Do psychedelics cause their potential therapeutic effects by inducing implausible, even delusional metaphysical beliefs? We’ll have an opportunity to delve into this question on Saturday November 6th with philosopher Chris Letheby. The Zoom webinar organized by Psykedeelisen sivistyksen liitto (Association for Psychedelic Education & Culture) offers of a lecture and audience questions.

Letheby’s lecture provides an overview of the arguments presented in his book Philosophy of Psychedelics. The book is motivated by recent evidence that “classic” (serotonergic) psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be administered safely in controlled environments, and can cause lasting psychotherapeutic benefits with just one or two administrations. These benefits seem to be predicted by the occurrence of a specific type of experience during the drug action: a “mystical-type” experience of oneness, self-transcendence, or cosmic consciousness.

This fact gives rise to what Letheby calls the Comforting Delusion Objection to psychedelic therapy: the concern that this novel and promising treatment modality works by the induction of implausible metaphysical beliefs, and ought therefore to be avoided. In response to the Objection, Letheby assumes the truth of a naturalistic worldview and shows, within this constraint, that the overall epistemic profile of psychedelic therapy is better than it initially appears. Psychedelic therapy does not work centrally by changing metaphysical beliefs, but by altering the sense of self; moreover, it has myriad epistemic benefits consistent with a naturalistic worldview. The positive side of Letheby’s project is an attempt to reconcile naturalism and an “Entheogenic Conception” of psychedelics as effective agents of knowledge acquisition and spiritual growth.

Dr Chris Letheby is a philosopher working on issues related to the therapeutic and transformative potential of classic psychedelic drugs. In his work Letheby argues that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism, the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is. He is currently Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Adelaide on the Australian government-funded project "Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry". His monograph Philosophy of Psychedelics is out now from Oxford University Press.

The prices for the webinar ticket are €9 and €6 – the cheaper price is for students and others with a low income. Tickets are available in our web store. The webinar is free of charge for members of Psykedeelisen sivistyksen liitto (Association for Psychedelic Association & Culture) who have paid their membership fee for 2021 – members will receive a registration link through email.

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Brief English info on our organization here.

You might also want to mark your calendar: Webinar "In relationship with the mushroom" on Friday December 3rd with author, public speaker and podcaster James W. Jesso.