--- title: LSD Might Make You More Creative description: New research into the illegal drug has found eye- and mind-opening results canonical: https://time.com/4463136/lsd-research-creativity-depression/ author: IDEAS Desk article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-23T18:18:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:13.609Z article:section: Ideas og:title: LSD Might Make You More Creative og:description: A small study found some trippy results og:url: https://time.com/4463136/lsd-research-creativity-depression/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8d620ce4d32d9a4/6988a360196cf45a6403cf06/lsd-research.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: LSD og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: LSD Might Make You More Creative twitter:description: A small study found some trippy results twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8d620ce4d32d9a4/6988a360196cf45a6403cf06/lsd-research.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LSD Might Make You More Creative > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=793da4e7-86f4-4f95-8961-bdb373b34216&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A$AP Rocky Explains How LSD Influenced His Visuals [Watch (HLS stream): A$AP Rocky Explains How LSD Influenced His Visuals](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BXVqwktS.m3u8) (2:42)  _Published 2015-11-05. "I really want to give people drugs through music."_ by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Aug 23, 2016 6:18 PM UTC  25 Tabs of Avatar blotter acid. 25 Tabs of Avatar blotter acid. Farmer Images/Getty Images by [IDEAS Desk](https://time.com/author/ideas-desk/) ## IDEAS Desk Aug 23, 2016 6:18 PM UTC Lysergic acid dyethylamide, which you probably know as LSD, has been put to various uses since its discovery in the 1930s: scientists have tried to treat mental illness; the CIA attempted to control minds; and recreational users, well, trip out. But the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 officially prohibited LSD, and scientific inquiries into its capabilities all but disappeared. Until recently. [While studies into LSD still face stigma](http://time.com/3896387/lsd-psychedelic-drugs/?iid=sr-link6)s, in the past several years, scientists have found potential small-scale, fascinating effects on perplexing regions of health, including[ addiction](http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-lsd-should-we-try-it-20160401-story.html), [depression](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/05/healing-trip-psychedelic-drugs-treat-depression) and [terminal cancer](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment). Studies have also taken on the drug’s cognitive repercussions; “You don’t recognize yourself as a separate being from the universe,” [as one study’s co-author told TIME in 2015](http://time.com/4292298/lsd-acid-trip-drugs-brain/?iid=sr-link1). Now the journal _Language, Cognition and Neuroscience_ has published [the first study—](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23273798.2016.1217030)and it’s a small one–since the 1960s to explore the relationship between the drug and language. Researchers at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany observed ten participants attempt to label a series of images when they had and hadn’t taken LSD. [As Science Daily explained](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160818090035.htm), quoting one of the scientists who conducted the research: --- > “” --- Family added that the findings might potentially help with therapeutic psychedelia used to help treat, among other illness, depression: “The effects of LSD on language can result in a cascade of associations that allow quicker access to far away concepts stored in the mind.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ UNKNOWN ] Acid just in love with life, and you're dreaming all the time. Love, sex, dream. [ MUSIC ] When you hit acid it just sounds dangerous, so off rift everybody's just like nah I'm against it. I don't **** with that ****. You'll see **** like weird creatures that you never saw, but you're not actually scared of them. [ MUSIC ] The first time experience of LSD for me, it was crazy. I mean, what do you guys expect to hear from my besides that. I don't know if I can verbally tell you how LSD looks. I can't explain that, I can only articulate it through my art. [ MUSIC ] I enjoy doing visuals. Enter the Void. That's what it was inspired by. Is this going to make you a junkie? I know I'm not a junkie. Are you going to be like family from now on? I watched that film. We wanted to do something that was inspired, that paid homage to it. All the imagery was just similar like Tokyo and some bright colors. [ MUSIC ] We started the beat from scratch I was just talking to Jim Johnson. He pulled out the guitar. [ MUSIC ] Before you knew it, we had a masterpiece. I was in that audition feeling like Prince. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] What can I do if somebody hates that I'm taking LSD. What can I do. LSD is not a popular drug like as much as marijuana per say, or tobacco cigarettes, or liquor. People can't really relate to it that much. I didn't expect a white audience to go crazy. No, it was natural. I wasn't doing it. I felt like [ UNKNOWN ] inspired me mostly around that time. It changed my life, and I really wanna give people drugs through music. [ LAUGH ] People try that all the time. We're trying. You know. 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