The Role of Perennialist Thought in the Development of Psychedelic Research in the United States
May 4, 2022 Springer, Nathan Keele
Since the 1960s, American research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs has centered on their ability to facilitate mystical experiences. This research has close ties to perennialist notions of religion, which gained popularity over the 20th century through figures like William James and Aldous Huxley. As psychedelic research has accelerated from the 2000s onward, claims that mystical experience is key to the compounds' palliative effects remain tied to perennialist thought, picking up where studies in the 1960s left off. Perennialism can itself be considered a new religious movement that has developed in scientific and academic circles, revealing a breakdown of the dichotomist relationship between science and religion.