PT505 – Bicycle day Reflections, Quantum Mechanics, and the Value in Studying Philosophy to Understand Psychedelic Experiences, with Lenny Gibson, Ph.D.

Psychedelics Today

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Lenny Gibson, Ph.D.: philosopher, Grof-certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator, 20-year professor of transpersonal psychology at Burlington College, and the reason Joe and Kyle met many years ago.

He talks about his early LSD experiences and how his interest in the philosophy of Plato and Alfred North Whitehead provided a framework and language for understanding a new mystical world where time and space were abstractions. He believes that while culture sees the benefits of psychedelics in economic terms, the biggest takeaway from non-ordinary states is learning that value is the essence of everything. And as this is being released on Bicycle Day, he discusses Albert Hofmann’s discovery and whether or not it’s fair to say that Hofmann intentionally had the experience he did on that fateful day.

He also discusses:

• The end of Cartesian thinking and the need for a new understanding of reality that incorporates the insights of quantum mechanics
• How philosophy has been taught as an intellectual endeavor, and how we need to embrace the practical and conceptual side of life
• John Dewey and quantitative thinking, William James and pragmatism, and was Aristotle a Platonist?
• The novelty of the creation of LSD, and how it gave us a path to a mystical experience that wasn’t culturally bound

and more! For links, head to the show notes page.