View source for Philosophy of psychedelics

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'''Philosophy of psychedelics''' is the philosophical investigation of the [[psychedelic experience]]. While [[psychedelic drug|psychedelic]], [[entheogenic]] or [[hallucinogenic]] substances have been used by many traditional cultures throughout history mostly for religious purposes, recorded philosophical speculation and analysis of these substances, their [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] effects and the relevance of these [[altered states of consciousness]] to philosophical questions is a relatively late phenomenon in the [[history of philosophy]]. Traditional cultures who use psychedelic substances such as the Amazonian and [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|Indigenous Mexican]] peoples hold that ingesting medicinal plants such as [[Ayahuasca]] and [[Peyote]] allows one to commune with the beings of the [[Spirit world (Spiritualism)|spirit world]].

==Indian philosophy==
The Indian Yogi and scholar [[Patanjali]] in his Yoga sutras (4.1) mentions that mystic powers (''siddhaya'') can arise from certain "herbs" or "healing plants"<ref name=":0">Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Arthur Berriedale; Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Volume 1; Volume 5</ref> (''osadhi''):

:janmauṣadhi-mantra-tapaḥ samādhi jāḥ siddhayaḥ||
:The mystic powers arise due to birth, herbs, [[mantras]], the performance of austerity and [[samadhi]].<ref name="Bryant"/>

Later commentators on the Yoga sutras like [[Vyasa]] mention elixirs of the [[asuras]], and also state these herbal concoctions can be found in this world. [[Adi Shankara]] meanwhile refers to the Vedic drink [[Soma (drink)|Soma]].<ref name="Bryant">Bryant, Edwin F.; The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, chapter IV</ref>

[[Vajrayana]] Buddhist [[Tantras (Buddhism)|Tantras]] mention the nectar "[[amrita]]" (literally "immortal", "deathless") which was drunk during rituals and which is associated in the tradition with 'spiritual intoxication'.<ref name=":1">Gimian, Carolyn Rose; The Essential Chogyam Trungpa, Glossary</ref> A biography of the scholar [[Gampopa]] mentions how one of his teachers stated that "You can obtain [[Buddhahood]]: by taking a medicine pill which will make you immortal like the sun and moon."<ref name=":2">Stewart, J. M. The Life of Gampopa, The Incomparable Dharma Lord of Tibet, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, N. Y., USA, 1995, page 53.</ref> This is a reference to the Vajrayana practice of [[rasayana]] (Skt: "alchemy") to create certain potions or pills. According to M.L. Walter's study of Indo-Tibetan rasayana, ingestion of these substances were said to "strengthen the yogin and procure the [[siddhi]] for him, as well as bringing him to the final goal."<ref>Walter, M. L, Preliminary Results from a study of two Rasayana systems in Indo-Tibetan Esoterism published in Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson (M. Aris, ed.), Aris & Phillips Ltd., Warminster, England 1980, page 319</ref>  According to [[Chogyam Trungpa]] (1939 – 1987), a modern teacher in the [[Kagyu]] tradition:

<blockquote>amrita... is used in conferring the second abhisheka, the secret abhisheka. This transmission dissolves the student's mind into the mind of the teacher of the lineage. In general, amrita is the principle of intoxicating extreme beliefs, belief in ego, and dissolving the boundary between confusion and sanity so that coemergence can be realized.<ref>Trungpa, C.; Sacred Outlook: The Vajrayogini Shrine and Practice (in The Silk Route and the Diamond Path, D. E. Klimburg-Salter, editor ), UCLA Art Council, Los Angeles, 1982, page 236</ref></blockquote>

==19th century==
European literature such as [[Confessions of an English Opium-Eater]] by [[Thomas De Quincey]] (one of the first English commentators on [[Kant]])<ref>Stirling, James Hutchison (1867). "De Quincey and Coleridge Upon Kant," Fortnightly Review, Vol. 8, pp. 377–97.</ref>  and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s [[Kubla Khan]] described the use and phenomenal character of mind-altering substances such as [[Opium]]. De Quincey held that [[Opium]] allowed one to access the earliest of memories and that therefore no memories were ever truly forgotten:

