Is intelligence agency related to an increased likelihood of recreational drug role ? It ’s an interesting hypothesis , and one that ’s been gaining momentuminrecentyears .
If a determinate data link between noetic capacity and drug use does exist , it will likely be some prison term before anyone give one . Having said that , this much is for certain : account has more than its fair share of experimenting experimentalists . rent ’s meet 10 of chronicle ’s most influential scientific and technological visionaries , along with their drug of selection .
10 . Sigmund Freud — Cocaine
To Freud , cocaine was more than a personal indulgence ; he regarded it as a veritable curiosity drug , and for many years was a huge advocator of its purpose in a blanket array of applications . In a letter written to his fianceé , Martha , Freud wrote : “ If all goes well , I will write an essay [ on cocain ] and I carry it will win its lieu in therapeutics by the side of morphine and superior to it … I take very small doses of it regularly against impression and against indigestion and with the most brilliant of success . ”
Sigmund Freud published such a follow-up , style “ Uber Coca ” in 1884 . Interestingly , Freud ’s newspaper was one of the first to declare oneself drug substitution as a therapeutic discourse for addiction . While replacing morphia with cocain is something we now know to be counterproductive to recovery , the conception of substitution therapies hang in to this day . ( For a great overview of Freud ’s kinship with cocaine , insure out this post by Scicurious . )
9 . Francis Crick — LSD
Francis Crick — of the DNA - structure discoveringWatson , Crick , andFranklin — reportedly tell numerous supporter and colleagues about his LSD experiment during the time he spent mould to determine the molecular body structure that put up all living ’s entropy .
In fact , in a 2004 interview , Gerrod Harker recalls blab out with Dick Kemp — a confining friend of Crick ’s — about LSD habit among Cambridge academics , and tells the Daily Mail that the University ’s research worker often used LSD in little amounts as “ a thinking puppet . ” manifestly , Crick at one item told Kemp that he had in reality “ perceived the double - spiral shape while on LSD . ” [ Image viaNYT ]
8 . Thomas Edison — Cocaine Elixers
In 1863 , French chemist Angelo Mariani invented “ Vin Mariani , ” a Bordeaux wine treated with Erythroxylon coca leaf , the active ingredient of which is none other than cocaine . The ethanol mental object in the Bordeax could extract cocaine from the coca plant leaves in concentrations exceeding 7 mg per fluid ounce of wine . Thomas Edison — the fertile American inventor and notorious insomniac ( though perhaps not surprisingly ) — was one of many people of the periodknown to on a regular basis consume the cocain - laced philosophers' stone .
7 . Paul Erdös — amphetamine
Paul Erdös — well known for his hyperactivity ; his habit of working 19 - time of day solar day , even well into his old age ; and his trend to show up on his fellow ’ doorsteps demanding they ” unfold their mind ” to mathematical dialogue — was one of the most prolific mathematicians who ever lived , put out more peer - retrospect papers than any other mathematician in account .
His arcanum ? harmonise to him , upper . let in here is an excerpt froma book publish in 1998 by Erdös ’ de facto biographer , science author Paul Hoffman , which explains Erdös ’ leaning for amphetamine use :
Like all of Erdös ’s friends , [ fellow mathematician Ronald Graham ] was concerned about his drug - taking . In 1979 , Graham calculate Erdös $ 500 that he could n’t stop taking amphetamines for a calendar month . Erdös accepted the challenge , and kick the bucket cold turkey for thirty days . After Graham paid up — and wrote the $ 500 off as a byplay disbursement — Erdös said , “ You ’ve depict me I ’m not an nut . But I did n’t get any body of work done . I ’d get up in the morning and stare at a blank bit of paper . I ’d have no ideas , just like an ordinary mortal . You ’ve set mathematics back a month . ” He promptly resumed study contraceptive pill , and math was the better for it .
