Of the seven forms, music seems to be the most closely connected to cannabis. They go together like salted butter and warm bread. While this connection might seem accidental, years of research reveal cannabis’s scientific ability to enhance and relish creativity at the same time.
You close your eyes and take a few breaths from the vape as the song begins to play. You’ve listened to this album dozens of times, but this time the individual rhythms, notes, and melodies seem to echo with a particular intensity, affluence, and gravitas that merge into your senses on a whole new level.
As Fleetwood Mac’s lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said, “If you’ve been working on a piece for several hours and you smoke a joint, it’s like hearing it again – but for the first time.” This link between cannabis and music has a long and rich history, dating back to the appearance of jazz in the early 20th century with heavy cannabis users like Louis Armstrong.
Anyway, novice weed smokers and connoisseurs alike wonder why music sounds so tasty when you’re high.
Weed Enhance Creativity and Focus
Speaking of “enhancing,” this is where cannabis and art meet and start walking hand in hand. Both weed and art can enlighten, alter our perception, and make us glimpse the world from a new aspect. Believe it or not – no other form of art does it better in combination with cannabis than music.
Cannabis is a cognitive booster and has a much closer link to creativity than focus. However, there is also a long tradition of cannabis being used to improve focus, particularly during prolonged physical activities. Many prominent thinkers and artists also tout cannabis’s creative-sparking benefits. Steve Jobs happens to be one of them, describing the effect of hashish and marijuana as very relaxing and creative enhancing.
According to research, cannabis may boost creative outputs – acting as a stimulant. And like most stimulants, enhance the output of all kinds for a short amount of time.
Scientists explain that marijuana may affect creativity by enhancing cerebral flow to the frontal lobes, which act as the control centre for “divergent creative thinking” (a type of thinking that explores various solutions and occurs spontaneously, free-flowing and in a non-linear manner). To put it simply, divergent thinking involves methods like creative thinking and brainstorming.
Do Joints and Jams Go Together?
Well, it depends. While there is no scientific proof to settle our biological reactions to music are enhanced by cannabis, multiple interviews, biographies, and self-reports, and accounts from literature are backing this notion.
One study that mostly relied on music listeners and narrative musicians concluded that “cannabis has a considerable impact on cerebral music processing and seems to briefly enhance the acoustic perception .”
What’s more, numerous studies and personal experience accounts confirm that marijuana and other naturally occurring compounds can change one’s perception of time, space, and color.
Some academics postulate that cannabis’s effect on a person’s perception of time might be accountable for its appeal amongst musicians. There are studies showing that marijuana can accelerate our internal clocks, making external “real words” appear to pass slower. One study even demonstrated how a 15 second time interval “prolonged” to an average of 16.7 seconds while under the influence of marijuana (obviously with sober control precisely estimating this interval).
Why Does Weed Make Music Sound Better?
Many individual user reports claim that changes in internal time can alter our attention span, allowing changes in auditory perception. According to experts, when your perception of time alters, your attention focus alters too. So, when you’re setting up your new delta 8 cart vape and put on a stereo headset, you might have a greater capability to choose certain information and ignore other information. That can help us differentiate the individual sounds a bit more thoroughly.
What’s more, music is known capable of lowering cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and helping to reduce depression, anxiety, and sleep issues. When combined with cannabis, music can actually soothe the feelings of anxiety and paranoia, creating a balance much needed for a pleasant high.
Music and weed together can help daily anxieties and stress to fade away, allowing you to fully relax and be present in the “now.” It even balances your dopamine levels – the same hormones accountable for the body’s pleasure response to food or addictive substances. Those who already experienced the favorites playlist or band at the beak of weed-based high know the positive potential of this recipe.
They’ve been culturally bought together
It seems like we love listening to music when we’re high. Marijuana users often include the mounting appreciation of art as a whole and music specifically. There’s just this deep connection.
We can’t help wonder if this connection with cannabis isn’t a happy misshapen in two things that might affect similar areas in the brain and have been so culturally stacked. Some would even claim that music and cannabis may be more culturally bringing together than neuronal.
It works as a psycho-acoustic enhances and allows us to absorb notes and rhythms on a much broader spectrum. Compared to most inexperienced beliefs, cannabis doesn’t change the music – it only changes how we perceive ear space in music.
It alters human perception – the same way LSD and Psilocybin do – and when you enjoy a song, it’s a time process thus will seem like you’re listening to a whole different song.
As far as our researchers and weed connoisseurs know – music and weed together have the power to deeply calm or fill us with an out-of-the-ordinary state of joy. When weed is along for the ride, it not only makes your favorites band sound even better, but you can experience an astonishing sense of connection in sharing this experience with those around you. Also, if you’re otherwise using cannabis smartly and responsibly, we can’t think of any downsides to this party recipe.
Photo by Zac Bromell on Unsplash