secretagentman

I am currently studying a book called drawing on the right side of the brain. The premis of the book is that artists can switch (or always function) to a mode of thinking using primarily the right side of the brain. Because we all have right brains, the books goes on to say, all of us can be artistic and creative, we just need to learn how to switch our focus from the left to the right.
The right brain is the artistic creative, and intutive side of the brain. The right brain is also responsible for visual processing and spatial reasoning. Wheras the left brain is more logical and deductive. The left brain is largely symbol based, making it much more difficult to do "artisitic" things with it. The left brain is also the more verbal side of the brain. Our society is left brain. Our education system puts a huge amount of effort into developing left brain skills but almost complletly ignores, and sometimes intentionaly squashes the right brain.
The book teaches you to consciously shift your thinking from the Left to the Right. When you do this many interesting things happen, time melts away, you relate to (and see) the world as is, and stress and tension seem to melt away.
What I have ntocied is that this shift is very similar to getting high. Although there are other aspects to the marijuana high the experience shares many similarities with the feelings of shifting to a right brain thinking style.
Could this mean that Cannabis causes a similar congnitive switch.
I have done the switchero into the right brain mode and smoked cannabis. That is something else. I felt like I was transparent, merely part of the landscape, and insignificant, yet important in my own way. An intense feeling of peace. A feeling of understanding everything, but not having the words or thoughts to express it, and not careing.
The fact that cannabis inhances artistic ability has long been known. I am merely hypothesising as to WHY it does this, I believe that it enhances artistic ability because it facilitates this cognitive shift.

__________________
Dave

Car-free! My bod's my hotrod

The ultimate measure of a man
is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands
at times of challenge and controversy.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.