While the science of psychedelics is regularly discussed, the intersection of philosophy and psychedelics isn’t as much. Can an understanding of metaphysics bring more meaning to non-ordinary states?

In this episode, Joe interviews Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes: philosopher, lecturer at the University of Exeter, co-director of the Breaking Convention conference, and author who most recently co-edited Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience.

He discusses how the work of William James and an early psilocybin experience led him to an interest in philosophy and psychedelics, and he dives deep into several philosophical concepts: panpsychism, pantheism, ethical pluralism, teleology, process theology, Whitehead’s fallacy of misplaced concreteness, and more. He believes that science has lost touch with metaphysics – the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality – and that studying metaphysics will lead to more beneficial experiences with the non-ordinary: If you can understand and frame the experience, you’ll have a much better chance of being able to integrate its lessons.

He discusses:

• The complexity of ethics and the need to ask more philosophical questions
• His book, Neo-Nihilism, which argued that there are no shared objective morals
• The West’s’ obsession with scientism and believing only what can be reducible to matter: Is science honest if it ignores the ineffable?
• The connections between philosophical frameworks and religion: Would studying comparative religion help us better understand each other?
• The need for more experiential research

and more! 

Sjöstedt-Hughes is the co-lead on Exeter’s 12-month postgraduate certificate course, “Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture,” and is finalizing his next book, a manual on psychedelics and metaphysics.

Links

Philosopher.eu

PGCert Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture (Online)

Breakingconvention.co.uk

RIPPLES of Hope: Psychedelics as a Tool for Peacebuilding and Collective Healing, featuring: Sami Awad & Leor Roseman, Ph.D.

PT419 – Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Severe Alcohol Use Disorder, featuring: Professor Celia Morgan, Ph.D.

Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom, by Andy Letcher

YouTube: Consciousness and psychedelics | Peter Sjostedt-H | TEDxTruro

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, by William James

Philosophyofpsychedelics.com

Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience, Edited by Christine Hauskeller & Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes

Stanford.edu: Russellian Monism

The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience, by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson

Journalpsyche.org: Panexperientialism, Cognition, and the Nature of Experience

Neo-Nihilism: The Philosophy of Power, by Peter Sjöstedt-H

Comicbooknews.co.uk: Warren Ellis ushers Karnak into the Marvel Universe

Wikipedia.org: Teleology

The Center for Process Studies

Frontiersin.org: On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research

The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality, by Michael Talbot

LSD Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Psychedelic Medicine, by Stanislav Grof, M.D.

Beckleypsytech.com: First patient dosed in Beckley Psytech’s Phase IIa study of BPL-003 in combination with SSRIs for Treatment Resistant Depression

PT492 – Alien Abductions and Parallel Realities: How Do You Validate the Radically Ineffable?, featuring: Elizabeth Anglin

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