Mescaline, Psilocybin, and Creative Artists

A number of creative people claim to have benefited from psychotherapy which utilized psychedelic drugs. Actor Cary Grant attributed "a new assessment of life" to LSD (Gaines, 1963). Blues singer Ronnie Gilbert, in 1964, was mired in a deep depressive state from which she found it impossible to break free. In desperation, she entered LSD therapy and, during the following six months, went through 20 psychedelic sessions. Frequently, Miss Gilbert and her psychiatrist went for walks in the park or visited art galleries and churches. During one stroll through the park, Miss Gilbert felt a "sense of life all around me; I looked at trees for the first time, really looked at them." She recalled that "everything seemed so rich and so intense." This spontaneous experience (which was not chemically induced) hastened her progress and therapy soon terminated. Several years later she remarked, "I've been turned on to life and have never been so happy." Miss Gilbert's psychiatrist commented. "Ronnie was lucky. She was one of the people who have been able to work through lifelong problems in a few sessions, and there is no reason why the good results shouldn't stick. Not everybody gets as much out of the experience. She was also lucky because she came into therapy before federal restrictions clamped down on it" (Gaines, 1963). Only five major research projects in the area of psychedelic drugs and creative performance have been reported and most of these have been described by the experimenters as "pilot studies" rather than full-scale experiments with conclusive results. L.M. Berlin et al., (1955) investigated the effects of mescaline and LSD upon four graphic artists of national prominence. There was an impairment of finger-tapping efficiency and muscular steadiness among the four artists, but all were able to complete paintings. A panel of art critics judged the paintings as having "greater aesthetic value" than the artists' usual work, noting that the lines were bolder and that the use of color was more vivid. However, the technical execution was somewhat impaired. The artists themselves spoke of an increased richness of imagery and of pleasurable sensory experiences. One said, "I looked out of the window into the infinitely splendid universe of a tiny mauve leaf performing a cosmic ballet." Another spoke of "light falling on light." Frank Barron (1963) administered psilocybin to a number of highly creative individuals and recorded their impressions. One of Barron's subjects stated, "I felt a communion with all things." A composer wrote, "Every corner is alive in a silent intimacy." Barron concluded, "What psilocybin does is to... dissolve many definitions and... melt many boundaries, permit greater intensities or more extreme values of experience to occur in many dimensions." Some of Barron's artists, however, were wildly enthusiastic about their apparently increased sensitivity during the drug experience only to discover, once the effects wore off, that the production was without artistic merit. One painter recalled, "I have seldom known such absolute