History Main / HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs

* Several Traditions in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' use various drugs as Foci. The Cult of Ecstasy have the strongest reputation for this, as their entire paradigm is about using ecstatic measures to get outside of the head and embrace the full scope of the universe, but this could be exercise, dance, or music as much as it could be drugs. Likewise, the Dreamspeakers, which draw on various shamanic and animist traditions, make some use of entheogens. And then there's whatever the Progenitors are shooting up on this week...

When this trope is used, the drug in question is usually either cannabis, ecstasy (MDMA), or some type of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_drug psychedelic,]] such as LSD, peyote, mescalin, or psilocybin. Nootrophic drugs or herbal supplements, which purportedly increase brain function, may be used. A fictional FantasticDrug may also be used, but its effects are often portrayed similarly to those of real life drugs. For obvious reasons, drugs that make one act selfishly or aggressively – such as cocaine or amphetamine – are rarely depicted as pathways to deeper understanding. Sedatives and depressants are unlikely to be used. This may be portrayed as NinetyPercentOfYourBrain since psychedelic drugs increase connectivity between different brain regions, allowing people to make associations they never would have considered before.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In one segment in "Little Gift Shop of Horrors", Dipper finds a recipe in the Journal for a concoction involving mushrooms that is supposed to make you smarter, which he prepares in order to solve a puzzle. Mabel's pig Waddles eats it and becomes a scientific genius. Unsurprisingly, this wasn't in [[Literature/GravityFallsJournal3 the printed Journal 3 that you can buy]], even though that was the only one Dipper had at the time...

** The appendix to ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' listed several concentrations of the "awareness-spectrum narcotic" melange that increased the user's understanding and mental abilities, including: spice, the "normal" version (by Guild Navigators), the Fremen "Water of Life", much more concentrated (which affected Paul Atreides and his sister Alia), and the drugs used by Bene Gesserit [[LivingLieDetector Truthsayers]]).

* In ''Videogame/TheOuterWorld'', Vicar Max's personal quest culminates in him and the party engaging in hallucinogens in his quest to understand his purpose in life. During said trip, he begins seeing hallucinations of his mother as well as himself, with the player being able to help him interpret said hallucinations.

* ''Film/EmbraceOfTheSerpent'': In order to give his white visitors a higher understanding, Karamakate the shaman gives each of the white folks he's escoring doses of caapi, a hallucinogen prepared from the yakruna plant. Theo in 1909 dreams of Karamakate looking as he'll look in 1940, but in general doesn't seem to reach the higher understanding Karamakate is looking for. Evan in 1940 seems to, however, having a vision that sends him flying over the rain forest before viewing a full-on MushroomSamba. Whether he actually did attain any enlightenment is still uncertain.

* This is one of the themes of Aldous Huxley's ''Literature/{{Island|1962}}'' (as well as his essays ''The Doors of Perception'' and ''Heaven and Hell''). Contrast with ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', where drugs are only used for intoxication. Perhaps significantly, Huxley was introduced to peyote/mescaline between the writing of ''Brave New World'' and those other works. In ''Literature/{{Island|1962}}'', the understanding-enchancing drug, called the moksha-medicine is used for rites of passage and interpersonal bonding, in a carefully prepared setting. The protagonist tries it, as well, in the last chapters, and it makes everything he's learned in the island fall into place.

* It's noted in Francois Prelati's profile in ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' that [[LightNovel/FateZero Prelati's Spellbook]] was written after conducting magecraft while deliberately hallucinating from taking drugs of his own creation. In that drug-induced state, he [[MillionToOneChance achieved the astronomically small chance]] of linking to a different plane and inscribed what he saw in the spellbook before sealing it away and entrusting it to Gilles de Rais. Due to the ludicrously specific circumstances under which it was written, Prelati is not actually capable of pulling that trick ever again.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The [[MagicalSociety Mysterium]] uses special hallucinogens in its {{Initiation Ceremon|y}}ies, briefly allowing mages to experience and understand magic in ways that [[WrongContextMagic can't quite be explained]]. The mystical effects are a function of the ritual; other drugs or contexts don't provide the same benefit.

In these kind of stories drugs can help a character in adjusting to her situation and understanding the things around her better, or they can even make her gain some new knowledge she couldn't have otherwise acquired. In the latter case drugs are usually implied to have supernatural or mystical qualities, and using them gives the character a temporary access to transcendent insight, or even to what amounts to PsychicPowers.

Most fiction that deals with recreational drugs either explicitly states that they are [[DrugsAreBad bad]], or uses them as a neutral plot element. However, there is also fiction where drug use is shown to have [[DrugsAreGood benevolent effects]]. One way of doing this is having someone gain a deeper understanding by taking drugs.

In these kind of stories drugs can help a character in adjusting to her situation and understanding the things around her better, or they can even make her gain some new knowledge she couldn't have otherwise acquired. In the latter case drugs are usually implied to have supernatural or mystical qualities, and using them gives the character a temporary access to what amounts to PsychicPowers.

