Psychedelic Epistemology
William James and the "Noetic Quality" of Mystical Experience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3578587 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ron Cole-Turner (0000-0001-5858-9514, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 1058 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel12121058 |
| OpenAlex | W3216523708 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 20 |
William James proposed in 1902 that states of mystical experience, central to his idea of religious experience, can be identified based on their ineffability and their noetic quality. The epistemological category of the noetic quality, modified by W. T. Stace in 1960, plays a central but somewhat confounding role in today's biomedical research involving psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD. Using scales based on James, it can be shown that psychedelics "reliably occasion" intense subjective states of experience or mystical states. It is debated whether these states are necessary for the wide range of possible mental health therapeutic benefits that appear to follow. This paper reviews what James said about the noetic quality and its relationship to religious experience, epistemology, and states of mystical experience. It explores how the noetic quality is measured in today's research, addressing a growing list of concerns that psychedelic science can be epistemologically biased, that it is hostile to atheistic or physicalist views, that it injects religion unduly into science, or that it needs to find ways to eliminate the mystical element, if not the entire intense subjective experience altogether
Alternative medicine · Epistemology · Mysticism · Paranormal · Philosophy of religion · Psychoanalysis · Religious experience · Theology · Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques · Chemical synthesis and alkaloids · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology
Knowing and being known
Transient or transformative? Psychedelics, agency and informed consent
Psychometric brahman , psychedelic science
Clarifying and measuring the characteristics of experiences that involve a loss of self or a dissolution of its boundaries
Realization experiences
Psychedelic Mystical Experience
Neuro-plastic Shamanism? Towards a Political Ontology of Whiteness and the Psychedelic Zeitgeist
Philosophy of Psychedelics
The Subjective Effects of Psychedelics Are Necessary for Their Enduring Therapeutic Effects
Validation of the revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire in experimental sessions with psilocybin
Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction
Quality of Acute Psychedelic Experience Predicts Therapeutic Efficacy of Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression
Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance
Survey of subjective "God encounter experiences"
Rebus and the Anarchic Brain
Moral Psychopharmacology Needs Moral Inquiry
The Phenomenology and Potential Religious Import of States of Consciousness Facilitated by Psilocybin
Psychedelic Drugs and Atheism
Factor Analysis of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire
| Citations per year | 1.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |