Psychedelics and Meditation: A Neurophilosophical Perspective
Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation January 1, 2022 Chris Letheby 2 citations
Psychedelics and meditation share deeper commonalities beyond altering consciousness. Recent empirical studies show both modulate overlapping brain networks involved in the sense of self, salience, and attention, and psychedelics can occasion lasting increases in mindfulness-related capacities for taking a non-reactive stance on inner experience. The self-binding theory of psychedelic ego dissolution explains these findings: by disrupting self-related beliefs in high-level cortical networks, both methods can unbind mental contents from one's self-model, moving them from phenomenal transparency to opacity. This weakens foundational beliefs about identity, allowing disidentification with these beliefs as "just thoughts." These connections may help consider epistemic benefits of meditation from a naturalistic perspective.