PSYCHEDELICS II / RECAP
The comforting delusion objection
THERAPEUTIC BENEFIT
An experience can
help someone live better.
EPISTEMIC CONCERN
Its apparent revelation
may be false.
Graham asks: Can a false belief still improve a life, and what value should truth have?
RECAP / THE POSITIVE PROPOSAL
Letheby’s response
He accepts naturalism and the importance of epistemic value.
Therapeutic benefit can involve revised self-understanding.
False metaphysical beliefs need not drive that benefit.
The overall epistemic profile may therefore be good.
Timothy asks: How can we tell whether an insight is true, and does truth matter if it helps?
THE QUESTION FOR TODAY
Why loosen the self?
ORGANIZATION
A self-model helps
make a life coherent.
RIGIDITY
It can also constrain
what seems possible.
Alexa asks: Can one session change a self-image built over years?
THE SELF AS A MODEL
Predictive self-binding
White feathers
Wing movements
A position in space
Bodily feelings
Memories
Intentions
A COMMON SOURCE
One bird
A COMMON SUBJECT
“Me”
The self-model attributes different experiences to one subject.
Sarah asks: How can we distinguish a true belief about ourselves from a strongly weighted one?
THE SELF AS A MODEL
Layers of selfhood
MINIMAL SELF
Being a subject here and now
“I am here, in this body.”
Bodily ownership and an immediate point of view.
NARRATIVE SELF
Being this person over time
“I have always been a smoker.”
A history, a set of roles, and an anticipated future.
Emily asks: Which understanding of ourselves is most authentic and healthy?
A CENTRE OF REPRESENTATIONAL GRAVITY
Self-conception and attention
ENTRENCHED SELF-CONCEPTION
“I am unworthy.”
“They are only being polite.”
“I got it wrong.”
“They want me there.”
“They value my work.”
Sarah asks: Could loosening a self-model also unsettle beliefs about ourselves that are true?
LETHEBY’S PROPOSAL
Unbinding the self-model
EXPERIENCED AS REALITY
RECOGNIZED AS A THOUGHT
“I am unworthy.”
“I am having the thought
that I am unworthy.”
Phenomenal transparency
Phenomenal opacity
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
I can accept care.
I can respond differently.
Alexa asks: Can disrupting the self-model become harmful or distressing?
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PROPOSAL
Alternative ways of experiencing oneself
A SMOKING-RELATED IDENTITY
Being a smoker feels
like part of who I am.
I can experience myself
without that defining feature.
VICTOR’S RELATIONSHIP TO HIS BODY
My illness makes my body
something I reject.
I can accept this body
as mine.
Mira asks: Does sober verification do the work of turning a psychedelic insight into knowledge?
DISCOVERY AND INTEGRATION
A two-factor theory of lasting change
FACTOR 1
Increased plasticity
Other ways of seeing become available.
FACTOR 2
Discovery and consolidation
A different self-conception takes hold.
During the experience
Integration afterwards
Ordinary life
Old pattern
A new habitual pattern
Casey asks: Could plasticity alone produce lasting benefits, or is integration required?
THE POSITIVE PHILOSOPHICAL CLAIM
Naturalistic spirituality
Connection
A wider sense of relationship to others and the world.
Aspiration
Attention to values and the person one hopes to become.
Reflection on fundamental questions
Meaning, mortality, and one’s place in a larger whole.
Jack asks: Can an experience be spiritual if it involves nothing beyond the natural world?
ATTENTION BEYOND SELF-CONCERN
Murdoch’s unselfing
SELF-PREOCCUPATION
An anxious, resentful
train of thought.
The concern occupies
less of the view.
Clare asks: Could the same account apply to meditation, nature, or music?
TESTING THE POSITIVE CLAIM
Spirituality, awe, and definition
AN EMOTION
Awe before something
vast or beautiful.
A WIDER ORIENTATION
Connection, ideals, and
fundamental questions.
Michael Creamer asks: Is Letheby redefining spirituality, and what separates it from awe or wonder?
RETURN TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL PUZZLE
What makes a self-model better?
Compare two possible revisions of a smoking-related identity.
POSSIBILITY
“I can imagine a life
without smoking.”
CERTAINTY
“I know I can never
become addicted again.”
Emily asks: How can we judge which new self-understanding is authentic and healthy?
REFERENCES
Assigned reading and image credit
Chris Letheby
Philosophy of Psychedelics, chapter 7
Assigned: §§7.1–7.5, pp. 124–143, and §7.7, pp. 146–152. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Chris Letheby
Philosophy of Psychedelics, chapter 9
Assigned: pp. 196–204. Naturalistic spirituality and Murdoch’s unselfing.
Andreas Trepte
www.avi-fauna.info. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.5. Photograph embedded unchanged and displayed at different sizes. It illustrates Murdoch’s example.
Michael Hatcher asks: How do changes in synaptic connections shape learning and what seems important?