Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org
Psychedelic unselfing:
self-transcendence and change of
values in psychedelic experiences
JuusoKähönen *
Department of Philosophy, History, and Art, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Psychedelic experiences have been shown to both facilitate (re)connection to
one’s values and change values, including enhancing aesthetic appreciation,
promoting pro-environmental attitudes, and encouraging prosocial behavior.
This article presents an empirically informed framework of philosophical
psychology to understand how self-transcendence relates to psychedelic value
changes. Most of the observed psychedelic value changes are toward the self-
transcendent values of Schwartz’s value theory. As psychedelics also reliably
cause various self-transcendent experiences (STEs), a parsimonious hypothesis
is that STEs change values toward self-transcendent values. I argue that STEs
indeed can lead to value changes, and discuss the morally relevant process of self-
transcendence through Iris Murdoch’s concept of “unselfing”. I argue that overt
egocentric concerns easily bias one’s valuations. Unselfing reduces egocentric
attributions of salience and enhances non-egocentric attention to the world,
widening one’s perspective and shifting evaluation toward self-transcendent
modes. Values are inherently tied to various evaluative contexts, and unselfing
can attune the individual to evaluative contexts and accompanying values beyond
the self. Understood this way, psychedelics can provide temporarily enhanced
access to self-transcendent values and function as sources of aspiration and
value change. However, contextual factors can complicate whether STEs lead
to long-term changes in values. The framework is supported by various research
strands establishing empirical and conceptual connections between long-term
dierences in egocentricity, STEs, and self-transcendent values. Furthermore, the
link between unselfing and value changes is supported by phenomenological and
theoretical analysis of psychedelic experiences, as well as empirical findings on
their long-term eects. This article furthers understanding of psychedelic value
changes and contributes to discussions on whether value changes are justified,
whether they result from cultural context, and whether psychedelics could
function as tools of moral neuroenhancement.
KEYWORDS
values, self-transcendence, psychedelics, unselfing, egocentricity, moral epistemology,
salience, self
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Nicolas Langlitz,
The New School, UnitedStates
REVIEWED BY
Kevin St. Arnaud,
Concordia University of Edmonton, Canada
David Pittaway,
University of the Free State, SouthAfrica
*CORRESPONDENCE
Juuso Kähönen
juuso.kahonen@helsinki.fi
RECEIVED 21 November 2022
ACCEPTED 31 March 2023
PUBLISHED 14 June 2023
CITATION
Kähönen J (2023) Psychedelic unselfing:
self-transcendence and change of values in
psychedelic experiences.
Front. Psychol. 14:1104627.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Kähönen. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
The use, distribution or reproduction in other
forums is permitted, provided the original
author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are
credited and that the original publication in this
journal is cited, in accordance with accepted
academic practice. No use, distribution or
reproduction is permitted which does not
comply with these terms.
TYPE Hypothesis and Theory
PUBLISHED 14 June 2023
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Our states of consciousness dier in quality, our fantasies and reveries are not trivial and
unimportant, they are profoundly connected with our energies and our ability to choose
and act. If quality of consciousness matters, then anything which alters our consciousness
in the direction of unselshness, objectivity and realism is to beconnected with virtue.
(Murdoch, 2001, 84)
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 02 frontiersin.org
1. Introduction
is article aims to enrich our understanding of the value changes
to which psychedelic experiences can lead. Iargue that a signicant
reason for psychedelic value changes is self-transcendence—the
reduction of egocentric ways of attributing salience and attention to
the world around us—and the downstream eects. For example, in his
autobiography, Albert Hofmann mentions meeting a
young businessman:
He thanked me for the creation of LSD, which had given his life
another direction. Hehad been 100 percent a businessman, with
a purely materialistic world view. LSD had opened his eyes to the
spiritual aspect of life. Now hepossessed a sense for art, literature,
and philosophy and was deeply concerned with religious and
metaphysical questions. (Hofmann, 1980, 93)
is provides prima facie evidence that psychedelic experiences
sometimes radically change one’s values. Not all value changes are
radical: more commonly reported are moderate changes in various
valuations and attitudes, or the ability to better (re)connect with
pre-existing values (see Tables 1, 2).
No research has explicitly attempted to theoretically integrate and
explain the value changes to which psychedelics can lead. To embark
toward such integration, I review in Section 2, the literature on
psychedelic value changes and argue that many such changes are
changes toward self-transcendent values and are associated with
various self-transcendent experiences (STEs).
In Section 3, I combine philosophical argumentation and
empirical evidence to develop an explanatory framework for value
changes in relation to a form of self-transcendence Icall “unselng”
(Murdoch, 1997, 369). is framework gives a plausible explanation
for why STEs might lead to self-transcendent values. My key
philosophical claim is that selood and salience attributed to self are
one central factor modulating how individuals intuit and grasp
values. e central hypothesis is that overt egocentricity can easily
bias valuations, reducing the importance of self-transcendent values.
I claim that freeing of attention and salience from egocentric
concerns enables an opportunity for perspectival and evaluative
changes—opening our attention and concern to wider contexts,
values, and frames of reference. eorists in various disciplines
converge on similar ideas, ranging from the philosophical psychology
of Iris Murdoch, through the late developmental theories of Maslow
and Kohlberg, to recent psychological work on “the quiet ego” and
“hypo-egoic phenomena” (Leary and Guadagno, 2011; Wayment and
Bauer, 2017).
In Section 4, Idiscuss psychedelic value changes in light of this
framework and link them to psychological research and theoretical
understanding of psychedelic experiences. Arguably, by reducing
egocentric evaluative biases and increasing the attribution of attention
and value outside the self, unselng psychedelic experiences can
connect and align us to the world and provide better epistemic access
to self-transcendent viewpoints and values.
