Psychedelics as potential catalysts of scientific creativity and insight

Abstract

Creativity, that is the creation of ideas or objects considered both novel and valuable, is among the most important and highly valued of human traits, and a fundamental aspect of the sciences. Dreams and hypnagogic states have been highly influential in promoting scientific creativity and insight, contributing to some important scientific breakthroughs. Phenomenologically, the latter states of consciousness share a great deal of overlap with the psychedelic state, which has also been associated with facilitating scientific creativity on occasion. The current article proposes that the dream, hypnagogic and psychedelic states share common features that make them conducive to supporting some aspects of scientific creativity and examines the putative underlying neurophenomenological and cognitive processes involved. In addition, some notable occurrences of scientific insights that have emerged from these types of altered states are reviewed and shared common features are presented, providing a ground for future research. The psychedelic state may have its own characteristic features making it amenable to creativity enhancement, such as brain hyperconnectivity, meta-cognitive awareness, access to a more dependable and sustained altered state experience, and potential for eliciting sustained shifts in trait openness. The contextual factors which may contribute to enhancement of scientific creativity and insight will be evaluated. While research in this area is limited, further work to elucidate how psychedelics may best contribute to scientific creativity enhancement is warranted.

Self-Entropic Broadening Theory: Toward a New Understanding of Self and Behavior Change Informed by Psychedelics and Psychosis

“…These alterations in attention and information processing may facilitate creative thinking (Crabtree and Green, 2016), although adequate executive functioning is required to use novel associations meaningfully (Beaty et al, 2015;Mason et al, 2021;Zamani et al, 2022). Moreover, both classic psychedelics (Sessa, 2008;Gandy et al, 2022) and severe mental illness (Becker, 2001) have long been speculated to be associated with creativity, though the research presents a more complex relationship.…”

Facilitating real-life creative insight through psychedelic virtual reality

“…The effects of psychedelics include visual and auditory illusions, synaesthesias, distorted sense of time, ecstasy, mystical experiences, and hyper-associative loosened irrational thinking (Feldman, Meyer, & Quenzer, 1997;Hasler et al, 2004;Masters and Houston, 1966;Katz et al, 1968;Preller and Vollenweider, 2018). The psychedelic state has also been shown to exhibit characteristics similar with other states of increased plasticity (such as dream or hypnagogic states), including brain hyperconnectivity, meta-cognitive awareness, and altered attention (Bălăeţ, 2022, Gandy, Bonnelle, Jacobs, & Luke, 2022Kraehenmann et al, 2017;Tulver et al, 2023) There is anecdotal evidence suggesting that psychedelics enhance scientific creativity (Gandy, Bonnelle, Jacobs, & Luke, 2022). Additionally, psychedelics are known to have been used as creative tools by many renowned and influential artists such as Aldous Huxley (Huxley, 1954), the Beatles (Gilmore, 2016), and Jimi Hendrix (Boyd, Head, & Weis, 1973), often citing the psychedelic experience as critical for inspiring a creative shift (e.g., Gandy et al, 2022).…”

“…The psychedelic state has also been shown to exhibit characteristics similar with other states of increased plasticity (such as dream or hypnagogic states), including brain hyperconnectivity, meta-cognitive awareness, and altered attention (Bălăeţ, 2022, Gandy, Bonnelle, Jacobs, & Luke, 2022Kraehenmann et al, 2017;Tulver et al, 2023) There is anecdotal evidence suggesting that psychedelics enhance scientific creativity (Gandy, Bonnelle, Jacobs, & Luke, 2022). Additionally, psychedelics are known to have been used as creative tools by many renowned and influential artists such as Aldous Huxley (Huxley, 1954), the Beatles (Gilmore, 2016), and Jimi Hendrix (Boyd, Head, & Weis, 1973), often citing the psychedelic experience as critical for inspiring a creative shift (e.g., Gandy et al, 2022). Early studies conducted during the first wave of psychedelic research (50s-60s) also suggested possible positive effects of psychedelics on creativity, albeit with some methodological limitations (Baggott, 2015).…”

Henri Michaux's program for the psychedelic humanities

“…Although the main focus of research in the "psychedelic renaissance" to date has been on the medical and therapeutic potential of psychedelics for treating diagnosed mental health disorders, the question of whether psychedelics can enhance creative thinking more widely, and if so how, remains open (Sessa, 2008) and has recently been posed in relation to scientific creativity specifically (Gandy et al, 2022). "Creativity" is a particular focus in research on microdosing, whether in the form of analyses of self-reports (Anderson et al, 2019;Petranker et al, 2020) or an ongoing RCT study (Murphy et al, 2021), the results of which are eagerly awaited given suspicions that self-reported benefits of microdosing might be placebo effects.…”