Are psychedelic experiences transformative?

The " Are Psychedelic Experiences Transformative?" student conference, organized by the Faculty of Philosophy by the University of Bucharest (through its Department for Theoretical Philosophy), in partnership with students from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, department of Cognitive Science, BA program in Cognitive Science, aims to bring together students and researchers in philosophy of mind, epistemology, cognitive science, in order to explore whether and how psychedelic experiences may lead to transformative experiences, 

The conference will take place 18 May 2025, between 9 AM-8 PM, local time for Bucharest, Romania. Regular presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes long Q&A.

It will have a mixed format, in that speakers may choose whether they present online only or face to face at the event's location (if so, their session will enjoy a live audience, but it will also be streamed to remote participants).

Panels

What are the challenges in predicting the transformative potential of psychedelic experiences in the case of psychedelics known to produce ego dissolution?

• What can psychedelic experiences that lead to transformative experiences teach us about consciousness?

• What is the epistemic status of psychedelic-induced metaphysical beliefs?

• Does culture influence psychedelic experiences? Does it bear on their potential of being transformative experiences?

• Do psychedelic experiences facilitate belief transmission, enculturation and social affiliation ? 

• What do transformative experiences, in the process of self-transformation and healing, tell us about the self ?

• Can controlled psychedelic use lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain? Can reports based on such experiences justify newly acquired beliefs that match non-physicalist views of consciousness?

Programme

Saturday, May 17th

14:15-14:30 Opening Remarks

Andrei Mărăşoiu (University of Bucharest)

14:30-15:00 Andrei Radu (COPSI) Psychedelics and the fear of death.

15:30-16:00 Raluca Rusu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy) Metaphysical Beliefs and Psychedelic Experiences.

16:00-16:30 Erik Schultz (Arizona State University) Psychedelics and an Impression-first Ontology.

16:30-17:30 Break

17:30-18:00 Finn Thwaite (King's College London) The Pragmatic Philosophical Virtues of Psychedelics.

18:00-18:30 Paul Athes (Babeş Bolyai University) You make me real - AI, psychedelic experiences and their transformative nature.

Sunday, May 18th

9:00-9:30  Roca Domenic-Alexandru (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy) Psychedelic Experiences and how Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) Experiences are Transformative. 

09:30:-10:00 Haggeo Cadenas (UC-San Diego) The Mind in Tune: The Resonance Theory of Psychedelic Experience.

10:00-10:30 Break

10:30-11:00 Werner F. Smith (University of Fort Hare, South Africa) An Enactive framework for understanding Psychedelic Transformation in the context of therapy.

11:00-11:30 Mustafa Khuramy (University of Hertfordshire, UK) Constructive Perspectivism and Psychedelic-Induced Beliefs.

11:30-12:00 Costache Denisa-Alexandra (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy) What are the challenges in predicting the transformative potential of psychedelic experiences in the case of psychedelic experiences known to produce ego dissolution?

12:30 -14:30 Break

14:30-15:00 Denizalp Şimşek (Yeditepe University) Epistemology of Ego Death: A Kantian Reading of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy

15:00-16:00 Keynote Address: Jussi Jylkka (Åbo Akademi University) Title:“Comforting delusions? How to evaluate the plausibility of psychedelic-facilitated mystical-type insights"

16:00-16:45 Break

16:45-17:15 María Patricia Tinajero (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts) Psychedelic Aesthetics and Decolonial Ethics: Reimagining Art, Beauty, and Perception through Plant Mediators

17:15-17:45 Emanuel Jas (University of Hradec Kralove) A Big History Interpretation of Religion, Psychedelics and the Disembodied Myth of Classical Moral Realism

17:45-18:00 Break

18:00-18:45 Roundtable and concluding remarks