals how psychedelics induce the expansion of creative thinking that goes into artistic endeavors in terms of the openness to experience thoughts, senses, and surroundings. [1] Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. New York: Penguin Press. [2] Sessa, B. (2008). Is it time to revisit the role of psychedelic drugs in enhancing human creativity? Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22(8), 821–827. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881108091597\ [3] Baggott, MJ. 2015. Psychedelics and creativity: a review of the quantitative literature. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1202v1. https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1202v1 [4] MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11), 1453–1461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881111420188

**Psychedelics are increasingly being turned to for the treatment of mental health issues.** - If we allow for "thinking" to include more general states of existence such as thinking _about_ events and feelings (the type of activity that influences our mental health), then the following might be compelling evidence for the power of psychedelics to transform thinking: - Psychedelic treatment with psilocybin [has been shown to relieve depression](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/psychedelics-research.html). - Psychedelics [are thought to work](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/back-to-the-future-psychedelic-drugs-in-psychiatry-202106222508) by allowing new connections to be made in the brain while "default mode network" (the resting state of the brain) loses connectivity. Then the brain restores itself, like a computer rebooting, and patterns of thinking that were stuck before can begin to shift. Neuroplasticity, where new connections are made between neurons, also plays a role. Additionally, the drugs themselves help people enter new states in which to better, or at least differently, process memories and past traumas.

I have heard the thoughts of too many stoners to believe that drugs help you think.

They definitely increase the activity in your brain, but I'm not sure that its necessarily in a constructive way.

**TLDR: Psychadelics is a probable trap of a shortcut to something one ought to achieve by deliberation, dedication and training and reap excellent rewards for** I have seen absolutely zero correlation between thinking creatively, therapeutically, ethically or originally and use of psychedelics. In fact, often the opposite. Obviously this is only my anecdotal observation. To "think" implies to be able to solve problems, connect information, analyze critically, employ logic and sort your belief system. This is basically what you should learn to do through education and also therapy. To think is a skill that must be trained, and it takes a lot of education and training to discern good ideas from bad ideas and think efficiently and productively. People who are attracted to psychedelics, in my anecdotal experience, are people who want to take a shortcut, maybe out of frustration, desperation or lack of personal integrity. Shortcuts rarely, if ever, produce the best results. Three years ago I had C-PTSD that inhibited me from ever having trusting, intimate relationships and gave me social anxiety and depression. I also had no coherent value system, making me aimless and my social identity meaningless. C-PTSD engrains certain self-defeating thought patterns in your brain through repeated negative reinforcement (trauma) over time. As you become older, your brain plasticity reduces, and it becomes harder to change those old paths. Psychadelics elevate that plasticity and can enable people to create new patterns. So, many with C-PTSD take psychadelics in the hopes that it will just "fix" them. It rarely does. Why? Because the plasticity doesn't help if you don't know how/what to replace it with. I have never in my entire life taken drugs, smoked or drank alcohol. Instead, I took full control of and responsibility for my uncomfortable condition at all times. I educated myself extensively. It was hard, deliberate and un-exciting work, but every single day for months, I did simple thought exercises and manually retrained my brain to enable me to think clearly and rationally about myself and the world. This in addition to years of daily learing about philosophy and psychology. You need to train your brain. Now I'm studying philosophy, don't remember the last time I felt depressed, and I'm in a loving, trusting relationship with my first ever girlfriend. It is entirely thanks to my deliberate, conscious, repetative training of my thoguths and associated emotions. In order to think better, one could: - Write (write thoughts down, make a case for something you believe, write about what you feel, write about anything) - Familiarize oneself with logic. (What is a fallacy? What makes an argument valid or invalid? Why should I believe X statement? Is what I think consistent with other observations? What makes observations reliable?) - Read/Listen to other peoples thoughts (prefferably people who are smarter than you. They can show you where your own thoughts are inadequate.) - Solve problems (Practical and intellectual problems in the form of small assignments, tasks, reparations or projects, made by you or others.) - Repeat daily for oneself your intention to think (mantras about critical thinking, corrections of toxic thought patters, something that opens up your mind to consider new perspectives etc. "I'm open to be convinced I am wrong" or "I am open" or "It is my duty to think") This positively revolutionized my ability to think clearly and critically. Meanwhile the people around me who do psychadelics are anxious, still have relational issues, have conventional (uncritical) attitudes to most issues, and generally don't seem to progress meaningfully intellectually or emotionally. You can't just sit back and "let the improvement happen" passively. In fact many of them seem to become nihilistic or very suggestable to magical thinking. Their bounderies break down, they become arrogant with "false knowledge" or irrespinsibly engage in hedonic consumerism to satiate a weakened identity due to a deconstruction of a coherent way of thinking, without the dedication to reconstruct a well-functioning new one. Thinking takes work.

I bet this is an illusion. Like a dream or something. I think that drugs are fine when used in moderation. But this type of drug is way too much and for sure not good for my mind. I will leave such drug to the psychiatrist.