Science explains how marijuana inspires awe

Regular cannabis users often report one important side effect of smoking marijuana – everything in your life seems amazing. Pizza is going to be heaven. Walks in nature are like exploring the Garden of Eden. Mediocre Netflix shows become masterful works of art. Now science explains how marijuana inspires awe.

That’s by design—more specifically, your brain’s design. We don’t normally talk about awe as an emotion in public. Instead, negative feelings such as anger, sadness and fear dominate the discourse space. But awe is an integral part of the experience of being alive. The emotion arises from a new sensation or moment in your life. A feeling that you cannot believe that you are lucky enough to witness something that could be called magical.

Awe arises from an almond-shaped spherical collection of cell bodies called the amygdala. You may have heard of the amygdala, which has been described as the brain’s “fear center.” That simplifies it considerably. The amygdala regulates many of your emotions and behaviors, including pleasurable feelings like awe. As Timmen L. Cermak, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction medicine, explains, one way the amygdala promotes reverence is through organizing incoming stimuli.

“When an unfamiliar stimulus arrives, such as wearing a new ring, the amygdala lends a particular ‘pick’ of alertness to the sense of the ring,” writes Cermak. “This draws our attention to the new sensations on our finger. After a while, when feeling the ring becomes the unchanging norm, the amygdala stops adding the momentum. We get used to the feel of the ring and it fades into the background of our consciousness.”

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Guess what disturbs this familiar feeling of always the same? Your body’s natural endocannabinoid system, which is activated by ingesting cannabinoids — or simply hitting a joint. It lowers the barrier to what your amygdala, which has a dense collection of cannabinoid receptors, thinks is novel or new. It then tells your brain to release neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin so that pizza tastes like the best thing you’ve ever eaten.

“We dishabitualize ourselves from the world and many stimuli rise back to consciousness from the background,” writes Cermak of this effect.

Photo by Diego PH via Unsplash

But cannabis also inspires awe in more subtle ways. A 2015 study published in Emotion analyzed the link between inflammation and negative emotions. Researchers found that poor mental health often translates into poor physical health. One example was that high levels of inflammation correlated with clinical depression. However, researchers found that the strongest association is between levels of inflammation and awe.

“Why would awe be such a strong predictor of reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines?” researchers wrote. “One reason is that pro-inflammatory cytokines promote social withdrawal and decrease exploration, which would serve the adaptive purpose of helping an individual recover from injury or illness.”

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“On the other hand, awe is associated with curiosity and discovery, suggesting behavioral responses opposite to those seen in inflammation,” they added. “In this sense, experiences of awe can be part of an integrated response that includes emotional and biological responses that facilitate approach and social exploration.”

Several studies have noted the anti-inflammatory effects of marijuana. Clearly, by reducing inflammation, cannabis also inspires awe in users. Sometimes you hear marijuana making the user feel like a kid again. This may be meant in jest as you cannot function well enough to engage in adult activities such as doing laundry or cooking. But it can also highlight the great wonders we associate with childhood – how new and lush life seems. In other words, marijuana helps remind consumers of just how fulfilling and possible life can be.