Can Psychedelics Ignite Spontaneous Insight & Creative Cognition? with Natasha Mason, Ph.D - 53

Creativity and specifically creative thinking is being called the most important skillset to cultivate for leaders of our time. 

When I first started coming across statements like this, I started asking myself, what exactly is creative thinking, how do we define it and how do we learn to cultivate it? And does research show that psychedelics can help us to think more creatively? It turns out that there’s very little research that has been done exploring psychedelics and creativity. 

There have been a couple of published papers that have influenced my thinking around this topic, including Natasha Mason, Ph.D., who’s my guest on the show today, and the paper is titled Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure - which is one of the first double-blind, placebo-controlled studies directly exploring psychedelic and creative cognition. 

Natasha Mason Ph.D., is a post-doc at Maastricht University, Dept of Psychopharmacology. She has a background in (neuro)psychology and pharmacy. Utilizing multimodal study designs, her current research assesses drug-induced neuroadaptations and their influence on affect, behavior, and cognition.

As you listen to our conversation I just want to encourage you to remember that you are creative by definition of being alive. And that being creative is your birthright. And a lot of people still have old beliefs, these are old myths about creativity, and right now we are being called to think bigger - because as Einstein said we can’t solve our problems at the same level of thinking that created them.

Featured Music

Episode #53 of the Psychedelic Leadership Podcast features a song called "Be Like Water" by Mary Isis

Listen to "Be Like Water" on Spotify

Listen to "Be Like Water" on Bandcamp

Resources Mentioned 

• Updating the dynamic framework of thought: Creativity and psychedelics 
• Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure 
• Psychedelics as potential catalysts of scientific creativity and insight 
• Click here to access this episode's page complete with a full transcript, more about the author, and complete list of resources.

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