Hesychasm and Psychedelics: Altered States, Purgation, and the Question of Authentic Mysticism
Journal of Contemplative Studies February 29, 2024 Thomas Cattoi
The purpose of this essay is to introduce the reader to the tradition of Hesychasm—a form of monastic asceticism rooted in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and given a systematic articulation by the Byzantine author Gregory Palamas (1296–1359)—and to consider how the mystical experiences described in Palamas’s Triads compare to the altered states at the center of contemporary psychedelic...