History Main / HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs

* ''Series/MadMen'': Peggy in "My Old Kentucky Home" (with marijuana).[[note]]She--and indeed the rest of the Creative department--lights up later (during Season 6, 1968) for ArtisticStimulation, but otherwise no mind-expansion goes on with good ol' pot.[[/note]] Roger and Jane in "Far Away Places" (with acid). Don has an unpleasant variation in "The Crash" (with a cocktail of stimulants and Vitamin B12).

* ''Series/MadMen'': Peggy in "My Old Kentucky Home." Roger and Jane in "Far Away Places".

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 (see also JunkieProphet).

* Used heavily throughout Film/NakedLunch with an exterminator's ''bug spray'' of all things, [[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext which may or may not open your mind to the fact that the world's being controlled by giant bugs that speak out of their anuses]]. This may have to do with it being loosely based on a book that was allegedly written under the influence of drugs.

** In TheMovie, he had another "vision quest" when he was given some kind of (apparently spicy) herbal tea by an Inuit woman and did throat-singing with her. He ends up getting ripped apart by trees until he figures out that he's been totally selfish AndThatsTerrible.

* This trope is [[InvokedTrope invoked]] in the late '60s ''{{Radio/Dragnet}}'', where at least one [[MonsterOfTheWeek criminal of the week]] espouses it. In a different episode, Friday recommends that a teenage boy try the local library instead.

* Used heavily throughout Film/NakedLunch with an exterminator's ''bug spray'' of all things, which may or may not open your mind to the fact that the world's being controlled by giant bugs that speak out of their anuses. This may have to do with it being loosely based on a book that was allegedly written under the influence of drugs.

* Used heavily throughout Film/NakedLunch with the substance a bug spray of all things, which may or may not open your mind to the fact that the world's being controlled by giant bugs that speak out of their anuses. This may have to do with it being loosely based on a book that was allegedly written under the influence of drugs.

* In ''ThePerksOfBeingAWallflower'', the protagonist goes to a house party, and eats a cannabis brownie without knowing what's in it. Soon after, the otherwise quiet and reserved character is sitting in a lotus position babbling all sorts of stuff, some of it silly, [[EruditeStoner some of it quite insightful]]. As a result of this, he gains a bunch of new friends.

[[folder:Other Sites]]
* ''Website/{{Erowid}}'': Some people claim to have had experiences like this. Most common with cannabis, MDMA, and the psychedelics.
[[/folder]]

* Several Traditions in ''MageTheAscension'' use various drugs as Foci.

* SherlockHolmes uses cocaine (legal in VictorianLondon) when he ''[[InvertedTrope doesn't]]'' have a case, because otherwise his mind will burn out like a powerful engine running without a load. Played straight with tobacco: he famously calls one case "quite a three-pipe problem" and stays up all night smoking to solve it.

* Several Traditions in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' use various drugs as Foci.

* The stereotypical enlightening peyote trip is parodied in the ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer". In it, Homer eats some [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin "merciless peppers of Quetzalzacatenango"]] and goes on a hallucinatory trip, complete with colourful {{Mayincatec}} imagery and a coyote SpiritAdvisor, who urges him to "find his soulmate". Homer eventually figures out, unsurprisingly, that [[spoiler:Marge is his soulmate.]] It remains unclear whether his trip had supernatural qualities, or whether it was just a regular hallucination.

* Several Traditions in ''MageTheAscension'' use various drugs as Foci.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the [[PhilipKDick Philip K. Dick]] story ''Faith of our Fathers''. The main character, a loyal member of a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, takes a drug that makes him perceive his country's dictator as an evil, inhuman being. Except it turns out this isn't a metaphor; the dictator really ''is'' an inhuman monster, and everyone in the world is drugged so that they hallucinate he's a human being. The main character was actually given an ''anti''-hallucinogen, and so, for a brief time, was the only ''non''-drug addled person on the planet and able to see the dictator for what he really is.

