Applied Mysticism: A Drug‐Enabled Visionary Experience Against Moral Blindness

Zygon 54 (3):731-755 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Intellectuals such as William James and Aldous Huxley have thought it possible to develop a technique to apply to this world the mystical-type insights gained during drug-enabled experiences. Particularly, Huxley claimed that the visionary experience triggered by psychedelics could help us rethink our relationship with technology and promote a much-needed cultural change. In this article, we explore this hypothesis. To do so, we build a philosophical framework based on Günther Anders's philosophy of technique, presenting human beings as morally blind when facing technological development. Mystical experiences are then proposed as a means to improve our moral faculties—and psychedelic drugs as tools to enable them. We finally explore the empirical feasibility of such a hypothesis by thoroughly reviewing the recent scientific literature on the nature of the psychedelic experience, concluding that the long-term effects in the personality domain openness and in nature relatedness point to the emergence of a morally improved agent, thus providing substance to an application of mysticism.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,880

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Mysticism and Drugs.J. Kellenberger - 1978 - Religious Studies 14 (2):175 - 191.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-08-20

Downloads
56 (#389,131)

6 months
8 (#622,456)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Virginia Ballesteros
Universitat de Valencia

Citations of this work

Psychedelics and environmental virtues.Nin Kirkham & Chris Letheby - 2024 - Philosophical Psychology 37 (2):371-395.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Mysticism and Philosophy.Walter Stace - 1960 - Philosophy 37 (140):179-182.
Direct vs. Indirect Moral Enhancement.G. Owen Schaefer - 2015 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 25 (3):261-289.
Psychedelic Moral Enhancement.Brian D. Earp - 2018 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83:415-439.
Language, epistemology, and mysticism.Steven T. Katz - 1978 - In Mysticism and philosophical analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 22--74.

View all 13 references / Add more references