Alanis Morissette on using pot for creativity
Musician Alanis Morissette has sold over 60 million albums worldwide, including Jagged Little Pill.
She is also an actor, with credits for the series Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Sex and the City, and The Vagina Monologues on Broadway. And she played God in the film Dogma.
In a High Times interview, she talks about using pot for creative awareness:
[You’ve become very serious about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Does marijuana use fit in to it?]
For me, it does. I’m all about moderation – as best as I can be. As an artist, there’s a sweet, jump-starting quality to it for me.
I’ve often felt telepathic and receptive to inexplicable messages my whole life. I can stave those off when I’m not high. When I’m high – well, they come in and there’s less of a veil, so to speak.
So if ever I need some clarity, or a quantum leap in my own consciousness, or a quantum leap in terms of writing something or getting an answer, it’s a quick way for me to get it.
But I have to be discerning, too. Just because the veil is removed doesn’t mean that every message coming in is an accurate one. [Laughing] Just because I’m high doesn’t mean that every message coming is the word of God. It can also be that that some of the false beliefs are a little louder as well.
I have a lot of friends who have wanted to specifically quit smoking marijuana because they felt that it was having a negative effect on their lives, and I absolutely supported them doing so. Then I have other friends who I’ve coerced into smoking because I thought it would be great for them.
[It’s funny how people who believe pot is having a negative impact on their life somehow believe that, without pot, their lives will be rosy and successful.]
Yes, I think it’s a good idea to distinguish between essence and form.
[Photo by Tom Ballanco.]
Cannabis is a mix of stimulant, depressant, and hallucinogen [Wikipedia]. It was never my drug of choice, maybe on account of my depression and anxiety.
Many others beside Morissette have talked about weed and other drugs enabling wider, deeper awareness, e.g. Aldous Huxley in The Doors Of Perception.
But there can be negative physical and psychological effects from using or abusing pot. One article on the AddictionInfo site, for example, is Male Sexual Problems Caused by Marijuana Use.
Many artists and other talented people use drugs and alcohol, but there are often risks. For example, as I note in my article Gifted, Talented, Addicted: At least five U.S. writers who won the Nobel Prize for Literature have been considered alcoholics. Also see my related article Actors and Addiction.
