The essay interprets psychedelic peak experiences as mystical events that cannot be reduced to mere psychological effects or explained by natural science. It argues that mainstream scientific ontology is a version of the 'ontology of presence,' which creates a gap between science and human experience. Existential anxiety, understood through Heidegger's ontology, is presented as the core dimension of spiritual transformation. The phenomenology of mystical psychedelic experiences is interpreted as overcoming this anxiety by facing nothingness and transforming one's stance into a sense of original belongingness to the field of emptiness, as described by Nishitani. Various aspects of psychedelic experience are explained through this ontological transformation.
Mindfulness is often treated as a psychological tool for reducing stress or improving performance, but this essay argues that such a utilitarian view misses its deeper existential purpose. Drawing on Heidegger’s philosophy, the author contends that human suffering stems from an anxious rejection of nothingness, which forces beings to be experienced only as objects of attachment, creating a subject–object dualism and radical alienation from the world. This predicament cannot be resolved by using mindfulness as a technique to manage psychological resources, because liberation cannot be achieved through intention. Instead, Heidegger’s concepts of “letting-be,” “objectless waiting,” and “attention to Beyng” show how mindfulness meditation can open a nonintentional dimension of experience where genuine liberation from suffering may occur.