The work of Sjöstedt-Hughes deserves greater attention, as he has played a key role in the modern growth of the philosophy of psychedelics. Sjöstedt-Hughes is an Anglo-Scandinavian philosopher specialising in the thought of Spinoza, Whitehead, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Bergson within the philosophy of mind, with a special interest in psychedelic states of consciousness and panpsychism (the view that everything has a mind or mind-like aspect).
Sjöstedt-Hughes’ PhD thesis is titled Pansentient Monism: Formulating Panpsychism as a Genuine Psycho-Physical Identity Theory, which presents a variation of panpsychism as a solution to the mind-matter problem, or the problem of how mind and matter relate (also known as the hard problem of consciousness). He has two books published, Noumenautics: Metaphysis, Meta-ethics, Psychedelics (2015) and Modes of Sentience (2021), both published by Psychedelic Press UK, and he co-edited the book Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience (2022), published by Bloomsbury, which also includes an essay he penned: ‘The White Sun of Substance: Spinozism and the Psychedelic Amor Dei Intellectualis’.
You can find a list of Sjöstedt-Hughes’ academic and non-academic work on the philosophy of psychedelics here. His article ‘On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research’ was published this year in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. In this article, he argues “integrating metaphysical experience requires recourse to metaphysics” and that certain metaphysical systems can help make psychedelic experiences “more intelligible, comprehensive, viable, and acceptable to participants [in psychedelic therapy]”.
In terms of Sjöstedt-Hughes’ wider influence on this subdiscipline, he (along with fellow philosopher Christine Haukseller, who also co-edited Philosophy and Psychedelics) has designed and taught the very first academic module on the philosophy of psychedelics (at the University of Exeter). This module covers:
- Philosophy of mind, consciousness, and psychedelics
- The biopolitics and bioeconomy of psychedelics
- Creativity and aesthetics vis-à-vis psychedelics
- Perennialism and Contextualism: Western mysticism and Non-Western Indigenous approaches
- Metaphysics and psychedelics: Interpreting psychedelic experience through metaphysical systems
- Transpersonal and environmental ethics and psychedelics
Additionally, he has helped to develop the world’s very first postgraduate certificate dedicated to psychedelics. The University of Exeter website states that this “PGCert programme offers a combination of knowledge and understanding of key theories and approaches in psychedelics involving both science (medicine, psychological therapy, neuroscience and research methods) and philosophy (ethics, metaphysics and cultural contexts).”
On the programme, The Guardian reports that the philosophical side of the course covers “the insights into consciousness and metaphysics that psychedelics give – and discussions of decolonising psychedelic research and practice, including an anthropological look into cultures which have used psychedelics for centuries.” The aim of the programme is to upskill and educate healthcare workers and therapists on the emerging potential of psychedelics. And the interdisciplinary nature of it “will situate this medicinal progress within a cultural, neuroscientific, and philosophical context – analysing the ethics and politics of the current ‘psychedelic renaissance’, as well its impact on understanding consciousness,” says Sjöstedt-Hughes.
Along with Hauskeller, Sjöstedt-Hughes has also created the Philosophy of Psychedelics Exeter Research Group. He organised the Philosophy of Psychedelics Conference in Exeter, gave a highly viewed TEDx talk titled ‘Philosophy and psychedelics’, and has appeared in a number of podcasts, media outlets, and debates, helping to communicate how the psychedelic experience relates to a range of philosophical ideas. He continues to lecture at the University of Exeter on these topics. I highly recommend giving him a follow on Twitter.
share your toughts
Join the Conversation.
Good article.