6 . Steve Jobs — LSD
LSD was a big deal for Steve Jobs . How big ? Evidently , Jobs think that experimenting with LSD in the 1960s was “ one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life . ” What ’s more , he felt that there were parts of him that the people he knew and worked with could not read , simply because they had n’t had a go at psychedelics . This latter sentiment also comes through in his latterly - published biography , wherein Jobs go so far as to affiliate what he read as Bill Gates ’ famine of imaging with a lack of psychedelic experiment :
“ Bill is basically unimaginative and has never contrive anything , which is why I think he ’s more comfortable now in philanthropic gift than technology . He just shamelessly ripped off other people ’s ideas . ”
“ He ’d be a across-the-board guy rope , ” Jobs say about Gates , “ if he had drop acid once or locomote off to an ashram when he was younger . ”
5 . Bill Gates — LSD
Which is singular , because Bill Gates totally did experimentation with LSD , though an excerpt from a 1994 consultation with Playboy reveals he was much less heart-to-heart about it than task :
PLAYBOY : Ever take LSD ?
GATES : My errant juvenility end a retentive time ago .
PLAYBOY : What does that intend ?
GATES : That means there were things I did under the age of 25 that I end up not doing subsequently .
PLAYBOY : One LSD story involve you star at a tabular array and thinking the turning point was become to plunge into your eye .
GATES : [ Smiles ]
PLAYBOY : Ah , a glimmer of recognition .
GATES : That was on the other side of that boundary . The young psyche can trade with certain kinds of gooping around that I do n’t think at this age I could . I do n’t guess you ’re as capable of handling lack of sopor or whatever dispute you drop at your body as you get previous . However , I never missed a twenty-four hour period of work .
4 . John C. Lilly — LSD , Ketamine
Neurocientist John C. Lilly was a pioneer in the plain of electronic brain stimulation . He was the first person to represent pain and pleasure pathways in the psyche ; found an entire offshoot of science exploring interspecies communicating between humans , dolphins , and whales ; invented the world ’s firstsensory want sleeping accommodation ; and conducted extensive personal experimentation with creative thinker - interpolate drug like LSD and ketamine hydrochloride .
https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-sensory-depriv-5829343
It bears mentioning that Lilly ’s experiment with interspecies communication , personal psychedelic use , and sensational deprivationoften overlapped .
3 . Richard Feynman — LSD , Marijuana , Ketamine
Feynman was always careful about drug use , for care of what it might do to his brain — turn over up alcoholic beverage , for example , when he began to exhibit symptoms of addiction . InSurely You ’re Joking , Mr. Feynman ! , he writes,“You see , I get such sport out of thinking that I do n’t desire to destroy this most pleasant machine that makes life such a big thrill . It ’s the same reason that , later on , I was reluctant to try experiments with LSD in spitefulness of my curio about hallucinations . ”
Nevertheless , Feynman ’s curiosity got the best of him when he became acquainted with none other than John C. Lilly and his sensory deprivation tanks . Feynman experimented briefly with LSD , Ketalar , and marijuana , which he used to bring on isolation - induced delusion more quickly than he could when sober .
2 . Kary Mullis — LSD
Who , you may be asking , is Kary Mullis ? Let ’s put it this fashion : If you ’ve worked in a biomedical inquiry science laboratory since the 1980 ’s , there is an extremely good prospect you ’ve perform a polymerase chain response ( aka PCR , the lab proficiency that can turn a exclusive segment of DNA into one thousand thousand of selfsame copy ) , or are at least familiar with it . You have Mullis to thank for that . While Mullis did n’t invent the PCR proficiency , per se , he improved upon it so significantly as to revolutionise the battleground of biomedical research , securing himself a Nobel Prize in chemistryin the process .
The secret to Mullis ’ breakthrough ? In a September , 1994 issuance of California Monthly , Mullis aver that he “ took mickle of LSD ” In the sixties and seventies , going so far as to call his “ head - opening ” experiment with psychedelics “ much more important than any courses [ he ] ever admit . ” A few years later , in an interview for BBC ’s Psychedelic Science documentary , Mullis speculate aloud : “ What if I had not taken LSD ever ; would I have still invented PCR ? ” To which he replied , “ I do n’t love . I doubt it . I gravely doubt it . ” [ Photovia ]
1 . Carl Sagan — Marijuana
leading astrophysicist and cosmologist Carl Sagan not only smoked marijuana on a regular basis , he was also a strong advocate for its use in heighten intellectual quest — though not as publicly as others on this list . Having aver that , Sagan did contribute an essay to the 1971 book titled Marijuana Reconsidered that spoke to the virtues of marijuana role . The while , which you’re able to read here , was write under the assumed name “ Mr. X. ” The identity of its dead on target author was only revealed after Sagan ’s death .
All images , unless otherwise indicated , via Wikimedia Commons
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