<blockquote>The minutest incidents of childhood, or forgotten scenes of later years, were often revived: I could not be said to recollect them; for if I had been told of them when waking, I should not have been able to acknowledge them as parts of my past experience. But placed as they were before me, in dreams like intuitions, and clothed in all their evanescent circumstances and accompanying feelings, I recognized them instantaneously […] I feel assured that there is no such thing as forgetting possible to the mind.<ref>Quincey, Thomas de.  Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings.London: Penguin Books, 2003, 76</ref></blockquote>

[[Jacques-Joseph Moreau]], who reported his experiments with mental patients and drugs, believed that “the hashish experience was a way to gain insight into mental disease.”<ref>Nahas, Gabriel G.  Marihuana—Deceptive Weed.  New York: Raven Press, 1973. see: Baudelaire on Drugs : Marijuana Consumption in the Age of Colonialism http://evitanza.bol.ucla.edu/baudelaire.html#_ftn15</ref>

The French Poet [[Baudelaire]] wrote about the effects of [[Hashish]] and [[Opium]] in [[Les Paradis artificiels]] (1860) and theorized about how they could be used to allow the individual to reach "ideal" states of mind. Charles Baudelaire was member of the '[[Club des Hashischins]]', a Parisian literary group dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness which included [[Jacques-Joseph Moreau]] and literary figures such as [[Victor Hugo]], [[Alexandre Dumas]], [[Gerard de Nerval]], [[Honore de Balzac]], and [[Theophile Gautier]].<ref>Levinthal, C. F. (2012). Drugs, behavior, and modern society. (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson College Div.</ref> Baudelaire's opinion of the drug was generally negative, believing that it weakened and dampened artistic capacities, the personal Will and even the very identity of the hashish eater. He compared it to suicide and a false happiness, and saw wine as the true intoxicant of the artists.<ref>Vitanza, Baudelaire on Drugs : Marijuana Consumption in the Age of Colonialism</ref>

In the United States, [[The Hasheesh Eater]] (1857) an autobiographical book by [[Fitz Hugh Ludlow]] became popular. Ludlow wrote that a [[Marijuana]] user sought "the soul’s capacity for a broader being, deeper insight, grander views of Beauty, Truth and Good than she now gains through the chinks of her cell."<ref>Ludlow, Fitz Hugh "The Visionary", The Hasheesh Eater 1857</ref> The American [[William James]] was one of the first academic philosophers to write about the effects of hallucinogenic substances in his ''The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide'' (1882) in which he writes that the gas can produce a "tremendously exciting sense of an intense metaphysical illumination. Truth lies open to the view in depth beneath depth of almost blinding evidence. The mind sees all logical relations of being with an apparent subtlety and instantaniety to which its normal consciousness offers no parallel".<ref>James; ''The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide'' (1882), https://erowid.org/chemicals/nitrous/nitrous_article1.shtml</ref> He goes on to say that the experience gave him the sense that the philosophy of [[Hegel]] was true. In his ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' he likewise writes:
<blockquote>[[Nitrous oxide]] and ether, especially nitrous oxide … stimulate the mystical consciousness in an extraordinary degree. … [In] the nitrous oxide trance we have a genuine metaphysical revelation. … [Our] normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.<ref>James, William; The Varieties of Religious Experience, ch. XVI</ref></blockquote>

While it has been speculated that [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] had psychedelic experiences brought on by the drugs he used to help with his various illnesses, it is more likely that his drug use was restricted to opium, rather than classic psychedelics. He had, however, speculated on the significance of altered states, particularly with regards to "narcotics potions" taken to attain oneness with one's fellow man and with nature. In The Birth of Tragedy he wrote: "Now that the gospel of universal harmony is sounded, each individual becomes not only reconciled to his fellow but actually at one with him - as though the veil of Maya had been torn apart and there remained only shreds floating before the vision of mystical Oneness" [[The Birth of Tragedy]]. <ref>Traherne, Twain; The Psychedelic Nietzsche</ref>

