Hypotheses

This chapter maps out a logical space of hypotheses about psychedelic experience, building on earlier explication. It proposes that meditation and psychedelic consumption tend to induce reliably different experiences along four dimensions: meditation may produce experiences high in clarity and duration but low in scope and novelty, while psychedelics may produce experiences high in scope and novelty but low in clarity and duration. The chapter also suggests that spontaneous psychedelic experiences occur and may follow a power-law distribution, with most being mildly psychedelic and rare ones, such as spontaneous mystical experiences, being extremely psychedelic.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This chapter uses the explication developed in the previous chapter to help delineate a logical space of hypotheses involving the concept of psychedelic experience. In particular, the chapter suggests that the practice of meditation and the consumption of psychedelics may tend to induce psychedelic experiences that reliably differ from each other with respect to the four dimensions of psychedelic space. As a broad brushstroke, the chapter hypothesises that meditation may tend to induce psychedelic experiences that are high in clarity and duration and low in scope and novelty. In contrast, the consumption of psychedelics may tend to induce experiences that are high in scope and novelty but low in clarity and duration. The chapter also proposes that psychedelic experiences can occur spontaneously and that such experiences may follow a power-law distribution: most spontaneous psychedelic experiences are only mildly psychedelic, but a rare few are extremely psychedelic (such as spontaneous mystical experiences).