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August 13, 2005
Notable marijuana and psychedelics usage among scientists
Some notable scientists have used marijuana, psychedelics, and other drugs.
(From Stoned Scientists -- Cannabis Culture)
Stephen Jay Gould
Yet Gould did not admit to being a pot head. "I was reluctant to try it because I have never smoked any substance habitually, and didn't even know how to inhale. Moreover, I had tried marijuana twice… and had hated it." Yet chronic use of medicinal marijuana robbed Gould of none of his intellectual vigor. His critically-acclaimed The Structure of Evolutionary Theory was researched and written over the two decades that Gould was using pot heavily to maintain his health.
Carl Sagan
Sagan disputed the "myth" of the pot high – that the insights achieved while stoned are illusory. "I am convinced that this is an error," wrote Sagan, "and that the devastating insights achieved when high are real insights; the main problem is putting these insights in a form acceptable to the quite different self that we are when we're down the next day."
Richard Fenyman
Feynman was a brilliant scientist long before he sampled marijuana and LSD while in his mid 50's, but he did claim to have learned from the mind-expanding experiences. Feynman was a friend of John Lilly, a researcher who pioneered the use of the tanks, studied psychedelics and consciousness, and is best known for his work with dolphins. Feynman's use of these illegal substances was mostly in the context of experimenting with his own consciousness while in a sensory deprivation tank.
Kary Mullis
Andrew Well
Sigmund Freud (cocaine)
Ralph Abraham
Timothy Leary
Posted by Philip at August 13, 2005 07:35 PMAnd of course there are all the silicon valley captains of industry too - Mitch Kapor, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, The Woz, Bill Gates, Stephen Ballmer, Paul Allen, John Gilmore, etc, etc. who all did acid in the 60's and 70's. And of course Fancis Crick was ON acid when he came up with the double-helix!
Posted by: Paul at August 13, 2005 09:36 PMWe should make a wiki of sorts of like famous drug users, with a check list of which ones they've done plus some bio.
Think it would give some ppl perspective to know that their idols are all users.
Heh, probably already exists. Anybody?
Posted by: Philip Dhingra at August 13, 2005 10:04 PMWe tried a wiki here, which I very much wanted to succeed. There is so much information we could have added - basically a wikipedia but devoted to Psychedelic Futurism in all its guises. I wanted it be outdo Erowid, having information that Erowid had, but much, MUCH more.
Unfortunately, it was constantly spammed, and I mean CONSTANTLY. We could re-correct a spammed page, and within minutes it would be re-spammed. George was never able to fix it, so after several months of trying to make it work, I deleted the whole thing out of disgust.
Posted by: Paul at August 14, 2005 10:23 AMGreat post.
Reiterates the fact that psychedelics really do tweak the wavelength at which our consciousness is operating, and show us what we are usually incapable of perceiving at our 'normal' work-a-day wavelengths.
Oh dear. How COULD everyone forget to list John Lilly? Author of "Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer", "Center of the Cyclone" and many more; inspiration for the movie "Altered States".
Of course he's got his own page here at Future Hi.
Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lilly