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Indigenous

PT499 – Mesoamerican Psychedelics, Decolonization, and the Concept of an Ontological Turn

March 29, 2024
Featuring: Osiris González Romero

In this episode, David interviews Osiris González Romero: philosopher and Postdoctoral researcher on cognitive freedom and psychedelic humanities at the University of Saskatchewan.

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In this episode, David interviews Osiris González Romero: philosopher and Postdoctoral researcher on cognitive freedom and psychedelic humanities at the University of Saskatchewan.

Romero believes that our weakest point of research is our knowledge of Indigenous languages, and is focused on highlighting different cultural uses of psychedelics to better inform future drug policy. He’s currently studying more than 100 documents (including one over 400 years old) to establish an honest understanding of why peyote was ever banned.

He discusses:

  • Mesoamerican psychedelics and their relevance to cognitive liberty and decolonization
  • How the War on Drugs is our main colonial legacy
  • The concepts of an ontological turn and ontological pluralism
  • The neocolonial, biomedical, and spiritual paradoxes found inside the ‘psychedelic renaissance’
  • How imagination is often viewed through a lens of illusion rather than problem solving or creativity

and more!

Links

University of Saskatchewan: Osiris Sinuhé González Romero

Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, & Christian Rätsch*

PT217 – Erika Dyck – Canadian Psychedelic History

Wikipedia.org: Xōchipilli

Wikipedia.org: Tláloc

Wiley.com: Indigenous Philosophies and the “Psychedelic Renaissance”

Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing, by Miranda Fricker*

Chacruna.net: Colonial Shadows in the Psychedelic Renaissance

Journals.sagepub.com: Decolonization is a Metaphor towards a Different Ethic. The Case from Psychedelic Studies

Academia.edu: Decolonizing the Philosophy of Psychedelics

Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, by Mike Jay*

Lucid.news: Downloads from the Modern Dawn of Psychedelics

Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, by Dr. Carl L. Hart*

Philosophy of Psychopharmacology, by Dan J. Stein*

Businessinsider.com: Top Nixon adviser reveals the racist reason he started the ‘war on drugs’ decades ago

Frontiersin.org: Cognitive liberty and the psychedelic humanities

Tandfonline.com: Decolonization is a metaphor towards a different ethic. The case from psychedelic studies

Women and Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices

Chacruna.net: Mazatec Shamanic Knowledge and Psilocybin Mushrooms

 

*Book links are affiliate links, meaning that Psychedelics Today will receive a percentage of the sale

Osiris González Romero

In this Episode

Osiris González Romero

Osiris Sinuhé González Romero earned his Ph.D. at Leiden University, in the Faculty of Archaeology – Heritage of Indigenous Peoples. He finished a postdoctoral fellowship on “cognitive liberty and the psychedelic humanities” at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He is member of the Philosophy and Psychedelics Research Group at University of Exeter, UK and collaborates with the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. He is a founding member of Via Synapsis, an academic society focused on the organization of the University Congress of Psychoactive Substances, hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Faculty of Philosophy. He has published several papers on psychedelics.

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