In Section 5, I discuss the implication of the framework. e
proposed framework contributes to moral and epistemological
discussions of psychedelics. Positing unselng as a source of value
change gives initial moral-epistemic justication for self-transcendent
value changes (Lavazza, 2017; Langlitz et al., 2021), potentially
legitimizing psychedelics as a societally valuable source of moral
enhancement—a pharmacological means to improve humans’ moral
state (Earp etal., 2017; Earp, 2018).
An important caveat of this article is that self-transcendent value
changes occur only in a subset of psychedelic experiences, presumably
more likely in certain contexts or use patterns and conditioned by the
pivotal inuence of set and setting (i.e., personal and contextual
factors), discussed further in Sections 3.9 and 4.4. Furthermore, self-
transcendence is not the only factor contributing to psychedelic value
changes (Pace and Devenot, 2021). Charting all factors and
TABLE1 Definitions of central concepts.
Personal values (psychology) Personal values refer to internalized cognitive structures that guide priorities and choices in life (Higgins, 2015; Oyserman, 2015)
Value (philosophy) In philosophy, values are used to denote not only personal values, but also goods associated with various states of aairs, objects
and contexts (i.e., beauty is a good associated with art, and justice as a good of the society). Philosophy is concerned with
normative, epistemic and metaethical question concerning value, i.e., whether objects or state of aairs really are valuable, how this
can beknown and what values ontologically are (Tappolet and Rossi, 2015)
Salience Salience refers to the importance (oen automatically or subconsciously) attributed to various objects and aspects of experience,
which makes certain objects or features stand out and beselected for attention (cf. Archer, 2022a,b)
Unselng Iris Murdoch coined concept ‘unselng’ to refer to processes and experiences where salience attributed to self is reduced, and
attention opens to the world and others (Murdoch, 2001)
Self-transcendence e term ‘self-transcendence’ is used to refer both experiences and developmental processes of moving beyond one’s immediate
self-boundaries and egocentric perspective, as well as developmental stages, motivation, personality traits, worldview and value
orientations which emerges as a result of this process (Garcia-Romeu, 2010, Kitson, 2020)
Self-transcendent experiences Self-transcendent experiences (STEs) refer to experiences where salience attributed to self is reduced and felt connection to the
world and others is enhanced (Yaden etal., 2017). Self-transcendent experiences encompass experiences ranging from states of ow,
to peak-experiences, awe and mystical experiences
Self-transcendent values In Schwartz etal. (2012) value theory, self-transcendent values are a class of culturally universal values, in orthogonal relation to
self-enhancement values. ey consist of the subcategories of benevolence (valuations concerning strivings toward benet of
members of one’s ingroup) and universalism (strivings to benet humanity, nature and other sentient beings in general).
Egocentricity (evaluative) e degree to which salience and value are attributed to self, and the self is selected as the prominent context of evaluation, in
contrast with other possible objects or evaluative contexts.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org
TABLE2 Review of recent studies of values changes related to psychedelic use.
Value change Is the change
toward self-
transcendent
values?
Is the change
conceptually
associated
with
unselfing?
Studies Type of study Do authors link the
changes to self-
transcendent
experiences?
How sustained changes
were (i.e., when were
last measurements
conducted)?
Increased nature
relatedness and/or
increased appreciation
of nature
Ye s Ye s Studerus etal.
(2011)
Analysis of pooled
data from eight
double-blind studies
in healthy volunteers
N/A N/A
Lyons and
Carhart-Harris
(2018)
Experimental study In discussion connectedness is
suggested as a possible mediating
factor
Nature relatedness remained
signicantly increased 12 months
post-dosing
Kettner etal.
(2019)
Prospective online
survey
Changes were mediated by awe and
ego-dissolutions
Nature relatedness was signicantly
increased 2 years aer psychedelic
experience
Nour etal. (2017) Survey Ego-dissolutions mediated observed
changes
N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
Forstmann and
Sagioglou (2017)
Survey Participants self-identication with
nature predicted observed
correlations, and authors suggest
mediating eect of STEs
N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
Increased pro-
environmental
behavior
Ye s Ye s Forstmann and
Sagioglou (2017)
Survey Participants self-identication with
nature predicted observed
correlations, and authors suggest
mediating eect of STEs
N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
Increased aesthetic
appreciation of art and
music
N/A (does not map
to Schwartz theory)
Ye s Studerus etal.
(2011)
Analysis of pooled
data from eight
double-blind studies
in healthy volunteers
N/A N/A
Noorani etal.
(2018)
Qualitative,
interviews of therapy
patients
Phenomenological reports suggest
inuence of STEs such as experiences
of awe and interconnectedness
Interviews conducted 30 months aer
psychedelic experiences
Masters and
Houston (1966)
Qualitative, informal
interviews and
observational data
from therapeutic
practice
Phenomenological reports suggest
inuence of STEs
N/A
Shanon (2002) Qualitative,
interviews of
ayahuasca users and
observational data
Phenomenological reports suggest
inuence of STEs
N/A
Increased altruism,
prosocial behavior
and/or concern for
others
Ye s Ye s Griths etal.
(2006)
Experimental study Changes were mediated by mystical-
type experiences
Changes were sustained 2 months
aer the experience
Griths etal.
(2008)
Experimental study Changes were mediated by mystical-
type experiences
Changes were sustained 14 months
aer the experience
Griths etal.
(2011)
Experimental study Changes were mediated by mystical-
type experiences
Changes were sustained 14 months
aer the experience
Griths etal.
(2018)
Experimental study Changes were mediated by mystical-
type experiences
Changes were sustained 6 months
aer the experience
Noorani etal.
