The mechanisms of psychedelic therapy

‘The mechanisms of psychedelic therapy’ presents arguments against three theories of psychedelic therapy. The Molecular Neuroplasticity Theory ascribes therapeutic benefits to an experience-independent molecular mechanism. This theory is undermined by the correlation between ‘mystical-type experiences’ and beneficial outcomes, which suggests that genuinely psychological mechanisms are involved. The Metaphysical Belief Theory and the Metaphysical Alief Theory fare better on this count: both ascribe beneficial outcomes to the transcendent vision of a ‘Joyous Cosmology’ supposedly encountered in the mystical-type experience. However, these theories struggle to account for the fact that some patients satisfy psychometric criteria for a mystical-type experience without undergoing a non-naturalistic metaphysical hallucination. The psychometric criteria can also be satisfied by more naturalistic experiences of ego dissolution and connectedness. The conclusion is that psychedelics cause lasting benefits via some genuinely psychological factor that (i) correlates with the construct of a mystical-type experience, but (ii) is independent of non-naturalistic metaphysical ideations.

Is Religion Dead?

The rise of strident movements of religious nationalism seems to signal a resurgence of religion. But such movements can also be read as the last gasp of religiosity as it succumbs to the inevitability of secular globalization. Which is correct? Has religion revived, or is it in its death throes? Part of the issue is statistical: adherence to religion seems to be on the rise in some parts of the world (Islam in Africa, for instance), though on the decline in others (Christianity in Europe and increasingly in the United States) and under attack in China. But part of the issue is definitional: what is meant by religious adherence—social identity or metaphysical belief? Scholarly attempts to define religion are various, though an interesting new definition is provided by the late sociologist Robert Bellah, who described religion as “alternative reality.” With that definition, one can posit that religiosity is a fundamental part of the creative imagination, a constituent of culture as certain as art or music. The question then becomes not whether religion will survive, but in what way it will survive. The popular religious choice of millennials, “none,” may be consistent with the multicultural religiosity of the old Protestant liberals, a tradition now in decline. Liberal Protestants have not disappeared but have transformed into the bearers of a global morality and spiritual sensibility. Hence we may be witnessing the emergence of new forms of spirituality and ethical community that resonate with the alternative reality of traditional religious experience but that have no name and no organization. But these may become the global religion of the future.

Assimilation, Accommodation and Appropriation: Three attitudes to truth in science and religion

This article addresses the relationship between experience and belief, focusing on the role of science in the debate between secular Humanism and Christianity. It suggests that the possibility of appropriating experience to belief – taking action to bring experience into line with belief – distinguishes spiritual belief from systematic belief (in which the object is independent of beliefs about it); but that the boundary between these two forms of belief is itself a matter of (metaphysical) belief. Understanding science and religion, Humanism and Christianity in relationship to systematic and spiritual belief-structures helps to bring clarity to the debate.

Positive Thinking

Following the ideas of a Cognitive Optimum Position, this paper aims to illustrate how cognitive science of religion can be fruitfully applied to understand the appeal of certain metaphysical beliefs within modern New Age religiosity. By diving into the popular DVD version of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, this paper seeks is to uncover the cognitive mechanism and systematic biases involved when New Age sympathizers engage in ritual practices and beliefs related to positive thinking and the Law of Attraction. We propose to view the visualization rituals highlighted in The Secret as “internalized” similarity magic, possibly triggering the adaptive principle appearance equals reality. We further argue that the mind-over-matter belief promoted throughout The Secret—that thoughts affect or interact with physical reality—in certain cases are strengthened by a human bias to see a mental-physical causal relationship, a causation heuristic. The cognitive processes behind the general metaphysical belief that thoughts can affect reality are elaborated further by the concept core knowledge confusion. Finally we suggest that together with an illusion of control over uncertain future events, an optimism bias may incite people to engage in continual ritual practice.

Re-imagining Christian Spirituality in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Forced migration and separation, which are integral to African-American history, coupled with the juridical, social and racial restrictions of slavery, inaugurated an insidious form of dislocation for African Americans: they lost their spiritual anchor in the gods of traditional Africa. With this loss came physical and ideational restlessness, which worsened with emancipation and merely occasioned another quest—a re-union of the physical, social and spiritual. In this paper we argue that Wilson, in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, foregrounds spirituality as the freed slaves’ primary anchor for self-authentication, and that this self-authentication and emancipation must be predicated on the subversion of Christian perspectives of personal redemption and on giving mainstream Christianity an African resonance. We further argue that Wilson presents personal redemption through deliberately subverting the metaphysical belief system the freed slaves were inducted into during slavery, namely Christianity. In other words, Wilson turns Christianity on its head to argue for a more Afrocentric approach to spirituality and personal redemption. The restless wanderings of his characters in search of freedom from physical bondage become a metaphor for a spiritual search. We argue that Bynum’s “Shiny Man” in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is an Afrocentric allusion to the Christ-like figure as the bearer of eternal redemption.