This post is coauthored by Courtney Olson.

Psychedelic medicines are natural and synthetic substances that share a unique ability to produce alteration in consciousness. Examples of psychedelics include psilocybin mushrooms, peyote cactus, the Amazonian tea ayahuasca, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

In the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies psychedelic medicines as Schedule I drugs, which means they currently have no approved medicinal use and a high abuse potential. However, proponents hope this will change if further scientific research can demonstrate their safe use and therapeutic benefits.

Indigenous cultures have utilized psychedelic medicines safely for millennia, employing them for healing, divination, and personal growth. More recently, non-indigenous healthcare practitioners have begun exploring these medicines as potential treatments for a wide variety of psychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance use disorders. In addition to improving mental health, psychedelic medicines have also been discovered to enhance creativity.

Creativity is described as the creation of ideas or objects considered both novel and valuable. Features of creativity include divergent thinking, convergent thinking, generating unusual ideas, problem-solving, and designing new devices.

Divergent thinking involves the ability to develop multiple, alternative solutions to a single question or problem. Convergent thinking, on the other hand, relates to finding a single answer to a question or problem.

Multiple psychedelic medicines have been found to enhance creativity. Researchers from the Netherlands, Spain, and........

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