(2018)
Qualitative,
interviews of therapy
patients
Phenomenological reports suggest
inuence of STEs such as experiences
of awe and interconnectedness
Interviews conducted 30 months aer
psychedelic experiences
Schmid and
Liechti (2018)
Experimental study Changes were correlated with
mystical-type experiences
Altruistic/positive social eects and
positive behavioral changes were
signicantly increased 12 months
aer the experience
(Continued)
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 04 frontiersin.org
mechanisms causing and modulating these changes, as well as the
various types of value changes and their relation to self-transcendence,
is an important future task. It should also benoted that this article uses
“mechanism” in the general sense of “a natural or established process
by which something takes place or is brought about” (Oxford English
Dictionary), rather than as a strictly biological or neural concept (cf.
van Elk and Yaden, 2022).
2. Review of psychedelic value
changes and self-transcendent values
e concept of self-transcendent values is from Schwartz etal.’s
(2012) value theory,
1
which classies certain culturally universal
values as self-transcendent. In this article, Iloosely follow this usage,
although self-transcendent values could bemore broadly dened as
personal values oriented beyond individual’s gains and losses,
implying an attribution of value outside the self for non-egocentric
1 Schwartz et al.’s (2012) value theory is an empirically based theory of
culturally universal values. According to its various formulations, culturally
universal values are grouped into either 10 or 19 core values forming a
circumplex structure, where values are in orthogonal relation or inversely
correlated to each other (i.e., scoring high on “A” values implies scoring low
on “B” values). Self-transcendent and self-enhancement values are orthogonal
categories in Schwartz’s theory.
reasons. is broader denition of self-transcendent values includes
the valuations associated with esthetics and spirituality.
As detailed in Table2, recent empirical literature links psychedelics
to long-term increases in:
(a) Appreciation of nature (Studerus et al., 2011), non-human
animals (Pöllänen etal., 2022), nature relatedness (Nour etal.,
2017; Lyons and Carhart-Harris, 2018; Kettner etal., 2019), and
pro-environmental behavior (Forstmann and Sagioglou, 2017);
(b) Esthetic appreciation (Studerus et al., 2011; Noorani
etal., 2018);
(c) Altruism and prosociality (Griths etal., 2006, 2008, 2018;
Schmid and Liechti, 2018);
(d) Appreciation of spirituality (Griths etal., 2018);
(e) Reduced valuation of nancial success (Lerner and
Lyvers, 2006);
(f) More liberal and less authoritarian political views (Nour etal.,
2017; Lyons and Carhart-Harris, 2018).
e link between self-transcendent values and psychedelics has
not been proposed in the research literature, although it is suggested
in Peck’s (2020) recent popular article.
2
Overall, the above body of
research supports the claim that psychedelic experiences can change
values, valuations, and life priorities toward self-transcendent values:
2 https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/psychedelics-systems-
change-could-drugs-help-us-save-planet/ (Accessed 16.3.2023).
TABLE2 (Continued)
Value change Is the change
toward self-
transcendent
values?
Is the change
conceptually
associated
with
unselfing?
Studies Type of study Do authors link the
changes to self-
transcendent
experiences?
How sustained changes
were (i.e., when were
last measurements
conducted)?
Increased appreciation
of spirituality
N/A (does not map
to Schwartz theory)
Ye s Lerner and Lyvers
(2006)
Survey N/A N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
Griths etal.
(2018)
Experimental study Changes were mediated by mystical-
type experiences
Changes were sustained 6 months
aer the experience
Reduced valuation of
nancial success
Yes (by reducing
self-enhancement
value)
Ye s Lerner and Lyvers
(2006)
Survey N/A N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
More liberal and less
authoritarian political
views
No No Nour etal. (2017) Survey Ego-dissolutions mediated observed
changes
N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
Less authoritarian
political views
No No Lyons and
Carhart-Harris
(2018)
Experimental study In discussion connectedness is
suggested as possible mediating factor
Authoritarianism remained decreased
at trend level 12 month post-dosing
Reconnection to
values
In some cases In some cases Belser etal. (2017) Qualitative,
interviews of therapy
patients
Phenomenological reports suggest
inuence of STEs
N/A
Decreased specisism
and increased animal
solidarity
Ye s Ye s Pöllänen etal.
(2022)
Survey Ego-dissolutions were associated with
decreased specisism, increased animal
solidarity and increased desire to help
animals
N/A. Survey explored lifetime
psychedelic use
e table above reviews recent studies of value changes related to psychedelic use the author has been able to nd (note that the same study can be listed in multiple categories). e table maps
whether the value changes reported in the studies are changes toward (a) self-transcendent values (according to
Schwartz et al., 2012
, classication) and (b) conceptually associated with
unselng (dened as reduced salience attributed to self and increased attention and concern to the world and others). e table above also documents (1) the type of the studies, (2) whether
STEs correlated with or mediated the value changes or if they were discussed by authors as potential causes, and (3) information regarding how sustained changes were.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 05 frontiersin.org
all of these studies except those concerning political orientation
evidence change toward self-transcendent values.
Notably, these psychedelic changes of values oen occur via the
mediation of STEs. e connection between a particular value change and
STEs (such as ego-dissolution, awe, or mystical experiences) is noted in
many of these studies. Still, theoretical integration is lacking. To ll this
research gap, Imake the hypothesis that STEs and the long-term changes
they induce provide a more general explanation for psychedelic value
changes. Already, the same self-reducing mechanisms are considered
central to the therapeutic and existential eects of psychedelics (Letheby,
2021, 197, 202; Letheby, 2022; van Elk and Yaden, 2022). Furthermore,
there are plausible links among STEs, changes in many psychological
variables induced by psychedelics, and self-transcendent values, explored
in Section 4. e next section aims to philosophically articulate a way to
understand this connection between self-transcendence and values.
