PT560 – Philosophy and Psychedelics: Can Metaphysics Bring Meaning to Non-Ordinary States?, with Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes

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.

For links, head to the show notes page.