Philopsychedelia beyond the West: The decolonial reflorescence of psychedelic philosophy.
Jan Clefferson Costa de Freitas, Nathalia Cristina Medeiros Maia, Markone Brandão Da Silva Shanenawa, Juan Vásquez Amaringo, René Alvarado Martinez
Progress in brain research January 1, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2025.07.001 via PubMed
Summary
This work explores how decolonial thought intersects with psychedelic philosophy, focusing on the effects of substances that alter perception and consciousness. It aims to show that visionary aesthetics and ancestral epistemologies can help in understanding the decolonization of mental manifestations. The study seeks to clarify how psychedelic experiences can reveal insurgent knowledge and how decolonial ideas can aid in interpreting these experiences.
Study at a glance
| Design | analytical-descriptive |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The integration of decoloniality is essential for a deeper understanding of psychedelic experiences and their implications. |
Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to identify the intersections between decolonial thought and psychedelic philosophy. By "psychedelic" we mean a pharmacological category, the effects of substances that modulates perception, a myriad of consciousness states, a set of ecstatic practices, a variety of countercultural movements, a constellation of artistic avant-gardes, and a plurality of ways of being. We thus intend to demonstrate how visionary aesthetics, liminal phenomenologies, ancestral epistemologies, ethics of resistance, politics of freedom and kaleidoscopic metaphysics are conceptual horizons from which a decolonization of the "manifestations of the mind" can come to light. Through an analytical-descriptive methodology, we idealize obtaining, as a result of this research, a philosophical justification of the indispensability of integrating decoloniality into the reflorescence of psychedelia. In a nutshell: we envision to clarify the extent to which psychedelic experiences can be ways of understanding insurgent knowledges, as well as explaining the proportion to which decolonial conceptions can be keys to interpreting psychedelic experiences.