3. Self, unselfing, and value change
3.1. Values and salience
ere are various views on and approaches to values (e.g., Rokeach,
1973; Brosch and Sander, 2015; Oyserman, 2015; Hobbs, 2021). From a
psychological viewpoint, values are abstract beliefs or cognitive
structures that govern priorities and aective reactions and guide goals
and choices (Oyserman, 2015; Schwartz, 2015). Values are part of the
overall process of how a person situates and orients himself in the world,
together with higher-order aspects of cognition such as worldview
(Koltko-Rivera, 2004) and lower-level evaluations such as experiential
valence, salience, and aective processes (Archer, 2022a,b; Varela
etal., 1993).
In contrast to values, salience can bedened as what is experienced
as important in the present moment (Watzl, 2022; Whiteley, 2022;
Archer, 2022a,b). In our immediate experience, wend certain things
or properties important while ignoring others. What is salient is a
complex result of various contextual factors, unconscious processes,
and the deliberate use of attention; it also changes spontaneously and
uidly between dierent moments and framings.
ere are multiple connections between values and salience.
Attribution of value occurs to a large extent as non-inferential and
automatic attribution of salience guiding action and perception. Also,
what is salient at any given moment modulates which values are activated.
Conversely, our abstract values modulate how weattribute salience and
attention. For example, Archer (2022a,b) argues that salience should
beconceived in a complex dynamic relation to our evaluative worldview—
various abstract “standing judgments” and values that aect salience
through their context-dependent application and realization in
particular situations.
3.2. The evaluative self
e notion of “self” is notoriously complex to dene, causing
much conceptual and theoretical confusion (Leary and Tangney,
2012). Here, Ifocus on an ordinary, basic sense of self: identication
with and/or sense of ownership of a body and personhood, leading to
perceiving oneself as a distinct and enduring entity separate from
other entities in the world (Albahari, 2006).
A crucial evaluative function the self enables is the ltering of
sensory data according to its importance. e machinery of
selood in many ways constricts and dictates what is tagged as
salient and worthy of attention (Letheby and Gerrans, 2017, 4).
Cognitively and neurally, self-relevance inuences many disparate
processes: wepay more attention to stimuli that are self-related
(Millière, 2017, 10–13; Sui and Humphreys, 2015). e world is a
complex, chaotic place, and humans must narrow their perception
to patterns relevant to survival. Constructing a self, or selng, is
intimately related to these utilitarian, evolutionary pressures to seek
and avoid various things in the world (Huxley, 1954; Letheby and
Gerrans, 2017).
I use egocentric salience to describe salience ltered through
egocentric evaluative biases, resulting from identication and
investment in personal self and its goals (Albahari, 2006, 60). is
whole machinery of selood and associated egocentric salience
creates an egocentric frame of reference into our experience, guiding
the direction of attention and what features are considered salient
(Letheby and Gerrans, 2017, 4).
Egocentric salience is related to both narrative and embodied
aspects of self, and functions as a bridge between these aspects of
selood (Letheby and Gerrans, 2017, 3; Millière et al., 2018).
Narrative self adds whole layers of identity on top of the embodied
self, aording the ability via thought and imagination to x
attention to past or future events relevant to the self and
symbolically extend self (for example, by identifying with one’s
possessions and opinions).
Noting the possibility to conate various meanings of egocentric
used in the literature, Irefer here exclusively to attributions of salience.
3
Similarly, egocentricity and egocentric salience in the present context
should not be conated with egoism: egocentric salience does not
imply that one is egoistic in morally problematic ways. Ireserve the
term egoistic for extreme, morally problematic forms of egocentricity
such as narcissism and the inability to care for others, assuming that
most of our everyday experiences are egocentric to a morally acceptable
degree. Another potential confusion is that, in some sense, all personal
goals are egocentric as they are tied to self: for example, Wiese (2019)
explores the idea that selood is constructed through the integration
of salience attributed to various goals. Ego-structures can, adaptively
and functionally, assimilate and serve self-transcendent goals and
values—ego optimally facilitates our connection to the world. Imostly
use egocentric in a narrower sense: denoting concerns serving and
related to oneself, associated with mundane concerns with oneself, and
the self-enhancement values (Schwartz, 2012).
3 Egocentricity and selflessness can have various connotations (Millière, 2020).
Egocentricity is often contrasted with the capacity for taking on others’
perspectives (e.g., Bukowski etal., 2022). The egocentric attributions of salience
do not concern solely the capacity for perspective-taking. A person with high
perspective-taking ability might still be egocentric, for example, when
narcissistically taking another’s perspective to manipulate them. Sometimes
egocentricity is used to describe certain perceptual modes, as distinction
between egocentric versus allocentric modes of visual perception (Fiehler
etal., 2014; Letheby and Gerrans, 2017, footnote 3). This phenomenon is related
to salience attribution in perceptual processes. However, I use a broader
meaning of egocentricity.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 06 frontiersin.org
3.3. Overt egocentricity as a falsifying veil
e capacity for egocentric attribution of salience is hugely
adaptive—egocentric pursuits are a necessary part of human life. Still,
for both existential and moral reasons, the degree of egocentricity
matters. Humans are prone to situations where the salience attributed
to self grows disproportionately strong, occluding wider concerns and
values from our perspective. e philosopher Iris Murdoch beautifully
thematizes how egocentric tendencies can limit our perspective:
By opening our eyes wedo not necessarily see what confronts us.
Weare anxiety-ridden animals. Our minds are continually active,
fabricating an anxious, usually self-preoccupied, oen falsifying
veil which partially conceals our world. (Murdoch, 2001, 84)
I interpret that this “falsifying veil” denotes a cognition in which
excessive value and focus are placed on egocentric ways of perceiving.
