Metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, University of Exeter

Event details

Drug Science Society Lecture

Dr Sjostedt-Hughes will argue that that metaphysics should inform psychedelic experiences, to enable patients to better integrate their experiences. The talk will discuss metaphysical experiences under the influence of psychedelics, and how an understanding of metaphysics (from both the psychiatrist and the patient) will result in extended long-term benefits from the therapy.It will be argued that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should be evaluated and integrated with recourse to metaphysics. Psychology and Psychiatry alone are inadequate to do so, as the varieties, and determination of the veridicality, of such experiences are not in their professional ambit.  

There is a wide range of psychedelic experiences, some of which can be classified as ‘metaphysical experience’. Consider, for instance, reported psychedelic experiences of timelessness, extended specious present, nature-connectedness, sentient otherness, extra-qualia sensibility, pure consciousness, etc. How are those undergoing psychedelic therapy to make sense of such experiences so to integrate them into their lives? Rather than immediately dismissing them as necessarily delusions, the discipline of metaphysics can better situate, explain and thus make sense of such extraordinary experiences to participants. It is conjectured that opening the patient to such metaphysical possibilities, via a ‘metaphysical menu’, following their experience, may extend the long-term benefits of psychedelic therapy as the patient may be less inclined to immediately dismiss an experience as delusional but more inclined to consider its possible grander significance.

About the speaker