Is it not more likely that these substances just happen to match the knob labeled "profound" in our brains and crank it to 11? I hope these studies move very cautiously but optimistically, because as someone whose life was deeply damaged by a religious upbringing, the prospect of another psychedelic religious revival concerns me. Religion and mysticism tend to diverge over time, leading to conflict. Scientific knowledge tends to converge over time, suggesting science is a more reliable means of acquiring knowledge. So I hope a primarily scientific approach is taken with psychedelic research.
Maybe. But regardless of what the more materialistically minded among us might think, many people are going to interpret these experiences religiously anyway. It's been that way all throughout history, and it's likely going to be many hundreds if not thousands of years until religious interpretations of experience dissappear.. if ever. (My bet is on never)
"I hope these studies move very cautiously but optimistically, because as someone whose life was deeply damaged by a religious upbringing, the prospect of another psychedelic religious revival concerns me."
Me too.. especially when these religions are full of people who have no compunctions on using violence and believe themselves to be the only possessors of The Truth.
Unfortunately, psychedelics don't automatically make their users in to tree-hugging, peace-loving hippies. See Charles Manson or Mike Tyson (sorry, don't mean to imply they're at all in the same category.. but they are both examples of heavy psychedelic users who aren't averse to violence... and Manson started a cult).
Some people are great at deluding themselves and others, and for certain types of people psychedelics can make such persuasion much more effective.
I've had strong psychedelic and dissociative experiences. There's nothing about those experiences that cannot be explained with materialism.
Or with religion. People pick and choose the explanations they like, and neither scientific nor religious explanations are going to be satisfactory for everyone.
It'd be another story if science could at least explain the really big open questions about the mind, consciousness, the mind-body connection, and how psychedelics work.. but we are very, very far from that.
Psychedelics clearly don't inevitably lead people to become believers... but still a lot of people do, especially when they have overwhelmingly powerful mystical experiences (which we know are pretty likely to happen on psychedelics).
[1] - https://old.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/oa6782/atheist_...
It didn't work for me though—in epistemology class once I said to the lecturer "I don't know anything!"—not being flippant, at the time I really felt I couldn't be 100% certain of anything—and he said instantly, unimpressed, "Don't you know your name?".. (Which didn't seem quite fair. He didn't "respond to the strongest plausible interpretation". Or maybe he did.)
These are some of the most important and fascinating open questions regarding these substances, the answers to which have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the mind and mental health. Unfortunately, at the glacial pace that human studies in to psychedelics are proceeding[1], we will probably have to wait a very long time to find out.
Meanwhile, there are religious answers to these questions, as many psychedelic users consider these substances, plants, and animals sacred or even divine. Other theories, regarding psilocybin mushrooms, for instance, have been that they are some sort of alien beings who are trying to communicate vast amounts of information to humans or trying to influence human evolution. Similarly, I've heard theories that nature or "Mother Earth" is communicating through these substances, plants, and animals to humans to try to stop the environmental destruction they are causing, etc.
Materialists, physicalists, or naturalists[2] might scoff at such explanations (especially if they've never had strong psychedelic experiences, though sometimes even then), but I believe that it's likely that a great religious revival is heralded by the renewed interest and widespread use of psychedelics. Some have argued that psychedelics were the original cause of some if not all the great religions, and plenty of new religions are being inspired by psychedelic use all the time.. so such religious/non-materialistic/supernatural explanations and more are likely to become more and more widespread in the future.
[1] - While the popular view is that psychedelic research is running full steam ahead since we're in the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance, the unfortunate fact is that human studies of psychedelics are still very difficult and time-consuming to get approval for, and there really aren't that many.
[2] - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/ and https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/