Instead of enabling our connection to the world, the self sometimes
works like an over-active lter, blocking from our vision everything
other than egocentric pursuits. Murdoch referred to strongly
egocentric forms of cognition as “fantasy,” entailing “the proliferation
of blinding self-centered aims and images” that reduce everything to
the false unity of self (Murdoch, 1997, 354). Murdoch regarded this
tendency to value only things connected to our concerns and with
utility for the self as a central obstacle to directing our attention and
imagination to the world (Denham, 2001, 624). In this sense, Murdoch
claimed that the self is a place of illusion (2001, 93), entailing a
possibility of a vicious self-reinforcing feedback loop between
egocentric salience and sense of reied selood.
Murdoch is not alone in contending that egocentric motivations
are oen so strong as to limit our interests, scope of caring, and
motivations for non-egocentric pursuits (Murdoch, 2001, 99). For
example, Maslow (1971, 249–255), Fromm (1976), Schopenhauer
(1818; see Denham, 2001, 623–624), and Buddhist traditions
(Albahari, 2006, 24–27, 164; Burbea, 2014) all recognize this link
between overt egocentricity and certain existentially and morally
limiting modes of orienting, acting, and being in the world.
ere are many common situations in which overt egocentricity
occurs. States of suering and stress tend to make people egocentric,
while overt egocentricity can itself cause suering, creating a feedback
loop reinforcing disconnection to non-egocentric values (Leary and
Guadagno, 2011, 139–40; Vervaeke etal., 2017). Karen Horney (1999
[1950]) suggested that neuroses always make one egocentric. For
example, extreme rumination and associated inertia can make one
self-centered to a dysfunctional degree. Similarly, addictive desires
might divert extensive motivation away from other aims of greater
importance (Vervaeke and Ferraro, 2013). Even highly functioning
individuals can be drawn into the overtly egocentric pursuit of
pleasure, fame, wealth, and power; extremely so in personality features
dubbed “the dark triad” (Furnham etal., 2011).
3.4. Unselfing
Given these relatively strong forms of egocentric tendencies, it is
easy to understand why unraveling the overt attribution of self-
saliency is benecial. Iadopt Murdoch’s term “unselng” to stress both
the existential and moral importance of reducing egocentric salience.
Unselng points to moments and processes where our attention opens
and webreak our psychological isolation from the world around us
(Murdoch, 1992, 17; Driver, 2020, 169–170). Considering previous
sections, we can interpret unselng as a reduction in egocentric
salience and a concomitant increase in our capacity and willingness to
become concerned with what is non-self. For example:
e most obvious thing in our surroundings which is an occasion
for ‘unselng’ is what is popularly called beauty […] Iamlooking
out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind,
oblivious of my surroundings, brooding perhaps on some damage
done to my prestige. en suddenly Iobserve a hovering kestrel.
In a moment everything is altered. e brooding self with its hurt
vanity has disappeared. ere is nothing now but kestrel. And
when I return to thinking of the other matter it seems less
important. (Murdoch, 2001, 84)
e beauty of the kestrel is a value perceived in the outside world
and occasions a shi to a less egocentric mode of attention. Unselng
can occur in various ways, encompassing appreciation of nature, art,
contemplative practices, and intellectual disciplines—basically
anything that involves non-egocentric attention to reality and
recognition of value(s) lying outside the self (Murdoch, 2001, 84–86,
90–91; Denham, 2001, 624).
For Murdoch, at the core of unselng is loving attention, a term
she borrows from Simone Weil and describes as “a just and loving gaze
directed upon an individual reality” (1997, 327). She elaborates thus:
It is in the capacity to love, that is to see, that the liberation of the
soul from fantasy consists. […] What Ihave called fantasy […] is
itself a powerful system of energy […] What counteracts the
system is attention to reality inspired by, consisting of, love.
(Murdoch, 1997, 354)
Murdoch regards loving attention (and associated non-egocentric
imagination) as a movement outward from the self, enabling progress
toward a more accurate perception of the world (Panizza, 2019, 3–4,
15; Chappell, 2018; Driver, 2020). Loving attention—especially when
combined with honest self-criticism—counteracts our egocentric
fantasies and allows for overcoming our biased perspectives and those
“convincingly coherent but false pictures of the world” that weso
easily build (Murdoch, 1997, 329; see also Driver, 2020, 174–175).
For Murdoch, progress and virtue necessarily require the ability
to see through egocentric structures of valuation, as this is the only
way to truly understand what goodness is (Murdoch, 2001, 103; Mole,
2022). Loving (i.e., disinterested and non-egocentric) attention leads
to moral progress by changing our perspective, which is the root of
our reasoning and actions (Olsson, 2018, 168–169; Driver, 2020,
173–174). Only by opening our attention to the surrounding world,
can wetranscend our limited views, conceptions, and sensibilities, and
learn to appreciate and respect that which is not ourselves, for
example, by understanding an artistic work or another person more
deeply. rough self-correction and learning enabled by the use of
loving (or non-egocentric), one can rene one’s evaluations and moral
concepts and conceptions, which largely dictate how one concretely
understands good and other abstract values (Murdoch, 1992, 325;
Murdoch, 1997, 307, 313, 317–323). Wright (2005) denotes this
process as “sensibility transcendence.” us, transcending the
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 07 frontiersin.org
falsifying veil of self-absorbed fantasy is valuable for both moral and
epistemic reasons (Denham, 2001; Murdoch, 2001, 84, 93, 97;
Panizza, 2019).
