Ever wonder why rappers regularly smoke a lot of marijuana? It may come as a surprise, but cannabis enhances creativity and allows the brain to create new ideas.
We’ve all seen popular artists such as Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Wiz Khalifa, really into smoking cannabis.
To the average person, it may seem like they’re into cannabis just for the hell of it or to have a good time.
And, while this may be one of the reasons why they smoke cannabis, there’s more to it than meets the eye when it comes to artists using cannabis. For many artists, it’s a crucial part of their creative flow when it comes to their writing.
Convergent Thinking VS Divergent Thinking
To understand how this creative flow works, we need to understand what convergent thinking and divergent thinking are. These are two methods of thought processing that we undergo.
Convergent thinking is when we think of what is the single best solution for a specific problem. This is when we look at a fork and automatically think, “This is used for eating.” In other words, convergent thinking is logic-based thinking, using what we already know.
Divergent thinking is when we think of many possibilities for a specific topic. This is when we look at a fork and think, “We can use this fork as a weapon, like a shovel, to scratch our backs, to open boxes, to open envelops, as a hammer…” Divergent thinking allows us to be flexible with our thoughts.
In essence, convergent thinking limits our ability to be creative and open-minded. While divergent thinking allows us to free our minds to many new ideas and thoughts, that we may have been reluctant to think about. Living in a world of stress and anxiety, where everything has to be right, we’ve learned to be more convergent thinking rather than divergent.
Over time, many of us lose our sense of open-mindedness.
How Cannabis Helps With The Creative Flow, Break Through “Writer’s Block”
Now, when it comes to the creative flow, many of us run into something like “writer’s block.” This is the lack of ability to form new ideas, or when our thought processes come to a stop.
This is usually because we’re overthinking or stressed.
We do too much planning, worrying about what others will think, aiming for perfectionism, and looking for the best solution. Essentially, our brain gets stuck in convergent thinking. Which, inhibits us from creating new ideas.
This is where cannabis comes in. Cannabis switches on our divergent thinking and breaks down that writer’s block wall, to allow our ideas to flow freely through.
You ever have that moment, where you’re smoking marijuana, or taking edibles with some good people, and suddenly you’re just talking about a whole lot of philosophy, like “Why is the sky blue, is it the reflection of the ocean, or something greater?” “Why are people so mean, is it because they’re sad?” “Why are we so lonely, yet there’s so many of us?” “What is the meaning of life, were we meant to live so long?”
That’s cannabis amplifying our divergent thinking mode. It’s a natural feeling because we are meant to be curious.
This is why artists and writers use cannabis when writing lyrics, scripts, novels, and music. Cannabis enhances creativity by allowing us to shift from convergent thinking to divergent thinking. Enabling us to flow with new ideas and new possibilities.
Artists, Writers, and Creative Minds That Used Cannabis
So, think about all the most popular famous people that regularly use cannabis. These are some of best thinkers of our time.
Tupac Shakur, one of the best minds in hip-hop history, smoked blunts regularly. Tupac was one of the hardest-working musicians. It’s said that he’s written up to 700-900 tracks in his short, five-year, career. He wrote tracks endlessly, and after writing, and recording, a music track, he would move on to working on the next track right away.
Mike Tyson credits cannabis for changing his life. Some would say he’s become a very wise philosophical man the older he gets. Listen to his ideas and the seemingly endless amount of wisdom he spouts out. He smokes blunts quite often and is very well-spoken in his podcast Hotboxin with Mike Tyson.
Carl Sagan, everyone’s favourite astronomer, smoked cannabis and was a huge advocate for the creative and perception-enhancing abilities of cannabis. Carl Sagan is known to have said that marijuana helped him to understand things such as social issues, and art, on a deeper level.
Stephen King, author of fifty-five published novels, including The Shining, It, and The Green Mile. King admits to being a former heavy cannabis user, and one could look at his horrific ideas when reading his novels, and see that Stephen definitely had some, creative enhancement, in his life.
The list goes on of creative minds that have used cannabis for imagination, ideas, and for a deeper understanding. Cannabis enhances creativity by unlocking the brain’s divergent thinking mode. And allowing you to bypass the writer’s block that all of us writers fear.
So, if you’re ever stuck and in need of some inspiration, think about utilizing cannabis to get your creative juices flowing again.
Have you been struggling with writer’s block? Do you struggle with new ideas? Who are some of your favourite famous people and creative minds that have used cannabis? Let us know in the comments below. Follow us @cannalifenet for more cannabis info.