Ep. 26: Would you Believe it? Psychedelics and Transformed Worldviews

Psychedelics are known for their ability to shake up one’s existing belief system and provoke new ways of seeing the world. Several studies show that people often become more spiritual or religious after a powerful psychedelic experience. There is a trend in moving away from physical or materialistic worldviews into non-physical, fatalistic, or nondual worldviews. In this episode we discussion the function of a worldview in providing a sense of predictability in the world and bring a skeptic’s eye to explaining the increase in spiritual beliefs- is this just human’s proclivity to engage in pattern recognition and meaning-making? We use nerdy terms such as“ontological shock” and “ecstatic literacy”, and describe how the openness created after a deep psychedelic experience can be used for good or evil. Studies discussed in this episode include:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01209-2

https://psyarxiv.com/rdzmy/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32461241/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32345112/