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This provocative study takes readers on the ultimate creative trip, exploring in depth the heightened states of mind that give rise to art. The book considers how the components of creativity--awareness, energy, loss of self-consciousness--are affected by stimuli to the brain such as meditative rituals, alcohol, and drugs. The impact of altered states on Samuel Coleridge, William Faulkner, Jackson Pollock, and other creative giants is explored, as is the role drugs play in group creativity--jazz, blues music, experimental theater, film. Also discussed are pop icons such as Little Richard, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia and the visionary, surreal quality often associated with their music, describing ecstatic experience or demonic worlds.