# Psychedelic Composition... Anyone here do it?



## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

Basically, the idea is based around the use of "intoxicating" substances during compositional sessions to enhance one's ability to write uninhibited... I was wondering if anyone else here does this.

I think it can lead to wonderfully raw musical outpourings, quite unlike "sober" music.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Psychedelics do not generally contribute to lowered inhibition. X may be an exception. 

They could help to associate sounds that would not ordinarily run down different pathways. 

Still, the thought of so radically altering one's reality for any reason is quite misguided.


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## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

eljr said:


> Psychedelics do not generally contribute to lowered inhibition. X may be an exception.
> 
> They could help to associate sounds that would not ordinarily run down different pathways.
> 
> Still, the thought of so radically altering one's reality for any reason is quite misguided.


What I meant was any variety of intoxicating substances, from alcohol to LSD.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Might want to check this first.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/04/spiders-lsd-drugs-experiment-1971


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

KenOC said:


> Might want to check this first.
> 
> https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/04/spiders-lsd-drugs-experiment-1971


I'm not a supporter of composing while under the influence, personally.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Meanwhile, a cautionary song.


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## Fredx2098 (Jun 24, 2018)

In my experience, drugs can either inhibit or help me compose, usually the former though. When it does help me though, it's a very amazing feeling. My situation is a little different because I have health issues that inhibit anything I do at all times when I'm sober. I recently had a ketamine treatment, and while I felt the effects (only for about 10 minutes sadly) all I could think about was composing. Ideas flooded into my brain while I was in a rare partially relaxed state. Like eljr said, ecstasy is another substance that can make me feel relaxed, but I've only had that twice and don't have any access to it.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

eljr said:


> *Psychedelics do not generally contribute to lowered inhibition.* X may be an exception.
> 
> They could help to associate sounds that would not ordinarily run down different pathways.
> 
> *Still, the thought of so radically altering one's reality for any reason is quite misguided.*


I would think the effects of psychedelics are too individual and unpredictable to make strong generalizations. Some people become wildly uninhibited under the influence, others catatonic and paranoid.

Re the second point: So you don't consider weed and hashish to be psychedelics then?


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## paulc (Apr 18, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Meanwhile, a cautionary song.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Anything composed while tripping would be worth tucking away for a later, sober review. 

Since I'm an old California guy too world-weary to dose anymore, I can only recall one time at the Verde Hot Springs ca. 1975, wailing on my harmonica, fried on peyote, alone at dusk in the springs, so amazed that the rocks in the spring were brightly colored, until you took them out of the water, and they just turned gray... this went on for some time...

Weed and hash are not psychedelics, although a first-timer might think so...


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## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

philoctetes said:


> Anything composed while tripping would be worth tucking away for a later, sober review.
> 
> Since I'm an old California guy too world-weary to dose anymore, I can only recall one time at the Verde Hot Springs ca. 1975, wailing on my harmonica, fried on peyote, alone at dusk in the springs, so amazed that the rocks in the spring were brightly colored, until you took them out of the water, and they just turned gray... this went on for some time...
> 
> Weed and hash are not psychedelics, although a first-timer might think so...


Weed is just a really good anxiety fixer.
It can certainly help with being too tense when trying to come up with experimental melodies.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

philoctetes said:


> Anything composed while tripping would be worth tucking away for a later, sober review.
> 
> Since I'm an old California guy too world-weary to dose anymore, I can only recall one time at the Verde Hot Springs ca. 1975, wailing on my harmonica, fried on peyote, alone at dusk in the springs, so amazed that the rocks in the spring were brightly colored, until you took them out of the water, and they just turned gray... this went on for some time...
> 
> *Weed and hash are not psychedelics, although a first-timer might think so...*


Anything inducing hallucinations qualifies for me - and if weed and hash didn't, I would never have bothered with them.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

EdwardBast said:


> Anything inducing hallucinations qualifies for me - and if weed and hash didn't, I would never have bothered with them.


Are you claiming that you hallucinate on weed or hash?

I am not quite sure what you are trying to say.

I know this thread is very confusing as the thread title speaks to psychedelics but later in the thread the thread starter says he is speaking to more than just psychedelics.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

a general FYI

psy·che·del·ic
ˌsīkəˈdelik/Submit
adjective
1.
relating to or denoting drugs (especially LSD) that produce hallucinations and apparent expansion of consciousness.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Psychedelics cannot be used daily by most people, not in ordinary doses anyway. I do know people who "microdose" but not daily. OTOH, many people use weed and hash daily and function just fine. Better than many alcoholics in fact. So they are not the same category for my purposes. Seems this is the standard perspective in my world. 

Saying that weed is psychedelic reminds me of that movie Reefer Madness. There is being high and having moments of illucidity. But psychedelics force a kind of insanity upon the user for long periods with no relief. One can even overdose. Nobody ODs on weed (these new synthetic compounds don't count and should be controlled).

Anyway, whatever works for Edward Bast works for me. After all he's writing an opera about me!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

eljr said:


> *Are you claiming that you hallucinate on weed or hash?*


Yes, but past tense. I'm saying that in my ill-spent early teen years I had pretty vivid hallucinations on weed and hash. That's the only point I saw in smoking the stuff. Then, at age 15, I took up acid, often in high doses, because I wanted more intense visual (and other) experiences. On my last trip (age 16) - a really good one - I resolved to stop all drug abuse. I wasn't much of a composer then, a few prog-rock style tunes notwithstanding, so I don't have much to say about the OP.

But people who haven't used such substances probably don't know what the word hallucination means in this context.



philoctetes said:


> Anyway, whatever works for Edward Bast works for me. After all he's writing an opera about me!


Do you mean the "real," that is to say, fictional, Edward Bast, the public face of the JR business empire? I have apparently forgotten about Mr. Bast's opera projects (other than his grade-school production of _Das Rhiengold_.) Might be time for a reread.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

EdwardBast said:


> Do you mean the "real," that is to say, fictional, Edward Bast, the public face of the JR business empire? I have apparently forgotten about Mr. Bast's opera projects (other than his grade-school production of _Das Rhiengold_.) Might be time for a reread.


You were posting on Amazon a few years ago at the same time I read JR. Had been putting it off for decades. Well worth the delay.


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