Psychedelics and Absolute Idealism

Registration hasn’t opened yet. Leave your email and we’ll let you know when you can reserve your place.

Description

Certain psychedelic experiences are reported as a feeling and perception that one has united with the fundamental essence of the universe. All paradoxes and dualisms – even that between oneself and nature – allegedly resolve into harmony. Such an experience has interesting parallels to the philosophy of Absolute Idealism that was developed by 19th century thinkers such as Schelling and Hegel, and later by others such as Bradley and Sprigge. They argued that we are part of a greater whole that is in itself cognitive and unified. We shall explore these parallels. We will also discuss the history of psychedelic research that was inspired by thinkers such as James and Stace (leading to the Mystical Experience Questionnaire) who were themselves engaged in these metaphysical debates concerning Absolute Idealism.

· GUESTS ·
Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a Philosopher of Mind and Metaphysics who specializes in fields pertaining to panpsychism, pantheism, idealism, mental causation, and altered states of consciousness. Peter is a lecturer at The University of Exeter where he is a founder of EPIC – the Exeter Psychedelic Interdisciplinary Centre – and developer of its postgraduate courses in Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture. He is co-director of Europe’s largest psychedelics conference, Breaking Convention, and the author of Noumenautics (2015), Modes of Sentience (2021), co-editor and contributor of Philosophy and Psychedelics (2022), Breaking Convention: Musings and Meditations on Psychedelia (2025), and author of Bloomsbury’s forthcoming book, The Psychedelics Manual: Metaphysics and Meaning, alongside numerous articles. As well as the TEDx Talker on ‘psychedelics and consciousness’, and speaker on the BBC’s show ‘The Trip’, Peter is an inspiration to the recreation of inhuman philosopher Marvel Superhero, Karnak. www.philosopher.eu

· PARTNERS ·
The event is organised with the financial support of the City of Prague, Prague 2, and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic as part of Laichter House’s literary programme.

Partners