Why does Cannabis make music sound way more detailed and hundreds of times more enjoyable?

[Tim Link]

And if we had more control over that…what a wonderful world it would be.

Yes! That is one of the insights I came away with from that experience. Although I had a similar experience earlier when I was feeling some anxiety. After trying to distract myself from the anxiety in various ways and failing, I decided to sit quietly and just stare right into it. Honestly I wasn't exactly sure what I was worried about so I was hoping something would bubble up from my subconscious that I could then act on. I never did quite figure it out but noticed the amazing experience of anxiety instantly turning into elation, and then back into anxiety. The feelings coming up from my gut were exactly the same in both cases, just being interpreted differently.

 

[12Many]

The distortion of auditory perception is good, no?

Is it distortion though, or additional clarity? I have spoken to many people who say that some drugs do not distort reality, but instead allow them to see reality differently, to view the world through a different lens or see it differently. And these are not un-successful people.

 

[fpitas]

I may be the only here that doesn't particularly enjoy the stuff. Glad it's becoming legal, but it doesn't do me much good.

 

[ahofer]

Yes! That is one of the insights I came away with from that experience. Although I had a similar experience earlier when I was feeling some anxiety. After trying to distract myself from the anxiety in various ways and failing, I decided to sit quietly and just stare right into it. Honestly I wasn't exactly sure what I was worried about so I was hoping something would bubble up from my subconscious that I could then act on. I never did quite figure it out but noticed the amazing experience of anxiety instantly turning into elation, and then back into anxiety. The feelings coming up from my gut were exactly the same in both cases, just being interpreted differently.

One of the weird meditation techniques for dealing with an itch or discomfort that is intruding on your meditation is to focus on it and ask slightly odd questions: What color is it? What does it look like?

Anxiety is another emotion we can try to..control isn’t the word..but put in perspective. Without anxiety we’d probably get nothing done, so it is, in some sense your friend. What is it trying to tell you? Is it making sense? Is it being a good friend? What is it prompting us to do?

 

[fpitas]

Anxiety is another emotion we can try to..control isn’t the word..but put in perspective. Without anxiety we’d probably get nothing done, so it is, in some sense your friend. What is it trying to tell you? Is it making sense? Is it being a good friend? What is it prompting us to do?

Maybe. But I've learned the hard way to not pay any attention to the voices.

 

[ahofer]

For me, indica strains make music more enjoyable, but sativa strains have an opposite effect.

Returning to cannabis objectivism, I’ve heard two objections to this:

1. There really isn’t indica and satire anymore as they’ve been hopelessly cross-bred.
2. Different blends of CBD and THC moderate your reaction differently. The rest comes from the user’s state.

I’m no expert on the subject, but #1 seems empirically true.

 

[ahofer]

Maybe. But I've learned the hard way to not pay any attention to the voices.

I listened to a fascinating podcast that mentioned a woman who had a stroke and no longer had an internal voice. She was euphoric for a while, but found she wasn’t remembering important things. They seem to also be associated with working memory.

Befriending Your Inner Voice - Hidden Brain Media

You know that negative voice that goes round and round in your head, keeping you up at night? When that negative inner voice gets switched on, it's hard to think about anything else. Psychologist Ethan Kross has a name for it: chatter. He says it's part of the human condition, but there are ways...

hiddenbrain.org

 

[ahofer]

In the end, it seems like the drug-music connection is about achieving some kind of immersed meditative state of flow and attention. I’m sure it can be achieved without assistance - but with a lot of practice.

 

[pablolie]

I do enjoy my sativa.

However, I don't think it makes me in any way improve my hearing in any way. It's just the same story as enjoying music after a long day, going to sleep... and the next early morning, while having a shot of espresso, you press "play" and you wonder why it sounds so much -and often annoyingly so- louder.

I have never discovered amazing new insights because I vaped some Durban Poison.

 

[fpitas]

In the end, it seems like the drug-music connection is about achieving some kind of immersed meditative state of flow and attention. I’m sure it can be achieved without assistance - but with a lot of practice.

Sure. A lot of the music I like is "inspired" by MDMA and psychedelics. You don't need to be high to enjoy it, though.

 

[pablolie]

Sure. A lot of the music I like is "inspired" by MDMA and psychedelics. You don't need to be high to enjoy it, though.

I also think a lot of folklore goes into these "bad boy" stories about composing and performing high. Coincidentally, the albums recorded by artists with worrisome drug issues were also some of the worst they recorded and the artists' low point until they fixed it or died. The mighty John Coltrane is a typical case: Miles Davis *fired* him for being unreliable. John kicked his heroin habit and hence recorded the Blue album as a solo (and mostly clean, we're told) artist.

Heroin of course is completely different stuff to what we are talking about. Sativa and Indica are the Zimas of the drug world...

 

[ahofer]

Miles Davis *fired* him for being unreliable.