3.5. Converging constructs
In psychological research, phenomena similar to unselng have been
approached through various constructs such as “hypo-egoic states” (Leary
and Guadagno, 2011), “self-transcendent experiences” (Yaden et al.,
2017), and “peak-experiences” (Maslow, 1970, 1971). All these are
umbrella concepts denoting a variety of experiences that share a common
core of (1) reduced self-awareness (or reection about oneself), (2)
reduced ego-involvement and egocentric salience, and (3) altered self-
boundaries and sense of increased connection or interconnectedness to
the world. Isuggest that the phenomena discussed under these concepts
almost always involve unselng, i.e., directing attention and evaluation
away from the self and egocentric concerns.
ese constructs converge on the idea that our states vary
according to the level of egocentricity, and that loosening egocentricity
leads to shis in our perspective on or position in relation to the
world. In these experiences, the center of evaluation called “self ”
dissolves to various degrees, and the way weevaluate and pay attention
alters. Becoming less entangled in and xated by our egocentric biases,
concerns, and wants, wecan see the world from a wider perspective
and our attention is more available and disinterested (Maslow, 1970,
78; Albahari, 2006, 51–74). In these kinds of states, the self might
be conceived as more interconnected and relational and bemore
permeable to the world and others (Pi etal., 2015; Hanley etal., 2017;
Yaden etal., 2017).
3.6. Unselfing and value change
I claim that these perspectival changes associated with unselng
can lead to changes in values. In general, values are perspectival.
Which of our values are “active”—i.e., guiding our behavior and goal-
framing—in any given moment is context-dependent, inuenced by
various conditions and factors (Schwartz, 2012; Schwartz etal., 2012;
Oyserman, 2015). One key factor is what appears salient in the
individual’s conscious experience at any given moment. In turn, what
is salient depends largely on the given context of evaluation. For
example, an evaluation centered on one’s economic prosperity will
arouse dierent values compared to one focused on the survival of
humanity. Conversely, possessing certain values tends to make certain
contexts of evaluation more salient: for instance, if Ivalue nature,
Itend to ponder economic activities and my personal choices from
the viewpoint of their impacts on nature.
In this sense, our personal values emphasize and make salient
certain contexts of evaluation and associated goods. e given
evaluative context and values one grasps can beconceived as mutually
arising aspects of the same evaluative activity. In this sense, values are
tendencies to evaluate from particular perspectives—seeing certain
evaluative contexts as salient enough to trump consideration of
other contexts.
I propose that attributions of egocentric salience foreground the
self as an evaluative context. When egocentric concerns are
suciently salient, the associated egocentric framings and attributions
of salience lter which values or goods are intuited or grasped,
nudging evaluation toward self-enhancement. e salience biases
created by egocentric fantasies and goals thus instigate a structure of
values that easily disconnects us from non-egocentric values. is line
of thinking is also supported by and could beused to explain a central
tenet of Schwartz et al.’s (2012) theory: the orthogonal relation
between self-transcendent and self-enhancement values. Specically,
egocentric biases are either on or o, modulating whether our values
center around the self or self-transcendent evaluative contexts.
I hypothesize that reducing egocentric salience and attention can
lead to both momentary shis and long-term changes in personal
values by allowing a transition to a wider perspective, opening a
person to values (or goods) beyond egocentric goals and
considerations. Unselng can be pictured as a continuum of
progressively less egocentric ways of framing the relation between
ourselves and our environment. Deconstruction of egocentric
attributions of salience and attention allows contextualizing of the self
to wider frames of reference and associated expansion in evaluative
perspective and values. ese perspectival changes are reected in
various modalities such as the cognitive processes of thinking and
imagination, in our perceptual or experiential salience, and in
our behavior.
I argue that this perspectival widening through unselng drives a
shi toward relatively more intrinsic and self-transcendent modes of
attributing value, thus helping one to grasp non-egocentric values.
Unselng can allow for value-instigating experiences and perspectives,
or activate existing self-transcendent values. Consequently,
experiential salience might become more tuned with the values
connected to goods of wider spatial, temporal, or social contexts,
thereby expanding our scope of care and concern.
Perspective can open to the immediate present-moment context
surrounding us and to its non-instrumental value(s). When one is
more present, the narrative structures of selood required for
instrumental goals operate less strongly. When less entangled in our
plans and past and future, and less anxious about our gains and losses,
wecan more readily perceive the intrinsic value of particulars, such as
the value of objects of nature and art. Unselng might thus lead to
“non-egocentric respect for the particular” (Nagel, 1986, 222–223).
Furthermore, perspective can open to allocentric contexts—
interpersonal and relational contexts spanning from consideration of
loved ones and an ingroup to universal concern for other persons and
humankind. Benevolence values in Schwartz et al.’s (2012)
classication and prosocial values, in general, are associated with the
recognition of these contexts as salient.
Finally, perspective can open to vast contexts setting the self as
part of still wider frames of reference, such as nature or the cosmos at
large. ese could be termed cosmocentric contexts (cf. Maslow,
1970, 96). e idea that universal values are maximally accessible from
a minimally egocentric perspective is already found in philosophy of
Plato’s (2008). Murdoch (2001, 101–103)—who was heavily inuenced
by Plato—claimed that goodness is connected with an attempt to see
the unself, i.e., the movement toward a non-egocentric perspective.
She elaborated thus:
Goodness is connected with the acceptance of real death and real
chance and real transience and only against the background of
this acceptance, which is psychologically so dicult, can
weunderstand the full extent of what virtue is like. e acceptance
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 08 frontiersin.org
of death is an acceptance of our own nothingness which is an
automatic spur to our concern with what is not ourselves.
(Murdoch, 2001, 103)
Seeing clearly the vastness of the world and the ephemerality of
our self very understandably alters valuations. e same thrust to
acknowledge our mortality, see through our self-centered perspective,
and marshal a shi in values and ways of living has arguably long
motivated religious and spiritual traditions (Hadot, 1995, 2004; Leary
and Guadagno, 2011, 143; Albahari, 2014; Pelser and Roberts, 2015;
ompson, 2020).
