Philosophy of Psychedelics

This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism.

Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations. Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years. But these benefits seem to be mediated by "mystical" experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern: do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality?

This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism.

Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion: this "Comforting Delusion Objection" to psychedelic therapy fails. While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy. Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is). Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists.

Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.

Philosophy of Psychedelics is a terrific, intellectually meticulous study of the nature, meaning, and effects of psychedelic experiences. The discussion ranges over the mind-brain relation, transformative experiences, the ethics of psychedelic therapy, and whether psychedelics help us to see the nature of things as they really are or just produce uplifting and therapeutically positive hallucinations. Chris Letheby is a wise and careful guide to the current state of psychedelic therapy and sets very high standards for philosophers who want to follow him in thinking responsibly about this intriguing area of research.

Autorentext
Dr Chris Letheby is a philosopher working on issues related to the therapeutic and transformative potential of classic psychedelic drugs. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Adelaide, presented the first systematic analysis of psychedelic experience within the framework of 21st century philosophy of cognitive science. He is currently Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Adelaide on the Australian government-funded project 'Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry'. He was awarded an Early Career Researcher Prize in 2022 from the School of Humanities, University of Adelaide for this book. In addition he received the Faculty of Arts Prize for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Researcher, from the University of Adelaide.

Inhalt

• Introduction

• Introduction

• On the need for a natural philosophy of psychedelics

• Introduction

• The psychedelic renaissance

• Evidence for safety and efficacy

• An existential medicine?

• The Comforting Delusion Objection

• Naturalizing the entheogenic conception

• The phenomenology of psychedelic therapy

• Introduction

• Perception

• The sense of self

• The transformative process

• Conclusion

• The mechanisms of psychedelic therapy

• Introduction

• Neuroplasticity theories

• The Metaphysical Belief Theory

• The Metaphysical Alief Theory

• Conclusion

• The role of self-representation

• Introduction

• Psychological factors

• Neural correlates

• Neurocognitive explanation

• Conclusion

• Resetting the brain

• Introduction

• The Reset Theory

• Predictive processing

• Relaxed beliefs under psychedelics

• Resetting beliefs under psychedelics

• Unbinding the self

• Introduction

• Predictive self-binding

• Selfhood embodied and (temporally) extended

• A centre of representational gravity

• The self unbound

• Opacity and mystical epiphanies

• Psychedelic therapy: a two-factor theory

• Self and self-consciousness

• Conclusion

• Epistemology

• Introduction

• Psychopharmacology and epistemology

• Knowledge that

• Knowledge how

• Knowledge by acquaintance

• New knowledge of old facts

• Indirect epistemic benefits

• Epistemic innocence

• Spirituality

• Introduction

• Naturalizing spirituality

• Spirituality as unselfing

• Conclusion

• Testable predictions

• Future directions

• Naturalistic entheogenics