I have been an occasional marijuana smoker for the past 2 years. I love every aspect of the drug; in fact I love it too much to abuse it, in other words I enjoy it once every month or so in moderation so that the positive effects of the drugs do not diminish over time. With that said, it's pretty much common sense to not smoke up right before exams as marijuana disrupts medium to long term recall memory and inhibits the formation of new short term memories.
I woke up last Friday thinking it was a Saturday for whatever reason, and lit up my trusty homemade gravity bong. As the smoke filled my lungs and I melted into my chair in euphoria, the horrifying realization that the day was actually a Friday dawned on me, and it chilled me to the bone as I remembered I had a morning music class.
A few slaps to the face, a cold shower and lots of panic later, I arrived at my music class just in time for the monthly exam. The test was composed of 2 parts; the first part was made up of multiple choice questions testing my knowledge of the history of the medieval and renaissance periods, whereas the second part was a listening test where my instructor would play excerpts of works from the aforementioned periods for everyone in the lecture hall to identify, categorize, and analyze. Having previously taken RCM grade 4 history, I wasn't too worried about the first part of the exam as I would always ace it without studying anyway, but I dreaded the second part of the test as shit from the earlier periods, especially medieval stuff, are just uber weird and all similar-sounding even for a music fanatic such as myself.
The effects of MJ was apparent before I even started writing; it has the ability to enhance emotions, and because I was in a state of panic and distress, I was pretty paranoid about others noticing just how blazed out of my fucking mind I was, sitting there trembling slightly with gigantic bags under my red eyes. I comforted myself somewhat thinking back to the 1st rule of tripping; nobody can tell that you're tripping until you tell them, "dude... I'm fucking tripppping." So another few slaps to the face and some awkward stares later, the exam began.
I started to peak about halfway through the first part of the exam and believe me when I say I was fucking ripped out of my skulls; completely unrelated thoughts were racing through my mind and I started to having CEVs (close-eyed visuals), occasionally totally forgetting where I was and what I was doing. I forced myself to somehow focus, and with great difficulty I finished the first part of the exam furious at my inability to recall names, dates and events that I knew I had locked up in my MJ-addled brain somewhere. Naturally at that point I thought I was totally FUBAR for the second part where the test would actually comprise of me taking in an external stimulus, analyzing it and composing my thoughts down onto paper in coherent words. Yah, it seemed pretty much impossible.
To my utter and yet hugely pleasant surprise, I underestimated just how much MJ really enhances one's appreciation and understanding of music. As the absolutely fascinating songs (or so I thought) gently caressed my ears, I didn't just hear the music; I fucking listened the shit out of it. Harmonies, rhythms, tempo, dynamics, etc. you name it and I heard it in crystal clarity. Not only that, I was able to visualize (best example I can think of would be this) the polyphony as each voice of the 4-part Fugue simply presented themselves to me sans time; I was somehow able to focus on each melody/voice individually, really hearing and understand it, without neglecting the other voices. It was as if I heard each melody separately, multiple times in sobriety only somehow, with my MJ-addled, no fueled brain, I was able to do it in one listening while all the voice were playing simultaneously. Moreover, the musical terms and ideas just flowed to me like never before; I didn't have to write down words, the words were bursting to escape from my pen. Consequently, I ran out of space for every answer and wrote 3 extra pages worth of analysis and came out of the exam with a completely WTF feeling.
Fast forward some MJ-fueled IRL trolling over the weekend (most notably, smoking up then putting on some teen clothes and sitting in random classes in a nearby high school, and attending Sunday service) and here we arrive at Monday. Just came back from music class and here are the results in comparison to my May exam's scoring:
Part 1 Part 2
May 96.5% 81.2%
June 83% 100%
My instructor personally asked me to stay behind after class to discuss my paper. I had absolutely no fucking clue what I had written so mostly our conversation comprised of him praising me and me nodding in agreement, god I must have come off as such an introverted music nerd.
