How can marijuana be especially beneficial for self-discovery?
Introspection in philosophy and in common sense!
The Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy says:
"Introspection, as the term is used in modern philosophy of mind, is a means of examining one's own current or perhaps very recently past mental states or processes."
Our ordinary notion of "introspection" seems to be much broader: we usually say that we can introspect not only mental states, such as a current feeling of pain, a feeling of anxiety, or a happy mood, but we often say that we introspect predispositions. (for example, a tendency to overreact to criticism) or other aspects of our personality, such as character traits.
As far as I understand, marijuana can be used for introspection in both senses. This seems to help users better and more accurately sense bodily states, such as tactile sensations during sex, but also seems to help understand personality traits, tendencies, and moods.
Body mapping system and enhanced bodily sensations!
Charles Tart mentions that marijuana users feel that getting high can help them better introspectively access their current bodily sensations and feelings, which is introspection in a narrower philosophical sense. Many of the consumers surveyed confirmed the following effects as the "normal" marijuana high effect:
"My skin seems exceptionally sensitive"
"Pain is stronger if I concentrate on it"
“My perception of the shape of my body becomes strange; the 'felt' shape or shape does not match its actual shape (for example, you may feel crooked, or parts of your body feel heavy while others feel light)."
"I feel a lot of pleasant warmth inside my body"
“I am much more aware of my heartbeat”
“I become aware of the breath and can feel the breath coming in and out of my throat and also filling my lungs.”
According to neuroscientists such as A.D. Craig and Antonio Damasio, we all have an interoceptive sense that gives us a sense of the inside of the body. Accordingly, this inner sense relies on a representational mapping system (also called the somatosensory system) that has evolved to enable us to observe our inner states, such as:
“pain conditions, body temperature, hot flashes, itching, tickling, trembling, visceral and genital sensations; condition of the smooth muscles of blood vessels and other internal organs.
Maybe marijuana interacts with this mapping system of the body? We also know that large doses of marijuana can lead to "distorted body image", which is also often described in the literature.
In an account of a stoned condition experienced by a large dose of ingested hashish, the American writer Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) reports an even greater effect on his body image after ingesting much larger amounts of hashish marmalade:
“The feeling of limitation - the isolation of our feelings within the boundaries of our own flesh and blood - instantly fell away. The walls of my frame burst out and collapsed into ruins; and without thinking about what form I was wearing—losing sight of even the idea of form—I felt that I was existing in a vast space. The blood pulsing from my heart rushed through innumerable leagues before it reached my limbs; the air drawn into my lungs turned into seas of transparent ether, and the vault of my skull became wider than the vault of heaven.
This report shows that getting high from marijuana can greatly affect the body's imaging system, and also shows that it's a matter of dosage and use, whether marijuana can help with introspection or not. While a decent dose can help heighten bodily sensations and bring them to our consciousness, a higher dose can lead to a distortion of our internal mapping system.
Lose your body
Charles Tart also notes that with a stronger dose of marijuana, users seem to forget their bodies. He mentions the following descriptions as common effects of a high:
“I lose awareness of most of my body unless I specifically focus my attention on it, or some particularly strong stimulus demands my attention there.”
“I completely lost consciousness of my body during fantasy travels, i.e. I was so immersed in what was going on in my head that my body seemed to have not existed for some time.
"I lost all consciousness of my body and the outside world and just found myself floating in boundless space (not necessarily physical space)."
How can we explain this? Could it be that marijuana actually stimulates other faculties, such as imagination and episodic memories, so that our attention is sometimes greatly diverted from our bodily sensations to fantasies or memories?
Endocannabinoids, Exogenous Cannabinoids and the Body Imaging System
These observations raise interesting questions. How does marijuana affect the body mapping system? We know that other effects of marijuana are highly dependent on its interaction with the pre-existing endocannabinoid system in our brain.
We also know, for example, that endocannabinoids play a role in the process of thermoregulation - what are the other functions in the body's mapping system? How do different endocannabinoids play a role in regulating the body's mapping system? And how do exogenous cannabinoids, that is, cannabinoids that come from outside when using cannabis, affect this system? Will a strain with higher levels of CBD affect the body's imaging system differently than other strains?
I am convinced that these questions can lead to really interesting developments in science and medicine. It's time to investigate.
“Again, the powers of the herb open the mind. Search deep within. Tell me what you found.
Many smokers have observed how high marijuana not only leads them to an introspective understanding of bodily sensations, but also helps them better understand their personality and character.
Pete Brady describes the heightened introspection under the influence of marijuana:
“Having marijuana got me thinking, and I used it to describe my strengths, weaknesses, and qualities. The drug was a whistleblower, not an escape mechanism; it helped me see who I was and who I needed to be.”
“I have become much more attuned to myself and others. I was able to focus on my fears, turmoil, stress, problems and turn them into plans for healing and releasing my lifelong chains. I felt calm and relaxed and able to deal with who I was, good or bad. (…) I can look deeper inside myself to make the right, sound decisions based on my true beliefs and morals.”
