Carl Sagan's Insights from Smoking Marijuana

I find that most of the insights I achieve when high are into social issues, an area of creative scholarship very different from the one I am generally known for. I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down. One idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics. Because of problems of space, I can't go into the details of these essays, but from all external signs, such as public reactions and expert commentary, they seem to contain valid insights. I have used them in university commencement addresses, public lectures, and in my books.

Notes:

It is difficult to record the insights in such a way as to have them appeal to the sober mind, but Sagan, with much effort, got 11 essays out of an insight found while high.

Folksonomies: marijuana drug use altered consciousness

Taxonomies:
/art and entertainment/books and literature (0.566562)
/hobbies and interests/inventors and patents (0.285081)
/society/racism (0.214859)

Keywords:
gaussian distribution curves (0.928077 (neutral:0.000000)), university commencement addresses (0.847188 (neutral:0.000000)), extremely hard work (0.833214 (negative:-0.423599)), human biological topics (0.810421 (neutral:0.000000)), Carl Sagan (0.704108 (neutral:0.000000)), valid insights (0.645726 (neutral:0.000000)), Smoking Marijuana (0.633723 (neutral:0.000000)), sober mind (0.632038 (neutral:0.000000)), shower wall (0.592647 (neutral:0.000000)), creative scholarship (0.575252 (positive:0.357298)), social issues (0.559318 (neutral:0.000000)), wide range (0.535297 (negative:-0.423599)), external signs (0.526145 (negative:-0.233027)), expert commentary (0.524134 (positive:0.368605)), short essays (0.522247 (negative:-0.423599)), public reactions (0.521447 (positive:0.368605)), public lectures (0.521428 (neutral:0.000000)), idea (0.452913 (negative:-0.329400)), way (0.331200 (neutral:0.000000)), racism (0.282886 (neutral:0.000000)), occasion (0.277059 (neutral:0.000000)), effort (0.274009 (neutral:0.000000)), wife (0.268208 (positive:0.378925)), soap (0.266217 (neutral:0.000000)), point (0.263633 (neutral:0.000000)), area (0.263494 (positive:0.357298)), origins (0.261601 (neutral:0.000000)), invalidities (0.261543 (neutral:0.000000)), terms (0.261429 (neutral:0.000000)), end (0.257743 (negative:-0.423599))

Entities:
Carl Sagan:Person (0.814413 (neutral:0.000000)), Marijuana:Drug (0.445175 (neutral:0.000000))

Marijuana Reconsidered

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Grinspoon , Lester (1994-03-30), Marijuana Reconsidered, Quick American Archives, Retrieved on 2011-06-01

Source Material [forum.grasscity.com]

Folksonomies: marijuana drug use