Applied Mysticism: A Drug‐enabled Visionary Experience Against Moral Blindness

Ballesteros, Virginia

doi:10.1111/zygo.12544

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The possibility of self-transcendent value changes is a prominent reason why psychedelics might be useful as a pharmacological means to enhance humans' moral state (Earp et al, 2017;Earp, 2018). The proposed framework could unify and enrich many proposals in the psychedelic moral enhancement literature (Tennison, 2012;Ahlskog, 2017;Earp, 2018, 18-19;Ballesteros, 2019;Germann, 2019;Lange and Marie, 2021;Kirkham and Letheby, 2022).…”

Section: Societal Implications and Moral Neuroenhancementmentioning

confidence: 94%

Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences

Kähönen

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Psychedelic experiences have been shown to both facilitate (re)connection to one’s values and change values, including enhancing aesthetic appreciation, promoting pro-environmental attitudes, and encouraging prosocial behavior. This article presents an empirically informed framework of philosophical psychology to understand how self-transcendence relates to psychedelic value changes. Most of the observed psychedelic value changes are toward the self-transcendent values of Schwartz’s value theory. As psychedelics also reliably cause various self-transcendent experiences (STEs), a parsimonious hypothesis is that STEs change values toward self-transcendent values. I argue that STEs indeed can lead to value changes, and discuss the morally relevant process of self-transcendence through Iris Murdoch’s concept of “unselfing”. I argue that overt egocentric concerns easily bias one’s valuations. Unselfing reduces egocentric attributions of salience and enhances non-egocentric attention to the world, widening one’s perspective and shifting evaluation toward self-transcendent modes. Values are inherently tied to various evaluative contexts, and unselfing can attune the individual to evaluative contexts and accompanying values beyond the self. Understood this way, psychedelics can provide temporarily enhanced access to self-transcendent values and function as sources of aspiration and value change. However, contextual factors can complicate whether STEs lead to long-term changes in values. The framework is supported by various research strands establishing empirical and conceptual connections between long-term differences in egocentricity, STEs, and self-transcendent values. Furthermore, the link between unselfing and value changes is supported by phenomenological and theoretical analysis of psychedelic experiences, as well as empirical findings on their long-term effects. This article furthers understanding of psychedelic value changes and contributes to discussions on whether value changes are justified, whether they result from cultural context, and whether psychedelics could function as tools of moral neuroenhancement.

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Section: Societal Implications and Moral Neuroenhancementmentioning

confidence: 94%

Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences

Kähönen

2023

Front. Psychol.

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“…Unprecedented advancements in technology, and social, political and environmental issues of global consequence, have created uniquely morally demanding circumstances for humans both individually and collectively (Ahlskog 2017, Earp, 2018, Ballesteros 2019, Brace 2020.…”

Section: Moral Bioenhancement and Environmental Virtuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychedelics and environmental virtues

Kirkham

Letheby

2022

Philosophical Psychology

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The urgent need for solutions to critical environmental challenges is well attested, but often environmental problems are understood as fundamentally collective action problems.However, to solve these problems, there is also a need to change individual behavior. Hence, there is a pressing need to inculcate in individuals the environmental virtuesvirtues of character that relate to our environmental place in the world. We propose a way of meeting this need, by the judicious, safe, and controlled administration of "classic" psychedelic drugs as a way to catalyze the development of environmental virtuesa form of moral bio-enhancement.Recent evidence shows that psychedelics can be given safely in controlled environments, and can induce vivid experiences of unity and connectedness. These experiences, in turn, can durably increase feelings of nature-relatedness and pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, we argue that responsible psychedelic use can reliably catalyze the development of a key environmental virtue known as living in place. This is a "master environmental virtue" that subsumes the qualities of respect for nature, proper humility, and aesthetic wonder and awe.Our account advances the environmental virtues debate by introducing a relevant practical proposal, and advances the psychedelic moral enhancement debate by providing a muchneeded conceptual framework.

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“…If so, under what circumstances is it ethical to administer them as such? Interest in moral enhancement (or moral bioenhancement) techniques is motivated by the contention that humans lack the moral capacity to respond appropriately to global issues and social inequalities in the face of rapid technological advancements (Ballesteros, 2019;Hidalgo, 2018;Schermer, 2007;Tennison, 2012). One ground for this concern is that deep-rooted prejudiced attitudes discourage cosmopolitan relations between people (Hidalgo, 2018; see also Schermer, 2007).…”

Section: Psychedelic Moral Enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some draw on psychedelic evidence to suggest that psychedelics durably increase prosocial behaviour, empathy, and the personality trait of Openness to Experience (Ahlskog, 2017;Ballesteros, 2019;Earp, 2018;Tennison, 2012). Earp (2018) discusses psychedelics as a promising alternative to currently available "smart drugs", gene therapies, and brain stimulation devices.…”

Section: Psychedelic Moral Enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, Earp proposes that psychedelics might enhance moral capacities in a "global" and "flexible" way, allowing people to respond to different kinds of situations. In a similar vein, Ahlskog (2017) argues that directly modulating empathy alone may have adverse effects, such as unintentional empathetic responses, which may compromise autonomy (see also Ballesteros, 2019). However, rather than directly augmenting moral and prosocial motivations, he argues, a more effective route to developing higher moral values and altruistic behaviours may lie in "decreasing selfinterest".…”

Section: Psychedelic Moral Enhancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Philosophy and classic psychedelics: A review of some emerging themes

Letheby

Mattu

2022

JPS

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Serotonergic (or “classic”) psychedelics have struck many researchers as raising significant philosophical questions that, until recently, were largely unexplored by academic philosophers. This paper provides an overview of four emerging lines of research at the intersection of academic philosophy and psychedelic science that have gained considerable traction in the last decade: selfless consciousness, psychedelic epistemology, psychedelic ethics, and spiritual/religious naturalism. In this paper, we highlight philosophical questions concerning (i) psychedelics, self-consciousness, and phenomenal consciousness, (ii) the epistemic profile of the psychedelic experience; (iii) ethical concerns about the appropriate use of psychedelics; and (iv) whether spiritual or religious dimensions of psychedelic use are compatible with a naturalistic worldview.

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Applied Mysticism: A Drug‐enabled Visionary Experience Against Moral Blindness

Cited by 3 publications

References 45 publications

Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences

Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences

Psychedelics and environmental virtues

Philosophy and classic psychedelics: A review of some emerging themes

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