Psychedelic Theories of Consciousness

Throughout human history, psychedelics have been used for spiritual purposes by inducing altered conscious experiences dramatically different from the norm. Colors explode. Time slows, speeds up, stops. Self shatters, dissolves. The body dissipates, melts away. Magical creatures emerge. Spirit Beings appear. All things vibrate, resonate. All is alive. All is connected. All is One.

Some attribute the advent of religion to the use of psychotomimetic or hallucinogenic substances in rituals. In each culture or condition, interpretations of psychedelic experiences were made. Mystics conjoined with cosmic consciousness. Indigenous traditions communed with sentient beings from spirit worlds. Aldous Huxley saw the source of all mysticism and spirituality, which he developed into the “perennial philosophy,” related to psychedelics. Psychedelic missionaries in the 1960s sought shortcut insights into consciousness (“Philosophy of psychedelics,” 2023). Materialists like Sam Harris argue for a naturalized spirituality (Explorations in Consciousness: Death, Psychedelics, and Mystical Experience, 2023).

There is much to be gained from psychedelic research. Not included, as I see it now, is independent support for non-materialist theories of consciousness. No matter how connected, no matter how spiritual or other worldly psychedelic experiences may seem, no matter how intense the sense of “Oneness with ultimate reality” may be, it is hard to imagine how psychedelic experiences could unlock the door to non-materialist external realities, any more than how seeing stars from a blow to the head could open the window to new vistas of the world — not in the sense of the much greater richness of the psychedlic experience, obviously, but in the sense that both psychedelics and blunt trauma are physical alterations of neural function. Other arguments, perhaps, can suggest non-materialist external realities, but psychedelic arguments probably cannot. (Metzinger describes the psychedelic experience as "epistemically vacuous" [Metzinger, 2004]. But see Kastrup, 2024.)

The best one could claim is that psychedelic or hallucinogenic visions would be “consistent with” non-materialist or nonphysical theories of consciousness. On the other hand, psychedelic research may well selectively advance various Materialism Theories of consciousness, of which there are many.^[1] (Not a few viewers of Closer To Truth have advised me/RLK: “If you really want to get ‘closer to truth,’ you really need to go psychedelic.” I explain that I am no ‘consciousness practitioner’: I’ve never taken psychedelics; I don’t meditate; I’ve had exactly zero mystical experiences. For these three omissions, I am criticized; I tell my critics I play intense table tennis; they say it doesn’t count.)

Neuroscience and Theories of Psychedelics

Psychedelic drugs “induce drastic changes in subjective experience,and provide a unique opportunity to study the neurobiological basis of consciousness” (Herzog et al., 2023). By administering psychedelic drugs to disrupt how the brain perceives and models the world while we're awake, researchers seek to understand how the conscious brain works (Can psychedelic drugs, 2022). In other words, assessing the neural mechanisms of how psychedelic drugs alter consciousness might provide clues to the neural basis of normal consciousness. For example, LSD and ketamine, though targeting separate brain receptors, induce similar neural oscillation patterns across the brain, indicating synchronized neural behavior. Such “synchronized neural activity might be more linked to the psychedelic experience than the activity of individual neurons” (Psychedelics Sync Neurons, 2023). If so, this distinction could support Electromagnetic Field Theories.

Carhart-Harris and Friston formulate a theory of psychedelic action by integrating Friston's free-energy principle and Carhart-Harris's entropic brain hypothesis. They call this formulation “relaxed beliefs under psychedelics (REBUS) and the anarchic brain, and it is founded on the principle that—via their entropic effect on spontaneous cortical activity—psychedelics work to relax the precision of high-level priors or beliefs, thereby liberating bottom-up information flow, particularly via intrinsic sources such as the limbic system” (Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2019).

Psychedelic drugs have been shown to trigger altered states of consciousness similar to those seen in people experiencing near-death experiences (NDEs). Clinical evidence indicates that psychoactive agents can reduce emotional distress in terminally ill people, much as NDEs do after cardiac arrests. Dr. Anthony Bossis showed that “a single treatment with psilocybin—a psychoactive compound found in some mushroom species that humans have consumed for thousands of years—brought rapid reductions in depression, anxiety, and hopelessness in people with terminal cancer.” The benefits of psilocybin treatment, he said, were greatest among individuals who reported strong mystical experiences during the sessions. “The more robust that mystical experience, the greater the outcome in terms of reduction of depression,” Dr. Bossis said. “These aren't NDEs,” he added, “but they're deathlike experiences with a similar phenomenology” (Freeman, 2023).