Not the most reliable himself.

Sativa and Indica are the Zimas of the drug world...

The strength of these new strains/products gives me some pause. It ain’t the ditchweed I knew as a teen. And regular use is skyrocketing.

 

[ryanosaur]

In the end, it seems like the drug-music connection is about achieving some kind of immersed meditative state of flow and attention. I’m sure it can be achieved without assistance - but with a lot of practice.

Linking to this because it is topical to my comment:

For those that have read Casteñeda, regardless of how you view his work, one point he wrote that the psychedelic properties of what he "set out to study" change the "speed" that your awareness operates at.
This is akin to other writings I've been exposed to that discuss the "mental filters" on our perception.

Some adepts are able to enter a state of heightened awareness without any aids; others require the assistance of a chemical boost. Regardless of the specific culture, one can find the evidence for this far and wide throughout the history of any Shamanic culture including ancient China prior to (or perhaps in proximity to) the development of their more spiritual/mystical "religious" offshoots.
There are many documented paths of seeking wisdom that allude to ingesting various substances commonly seen as toxic by today's standards.

However true or not... these all commonly relate to a practice in human civilization where we sought out mysticism and freely practiced it. Of course, in "polite" society, the concept of mysticism is frowned upon at best, or outright shunned as abhorrent or otherwise taboo in the manner of witchcraft or magick.

Where some would claim sacrament, others claim hedonism. Where some find higher purpose, others find escape.

Where are the boundaries set and who gets to decide such for the individual?

 

[ahofer]

Where are the boundaries set and who gets to decide such for the individual?

It would certainly be weird, IMO, for a hobby dedicated primarily to *music* reproduction to draw strict boundaries against mysticism. How do we understand music appreciation and why seek fidelity in reproduction? Hard questions to answer in a purely material-realistic way.

 

[ryanosaur]

The mighty John Coltrane is a typical case: Miles Davis *fired* him for being unreliable. John kicked his heroin habit...

As was already commented on... Miles had a notorious habit himself.
In many ways, Jazz of the Bebop era and beyond was defined by heroin and other drug use.
To this day there are unapologetic users who swear they will continue until they pass on their own or heroin and such carries them away. Some have actually found sobriety, or so they claim...
As to whether they ever recorded high or not... that is likely only known by a handful of people and will forever be relegated to urban mythology.
Stories of Tchiakovsky, Charlie Parker, Loius Armstrong, The Dead and Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Dave Navarro, Anthony Keidis... all just off the top of my head... And how many more?

 

[pablolie]

Not the most reliable himself.

He definitely has a track record of talking sh*t about others and aggrandizing his role in their eventual success. I have had bosses like that. :-D

The strength of these new strains/products gives me some pause. It ain’t the ditchweed I knew as a teen. And regular use is skyrocketing.

Yeah, RSO with Durban Poison will knock down a Hippopotamus for 12 hours... Then again, I did grow White Widow at some time 15 years ago that was totally uncapacitating ... if you misjudged. With cannabinoids it is more about personal judgment than the strain itself.

 

[ryanosaur]

It would certainly be weird, IMO, for a hobby dedicated primarily to *music* reproduction to draw strict boundaries against mysticism. How do we understand music appreciation and why seek fidelity in reproduction? Hard questions to answer in a purely material-realistic way.

Hmmm....



Well met, sir. Well met.



Now... can you smoke that single-crystal extruded pure copper quantum-tunneled cable? Or do you need to mainline it?

 

[ryanosaur]

He definitely has a track record of talking sh*t about others and aggrandizing his role in their eventual success. I have had bosses like that. :-D



Yeah, RSO with Durban Poison will knock down a Hippopotamus for 12 hours... Then again, I did grow White Widow at some time 15 years ago that was totally uncapacitating ... if you misjudged. With cannabinoids it is more about personal judgment than the strain itself.

Do I know you?

There was a point when I first started into the Medical scene and going to the Berkeley Co-Op back around '99-'00 where I had my hands on some ridiculous stuff. Absolute knock-you-out if you weren't careful stuff. Not couch-lock knock out, but in-touch-with-god type of stuff.

A lot has changed.

I've seen papers for some strains testing as high as 30% THC that comes with a spiritual golden ticket... but most clubs now you can't find a good sample to save your life. *shrugs

So much of this is more than the simple parts we try to add up.

 

[ahofer]

Well, thanks to their bootleg policy, we have a lot of recorded evidence from the Dead of really badly drug-addled performances.

 

[ryanosaur]

Well, thanks to their bootleg policy, we have a lot of recorded evidence from the Dead of really badly drug-addled performances.

And some good ones. *shrugs

I'm not taking sides here... I done it both ways myself.

Hell, we had a Drummer that couldn't hit a beat without a Fo'ty and a line of coke... but give that boy what he needed and he may well have been one of the best drummers I played with.