Does Marijuana help you become more creative?

The answer to the question really depends upon who is taking the drug. Uncreative people will not suddenly become creative just because they use pot, just the same as complete a$$holes won't become nice and sociable just because they are drinking. Man has long tried to bottle up muses, but the fact of the matter is that creative inspiration is largely outside our control. All we can do is nurture our brains as environments where creativity can occur by keeping our minds actively employed. Paul Klee described the creative process as standing in place like a tree and waiting for art to flow up from the depths.

Can pot knock some things loose in our noggins and ease up the flow of ideas a bit? Oh, sure. But again, it really depends on the individual. There is no substance that will make a boring person interesting (except, maybe, for crack and PCP...but that's less "interesting" and more "horrifying"). Period. An artist must be sure of two things: (1) tell the truth in your work, however silly or wonderful or horrible it may be, and (2) avoid boundaries. Pot use can become a constraint if we depend on it and fall into a rut with it.

Rather than look for substances to make our minds more fluid, we should work on ourselves as individuals. Read lots of books, try new things, ask lots of questions, talk to weirdos, etc. Stay interested in life and never assume that you know anything. Then the muses will visit you when you least expect them.

If you want to burn one out every now and then to cut loose, hey, go for it. Just don't let it become a crutch.

Sadly, marijuana's main potential often remains understated in the public debate: the potential to enhance various cognitive abilities during a high such as to remember past events, to hyperfocus, to be in the here and now, to recognize patterns, to achieve real self-knowledge through introspection and to empathically understand others. Finally, as Carl Sagan once stated, marijuana can act as a catalyst to obtain real insights. My new book explains how marijuana can positively affect our cognition during a high: "High. Insights on Marijuana" (Sebastian Marincolo, dogearpublishing 2010).
Many stunning reports from marijuana users illustrate the interdisciplinary approach and show how many lives have been positively enriched in such a magnificent way by the use - not abuse - of marijuana.

I believe in some people that a little of the Herbs can help one to create. How ever I also have seen people that were very creative get plum stupid and loose all flow of what they are with the buzz. Most people that consume herbs on a regular basis start to rely on that feeling to turn on their creative flow. So yes in some it may help an in others it may just screw them up.

Yes and no.

From my first-hand experience, there were times when its use helped me get free of creative blocks (as mentioned by pjacabs), but its cronic use can also end up making the user apathetic, fuzzy-headed and lazy--by that I mean that pot destroys ambition. I also think its frequent use tends to make the user incapable of understanding truly complex issues and reduces their thinking to cartoonish interpretations.

The music and lyrics I wrote tended to be very "creative" on the one hand but lacked clarity and "professionalism", they were rich in imagery and ideas but very weak on form, content and delivery until I quit smoking. Once my head cleared I realized that the work I had thought was great was mediocre and required a complete overhaul.

I saw this during a phase of my younger life, not just in myself, but all my pot-head friends. The work of a number of truly gifted and intelligent people appeared to suffer underthe influences of pot. As I recollect, I can't think of any of the artists (film-makers, musicians, painters, writers) whom I knew whose work was better while smoking pot than what they produced once they either quit or cut back drastically.

So, I'd have to say that generally, pot may be good for initiating creative thought, but is detrimental when the artist wants to polish their work and make it exceptional rather than simply mediocre.

yes

Yes it does indeed help with creativity. It does so by altering your perception, allowing you to see things from a slightly different perspective.

All naysayers have to offer is straw men arguments. They try to frame it as if people are saying that smoking pot magically gives people creativity. This makes the argument easier to attack. Our ignorant society makes pot easy to attack to start with, but relying on such opinions and social conventions instead of logic and reason means you really don't have any argument at all. Of course it doesn't magically make you creative. All pot can do is alter your mood, lower your inhibitions, and open new paths for your mind to explore. You still have be be a creative person to start with.

If you have a great imagination, pot really can enhance it. It solves no purpose denying this other than to be able to reconcile one's own irrational bias against anything positive about pot. It's objectively true that pot alters your mood and perception without the negative drawbacks of hardcore drugs. A creative person can benefit greatly from this. Seeing things from a slightly altered perspective and mood will result in new creative ideas. I don't think anyone can intelligently argue that is not the case. Your mood and perspective are boundaries within which creativity is born. If those boundaries are moved, your creativity will be affected. Whether or not the result yields better or worse creative thought is subjective. But what is not subjective is the fact that if you are in a creative slump, new perspectives give you more options and is therefore objectively helpful at least in that respect.

Also people mentioning that sativa is better suited for this are correct. Indica can make you tired and want to relax, but sativa is very heady and energetic.

it just makes uncreative people think they are. I've known some pretty unoriginal pot smokers who thought they were brilliant when they were high

Satchmo thought so . I am not interested though .

Umm yeah they seem like good ideas at the time.

Yes, mostly from sativa strains though as those have been proven to be more of a "head high." If your looking for a good one Cali-Mist is believed to be one of the strongest sativas. Always use at your own limit though, that stuff is strong.

creative at what? it is probablly different with us all. for me, i find i am able to write more cohesively after a joint...but not read. it also lowers considerably my inhibitions sexually esp with another person...when alone it doesn't seem to matter.

hell yeah.

One of the things I have learned on Current is that marijuana affects different people differently (and I am told that experiences also vary widely depending on the type of marijuana). The title of the article, however, asks whether it generally helps YOU (which I take to mean each individual reader) more creative. Though it has been many years since I put the substance to the test, in MY case at least, the answer to this question is a resounding "no."

I sometimes felt that it helped during the few hours before it put me to sleep, but I was invariably disappointed with the results when I revisited them a day or two later. Not only was I then forced to waste valuable keyboard time editing and rewriting instead of creating, I also had to wait a good day or two before I felt complete clarity again.

So while I envy those for whom marijuana represents a bridge to their respective muses...for me it is more of a black hole, sucking up my energy, ambition, intensity and focus. There is probably a substance that would work better for one or more of those things...but I am pretty sure I would ultimately regret stepping down one of those paths, too.

I would have to give a resounding YES to that question.

Especially when you run into a creative block of some sort.

If you have a creative mind then it could help to enhance your prospective/ view...