Supernatural Agent Experiences on Psychedelics: A Predictive Account
Zach Buck, John Vervaeke, Mark Miller
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that psychedelic supernatural agent experiences can be explained within active inference: increased entropy under psychedelics alters precision weighting, and supernatural agent inferences are recruited to generate perception. Proposes an integrationist account in which such inferences uniquely resolve altered multisensory evidence by reorganizing phenomenal self-models and instantiating alternative agency inferences, yielding a potentially generalizable cognitive model with testable theoretical consequences. |
Abstract
Encounter with supernatural agents and other drug-occasioned immaterial entities are a common aspect of psychedelic experiences. However, existing theories offer incomplete explanations for this phenomenon. This paper proposes a theoretical model of psychedelic supernatural agent experiences grounded in active inference. We review recent theoretical models of psychedelic neurological activity to explain how increased entropy under psychedelics alters precision weighting, creating the cognitive conditions under which supernatural agent inferences are recruited to generate perception. We relate this to predictive processing accounts of supernatural agency detection outside psychedelic contexts, emphasizing the role proximate and remote contexts play in strengthening priors of agency presence. To explain these phenomena absent strong pre-existing beliefs, we propose an integrationist approach– that SA inferences are uniquely capable of addressing altered sensory evidence arising across the brain’s modalities within a coherent perceptual model, restoring error minimization capacities via reorganization of phenomenal self-models and instantiation of alternative agency inferences. This model offers a potentially generalizable cognitive account of supernatural agent encounter across altered states, and forwards several theoretical consequences consistent with current evidence which can be further empirically validated.