Deep Dive Into The Philosophy of Psychedelics

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Are mystical type, or 'metaphysical experiences' induced by psychedelics 'real,' or are they hallucinations? This question is now becoming urgent in psychiatry as psychedelic therapy is worldwide gaining acceptance as a potent way to improve mental health, from depression and anxiety to ADHD and autism. From a physicalist perspective, this raises an ethical dilemma: what if patients ascribe positive outcomes to a change in metaphysical beliefs? For instance, that after a psychedelic trip they become convinced that there is life after death, or a mind at large? And what if—as studies show—exactly this metaphysical shift makes them feel better? Did the psychedelic therapist then provide a 'comforting delusion' to cure patients? As Jussi Jylkkä, PhD, argues, solving the 'comforting delusion objection' from a physicalist framework is incoherent. In a video essay style, Hans Busstra tries to comprehend the current debate and, by sharing Jylkkä's insights, to serve an 'idealist dish' on the metaphysical menu for interpreting the psychedelic experience. The core idea set forth is: psychedelics induce a 'model collapse' and, when argued consequently, this undermines a physicalist metaphysics. An idealist interpretation of the psychedelic experience is much more coherent and satisfactory.

00:05 Intro: visiting the International Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR 2022)
01:14 The scientific definition of psychedelics
01:57 Psychedelics cause a change in metaphysical beliefs
03:15 Metaphysics is entering psychiatry
04:47 On the need to be metaphysically agnostic
05:14 We need a metaphysical menu
06:48 Cooking an idealist dish
07:58 A brief history of psychedelic discourse
09:40 Overview of the classic literature (almost all idealist!)
10:38 The Doors of Perceptions (Huxley)
11:18 The Psychedelic Experience (Alpert, Leary)
12:06 The Psychedelic Explorers Guide (Fadiman)
12:35 An idealist interpretation of the psychedelic experience
16:13 'Naturalism' as proposed by Chris Letheby
18:33 Jussi Jylkkä on the comforting delusion objection
19:36 The comforting delusion explained
22:31 Scientistic Naturalism opposed to Real Naturalism
26:03 Our models limit our experience on reality
27:39 Alison Gopnik on the psychedelic experience as the 'baby state'
28:26 Why have we evolved into beings relying on models?
33:02 Terrence McKenna on boundary dissolution, now empirically established
35:02 Can you gain veridical knowledge in the psychedelic state?
37:53 Trying to understand the comforting delusion objection
39:23 Huxley's prism metaphor
42:21 Models collapse: and that also goes for science! (the hard problem then is a non-problem!)
46:40 Letheby is mistaken, we have to let go of our fictions
48:14 The phenomenological 'turn' to solve the problem within a physicalist framework
52:04 We can know nature by being part of nature: on the role of psychedelics
54:21 Closing remark: model collapse a good thing for humanity

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