Higher Connections

Before I get into the deeper connections I’ve experienced with Alexandra and others, I want to summarize how marijuana affects me each time I consume it. For those of you who have never tried it, consuming marijuana is slightly different than consuming alcohol in that alcohol initially makes you feel good (or “buzzed”), but then you generally get depressed, tired, nauseous, and sick if you drink too much. Alcohol seems to trigger the release of dopamine, which initially makes us feel good but, after too much alcohol, other brain chemicals are altered, which enhances the feeling of depression (and drunk crying).31

You could die from alcohol poisoning if you drink too much since alcohol is technically a toxin that kills cells.32 Comparatively, marijuana, at the right dose, makes most people just feel relaxed, at ease, lighter—like a weight lifted off your shoulders. For me, it does all of this, but it also makes me feel more connected to things and to people. This connectivity can be summarized a few ways, but, in general, marijuana makes me more aware of my feelings and the feelings of others.

I have summarized a few ways that marijuana makes me feel as follows:

• I am more aware of my thoughts. I generally feel more aware of what I am thinking and feeling. For example, think of my thoughts like the wheel on Wheel of Fortune. As the wheel spins and that stupid little triangle thing goes from one number to the next, I can feel my thoughts change. As my brain moves from the $500 slot (e.g., a thought about me needing to do the laundry) to the $1,250 slot (e.g., a thought about how I can’t wait to eat a slice of pizza later) to the $750 slot (e.g., I need to lose ten pounds), I can feel each thought leave my brain and the next thought come into my brain more clearly than when I am sober.

  As another example, think about when you’re in a nice hot shower with awesome water pressure and you just get lost in your thoughts. You are hopefully able to tune out all of the troubles of your day—kids, significant other, work, financial issues, physical issues—and just focus on yourself and your thoughts. (Unless, of course, you bring a waterproof phone into the shower with you, but why would you do that? Don’t you get enough screen time during non-showering hours?) Think about what happens when you’re in this zone—your thoughts are likely all over the place and generally freeing. Some people sing in the shower, some people cry in the shower, some people are creative in the shower. Whatever the case, you are letting your mind wander free and it hopefully feels damn good. That’s how I feel when I’m high.

• I am more aware of my senses. When I’m high, I can hear, feel, smell, taste, and see things better. I feel my heart beat more intensely, I can feel muscle twitches more intensely, and my senses are crisper and deeper than normal. This can get a little weird when you’re using the toilet—not going to lie—but it feels like I am more connected to my body.
• I am able to connect things more easily. One of the first major thoughts and feelings I remember having was that marijuana increased my overall brain activity, which, in turn, increased the number of connections in my brain. It’s like I was able to be quicker with my thoughts than I would be while sober. Think of it like the speedometer of my brain increases, resulting in more thoughts, deeper thoughts, and an increase in overall connectivity of my brain. I did some research on whether this has been scientifically proven and found a few interesting things:

  a) In a study published in 2014 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers compared forty-eight adults who used marijuana at least three times a day, for an average of eight or nine years, and sixty-two people who didn’t use marijuana. It turned out that the brains of the chronic marijuana users showed greater connectivity, which is generally a measure of how well information travels between different parts of the brain. The researchers said they don’t know for sure why chronic marijuana use is linked to these brain changes, but they think it may have something to do with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient, which affects cannabinoid receptors.33

  b) THC may increase the level of “neural noise,” or random neural activity in the brain. In a 2015 study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers measured the levels of this random neural activity in twenty-four people under two conditions: after they had been given pure THC, and after they had been given a placebo. They found that the people showed greater levels of neural noise after they received the THC compared with their levels after they took the placebo.34 The neural noise seems to be an increase in certain neurotransmitters, which are often referred to as the body’s chemical messengers. They are the molecules used by the nervous system to transmit messages between neurons or from neurons to muscles. Sometimes neurotransmitters can bind to receptors and cause an electrical signal to be transmitted down the cell (excitatory). Marijuana seems to increase the activity of certain neurotransmitters, including GABA, dopamine, and noradrenaline.35

  So, according to this research, the greater connectivity I feel while high is happening, and theoretically, it increases my ability to form and sense thoughts, more so than when I am sober. When I take edibles, I feel like my mind is going at warp speed for two to three hours afterward, and then my mind needs to cool down after generating so many thoughts and connections. Most of the concepts I’ve written about in this book have been while my mind has been in this warp-speed phase. After my warp-speed phase, I go into my staring-at-the-TV phase for two to three hours before “knocking out” (picture Jim Breuer’s character in Half Baked, or go watch the movie if you haven’t seen it). I will go into more detail about what I think is happening during this warp-speed phase later in this book.

• I am more aware of others. I feel how others around me are feeling and can sense their energy better. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I am more sensitive to other people’s feelings. I can be talking to Alexandra, my mother, my kid’s karate teacher, or my local post office worker, and I’ll be able to sense their emotions. Some people call this type of person an “empath” or a “clairsentient.” In general, I feel closer to people and sense their feelings more when I’m high than when I’m sober.