==20th century== 
{{refimprove section|date=March 2017}}

After using [[mescaline]] in 1953, [[Aldous Huxley]] wrote ''[[The Doors of Perception]]'' where he advanced the theory that psychedelic compounds could produce mystical experiences and knowledge, "what the visionary, the medium, even the mystic were talking about" and what eastern philosophy described with terms like ''[[satcitananda]]'', godhead, [[suchness]], ''[[shunyata]]'', ''[[anatta]]'' and ''[[dharmakaya]]''.<ref name="Huxley">{{cite book|last1=Huxley|first1=Aldous|title=The Doors of Perception|date=1954|publisher=Perennial Classics|isbn=0-06-059518-3}}</ref>{{pageneeded|date=August 2019}} Huxley also quotes the philosopher [[C. D. Broad]], which held that the brain and nervous system might act as a reducing valve of all the stimuli in the universe:

<blockquote>According to such a theory, each one of us is potentially [[Mind at Large]]. But in so far as we are animals, our business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this Particular planet.<ref name="Huxley"/>{{pageneeded|date=August 2019}}</blockquote>

Huxley wrote that it was possible that certain human beings could, through drugs, meditation, etc. circumvent the reducing valve and experience something far beyond everyday consciousness. This experience Huxley saw as the source of all mysticism, a theory termed the [[perennial philosophy]]. He also discusses art and the legality of various drugs in the West as well as arguing for the importance for self-transcendence. Huxley's philosophical novel ''[[Island (Huxley novel)|Island]]'' also described a utopian society that used a psychedelic substance for spiritual purposes.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In the early 1960s a group that eventually came to be called "Harvard Psychedelic Club" which included [[Timothy Leary]], [[Huston Smith]] and [[Ram Dass]] administered psychedelics to Harvard students. The group experimented with psychedelics in experiments such as the [[Harvard Psilocybin Project]]. Huston Smith's last work, [[Cleansing the Doors of Perception]], describes the Harvard Project in which he participated.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Ram Dass' ''[[Be Here Now (book)|Be Here Now]]'' and Tim Leary's ''[[The Psychedelic Experience|The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead]]'' compared the psychedelic experiences to [[eastern philosophy]] and mystical states of consciousness. These books further popularized the idea that eastern - particularly Indian philosophical and spiritual insights could be obtained from using psychedelics. One of these experiences described in ''The Psychedelic Experience'' is that of [[ego death]] or depersonalization.{{full citation needed|date=March 2017}}

The idea that the psychedelic experience could grant access to eastern spiritual insights was also promoted by the popular philosopher [[Alan Watts]] in his writings such as ''The Joyous Cosmology'', who also argued that one should not remain dependent on them for spiritual growth: "If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen."<ref>The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness (the quote is new to the 1965/1970 edition (page 26), and not contained in the original 1962 edition of the book).</ref>

Various psychologists during the 1960s also studied psychedelic substances and worked with [[psychedelic therapy]] and later developed various theories about their effects and significance. [[Stanislav Grof]] is known for his extensive work in LSD psychotherapy and for developing a theory which stated that the psychedelic experience allowed one to relive birth trauma and to explore the depths of the unconscious mind. Grof observed four levels of the LSD experience, which for him correspond to areas of the human unconscious: (1) abstract and aesthetic experiences (2) psychodynamic experiences (3) perinatal experiences, and (4) transpersonal experiences. Grof defined the last level as "experiences involving an expansion or extension of consciousness beyond the usual ego boundaries and beyond the limitations of time and/or space."<ref>PSYPRESSUK CONTRIBUTORS; Realms of the Human Unconscious by Stanislav Grof PUBLISHED JANUARY 19, 2011 · UPDATED FEBRUARY 5, 2015, http://psypressuk.com/2011/01/19/literary-review-realms-of-the-human-unconscious-by-stanislav-grof/</ref> The field of [[transpersonal psychology]] focuses on this type of experience. Grof included topics such as consciousness, mysticism and metaphysics in his later writings.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

