1893: Consciousness under the influence of cannabis indica

Author: Edward Wheeler Scripture (1864 – 1945)

Date: 1893

Source: Scripture, Edward W. “Consciousness under the influence of Cannabis indica.” Science 560 (1893): 233-234.

Background: TK

Complete transcript

The statement is generally made that the extract of Cannabis Indica (flowers of the Indian hemp whose leaves and resin furnish hashish) causes time and space to be greatly lengthened in consciousness. Wishing to know what is meant by these statements I obtained the prescription:

Rx. Ex. Cannabis Indicae 1 oz. Alcohol. (P. & Co.) M. Liq. Alcoholic solution of extract of Cannabis Indica. One drachm contains three grains. Commencing dose ten drops xxxi m. one-quarter grain of the extract.

One evening I took ten drops as prescribed. No effects were noticed for over 45 minutes. Concluding that the dose was not strong enough I gave up the experiment for that occasion and drank a mug of beer preparatory to retiring. The narcotic action of the hops probably assisted in bringing on the effects of the dose. It is to be noted that my consciousness is very susceptible to the influence of narcotics.

For over an hour and a half, till final sleep occurred, and in a lesser degree throughout the next day, several important changes in mental life were observed. The most striking was the fluctuation of attention. The ex-perimeters of Lange (Philos. Studien, IV, 390 and of Eekeuten, Pape and Marbe (Philos. Stud., VIII, 343, 388, 615) have demonstrated the phenomenon as a normal condition for weak stimuli. For example, the faint ticking of a watch is alternately lost and heard. It holds good also of stronger sensations; the ticking of a clock, although loud, will vary in its apparent intensity. The intense fluctuations under the influence of hemp can be illustrated by the following case which occurred several times. A horse car is heard approaching; shortly afterward I find that the sound enters anew into consciousness; again it enters anew, and this is repeated through all the phases of approach, passage and retreat of the car. While listening to the sound, it somehow slips away, just as in Lange’s experiment, I had rather say a while. In describing the phenomenon it is evident: that the sound is heard, dies away, is heard again all that is known in consciousness is the repeated entrance of the sound and the memory of the fact that it had been lost out of view a moment before.

The next most striking phenomenon was the remote-ness of objects in their relation to myself. After the phenomenon had begun to be noticeable I wrote down on the spot the condition I found myself in. The words are: “Events seem more distant in feeling of subjectivity—events happened seem to have happened in time remotely related to the observer—apparently the time seems quite remote—yet after all it is not really longer than the usual time. Events slip into a less personal, yet not further away. My feet on a chair in front do not seem so close to me, but my legs are not longer.” I could estimate a period of five minutes quite correctly; I could touch objects without any noticeable error of estimation. Yet events of five minutes ago belonged to the past and objects on the table beside me seemed scarcely to be there for me to touch them. During the following day I or a trial one hundredth that a minute after seeing a place seven objects, no event might as well have occurred on the previous day.

All these phenomena, in a minor degree, I have frequently observed when depressed by dull weather or by fatigue. On those occasions and under the influence of hemp there seems to be a partial loss of power of volition in general. This, I think, gives the key note to the phenomenon noticed. Holding a sensation bodily under attention requires an effort, in fact, even when the sensation is strictly attended to, it unquestionably undergoes continual fluctuations of consciousness. Attention, even in its simplest form, the so-called involuntary attention, includes an element of subjective reaction to the sensation; it is a phenomenon of will in its simplest stage. This decrease of will power, or reacting power, would render the fluctuations of attention greater. The remoteness in time seems to depend on the weakness of attention. As already stated, the actual time does not seem longer; events are as correctly localized in time as in space. But whenever a memory of a past event, even though it occurred only a minute ago, is called up, it seems to belong to the distant past. Memories are remoter the fainter they are. The calling up of a memory requires an act of voluntary or involuntary attention. Any weakness of will would tend to produce a weaker—and thus remoter—memory. Since weak low that memories grow fainter as the time elapsed is longer, an over-estimation of the past is natural.

The remoteness of objects in space is due to a conscious or unconscious estimate of the effort necessary to reach them. When the effort is more difficult, as with fatigue, hemp, etc., its amount will be over-estimated; objects will appear remoter than otherwise although our previous knowledge of their space-relations prevents any distortion of space itself.

The drug finally produced faint illusions, chiefly ceiling as decorated with colored designs, and finally sleep. It is noteworthy that the progress of the drug took place in stages, there being a continual fluctuation between loss and recovery of power.

The conclusion seems to be that among the earlier phenomena produced by Cannabis Indica the most prominent is a diminution of the power of subjective retention in sensations, or as a decrease of primitive volition. This leads to an incapacity for both involuntary and voluntary attention whereby sensations are dropped out of consciousness for intervals of time. The loss of power of attention also affects the memories, making them much weaker; this leads to an over-estimation of the remoteness of past events although time is not directly over-estimated. The decrease of volitional power leads to an over estimation of the remoteness of objects from the person, since to reach them would require more effort than usual.

Finally, let me suggest some lines of experiment to be performed before and during the influence of hemp: 1st. the rate of voluntary tapping to test the effect on simple voluntary movements; 2nd. graphic records of the time of fluctuation of some sound, to determine the periods of fluctuation of attention; 3rd. estimation and record of one second of time; 4th. experiments on will-time. Owing to a disagreeable after-effect of the drug on my organism I shall probably be precluded, for some time, from carrying out these experiments myself.