What Do Altered States Tell Us About Ordinary Ones? Philosophy of Psychedelics
From María Sabina to Zen satori to Advaita: altered states as philosophical practice. You'll work through ego dissolution and the ethics of consciousness change.
Steps
- 1
- Reading· ~11 min
Ego Dissolution and the Metaphysics of Self
What happens when the self temporarily disappears, and what this might tell us about what the self normally is.
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- Reading· ~9 min
Mystical Experience, Epistemic Status, and the Hard Questions
Are psychedelic experiences a source of genuine insight, or just vivid, convincing noise? And what are the ethics of this philosophical territory?
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- Text Explore· ~8 min
The Reducing Valve and the Entropic Brain
Read the key theoretical frameworks from Huxley to Carhart-Harris and Metzinger.
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- Argument Map· ~10 min
Altered States and the Philosophy of Mind
Map the philosophical questions raised by psychedelic experience, from consciousness to the self to epistemic status.
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- Dialogue· ~10 min
Dialogue: Do Psychedelic Experiences Reveal Something Real?
The central epistemological question, with no easy answer.
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- Reflection· ~8 min
Reflection: What Your Ordinary Consciousness Is Doing
The philosophy of altered states is ultimately about what ordinary states are, and whether you know what yours is doing.
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Complete the Reflection step in this path to rate it and share your thoughts in the comments.