Psychedelics and Mimesis

Ontological Shock, New Models, Transformed Desires

How do our hardened desires change or undergo a process of transformation, especially when those desires are harmful or limiting? I’ve never done a psychedelic drug, and I’m not advocating their recreational use—but I am interested in emerging research showing their benefits in a variety of cases, and I’m particularly interested in their effect on people’s desires. Are they a pathway to transcendent wanting, for instance?

Author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) has written an entire book on the topic called How to Change Your Mind. And one of my readers, Connor Flanigan, recently gave this presentation called “The Embodied Model Hypothesis: Mimetic Theory Meets Psychedelics.” Is it possible to substitute mimetic models when a person is in a heightened state of suggestibility? This, of course, is what the field of hypnosis is all about. But we’re only now starting to see how deep the psychology goes.

In this newsletter, I’m sharing an excerpted transcript of my interview with Dr.…