The scientist and philosopher [[John C. Lilly]] discussed his experiments with psychedelics and [[altered states of consciousness]] in ''[[The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space]]'' and ''[[Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer]]''. Other psychologists who studied and wrote on psychedelic use include [[Walter Pahnke]], [[Ralph Metzner]] and [[Claudio Naranjo]].{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

According to writer James Oroc, the 1990s brought about a second phase in modern psychedelic culture. The philosophical foundation of this new wave of psychedelic thought was based on the works of [[Alexander Shulgin]], [[Alex Grey]] and [[Terence McKenna]].<ref>Oroc, James; The Second Psychedelic Revolution, http://realitysandwich.com/216613/the-second-psychedelic-revolution-part-one-the-end-of-acid/</ref>

==Contemporary==
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{{Psychedelic sidebar}}
Neuroscientist [[Rick Strassman]] has written about his research into the psychedelic [[N,N-Dimethyltryptamine]] in his book ''DMT: The Spirit Molecule'' (2001). In his book Strassman investigates the possible connection between natural DMT in mystical and [[Near Death Experiences]] and psychedelic states caused by outwardly administered DMT. He also describes the psychedelic experiences of the volunteers in his experiments and their encounter with certain strange "beings" after being administered DMT.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In 2012, [[University of California Press]] published the book ''Neuropsychedelia'' by anthropologist Nicolas Langlitz.<ref name="langlitz-2012">{{cite book |last1=Langlitz |first1=Nicolas |title=Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=9780520274822 |edition=1st}}</ref> In this book, Langlitz recounts the findings of his fieldwork following scientists involved in reviving scientific research on psychedelics as well as his own philosophical reflections. He explains that Aldous Huxley's view expressed in ''[[The Doors of Perception]]''—of the brain as a "reducing valve" which when released by the ingestion of a psychedelics produces a "[[Perennial philosophy|perennial]]" [[mystical experience]]—has been very influential among contemporary psychopharmacologists. These scientists, Langlitz writes, have given Huxley's view a [[Materialism|materialist]] "neurobiological reinterpretation" which Langlitz calls "mystic materialism".<ref name="Langlitz">Langlitz; Nicolas; IS THERE A PLACE FOR PSYCHEDELICS IN PHILOSOPHY? Fieldwork in Neuro- and Perennial Philosophy, http://www.nicolaslanglitz.de/nicolaslanglitz.de/Texts_files/Langlitz%202016%20-%20IS%20THERE%20A%20PLACE%20FOR%20PSYCHEDELICS%20IN%20PHILOSOPHY%3F.pdf</ref> 

The philosopher [[Thomas Metzinger]] has discussed the effects of substances such as LSD, dimethyltryptamine, and mescaline in his ''Being No One'' (2003) and those of psilocybin in ''The Ego Tunnel'' (2009).<ref name="metzinger-2003">{{cite book |last1=Metzinger |first1=Thomas |author1-link=Thomas Metzinger |title=Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity |date=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=0-262-13417-9}}</ref>{{pn|date=November 2021}}<ref name="metzinger-2009">{{cite book |last1=Metzinger |first1=Thomas |author1-link=Thomas Metzinger |title=The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self |date=2009 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0465020690}}</ref>{{pn|date=November 2021}} Metzinger describes the hallucinatory component of the psychedelic experience as "epistemically vacuous," i.e., not a reliable source of knowledge.<ref name="Langlitz"/> 

The American author [[Sam Harris]] discussed his use of psychedelics in his 2014 book ''[[Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion]]'', which also attempts to argue for a [[spiritual naturalism|naturalized spirituality]].{{fact|date=August 2022}}

The philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes' book ''Noumenautics'' was published by the independent publisher Psychedelic Press in 2015 and discusses psychedelic phenomenology and its metaphysical implications. In 2021 they published his ''Modes of Sentience'' covering similar themes.{{fact|date=August 2022}} 

