Definitely good mental health advice in general.

For #MensMentalHealthMonth, I wrote this article on men's relationship to sex and sexual dysfunction, and how it is often tied to unhealthy expectations around masculinity.

Darkness retreats are on the rise. People who attend them report trippy effects and profound insights, but spending multiple days alone without sensory input can also lead to some unsettling experiences. I wrote about their potential benefits and risks in this blog post.

A review of my book from Alberto Cavallarin, published in a new journal, Acta Psychedelica. And the book review is the first publication in it, which is pretty cool. #bookreview #philosophy #essays

I wrote about the positive and negative ways that Letterboxd affects how we watch (and think about) films, which @strohltopia.bsky.social discusses in his latest book.

“It is the very strangeness of dreams in their divergence from waking experience that gives them their biological function."

"Paller was the lead author of a 2021 paper from Northwestern University which found that individuals in the midst of a lucid dream could communicate with (awake) researchers.... This is promising because dream research had previously relied largely on retrospective reports".

An excerpt from my book Altered Perspectives. It's taken from Chapter 9, where I apply Henri Bergson's theory of déjà vu to the intense feeling of familiarity that many people experience under the influence of DMT (i.e. "I've been here before"). #philosophy #memory #Bergson

Interesting discussion with @strohltopia.bsky.social and @politephilosopher.bsky.social on why we should resist letting algorithms decide what we watch, and the benefits of giving more time and attention to 'difficult' films, e.g. ones which are long, slow, or shocking.

I wrote about how #personality differences affect people's responses to #veganism generally as well as to specific kinds of arguments for veganism. This is an underexplored challenge that many vegan activists face.

Very interesting read on charismatic Christianity and its recent rise in the UK. "Charismatics are so focused on the demons outside the church, sometimes they miss the darkness within it…and within themselves." - @philosojules.bsky.social

In this blog post, I look at whether psychedelics can be helpful for dealing with climate distress.

Very interesting and needed. A Radio 4 programme from journalist Ed Prideaux on the blind spots and pitfalls of the psychedelic renaissance.

My latest blog post is about Danny Shine's role as a modern-day jester, and more generally about the social functions of jesters.

Recently finished reading the new book by @strohltopia.bsky.social. Highly recommend it for cinephiles out there, or anyone who wants to give difficult films more attention. It also motivated me to watch Jeanne Dielman, which I kept putting off. (I agree with Strohl, it's not a boring film at all.)

In this blog post, I look at the experience of enhanced dream recall while falling asleep, and what may be behind it.

Need more of this. In this paper, Alberto Cavallarin critiques the narrow way in which 'mystical experiences' are typically framed, as seen in a lot of psychedelic research.

Interesting discussion on Aztec #philosophy with philosopher Sebastian Purcell.

New blog post. Using the #Rogansphere as an example, I look at the relationship between psychedelics and political views – how these substances can make no difference to one's views, as well as intensify them or shift them in any direction.

Why you should never argue online iandunt.substack.com/p/why-you-sh...

Accurate.

New blog post. #psychedelics #mentalhealth #psychedelictherapy

In this blog post, I look at the physical reactions that can occur during somatic therapy and charismatic Christian worship, and how there might be similar psychological mechanisms behind both.

An article on what it means to 'integrate' a psychedelic experience if it was traumatic, seemingly devoid of insight, and a cause of lasting distress.

We should have specific words for the feeling of the sun on your face in May and September. In the former case, it needs to conjure up a sense of relief and in the latter a sense of longing.

A few photos from Cornwall.

In this blog post, I look at the trend of people stealing others' comedy content on social media and passing it off as their own idea. But in some cases, the line is blurred between inspiration and plagiarism.

Many of those who could benefit from psychedelic therapy or a psychedelic retreat are unable to afford it. What can be done to address this access inequality?

New blog post. What do we gain and lose by using #AI tools like Midjourney to generate psychedelic art?

My latest article for @iai.tv “Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us.” - #Schopenhauer

I recently watched Pulse, and it's definitely one of the creepiest #horror films I've seen. A lot has been written about how the film reflects societal fears about the internet. Here, I focus on its exploration of apeirophobia (the fear of eternal life).

While the influx of AI-generated content is a net negative in many different ways, this doesn't mean AI has no legitimate uses in writing. Here, I look at some of the ways AI can act as a writing assistant (and help improve writing skills, rather than stunt them).

An article I wrote for Numinous Ways on combining psychedelics with #antidepressants. It seems the risk of serotonin syndrome is low (unless an MAOI is involved); not all psychedelic effects are blunted; and the combination doesn't stop people from enjoying mental health benefits.

And one final thought: Ozzy going out after giving an emotional final performance that raised a ton of money for charity is more spiritually uplifting and did more genuine good than anything any televangelist and religious grifter who railed against him ever did combined.

While bad actors catastrophize about the increase in autism diagnoses, it "is actually a long-needed correction of a longstanding bias, which had overlooked many in need of support." And do we really want to go back to blaming autism on "refrigerator mothers"? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

My latest blog post explores traditions in which psychedelics are used by children and adolescents, as well as researchers' views on the potential risks of psychedelic use for young people.

I wrote about the strange writing made up by outsider artist James Hampton, which researchers have referred to as "the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues'."

"You could argue, from an Aristotelian view, that ecstatic experiences are not essentially moral, rather they can be guided towards virtues and character-building, or they can also contribute to the growth of vices and character-dissolution." - @philosojules.bsky.social

Many musicians have performed live while tripping, including Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, Syd Barrett, and Maynard James Keenan. In this blog post, I explore the effects of psychedelics on musical ability.

In this article, I look at the science behind intergenerational trauma and how psychedelics may be helpful in treating it.

Do you see circles or rectangles? How culturally dependent is perceptual experience? Inspired by two recent studies, I wrote this for today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Don Lattin describes Leary as an "Irish rascal" and "trickster"; Ralph Metzner said he represented the "court jester"; and Leary referred to himself as a "trickster guru". Here I look at who Leary was, and what he did, through the lens of the trickster archetype.

Using #ChatGPT to write essays is linked to cognitive debt: "the #LLM group's participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only [non-ChatGPT] group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring." The authors of the preprint do highlight several limitations with the study though.

In this blog post, I look at cases of tinnitus following a DMT experience, including potential reasons for the link.

"But perhaps psychiatrist Sidney Cohen came closest to understanding what had really happened to the Huxleys when he wrote that “LSD does nothing specific … it springs the latch of disinhibition.”"

My review of Aniara, with a focus on its depiction of 'cosmic anxiety', the antithesis of cosmic awe: feeling overwhelmed and panicked when faced with the vastness of space. #film #filmreview #scifi #horror

My latest blog post is on the increase in DMT trip reports that mention jester entities. I look at how expectations and DMT lore (i.e. aspects of 'set') may influence the appearance of one kind of entity rather than another.

Got my copy of @samwoolfe.bsky.social’s book Altered Perspectives today. Looks great—eager to dive into it soon! #psychedelics #BookSky

New blog post. "Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us."

My latest blog post is on how pro-psychedelic narratives sometimes involve stigma against antidepressants.