Psychedelic experiences can have profound impact on belief systems, especially regarding religion, philosophy and ultimate reality (Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2019). Even a single such experience can catalyze a radical transformation. Moreover, a single belief-changing psychedelic experience is said to be associated with increased attribution of consciousness to living and non-living entities, even a sense that everything is alive (Nayak and Griffiths, 2022). This seems a significant result for the construction of belief systems, although any implications for theories of consciousness per se would be at best indirect.

Philosophical and Metaphysical Interpretations

For a perspective more open-minded than mine, philosopher Sarah Lane Richie reports that “emerging scientific and philosophical research on psychedelics … has attracted a growing body of philosophical and theological work on the metaphysical and epistemological possibilities of such experiences.” She discusses “the epistemic status of psychedelic experiences,” suggesting “there exists a mutually reinforcing relationship between panpsychism and the metaphysical possibility of a veridical interpretation of psychedelic states” (Richie, 2021).

As noted, I have a strong predisposition to dismiss any notion that psychedelics reveal any sort of veridical reality. Insights about brain-mind mechanisms, sure, but no ontological unveilings. Richie and also philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, who focuses on psychedelics and consciousness/metaphysics, put a hairline fracture in my bone-strength worldview.

Sjöstedt-Hughes proposes that “Metaphysics should be used to integrate and understand psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences.” (This is not a tautology, he rightly states.) He argues that “there is a potential extra benefit to patients in psychedelic-assisted therapy if they are provided with an optional, additional, and intelligible schema and discussion of metaphysical options at the integrative phase of the therapy.” (He offers a “metaphysical matrix” with five columns—Physicalism Idealism, Dualism, Monism, Transcendent—and two special rows, Panpsychism and Theism.) (Sjöstedt-Hughes, 2023).

Sjöstedt-Hughes and the Hard Problem of Psychedelic Consciousness

Sjöstedt-Hughes presents his case. “If the mind-matter relation is an unresolved problem, then psychedelic induced intuitions and visions of alternate frameworks of reality within which to see this problem should not be immediately dismissed as mere hallucination. We cannot judge what is hallucinatory if we do not know what is real. Thus, the hard problem of consciousness bears directly upon the hard problem of psychedelic consciousness—the problem of determining the truth or delusion of certain psychedelic experiences.” He asks, “whether psychedelic experiences are conditioned by one's culture or whether they decondition one from one's culture into a transcendent state.” He concludes, “the experiences that psychedelics can occasion might not be mere delusion but may hold true insights about the nature of ourselves and the cosmos of which we are parts” (Sjöstedt-Hughes, 2022).

About ourselves? I agree totally. About the cosmos? I remain almost totally skeptical (but no longer totally skeptical).

Psychedelic experiences are well worth researching, phenomenologically and neurobiologically. But I'm not waiting for psychedelic breakthroughs in discerning the ultimate theory of consciousness. Granted, according to psychedelic researchers Yaden et al., “psychedelic substances produce unusual and compelling changes in conscious experience,” which “have prompted some to propose that psychedelics may provide unique insights explaining the nature of consciousness.” Yet, they say, “At present, psychedelics, like other current scientific tools and methods, seem unlikely to provide information relevant to the so-called ‘hard problem of consciousness’” (Yaden, 2021) (Could psychedelics, however, shed light on the nature of subjectivity and selfhood, which are indirectly related to the hard problem?) The authors are optimistic that psychedelic research can help solve “multiple ‘easy problems of consciousness,’ which involve relations between subjectivity, brain function, and behavior.” They conclude by calling for “epistemic humility” (Yaden, 2021)—which is sage advice for everyone working on consciousness, present company included.

Footnote

[1]. In recent years, mainstream medicine has transformed psychedelic research into a legalized, innovative field, both for the treatment of mental health and neurological disorders and for explorations of consciousness. In 2000, the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research became the first to obtain regulatory approval in the United States to reinitiate research with psychedelics in healthy, psychedelic-naive volunteers (Johns Hopkins Center) (https://hopkinspsychedelic.org). Another example is the New York Academy of Sciences conference, “Explorations in Consciousness: Death, Psychedelics, and Mystical Experience” (2023)—https://events.nyas.org/event/7d309c25-5b4d-4ae7-af68-59ace2817707/summary.