Aidan Lyon - Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind

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Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind

In this talk, I'll present a synopsis of my book *Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind*, which offers a philosophical analysis of the concept of a psychedelic experience. A central premise of the book is that such experiences can be had by means other than psychedelics. In particular, the book argues that psychedelic experiences can also be had as the result of *meditation*. The book then presents a unified conceptual framework for thinking about the *different kinds* of psychedelic experiences one may have as a result of psychedelics, meditation, and their combination. This framework is then used to shed new light on various commonalities between psychedelics and meditation, such as the ability to promote long-lasting increases in mindfulness and their reputation for inducing mystical experiences. Finally, the book uses these new philosophical resources to flip things around and shine the light back on philosophy itself, arguing that psychedelic experiences can be used as tools for doing philosophy. The result is a new approach to philosophy (or the revival of an ancient one), which integrates traditional analytic methods with a range of psychedelic techniques.

Aidan Lyon is a philosopher at Leiden University and the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. He completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2009 at the Australian National University and has Bachelor's degrees in Science (Mathematics) and Arts (Philosophy) from the University of Queensland. His academic research is at the intersection of psychology and philosophy and focuses on wisdom, uncertainty, meditation, and psychedelics. He has published research articles in many top journals in philosophy and held academic appointments at several universities worldwide. His book, *Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind*, will be published with Oxford University Press in May 2023. He has recently been awarded a three-year grant by the Templeton Foundation to work on the project "Mystical Entropy", which will use the concept of entropy to unify the recent science of mystical experiences with traditional philosophical systems of mysticism. Aidan also works as a philosophical consultant across various domains, including biosecurity intelligence, geopolitical forecasting, environmental decision-making, institutional investing, psychedelic therapy, and meditation training.