Ten theses on the politics of psychedelics
Psychedelics June 24, 2026 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyche.2026.100025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Politics Phenomenology philosophy Democracy Psychoanalytic theory Consciousness Epistemology Psychoanalysis Aesthetics |
| Key points | Argues that psychedelics are interruptive, deautomating political technologies conducive to radical democratic politics rather than consolidating liberal-democratic systems. |
Abstract
This article liberates discussion of the politics of psychedelics from its present impasse. Across ten theses, it asserts that psychedelics are interruptive deautomating political technologies, which makes them conducive to democratic politics, in the radical sense: rather than consolidating liberal-democratic systems of representative or managed democracy, psychedelic experience tends to open such regimes up to the ferment of radical democracy. To conceptualise the political ramifications of psychedelics requires that psychedelic mysticism and the phenomenology of psychedelic experience be reconceived in ways which give due recognition to their embodied, agential and politically potentiating dimensions, which involves correcting restrictively neuro-centric conceptions of psychedelic mysticism and expanding incomplete phenomenologies. It further requires that the “deautomating” dimensions of psychedelic experience be conceptualised alongside an analysis of the prevailing anti-democratic forces of automation, administrative reason and computationalist abstraction.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 18
- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later Journal of Psychopharmacology May 30, 2008
- Psychedelics, Personality and Political Perspectives. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs April 26, 2017
- Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression Journal of Psychopharmacology January 17, 2018
- From Egoism to Ecoism: Psychedelics Increase Nature Relatedness in a State-Mediated and Context-Dependent Manner. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health December 16, 2019
and 13 more in the library