Pure consciousness—characterized by unstructuredness, maximal simplicity, selflessness, awareness as such, zero-perspective, and absence of specific phenomenal qualities—can be fully experienced in the psychedelic state, and this experience is phenomenologically indistinguishable from pure consciousness achieved through meditation. This directly refutes Metzinger's claim that meditation is the sole best candidate for attaining pure consciousness. The article advocates soft phenomenological perennialism, which holds that all pure consciousness experiences share an identical core, whether induced by psychedelics or meditation. Such experiences can yield epistemic insights into consciousness, self, and reality, and can inform understanding of religious-spiritual concepts like God, though naturalistic critiques caution against religious-spiritual interpretations. A spiritual naturalistic interpretation of pure consciousness is increasingly important.
This article defines spiritual anarchism as openness to what transcends the ego and our limited perspective, arguing that the self can become an unjustifiable source of authority and a constraint on freedom. It critically reviews prior overviews of spiritual anarchism and proposes including neglected traditions. The article then reverses the typical approach by examining how spiritual practices—such as meditation, psychedelic experiences, and mystical experiences—can be made more anarchistic.
This article critically examines the concepts of 'meaning formation', 'spontaneity', and 'altered states of consciousness', questioning whether altered states should be described as processes of spontaneous meaning formation. It argues that this conceptual framework is not the most appropriate for grasping such states, and that a critical analysis of these terms can help radically rethink the concepts of experience and consciousness.