Psychedelics and naturalistic spirituality

Abstract

Abstract Spirituality at least requires learning, accepting, and adapting to ultimate reality. Although psychedelic experiences are thought to facilitate these aspects of spirituality, those experiences are only related to ultimate reality by way of interpretations. This chapter uses naturalism to evaluate three interpretations. The first interpretation, which is religious, says that psychedelic experiences reveal a world of non-natural spirits. For naturalists, this interpretation is false, and provides no genuine spiritual benefits. The second interpretation involves physicalistic naturalism. Although it has excellent scientific support, it probably cannot account for some important spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences. The third interpretation involves Platonic naturalism. It has good scientific support, and accounts for all the spiritual aspects of psychedelic experiences. But the chapter ends with a word of caution: psychedelic spirituality demands metaphysical pluralism.