Regardless, looks like I have found a potential golden ticket; I will be exploring new possibilities of enhancements that MJ brings. Under the right circumstances, it is no longer an intoxicant but a fuel for a better and smarter me.
I woke up last Friday thinking it was a Saturday for whatever reason, and lit up my trusty homemade gravity bong. As the smoke filled my lungs and I melted into my chair in euphoria, the horrifying realization that the day was actually a Friday dawned on me, and it chilled me to the bone as I remembered I had a morning music class.
A few slaps to the face, a cold shower and lots of panic later, I arrived at my music class just in time for the monthly exam. The test was composed of 2 parts; the first part was made up of multiple choice questions testing my knowledge of the history of the medieval and renaissance periods, whereas the second part was a listening test where my instructor would play excerpts of works from the aforementioned periods for everyone in the lecture hall to identify, categorize, and analyze. Having previously taken RCM grade 4 history, I wasn't too worried about the first part of the exam as I would always ace it without studying anyway, but I dreaded the second part of the test as shit from the earlier periods, especially medieval stuff, are just uber weird and all similar-sounding even for a music fanatic such as myself.
The effects of MJ was apparent before I even started writing; it has the ability to enhance emotions, and because I was in a state of panic and distress, I was pretty paranoid about others noticing just how blazed out of my fucking mind I was, sitting there trembling slightly with gigantic bags under my red eyes. I comforted myself somewhat thinking back to the 1st rule of tripping; nobody can tell that you're tripping until you tell them, "dude... I'm fucking tripppping." So another few slaps to the face and some awkward stares later, the exam began.
I started to peak about halfway through the first part of the exam and believe me when I say I was fucking ripped out of my skulls; completely unrelated thoughts were racing through my mind and I started to having CEVs (close-eyed visuals), occasionally totally forgetting where I was and what I was doing. I forced myself to somehow focus, and with great difficulty I finished the first part of the exam furious at my inability to recall names, dates and events that I knew I had locked up in my MJ-addled brain somewhere. Naturally at that point I thought I was totally FUBAR for the second part where the test would actually comprise of me taking in an external stimulus, analyzing it and composing my thoughts down onto paper in coherent words. Yah, it seemed pretty much impossible.
To my utter and yet hugely pleasant surprise, I underestimated just how much MJ really enhances one's appreciation and understanding of music. As the absolutely fascinating songs (or so I thought) gently caressed my ears, I didn't just hear the music; I fucking listened the shit out of it. Harmonies, rhythms, tempo, dynamics, etc. you name it and I heard it in crystal clarity. Not only that, I was able to visualize (best example I can think of would be this) the polyphony as each voice of the 4-part Fugue simply presented themselves to me sans time; I was somehow able to focus on each melody/voice individually, really hearing and understand it, without neglecting the other voices. It was as if I heard each melody separately, multiple times in sobriety only somehow, with my MJ-addled, no fueled brain, I was able to do it in one listening while all the voice were playing simultaneously. Moreover, the musical terms and ideas just flowed to me like never before; I didn't have to write down words, the words were bursting to escape from my pen. Consequently, I ran out of space for every answer and wrote 3 extra pages worth of analysis and came out of the exam with a completely WTF feeling.
Fast forward some MJ-fueled IRL trolling over the weekend (most notably, smoking up then putting on some teen clothes and sitting in random classes in a nearby high school, and attending Sunday service) and here we arrive at Monday. Just came back from music class and here are the results in comparison to my May exam's scoring:
Part 1 Part 2
May 96.5% 81.2%
June 83% 100%
My instructor personally asked me to stay behind after class to discuss my paper. I had absolutely no fucking clue what I had written so mostly our conversation comprised of him praising me and me nodding in agreement, god I must have come off as such an introverted music nerd.
Regardless, looks like I have found a potential golden ticket; I will be exploring new possibilities of enhancements that MJ brings. Under the right circumstances, it is no longer an intoxicant but a fuel for a better and smarter me.
I thought this accidental experiment was interesting to say the least, your take on the matter?