When this trope is used, the drug in question is usually either cannabis, ecstasy, or some type of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_drug psychedelic,]] such as LSD, peyote, mescalin, or psilocybin. A FantasticDrug may also be used, but its effects are often portrayed similarly to those of real life drugs. For obvious reasons, drugs that make one act selfishly or aggressively – such as cocaine or amphetamine – are rarely depicted as pathways to deeper understanding. This may be portrayed as NinetyPercentOfYourBrain since psychedelic drugs increase connectivity between different brain regions, allowing people to make associations they never would have considered before.

Higher Understanding Through Drugs is often combined with VisionQuest, though the two tropes do also appear separately. If the story focuses on a drug with a long history of ritual use (such as peyote), it's common for the characters to imitate these ancient rituals while taking the drug, sometimes with the help of a [[MagicalNativeAmerican native mentor]]. In visual media, if the drug use entails a [[MushroomSamba hallucinatory trip]], it's usually illustrated with bright colours and surreal imagery. If a human mentor isn't there to guide the character through the trip, a SpiritAdvisor may appear and serve as a guide.

** The appendix to ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' listed several concentrations of the "awareness-spectrum narcotic" melange that increased the user's understanding and mental abilities, including: spice, the "normal" version (by Guild Navigators), the Fremen "Water of Life", much more concentrated (which affected Paul Atreides and his sister Alia), and the drugs used by Bene Gesserit Truthsayers (who were {{Living Lie Detector}}s).

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': In ''Komarr'', a scientist is questioned under "Fast Penta", a kind of {{truth serum|s}}, and discovers it helps her think outside the box in order to figure out a complex scientific mystery. After being cleared of the charges against her, she asks if she could try Fast Penta again in order to help her creativity.

* In ''Podcast/LessIsMorgue'', Riley's already [[TheStoner perpetually-stoned]] cousin Shaz takes a horrific cocktail of hallucinogens called "The Louisiana Clam Slammer" that shockingly allows them to see Evelyn, who's normally [[InvisbileToNormals only visible]] to Riley (who ate her corpse) and to other ghosts.

* Terence [=McKenna=] developed a theory that humans gained sentience and religion due to drug use, in his books. He also deliberately referred to Philip K Dicks works and suggested that the reason psychotropics exist was to free mankind from the black iron prison mentioned in Dick's ''Exegesis''.

** In ''{{Comicbook/Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt]] eats a ball of hashish and has a vision that eventually leads to his plan of "conquesting the evils that beset men".

** In this series of science fiction novels by Creator/IainMBanks, the titular Culture makes liberal, indeed everyday, use of a variety of drugs for a variety of purposes. In fact, the use of psychoactive drugs is so common that humans born within the Culture are geno-fixed with drug glands in their brains, what amount to sophisticated biopharmacology labs capable of secreting a bewildering diversity of side-effect-free and non-habit-forming designer drugs and neurochemicals with just a little bit of conscious effort. Not only are these used recreationally - Culture people regularly get zonked out of their heads for the fun of it, and dosing yourself is considered a great way to take the edge off, or enhance the experience of, everything from dreadful boring faculty parties to polyspecific bacchanalian orgies - but there are also a wide variety of so-called ''utility drugs'' which can boost cognition, perception, wakefulness, energy levels, or enable the user to enter altered states of consciousness, such as meditative trances characterised by accelerated time-perception and profound mindfulness. While these sorts of drugs may seem to skirt the line between a Higher Understanding Through Drugs and a SuperSerum, the stories always maintain that even with drug-fuelled performance enhancement, the users are always still just temporarily getting doped, and not actually being made distinctly or permanently better.

** In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'', the shamans of Skund consume fly agaric in the hope of getting a vision of Topaxci, God of the Red Mushroom, Skelde, Spirit of the Red Smoke, or even Umcherrel, the Soul of the Forest. Exactly how much wisdom and understanding these visions actually contain is another question; ''Literature/TheLastHero'' says that Topaxci is also God of People Who Tell Other People That "Dog" Is "God" Backwards And Think This Is Somehow Revelatory.

* In ''Literature/{{Komarr}}'', a scientist is questioned under "Fast Penta", a kind of truth serum, and discovers it helps her think outside the box in order to figure out a complex scientific mystery. After being cleared of the charges against her, she asks if she could try Fast Penta again in order to help her creativity.

* ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'': The novelizations of the unproduced ''Robotech II: The Sentinels'' series included the Garudans, a race of [[BeastMan fox people]] who had this trope as their species' [[PlanetOfHats Hat]]. Their homeworld's atmosphere is a mixture of chemicals and microorganisms that drive most other species to madness if they breathe it; Garudans have evolved (with the help of the Precursor, Haydon, who uplifted them) into a symbiosis that allows them a virtually mystic awareness bordering on full-fledged PsychicPowers. [[spoiler:During the last battle against T.R. Edwards in the novels, Rick and Lisa are forced to take a few controlled breaths of Garudan air in order to avoid the dangers of the Invid hive on Optera. The ''Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles'' miniseries retconned this element of the battle.]]

* In ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'', shamans from the Dousan Gelfling clan consume hallucinogenic red berries that grow in the Crystal Desert in order to peek into the future and talk to Thra. urGoh the Wanderer and skekGra the Heretic also consume these berries for the same reason and it was these berries that allowed them to figure out the Gelfling prophecy.