Research

Currently, I am focusing on the clinical application of psychedelics. Psychedelic therapy seems to hold a lot of promise for treating a diverse range of mental health problems. But we still do not fully understand how psychedelics can help people mentally recover. Nor do we fully understand the risks that using psychedelics for clinical means might carry.

Here are some of the questions I am particularly interested in. What is the nature of so-called psychedelic visions? Are these experiences therapeutically valuable and, if so, in what way? Might psychedelic therapy be epistemically problematic? In particular, is it ever rational to hold beliefs acquired while under psychedelic influence? Are psychedelics’ therapeutic benefits due to belief revision? Or might affect play a greater therapeutic role?

Relatedly, I have a few works in progress: 

Transformative Visions (email me for a draft)
About the role of spontaneous imagination in psychedelic therapy.

Debunking Psychedelic Beliefs (email me for a draft)
About the irrationality of psychedelic beliefs.

What Psychedelic Experience Teaches 
About the role of emotions in psychedelic therapy. 

I have written a couple of things about psychedelics and imagination for The Junkyard blog. See here for an immersive mental simulation model of psychedelic visions and here for some general thoughts on the role of imagination in psychedelic therapy.