Prof. Eric Steinhart - Spiritual Naturalism and Psychedelics - MIND Philosophy Series #9

Psychedelics typically produce eruptions of rich new experiential data in the brain, data which needs to be interpreted and integrated into ordinary life. Powerful forces in Western religious culture, as well as in the history of psychedelics in the West, strongly work to shape this data into patterns found in Western theism or esotericism. Beliefs produced by theistic-esoteric interpretations are often profoundly inconsistent with both the scientific worldview, with common sense, and with ethical life in a technological society. However, recent work in religious and spiritual naturalism shows how psychedelic experiences can be understood within a broadly naturalistic framework. One version of spiritual naturalism is inspired by recent informational and computational ontologies, and ultimately by Platonism. This spiritual naturalism shows how psychedelic experiences can be objectively true and meaningful. It provides a metaphysics for psychedelics which is supported by our best science and our best ethics, and compatible with life in a technological society.