In Murdoch’s thinking, unselng is associated with the capacity to
put things in the right perspective by recognizing various values in the
world (Driver, 2020, 171). In this line of thinking, self-transcendence
and unselng could be understood as processes of honing our
conceptions of what should and should not matter. Opening attention
to various evaluative contexts and associated goods is a necessary
antecedent for putting things in the right perspective and rening
one’s values. As Murdoch claimed, letting go of egocentrism occurs
naturally when we grasp non-egocentric values (Driver, 2020).
Unselng might thus reduce the discrepancy between what wesee as
important given our egocentric biases and what is more important in
a wider context, and enable one to form more encompassing values
than self-enhancement values.
3.7. Support for the framework
Both empirical research and theoretical models support the
notions that (1) there are substantial long-term and trait dierences
in egocentricity, (2) self-transcendent developmental stages are
associated with self-transcendent values, and (3) momentary
experiences of reduced egocentricity can contribute to self-
transcendent values.
3.7.1. Trait dierences in egocentricity
Various psychological constructs describe trait-level dierences
in egocentricity. Wayment and Bauer (2017) use “quiet ego”
(contrasted with “noisy ego”) to describe traits associated with
compassionate self-identity and the ability to transcend egoistic
concerns and adaptively balance the needs of others and self.
Dambrun and Ricard (2011) draw a similar trait-level distinction
between selessness and self-centeredness. Maslow (1971, 241–255)
associates self-transcendence with non-egocentric “being-cognition”
and its corollary “being-motivation,” and contrasted these with
“deciency-cognition” and “deciency-motivation,” involving
orienting oneself to the world through unfullled egocentric needs.
Fromm (1976) contrasts two fundamental evaluative orientations or
existential modes: the non-egocentric “being mode” and the
egocentric, goal-oriented, and alienated “having mode.”
Many theories converge on the notion that expanding one’s
perspective to universal concerns is essential for achieving mature
development of human cognition and morals (Loevinger and Blasi,
1976; Kegan, 1982; Gibbs, 2003), or explicitly link self-transcendence
to these higher developmental stages (Maslow, 1971; Kohlberg and
Ryncarz, 1990; Levenson etal., 2001). Similarly, the expansion of self–
other boundaries is theoretically central to many notions of
developmental self-transcendence (St. Arnaud, 2019). Researchers
have linked wisdom with the ability to transcend one’s narrow
perspectives and self-interests and with the development of a
non-egocentric perspective on life (Le and Levenson, 2005; Ardelt,
2008; Vervaeke and Ferraro, 2013; Aldwin etal., 2019).
3.7.2. Trait or developmental self-transcendence
and self-transcendent values
Multiple authors explicitly connect trait dierences in
egocentricity to self-transcendent values. Wayment and Bauer (2017,
83) identied strong empirical correlations between quiet ego and (a)
prosocial concerns, (b) compassionate goals, and (c) self-transcendent
values of Schwartz’s classication. Researchers have also developed
measurements for Fromm’s existential modes and observed a
conceptual similarity between these and the value orientations of
Schwartz’s value theory (Cohen etal., 2005).
Furthermore, there are theoretical frameworks linking
developmental self-transcendence to both STEs and value change.
Maslow suggested that peak-experiences can lead to temporary states
of “being-cognition,” in which the world is perceived through a set of
values and qualities hecalled “being-values” or “intrinsic values of
Being” (B-values), such as the Platonic triad of goodness, beauty, and
truth (Maslow, 1970, 64–65, 96; Maslow, 1971, 186, 286–328). For
Maslow, B-values were biologically rooted, transculturally shared, and
“cosmocentric”—not based on social or egoic concerns. A shi in
perception to these B-values forms another kind of gestalt to organize
the perceived world, “a change in attitude, valuing reality in a dierent
way, seeing things from a new perspective, from a dierent centering
point” (Maslow, 1970, 78). B-values describe reality and imply a
normative aspect, giving direction on what should bepursued; their
introjection into one’s value structure results in non-egocentric
“metamotivation” (Maslow, 1971, 286–328).
Similarly, in later formulations of moral development theory,
Kohlberg and Ryncarz (1990) speculated about a (metaphorical) seventh
“cosmic” stage of moral development, beyond the sixth stage of
universalizable ethical thinking (Gibbs, 2003, 70–72). ey saw that the
existential crisis from confronting the “nitude of our individual self ”
could cause a gestalt shi in self-understanding, leading one to identify
“with the cosmic or innite perspective and value life from its standpoint”
(Kohlberg and Ryncarz, 1990, 192–196). Kohlberg and Ryncarz (1990,
200–201) speculated that this shi occurs through a radical transcendence
or decentering of the egocentric viewpoint, with signicant normative
implications such as nding harmony with and love of the cosmic order,
and understanding that power and pleasure are not intrinsic ends of
human life (Gibbs, 2003, 70–72). Converging with Maslow, Kohlberg, and
Ryncarz (1990, 192, 206) saw that mystical experiences or “experience of
nonegoistic or nondual variety” might berequired for this kind of gestalt
shi in moral understanding and valuations.
