I forget if I’ve linked it here before, but here’s a critique of a commonly claimed connection between mystical experiences and genuine enlightenment or creativity.
That’s a critique of LSD, not mystical experiences in general, as a creativity enhancer, and even then, I think the author is leaving out a fair bit of evidence to the contrary. Though he never officially confirmed this, Francis Crick is believed to have been on LSD when he discovered the helical structure of DNA. Less controversially, many of the programmers in the early days of Silicon Valley are known to have done a fair bit of coding on acid; Steve Jobs himself is known to have taken a fair bit of it in his day. Here’s another article claiming that Kary Mullis, a Nobel prize-winning chemist, was assisted by LSD in his discovery of a certain polymerase chain reaction used to amplify DNA sequences. And, to end on a more whimsical note, Dock Ellis once pitched a no-hitter on LSD.
If more people haven’t come forward with important discoveries on acid, we shouldn’t be too surprised: most people haven’t tried it, and even if you have, it’s a significant career risk to admit it. I do agree that acid on its own is not enough—there’s still a fair bit of work to be done while sober—but to say that it’s done nothing for us is simply not true.
As an outright supporter of ‘consciousness expansion’ through drug induced altered states, I can say that mathematics is about the worst thing you can try to gain insight into using irrationality as a tool.
I would not say that a mind in an altered state is as bad as a random-theorem-generator, but altered states almost never result in validity in my experience. The best state of mind to do math in is a sober and logical one.
Now, if we are talking about building mental fortitude, about overcoming personal barriers and winning at life, then I would say that introducing yourself to measures of irrationality is a good idea. You get a good idea of how the ‘other side’ lives and can develop strategies for compensating for your errors, not to mention building a tolerance for stress.
I forget if I’ve linked it here before, but here’s a critique of a commonly claimed connection between mystical experiences and genuine enlightenment or creativity.
That’s a critique of LSD, not mystical experiences in general, as a creativity enhancer, and even then, I think the author is leaving out a fair bit of evidence to the contrary. Though he never officially confirmed this, Francis Crick is believed to have been on LSD when he discovered the helical structure of DNA. Less controversially, many of the programmers in the early days of Silicon Valley are known to have done a fair bit of coding on acid; Steve Jobs himself is known to have taken a fair bit of it in his day. Here’s another article claiming that Kary Mullis, a Nobel prize-winning chemist, was assisted by LSD in his discovery of a certain polymerase chain reaction used to amplify DNA sequences. And, to end on a more whimsical note, Dock Ellis once pitched a no-hitter on LSD.
If more people haven’t come forward with important discoveries on acid, we shouldn’t be too surprised: most people haven’t tried it, and even if you have, it’s a significant career risk to admit it. I do agree that acid on its own is not enough—there’s still a fair bit of work to be done while sober—but to say that it’s done nothing for us is simply not true.
As an outright supporter of ‘consciousness expansion’ through drug induced altered states, I can say that mathematics is about the worst thing you can try to gain insight into using irrationality as a tool.
I would not say that a mind in an altered state is as bad as a random-theorem-generator, but altered states almost never result in validity in my experience. The best state of mind to do math in is a sober and logical one.
Now, if we are talking about building mental fortitude, about overcoming personal barriers and winning at life, then I would say that introducing yourself to measures of irrationality is a good idea. You get a good idea of how the ‘other side’ lives and can develop strategies for compensating for your errors, not to mention building a tolerance for stress.