What do psychedelics reveal about consciousness? What impact have psychedelics had on philosophy?
In this rapidly growing area of study, this is the first volume to explore the philosophy of psychedelic experience, from a range of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. In doing so, Philosophy and Psychedelics reveals just why the place of psychedelics in
our societies should not be left to medical sciences alone, as psychedelic
experience opens up new perspectives on fundamental philosophical questions
relating to human experience, ethics, and the metaphysics of mind.
Mapping a range of
philosophical responses to the surge in studies into psychedelic drugs in the cognitive sciences,
this go-to volume examines topics
including psychedelics and the role of governance; psychedelics and
mysticism; what psychedelics can tell us about dyadic thankfulness; and psychedelics as ways to gain new knowledge.
Written by leading international
scholars, the essays cover Western and non-Western traditions, from
analytic philosophy to Zen Buddhism, and discuss a variety of hallucinogens,
such as LSD, MDMA, and Ayahuasca, in order to build a much-needed bridge
between the rapidly growing scientific research and the philosophy behind
psychedelic experience.
Introduction – Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes and Christine Hauskeller(University of Exeter, UK) 1. Transpersonal Gratitude and Psychedelic Altered States of Consciousness, Taline Artinian (University of Exeter, UK) 2. What is Real(ity)?, John H. Buchanan (Centre for Process Studies, USA) 3. A Cultural History of Psychedelics in the US, Kyle Buller, Joe Moore, and Lenny Gibson (Dreamshadow Group, USA) 4. Power and the Sublime in Aldous Huxley's Drug Aesthetics, Robert Dickins (Psychedelic Press, UK) 5. Decolonizing the Philosophy of Psychedelics, Osiris Sinuhé González Romero (University of Saskatchewan, Canada) 6. Making Your Soul Visible, Michael Halewood (University of Essex, UK) 7. Individualization and Alienation: Paradoxes in Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Christine Hauskeller (University of Exeter, UK) 8. Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse: Psychedelics and Revolution, Fernando Huesca Ramon (Meritorius Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico) 9. Mary on Acid: Experiences of Unity and the Epistemic Gap, Jussi Jylkkä (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) 10. Are Psychedelic Drugs Distorting?, Ole Martin Moen (Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway) 11. The Unconscious in Zen and Psychedelic Experience, Steve Odin (University of Hawai?i, USA) 12. Altered Consciousness after Descartes: Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism as Psychedelic Realism, Matthew D. Segall (California Institute of Integral Studies, USA) 13. The White Sun of Substance: Spinozism and the Psychedelic Amor Dei Intellectualis, Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes (University of Exeter, UK) 14. Journeying in the Realm of the Unconscious: Jung's Liber Novus and Psychedelic Experience, Johanna Hilla Sopanen (University of Exeter, UK) 15. Arguments for the Psychedelic Cure of Western Philosophy, Michel Weber (University of Saskatchewan, Canada) Index
Peter Sjöstedt Hughes is Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK. Christine Hauskeller is Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK.
Reviews for Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience
Philosophy and Psychedelics is a fabulous book – it’s psychedelicious – a rich thoughtful collection which exceeds the samples I’ve considered here. It should be read slowly and sporadically rather than gorged, to avoid indigestion and prolong the pleasure. * Psychiatrie en Filosofie * This impressive multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collection surveys the impacts of psychedelic research on philosophy, science and culture. Examinations of standard philosophical problems in light of psychedelic experience are complemented by studies of broader cultural and cross-cultural significance of psychedelia. Its inclusion of non-Western perspectives on psychedelics sets an important example. * Farzad Mahootian, Clinical Associate Prof., Global Liberal Studies, New York University, USA * Sacred plants and substances propitiate knowledge based on direct experience. Like a strong wind on fallen leaves, they disturbed previous orders, raise questions, propose new hypothesis, induce wondering at many levels. The authors of this timely book make an important contribution to a conversation that cannot be ignored any longer, one that has its deeper roots in the ancestral traditions of all continents, and which seems especially urgent in these times of extremes and uncertainty. * Luis Eduardo Luna, Director of the Wasiwaska Research Center, Brazil * I strongly recommend this book to any reader interested in understanding more about the potential of psychedelics to throw light on how the mind works, what this means for philosophy - ontology, epistemology and ethics as well as to see psychedelic analogies retraced in past thinkers. * Paradigm Explorer *
