Research Associate in the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam
11 papers in the library · 31 citations · publishing 2023
October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon 16 citations
Psychedelic experiences, which can also be induced by meditation, are mind-revealing. A unified framework explains experiences from psychedelics, meditation, or both, illuminating commonalities like lasting mindfulness gains and mystical experiences. This framework also shows how psychedelic experiences can serve as tools for doing philosophy, reviving an ancient approach that blends analytic methods with psychedelic techniques.
July 3, 2023 Hugh McGovern, Hilary Jane Grimmer, Manoj K. Doss et al. 12 citations preprint
Psychedelics can reorient beliefs, but they may also lead to false insights and false beliefs. A review of laboratory research on false insights and false memories is connected to belief formation under psychedelics through the active inference framework. Psychedelics increase both the quantity and subjective intensity of insights and beliefs, including false ones. Future research should aim to minimize the risk of false and potentially harmful beliefs arising from psychedelics. Understanding this risk is crucial for safely leveraging the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon 2 citations
A unifying theory proposes that both psychedelics and meditation expand awareness by affecting the attentional system. Meditation directly trains attention, while psychedelics disrupt attentional performance but free up attentional resources, creating a surplus that facilitates expanded awareness. The argument distinguishes between performance on attentional tasks and other qualities of attention.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon 1 citation
Both meditation and psychedelics improve well-being by revealing the mind. This chapter argues that these practices either directly promote mindfulness or create revelatory experiences that mimic temporary increases in mindfulness. Because these experiences approximate genuine mindfulness, they yield similar benefits for well-being. The explanation uses the concept of psychedelic space to account for effects beyond psychedelic experiences. The chapter also examines how mystical-type experiences relate to well-being, suggesting that revelations about one's self-nature may mediate this relationship.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
Psychedelic-induced hallucinations can, in some cases, reveal aspects of the mind rather than being mere distortions. By analyzing mathematical models of how the primary visual cortex produces low-level geometric hallucinations, the chapter argues that these hallucinations expose the early stages of perceptual processes. Other types of hallucinations might also be mind-revealing, for instance by serving as vehicles for unconscious contents. However, some hallucinations are merely distortions, possibly arising as by-products of other mind-revealing effects like uncovering hidden memories.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
Some memory recollections may themselves be psychedelic experiences, occurring spontaneously, during meditation, or after taking psychedelic substances. The chapter defines mindfulness as the opposite of a psychecryptic (mind-concealing) state and links it to psychedelic space. It reviews evidence that meditation and psychedelics can reveal hidden memories, but concludes that the empirical research is not yet definitive. A key proposal is that verifying the accuracy of memories uncovered in psychedelic-assisted therapy offers a salient test of whether psychedelics are truly mind-manifesting.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
Psychedelics can enhance creativity, but whether they do so by creating new ideas or revealing unconscious ones depends on the case. Some instances of psychedelic-induced creativity are genuinely novel (mind-creation), while others likely arise from revealing pre-existing unconscious ideas and processes (mind-revelation). The chapter reviews scientific evidence on human creativity and unconscious processes, arguing that both psychedelics and meditation can boost creativity by uncovering hidden mental content. Empirical evidence is assessed to determine how much it supports the revelation account over the creation account.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
This chapter maps out a logical space of hypotheses about psychedelic experience, building on earlier explication. It proposes that meditation and psychedelic consumption tend to induce reliably different experiences along four dimensions: meditation may produce experiences high in clarity and duration but low in scope and novelty, while psychedelics may produce experiences high in scope and novelty but low in clarity and duration. The chapter also suggests that spontaneous psychedelic experiences occur and may follow a power-law distribution, with most being mildly psychedelic and rare ones, such as spontaneous mystical experiences, being extremely psychedelic.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
A novel explication of the concept of psychedelic experience defines it as a mind-revealing experience. Experiences can be psychedelic in varying degrees and different ways along four dimensions: scope, clarity, novelty, and duration. These dimensions form a conceptual framework called psychedelic space, which distinguishes how experiences may be more or less psychedelic. Clarity is especially important because it differentiates experiences that accurately reveal the mind from those that do not, allowing psychedelic experiences to be simultaneously mind-revealing in some respects and mind-distorting in others.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
The central question of what constitutes a psychedelic experience is examined by reviewing the original exchange between Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond, who coined the term 'psychedelic' to mean 'mind-revealer'. They proposed that substances like psilocybin and LSD reveal hidden aspects of the mind, an insight that is also an empirical hypothesis open to testing. The chapter argues that before testing this hypothesis, the concept of psychedelic experience must be explicated in more precise terms to determine what evidence would support or refute it.
Psychedelic Experience October 26, 2023 Aidan Lyon
A novel philosophical approach incorporates psychedelic experiences into philosophical methodology. Three conceptions of wisdom—sophia, Socrates' human wisdom, and Aristotle's practical wisdom—can be enhanced by methods that cultivate psychedelic experiences and mindfulness. The argument reviews existing empirical evidence supporting these claims, proposing that psychedelic experiences can improve philosophical practice rather than merely being studied by it.