Psychedelic Experiences: Revelations or hallucinations?

Note: Usual caveat that street versions of any drug can be incredibly dangerous, for more on this see What's in My Baggie?. Dealers hate drug testers, to the point of trying to hunt them down. All to say trying to treat yourself without guidance is incredibly dangeorus.

The Reality of Psychedelic Experiences: Revelations or hallucinations?

Peter Sjöstedt-H, Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer in University of Exeter's Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology Department

But beyond these two extremes – the all-out belief of the mantis-veridicalists and the all-out rejection of the theist-physicalists – there lies the possibility that certain experiences are veridical, others non-veridical: some revelations, others hallucinations. How could this veridicality be determined?

How, then, could we rule out the existence of the external perceived object of a psychedelic experience, as neural correlation alone cannot offer this? There are a number of criteria that generally determine whether what we experience is real or not. These include:

Sensibility: Something sensed by the traditional five senses (sight, sound, etc.) is commonly taken as veridical. Sensibility is useful but not sufficient to give us knowledge of what exists. There are things that exist of which we can be cognizant that are not perceived through the traditional senses, such as mathematical theorems and logical axioms. More pertinently, we cannot even directly perceive the consciousness of others through these senses. Thus we cannot rule out the existence of objects of psychedelic experiences solely on the basis that they cannot be observed through the traditional senses.

Shared objects of experience: If only I see the lamp, but others do not, I may question the veridicality of my experience. But the experiences of grander psychedelic phenomena listed above – such as the unity of all, and the unreality of time – are common, shared objects of experience under the psychedelic influence.

Coherence with other beliefs: An object perceived through the senses that does not cohere with one's network of prior beliefs will often be dismissed as unreal. Of course, this is not a strong criterion for veridicality as one's prior beliefs may be false as they are often inculcated rather than developed through reason.

Rationality: If we have background rationale for believing in the veridicality of that which we experience, we are thereby prone to consider the experience as veridical. For example, we may have reasons to doubt the reality of time. Moreover, if we can show that the objects of experience are logically coherent and not contradictory, their veridicality is shown to be possible.

Note: Usual caveat that street versions of any drug can be incredibly dangerous, for more on this see What's in My Baggie?. Dealers hate drug testers, to the point of trying to hunt them down. All to say trying to treat yourself without guidance is incredibly dangerous.