* The story "Carcinoma Angels" in ''DangerousVisions'' features someone trying to do this in an attempt to use the higher understanding of his own body functions and mental state to cure cancer. [[spoiler: It ''works'', but now he can't find his way out into the physical world again.]]
* Frank Herbert used this at least twice:

* In ''[[VorkosiganSaga Memory]]'', 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.

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 the use of drugs is shown to have positive effects. One way of doing this is having someone gain a deeper understanding by taking drugs.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' fully encourages the use of drugs in some cases in order to reach an epiphany he thinks is already trapped in his mind. Well, drugs and in one case electric shock therapy.

* Several Traditions in MageTheAscension use various drugs as Foci.

--''[They] did it the old-fashioned way: with '''drugs'''.''

** In an issue of ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', a peyote trip helps the eponymous character realize [[NoticingTheFourthWall he's a character in a comic book]], though he forgets it once the trip is over. Animal Man is accompanied by a Native American called James Hightower, and the peyote ritual is depicted in stereotypical Native American terms, but with the twist that [[MeaningfulName Hightower]] is a scientist and a not a shaman of any sort. Both of them also get an [[SpiritAdvisor totem animal guide]] for the trip.

* The BBC's [[{{Series/Sherlock}} modern-day adaptation]] of SherlockHolmes riffed on the Sherlock's "three-pipe problem" (see the entry in ''Literature'') with him wearing three nicotine patches because the case was "a three-patch problem".
* Another Sherlock Holmes example: This trope was discussed and averted in an episode of CBS's ''Series/{{Elementary}}.'' In this adaptation Holmes was once hooked on drugs, but is currently sober. A former friend and practicing drug dealer comes for Holmes' help when his daughter is kidnapped and being held for ransom. The drug-dealer spends a good deal of the episode trying to convince Sherlock to use cocaine again, because he believes the detective works better and can close cases quicker when his mind is under the influence. Sherlock [[DefiedTrope refuses]] and eventually loses his temper and nearly strangles him, then proceeds to solve the case sober. An [[InvertedTrope inversion]] is also suggested in the series, in that Sherlock uses drugs in hopes of dulling his ever-active deductive senses.

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.

If HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs is used as a defining character trait, the character is typically an EruditeStoner. JunkieProphet is a subtrope where the use of drugs specifically helps someone foresee the future.

* In an issue of ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', a peyote trip helps the eponymous character realize [[NoticingTheFourthWall he's a character in a comic book]], though he forgets it once the trip is over. Animal Man is accompanied by a Native American called James Hightower, and the peyote ritual is depicted in stereotypical Native American terms, but with the twist that [[MeaningfulName Hightower]] is a scientist and a not a shaman of any sort. Both of them also get an [[SpiritAdvisor totem animal guide]] for the trip.
* In ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', there are several occasions where characters gain deeper knowledge via drugs, both real and [[FantasticDrug imaginary]] ones. The most notable example of the latter is the blue mold the protagonist Dane and his mentor Tom smoke, allowing Dane to contact [[SentientCosmicForce the Barbelith]], though it's later revealed that [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope the mold was just regular mold]] with no narcotic qualities at all.]]

* ''Series/{{House}}'' fully encourages the use of drugs in some cases in order to reach an epiphany he thinks is already trapped in his mind. Well, drugs and in one case electric shock therapy. Also House sometimes encourages drugs or experiments or dangerous procedures to be performed on patients in the hope of revealing symptoms they may have.

DrunkenMaster is a similar where an intoxicant temporarily enhances someone's ''physical'' (instead of mental) capabilities. If a drug grants someone actual physical superpowers, we're dealing with a SuperSerum.

DrunkenMaster is a SisterTrope where an intoxicant temporarily enhances someone's ''physical'' (instead of mental) capabilities. If a drug grants someone actual physical superpowers, we're dealing with a SuperSerum.