Toward a Psychedelic Theodicy: Psychedelic Biomedicine and the Concept of “Risk”
January 14, 2025 DOI: 10.70423/0001.14 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractBiomedicine cannot adequately address the negative entity encounters and 'bad trips' that many psychedelic users report. This essay argues that a different ontological approach is needed to understand these experiences and support patients. It proposes a psychedelic theodicy as a framework for contextualizing such challenging psychedelic phenomena, drawing on perspectives beyond the biomedical model.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Biomedicine Theodicy Psychology Epistemology Philosophy |
| Key finding | Proposes that a psychedelic theodicy, drawing on alternative ontologies, can better contextualize negative entity encounters in psychedelic experiences than biomedicine alone. |
Abstract
Biomedicine is insufficiently able to address “bad trips” and specifically negative entity encounters that psychedelic users regularly aver. To address the inadequacy of biomedicine to address this question, this essay proposes a turn toward other ontologies better equipped to understand these experiences and support patients. This paper presents a model/framework for contextualizing psychedelic experience through one such ontological turn: a psychedelic theodicy.