Cannabis and Music: Science Backs Up Our Subjective Experiences
By Dan Reich
Many of us may have had this experience…using cannabis to get into an altered psychoactive state, listening to music and hearing it in more detail and with more focus than normal. Some scientific studies have undertaken to find out whether there is a solid basis for this or whether it’s a matter of delusional thinking, as has often been suggested.
Scientists have noted that sounds in the frequency range of 6000hz were especially favored and focused upon. This is in the range for much of music, including rock electric guitar and jazz horn solo, which would explain both the appeal of the “stoner rock” guitar noodling and cannabis’ role in the emerging jazz world, where “reefer” and other drugs were used to help musicians pull off instrumental solos with increasing complexity.
Years of research are revealing cannabis’ scientific ability to enhance creativity. Dr. Jörg Fachner, Professor at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, told Vice Magazine, “[Cannabis] works like a psycho-acoustic enhancer. That means you are more able to absorb, to focus and to have a broader spectrum [musically]. It changes the way we perceive music.” He is also aware of cannabis’ ability to refocus its users’ attention to the current moment by changing their perception of time.
Some studies have shown cannabis has a habit of speeding up our internal clocks. This makes the external world feel slower. A 15-second time interval, for example, might be ‘expanded’ to 16.7 seconds. This is a difference of only about 11%, but that makes a significant difference when performing music.
Here is summary of what happens when we combine cannabis and music:
1. Our Pleasure Center Lights Up
One theory is that since cannabis triggers the brain’s pleasure centers and alters our sense of timing while we are altered, it makes the experience of music more complex. It can keep us focused on the present moment in each song, not what proceeded or what will follow, but a note by note experience.
2. Listening to the Detail
Cannabis seems to induce a more aware, focused state of mind, where we can hone in on small things. In this way, cannabis can bring our attention to the rivers of detail that flow in any piece of music.
3. Sense of Timing
As mentioned earlier, the time frames you’re hearing seem enlarged, giving you more time to experience melodies and other building blocks. This theory also suggests that musicians are aided in creating more complex music as well.
4. Sound Perception
With an expanded sense of time, we hear more of the music. We have more time to examine beats, melodies, lyrics, and vocals we’d been too distracted to pay proper attention to before.
5. Defined Focus
Cannabis relaxes you. If you’re not distracted by lists and guilt and regret, you can just sit back and enjoy the music. This defined focus helps you experience sound and music therapeutically, as rich, complex and deep.
6. Memory and Processing Differences
Cannabis triggers our memory. That’s why when you listen to music when high it can take you back to places in your past. What’s more, you might not merely remember events or moments, but feel like you could almost taste, smell or touch them.
Ever had that sensation that you could feel or taste music when you were in an altered state? Cannabis appears to produce something called mild synesthesia. That’s where sensory information from one sense is partially processed in another area. You might feel like you’re feeling the music instead of just hearing it, making for a richer experience.
7. The Placebo Effect
The placebo effect says that we feel what we expect to feel, such is the body’s ability to respond to suggestions. Cannabis makes music better because we expect it to. While this might explain a small element of what’s happening, the above items suggest that much more is going on.
8. Auditory Stimulation
Cannabis appears to act on the part of the brain that processes auditory input. People seem to process music more effectively when altered, later remembering lyrics and other nuances better than the control group, suggesting that cannabis actually heightens our ability to process complex input from our senses.
(source: Sol Cannabis)
To that list, I would add it is vitally important to anyone working on art, whether it is writing, painting, or musicianship.
9. It Encourages Us to Think Outside the Box
Once in the right headspace, you will find that ideas that never occurred to you before present themselves. Don’t be afraid to use them, at least in drafts, sketches and music practice. It also greatly enhances one’s intuition.
10. It Muzzles Your Inner Critic
Many artists struggle with their inner critic…the one that keeps saying what you are doing is not good enough... and if given space in your reality, can derail any creative endeavor. Cannabis tends to make us more accepting of all things, including ourselves, and acts as a “mute” button for one’s inner critic.
Armed with all this information, you are encouraged to indulge in your favorite cannabis product and listen to some music you particularly enjoy, to let the synergy take effect and to see what you might unexpectedly notice. And, if you perform music, whether professionally or not, cannabis can be a useful aid in both practice and performance.
Cannabis and music were made to enjoy, with each other.
References:
https://thegroovecartel.com/featured/cannabis-and-music-the-perfect-combination/
https://www.pilgrimsoul.com/home/why-music-sounds-so-damn-good-when-youre-high-on-cannabis
https://vocal.media/potent/relationship-between-weed-and-music
https://solisbetter.com/8-ways-cannabis-makes-music-better/
https://herb.co/guides/marijuana-weed-music-jamming/
