--- 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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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## 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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