Psychedelicacies: More Food For Thought From Breaking Convention by Nikki Wyrd


Psychedelicacies: More Food For Thought From Breaking Convention
Title : Psychedelicacies: More Food For Thought From Breaking Convention
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 190722288X
ISBN-10 : 9781907222887
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 320
Publication : Published January 1, 2019

Essays from the cutting edge of psychedelic research, from Breaking Convention 2017. Psychedelicacies offers twenty-two essays from the cutting edge of psychedelic research, based on talks given at Breaking Convention 2017, the largest symposium of its kind. Occurring biennially and featuring more than 120 academic presentations, Breaking Convention is widely regarded as the foremost global platform for serious research into psychedelic science and culture. Within these pages are essays on philosophy (including Aristotle, Plato and Nietzsche) and epistemology; ways of learning; systemic hierarchy; the development of comedy, counterculture, and postmodernism in the twentieth century; and psychedelic literature. There are accounts of ketamine clinics, dreaming, days spent in total darkness, and the effects of a room devoid of sound; and discussions of poetry: Ginsberg, Blake, and Wordsworth; the history of metaphorical speaking; and the way poetic speech changes consciousness. Other chapters cover the shadow side of ayahuasca retreats, the useful role of ceremonial practices, how psychedelics are being used in end-of-life therapy, and the concept of the imaginal. Contributors Tim Hardwick, Matthew Clark, Christopher Letheby, Lindsay Jordan, Nadia VE, Niklas Serning, Oli Genn-Bash, Eli Lee and Nina Lyon, Luke Goaman-Dodson, Michael Montagne, Tharcila Chaves, Josie Malinowski et al, Regina Hess, David Luke et al, George Erving, Luke Walker, Sam Knot, Eric Maddern, Elizabeth Joyce, Julian Vayne, Sam Gandy, William Rowlandson

Psychedelicacies: More Food For Thought From Breaking Convention Reviews

  • Tiago F

    This was my second time at Breaking Convention, and I own 3 or 4 books of their conferences at this point. I never bothered to read them, but I figured I should give this one a shot.

    It's a collection of 22 essays, based on the talks of this year's conference. I didn't read all of them, and instead picked the most ones that seemed the most interesting and well thought out. These include:

    "Visions at Eleusis", which connects Plato Theory of Forms with the Eleusinian mysteries and the psychedelic experience. Especially in relationship to language, as Plato was in the middle of a transition from an oral to a written culture.

    "The Varieties of Psychedelic Epistemology", which dives into the philosophical problem of psychedelic epistemology. One can argue no knowledge can be gained given you're not accessing the "real world", and in one sense you're disturbing the brain's normal functioning. The author argues for propositional knowledge (of consciousness itself), for knowledge by acquaintance and ability knowledge.

    "Are You Having a Laugh?" highlights the importance of humour and how it's connected to the psychedelic experience. It draws from Bergson's thoughts on humour and the increased awareness of flaws so they can be improved and also the concept of "koan" from Zen Buddhism, embracing (with a laugh) the inherently paradoxical nature of reality.

    And perhaps my favourite, "Blake's Artistic Vision", which explores Blake's view of the "non-dualistic" consciousness and its impact on the psychedelic culture of the 60s, reaching influential thinkers such as Huxley and Alan Watts. With its poetry, it describes the boundaries between self and other, body and soul and human and divine. “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

    Other interesting essays include the relationship between psychedelics and postmodernism, the philosophy of time in J.B.Priestly and Aldous Huxley, the differences and similarities between dreams and psychedelic experiences, darkrooms, and plant medicine cults.

    The book can be seen as excellent or quite mediocre, depending on if you judge it in its entirety or if you filter it out. While some of the essays were a bit disappointing, others were incredibly well done and greatly exceeded my expectations. Luckily, I think the difference between them is somewhat obvious from the titles, so it's easy to pick and choose.

    I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of good content on psychedelics from a humanities perspective, rather than a medical one. While it's very abundant, it's often done very badly, and I think why many people are drawn to its scientific side, desperate for some grounding and reason. Hopefully, some of the essays in this book can be a gateway of how to approach the psychedelic experience from a philosophical, literary and historical perspective.