These reports illustrate the kinds of emotional and "sensual" responses to cannabis highs. Although the authors did not specify physical sensations, it is possible that over-awareness of the physical body (body-mapping system) effectively leads to emotional understanding. Here is how Antonio Damasio explains the cognitive and emotional effects of awareness of internal sensations.
Introspection as "reflexive contemplation"
As for the introspection of moods, more complex emotions and character traits, it is obvious that this is not a kind of "direct" internal observation. If I am introspectively aware that I am a courageous person, I cannot simply read this from the internal monitor.
I have to make a judgment that includes an evaluation of many autobiographical memories, "bold" patterns of my behavior compared to others, a judgment that includes my understanding of the concept of "masculine".
We might also call this kind of introspection "reflexive contemplation." Getting high from marijuana can have several effects on cognition, which can lead to the sort of introspective judgments that marijuana smokers describe.
Hyperfocus, improved episodic memory, imagination and pattern recognition!
Let me briefly explain four effects of marijuana well known to consumers that are important here: attention hyperfocus, improved episodic memory, improved imagination, and improved pattern recognition.
One of the most important acute effects of marijuana is hyperfocus, an effect that I also like to call marijuana's "zen effect" because zen tells you to focus on one thing or activity at a time.
This focus of attention often leads to increased bodily or other sensations and a strong sense of being in the here and now, but it can also lead to a hyperfocus on the flow of thoughts or on episodic memories - memories of the past, episodes in your life. Many marijuana users have reported not only this hyperfocus, but an increase in episodic memories. The user often vividly remembers past events—often long-forgotten events—in incredible detail.
In addition, it is very often reported that marijuana users can imagine things better - and importantly, imagination does not only mean visualization, but can also be auditory, tactile, gustatory or olfactory imagination.
In addition, marijuana users report that they are better able to recognize patterns when they are high. For example, they may see a pattern in their friends' behavior that they have never seen before, or they may suddenly see how Lester Young influenced Coltrane by recognizing certain patterns in style or sound.
Hyperfocus, improved episodic memory, imagination and pattern recognition
Let me briefly explain four effects of marijuana well known to marijuana users that are important here: attention hyperfocus, improved episodic memory, improved imagination, and improved pattern recognition.
One of the most important acute effects of marijuana is hyperfocus, an effect that I also like to call marijuana's "zen effect" because zen tells you to focus on one thing or activity at a time.
This focus of attention often results in heightened bodily or other sensations and a strong sense of being in the here and now, but it can also lead to hyperfocus on the stream of thought or on episodic memories—memories of the past. episodes in your life. Many marijuana users have reported not only this hyperfocus, but an increase in episodic memories. The user often vividly remembers past events—often long-forgotten events—in incredible detail.
In addition, it is very often reported that marijuana users can imagine things better - and importantly, imagination does not only mean visualization, but can also be auditory, tactile, gustatory or olfactory imagination.
In addition, marijuana users report that they are better able to recognize patterns when they are high. For example, they may see a pattern in their friends' behavior that they have never seen before, or they may suddenly see how Lester Young influenced Coltrane by recognizing certain patterns in style or sound.
Strengthening "reflexive contemplation"
So, how can these four improvements—attention hyperfocus, improved episodic memory, improved imagination, and improved pattern recognition—may affect our introspection? I think it's pretty easy to see. Suppose you are considering the question of whether you are a brave person.
Getting high on marijuana can help redirect and hyper-focus your attention on episodic memories and your internal stream of thought. Now you can better search your episodic memories for times when you acted courageously or when you failed to do so. You want to know about a trait, not just your current mood or feeling, so you need to go back in time.
Your improved episodic memory during a marijuana high will help you associate memories, and your improved pattern recognition ability can help you find similarities between different bold or not-so-bold actions or feelings in the past.
Note also that your increased capacity for imagination can also play a crucial role in the success of reflective contemplation of your character trait: if you want to judge whether you are a brave person in general, you are not only thinking about your past, but you are also trying to imagine , would you behave boldly in certain situations. Would you jump into an icy river off that big bridge to save that kid like the man on the news did?
During a marijuana high, you can often imagine these situations more vividly and imagine how it would be for you, what you would really feel and how you would act. Thus, a heightened capacity for imagination can generally help you arrive at valuable insights into your inclinations and character traits, as expressed in the following statement from a college student:
“The potty is very therapeutic for me. When I'm high, I can actually see myself. I can list my strengths and weaknesses and my goals. My mind is clear and ready to learn and understand, even when I have to understand uncomfortable things, like parts of my personality that I don't want to change. I can see parts of myself that I don't like without hating myself. I learned things about myself that I brought into my life when I wasn't high, like how to be less self-absorbed, how to be more reserved about myself, and worry less in the presence of others."
As far as I can see, there are many reports of marijuana users that support the effects described here, but of course, this is just the beginning. I hope that in the near future, cognitive neuroscientists will begin to study more about the effects of marijuana on attention, memory, pattern recognition, and imagination to find out how marijuana actually affects these abilities.