In his non-academic encyclopedia of psychedelic culture and thought ''Psychedelia'' (2012), [[Patrick Lundborg]] developed a psychedelic philosophy he called "Unified Psychedelic Theory" (UPT) which draws from [[Platonism]], the phenomenology of [[Husserl]] and [[Merleau-Ponty]], [[Paul D. MacLean]]'s [[Triune brain]] theory, the work of [[Eugen Fink]], and other thinkers.{{fact|date=August 2022}}

In 2021, the philosopher Chris Letheby's book ''Philosophy of Psychedelics'' was published by [[Oxford University Press]].<ref name="letheby-2021">{{cite book |last1=Letheby |first1=Chris |title=Philosophy of Psychedelics |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-884312-2|doi=10.1093/med/9780198843122.001.0001}}</ref> ''Philosophy of Psychedelics'' is organised as a defence against what Letheby calls the 'Comforting Delusion Objection' to psychedelic therapy. The objection is that psychedelic therapy works by inducing non-naturalistic metaphysical beliefs, and so it is [[Epistemology|epistemically]] deficient if one adopts a philosophically [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] world-view.<ref name=":2" /> Letheby concludes that the Comforting Delusion Objection fails, and that the epistemic status of psychedelic therapy, given philosophical naturalism, is good.<ref name=":1" /> 

In 2022, Christine Hauskeller and Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes' edited volume, ''Philosophy and Psychedelics'' was published by [[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1291222794 |title=Philosophy and psychedelics : frameworks for exceptional experience |date=2022 |others=Christine Hauskeller, Peter Sjöstedt-H |isbn=978-1-350-23163-4 |location=London |oclc=1291222794}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Cognitive liberty]]
*[[Psychedelic art]]
*[[Psychedelic literature]]
*[[Psychedelics and ecology]]
*[[Psychedelic therapy]]
*[[Psychonautics]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Letheby |first1=Chris |title=Philosophy of Psychedelics |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-884312-2|doi=10.1093/med/9780198843122.001.0001}}
* Hauskeller, Christine, and Sjöstedt-Hughes, Peter, eds. (2022). ''Philosophy and Psychedelics''. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN  9781350231610

==External links==
* [https://philosophyofpsychedelics.com The first Philosophy of Psychedelics conference, at the University of Exeter] 
* [https://erowid.org/culture/characters/baudelaire_charles/baudelaire_charles_poem1.shtml Baudelaire's "The poem of Hashish"] 
* [https://erowid.org/chemicals/nitrous/nitrous_article1.shtml The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide BY WILLIAM JAMES 1882]
* [http://www.maps.org/images/pdf/books/HuxleyA1954TheDoorsOfPerception.pdf Huxley's The Doors of Perception]
* [http://www.leary.ru/download/leary/Timothy%20Leary%20-%20The%20Tibetan%20Book%20Of%20The%20Dead.pdf The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary]
* [http://www.psychedelic-library.org/lsdmenu.htm The Psychedelic Library] articles by various writers
* [http://www.stanislavgrof.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Psychology_of_the_Future_Stan_Grof_long.pdf Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research by Stanislav Grof] 
* [http://www.philosopher.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/FW7-PatrickLundborg.pdf Note Towards the Definition of a Psychedelic Philosophy by Patrick Lundborg]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV8PSevhd_M Consciousness and Psychedelics – TEDx Talk by Peter Sjöstedt-H]
*[https://www.academia.edu/116574134/Seeing_Snakes_On_Knowledge_Delusion_and_the_Drug_Experience Seeing Snakes: On Delusion, Knowledge, and the Drug Experience by G T Roche]
*[https://www.academia.edu/90962156/Raphael_Waters_Some_Epistemological_Questions_Concerning_the_Non_Medical_Use_of_Drugs  Some Epistemological Questions Concerning the Non Medical Use of Drugs by Raphael Waters] 

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