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The history of mankind has preserved the unique works of legendary writers. No matter how you reread some of them, each time a new level of understanding is revealed, and some of them even contain a second semantic row.
It would seem, how can one be so brilliant and so subtly convey a new type of worldview through a character?
As it turned out, many of the cult personalities “expanded consciousness” and achieved a deep understanding of life were helped by … drugs. And it’s not just innocent cups of coffee, drunk all night long, to turn in the manuscript on time.
Many writers were heavily and heavily addicted to hard drugs that caused hallucinations or even brain damage.
Let’s get acquainted with 10 historical writers who worked under the influence of a variety of drugs.
10 Carlos Castaneda
The famous writer and philosopher developed a new teaching for his followers. He does not hide the experience of eating plants that cause severe hallucinations.
The author says that Mexican Indians introduced him to this method of expanding consciousness, and they taught him how to use the “grass” correctly without serious consequences for the body.
In his books, Castaneda does not in any way agitate to repeat his experience and use such means to find the meaning of life, and in interviews he completely criticizes those who take drugs.
9. Ayn Rand
In our review, not only men will be presented. While working on The Fountainhead, the famous writer Rand took Benzedrine, a type of amphetamine prescribed by a doctor to combat chronic fatigue.
The fragile woman quickly became addicted, and she took drugs for more than 30 years, attributing everything to the need to maintain the desired weight.
Ain’s relatives noted that she had mood swings and asked to stop, but the writer herself was not at all worried about the addiction.
8. Charles Baudelaire
The famous French poet, who was nicknamed “the king of carrion”, could not imagine life without Indian hemp and was even admitted to the Hashish Club.
Baudelaire devoted his works with pleasure to his favorite drug. However, the man quickly got tired of cannabis, and he found an outlet in opium, barely overcoming his addiction later.
Based on the experience, Shar wrote the book “Artificial Paradise”, where he describes in detail the effect of drugs on consciousness. At the same time, the author called opium “an unbridled demon”, and equated the effect of hashish with a “calm seducer”.
7. Elizabeth Browning
Another writer who, night after night, chased after a fairy tale given to her by opium. As it turned out, Browning got hooked on the drug when she was only 15, which allowed her to artificially dull the pain spasm from a back injury.
After 30 years, the woman suffered from diseases of the heart and respiratory systems, so she used opium tincture for anesthesia.
For example, in 1845 she drank 40 drops of the tincture daily, which is considered a huge dose. According to her, opium helped to keep from constant fainting and kept the balance of the nervous system.
6. Lewis Carroll
And again this opium, to which the author of Alice in Wonderland was exposed this time. No wonder the book turned out, to put it mildly, strange and full of unprecedented metaphors, colors and subtexts.
At the time of the writer, opium was called “laudanum” and was used as an anesthetic, after which dependence was formed quickly.
With the help of tincture of opium, Lewis treated his migraine, and also coped with the complex that arose due to stuttering.
5. Michael Bulgakov
The legendary writer gave the world not only The Master and Margarita, but also the controversial work Morphine. The latter is about a doctor who struggled with morphine addiction.
As it turned out, the text is quite autobiographical, because Mikhail himself used morphine. The writer gave himself injections at night and wondered if he would wake up the next morning.
Relatives said that the writer suffered from nightmares, and at night he could chase ghosts. In some ways, his life is mixed with fantasy. Bulgakov became addicted to the drug during the period when he worked as a zemstvo doctor.
4. William Burroughs
The famous writer did not hide his dependence on heroin, but sincerely condemned his addiction.
Burroughs was on the drug most of his life, and devoted almost all of his work to direct and or indirect reflection on the topic of addiction.
At some point in his life, William even sold drugs in Greenwich Village. Toward the day of his death, Burroughs switched to methadone replacement therapy.
3. Honore de Balzac
And here is something really interesting in our review. It turns out that coffee can be consumed so much that the addiction becomes really destructive.
Balzac was a very prolific writer, devoting several hours to writing every day. He drank too much coffee for this kind of work and could not sleep at night.
Caffeine addiction probably led to the writer’s heart disease, which led to an untimely death at the age of 50.
It is known that Balzac could drink more than 20 cups of hot drink per day.
2. Ken Kesey
The famous American writer, who became the “king” of the hippie generation, got hooked on the heavy and dangerous drug LSD.
The author was looking for material for the novel One Flew on the Cuckoo’s Nest in a hospital for war veterans. There he had to participate in experiments on the effects of LSD on the psyche. For just $70, doctors drugged young Kesey and recorded the body’s response to the drug.
Of course, the experiment “came to taste” inexperienced Ken – he even created a community to promote the drug at parties called “Merry Pranksters.”
1. Truman Capote
The author has made an excellent career in the literary field. As a result, triumph and power turned his head, and a hectic lifestyle corrupted Capote.
Stress, social life, alcohol – all this eventually led to a desire to try more powerful means of raising the mood, which drugs have become.
After the author’s death, blood tests showed the presence of Valium, anesthetics, barbiturates, and epilepsy drugs. Here is such an “explosive cocktail”.
We will not evaluate the actions of famous writers, because everyone is responsible for his own choice. It’s just that we all have to come down to earth and understand that some works appeared thanks to the strongest “doping”.