demon haunted world science as a candle in the dark

Holotropic Breathwork, a process of rapid, deep breathing to evocative music, induces a non-ordinary state of consciousness (NOSC) (Taylor, 2007), which reportedly allows deeper access to the unconscious. Conversely, anything that stands in the way of accessing that material may present a barrier to effective psychotherapy. The psychoanalytic viewpoint proposes that insight into one’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motivations can be helpful in understanding and changing personal constructs (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013). The guiding principle is that spiritual experiences have played a key role in psychedelic studies, shaping scientific ideas, psychotherapeutic strategies, and the ideological positions of many of the researchers interested in the clinical applications of hallucinogens This article is a historical review of the origins and development of this spiritual aspect of psychedelic research, from its beginnings in the 1950sto the ‘Renaissance of psychedelic studies’ that we have witnessed in recent decades.

However, with the psychedelic model, the pharmacology of consciousness turned also into a ‘pharmacology of spirituality,’ focused on the use of spiritual experiences as catalyzers of psychological change. In the second half of the twentieth century, when psychopharmacology was not developed as we know it today and psychoanalysis was an influential school, various psychiatrists began to develop a ‘pharmacology of consciousness,’ and became interested in hallucinogens as new paths for accessing the unconscious.

Demon haunted world science as a candle in the dark