3.7.3. Self-transcendent experiences and
self-transcendent values
Evidence from non-psychedelic research supports the association
of STEs with self-transcendent values. Awe has been observed to cause
increases in prosocial behavior and generosity (Pi etal., 2015). Near-
death experiences, which oen involve ego-dissolution, have been
observed to result in less materialistic values and increased connection
to nature (Greyson, 1983; Gandy, 2017; Barberia et al, 2018; Martial
et al., 2021; Sweeney et al., 2022). Nature immersion has been
observed to lead to not only pro-environmental behavior but also
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 09 frontiersin.org
generosity, prosocial values, and more intrinsic values in general
(Weinstein etal., 2009; Zhang etal., 2014; Lumber etal., 2017; Kettner
et al., 2019). Isham et al. (2022) argue that STEs can promote
ecological wellbeing, a notion intrinsically associated with considering
non-egocentric matters such as other beings and nature, and review
evidence for STEs possessing a general tendency to enhance
pro-environmental and self-transcendent values.
3.8. Normative issues
e argument above might evoke normative questions on what
degree of egocentricity an individual should have. According to this
argument, value changes associated with unselng are normatively
desirable: personal values should beinformed by evaluative contexts
surpassing the good of the individual ego. Various thinkers and
traditions converge on the view that developing a wider or more
encompassing perspective beyond narrow self-interest and aligning
and connecting with goods beyond the self is both a moral
requirement and integral to human development (Maslow, 1970, 1971;
Nagel, 1986; Kohlberg and Ryncarz, 1990; Murdoch, 2001). If
weadmit that genuine improvement in one’s evaluations results from
self-transcendence, self-transcendence has to benormatively desirable.
Admittedly, the question of how much self-transcendence is required
for human ourishing or morality is complex. e exact standards for the
normatively required level of egocentricity depend on many substantial
value-and worldview-laden questions such as metaethical stances, which
cannot befully explored in this article.
4
I certainly do not argue that
weshould always be in states of utter self-transcendence—egocentric
values have a place in human life. Too much self-transcendence or
exclusive “view from nowhere” might even bemorally problematic as it
completely abstracts away particular subjective viewpoints and concerns
(Nagel, 1986). Relatively uncontroversially, Iadvocate unselng to the
extent required for balancing our egocentric interests with consideration
of wider goods: this is normatively desirable and helps to rene one’s values
and conceptions of the good (Murdoch, 1992, 325; Murdoch, 1997, 307,
313, 317–323; Wright 2005; cf. Leary and Guadagno, 2011, 143–144).
3.9. Contextual factors and issues of
long-term changes
e framework presented above supports the notion that unselng
can plausibly change individuals’ values. Since the pioneering work of
William James, the occurrence of rapid and sustained change in one’s
outlook, worldview, beliefs, and values from momentary experiences
is well attested and discussed under various terms such as “quantum
change” and “pivotal mental experiences” (Miller and C’de Baca, 2001;
4 Value realism is one possible metaethical stance to ground this article’s
arguments. Values as human universals (i.e., existing not in the fabric of cosmos
but in our shared make-up) and cultural relativism are also congruent
metaethical positions. However, nihilism, subjectivism, error-theory, and similar
stances that deflate or deny the existence of objective or intersubjective values
are probably not coherent with present framework (Kähönen, 2020, 72–76,
96–106).
Koltko-Rivera, 2004; James, 2008; Brouwer and Carhart-Harris, 2021;
Timmermann etal., 2021; Yaden and Newberg, 2022).
Notably, STEs do not always lead to value changes. ere are three
stages in the process of value change that Ihave described above: (1)
reduction of egocentricity; (2) tuning into non-egocentric goods and
contexts of evaluation, and (3) long-term changes as these perceived
goods are introjected into one’s motivational structure. It is likely that
each of these steps creates a window of opportunity for the next one
to take place, but does not necessarily lead to the next stage.
ere are currently many unresolved questions concerning how
and when momentary experiences lead to long-lasting changes, and
which overall conditions and determinants are required. Multiple
factors possibly aect the translation of STEs into self-transcendent
values. Examples include:
(1) Psychological conditions and actions of the individual, such as
intention and desire for self-transcendence, a sucient
developmental stage, personality factors, and eorts to prepare,
integrate, and reect on experiences (St. Arnaud and
Sharpe, 2022);
(2) Prior predisposing values and worldview, enabling one to see
self-transcendence and self-transcendent values as meaningful
goals or aspirations, thus fostering the ability to interpret
experiences in ways that support value change (Koltko-Rivera,
2004, 17; St. Arnaud, 2019);
(3) Availability of viable cultural frameworks for interpreting these
experiences (cf. Koltko-Rivera, 2004, 14). Value transmission is
heavily inuenced by culture (Boer and Boehnke, 2015), and
the eects of singular experiences cannot bedisentangled from
the wider cultural matrix of values in which the individual is
embedded. How experiences and their implications are
interpreted depends on a person’s cultural surroundings and
worldview, particularly because experiences are plausibly
aected or even constructed in interaction with the cultural
context and meaning-making systems (Katz, 1978; Hartogsohn,
2020; Dupuis, 2021; Dupuis and Veissiere, 2022);
(4) Engagement in practices and social contexts that support long-
term cultivation of self-transcendent values aer singular
pivotal experiences. Historically, STEs have oen been
embedded in wider cultural traditions providing a matrix of
supporting social conditions and an ecology of practices to
facilitate change (Hadot, 1995; Hunt, 2013; Yaden etal., 2020).
In summary, deconstruction of evaluative machinery around the
self, or even temporary tuning into wider evaluative contexts might
not always be enough for sustained change in values. As many
developmental theories recognize, value formation is a complex
process. A full theoretical account of value change through STEs
should consider relevant contextual factors such as the individual’s
developmental stage, the role of cultural context, and engagement in
the long-term cultivation of self-transcendence.
4. Psychedelic unselfing and change
of values
Letheby (2017, 2021, 196–204) claims that psychedelics’ ability to
induce unselng is core to psychedelic therapy and spirituality.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 10 frontiersin.org
Unselng for Letheby denotes the deconstruction of the self-model
(constructed sense of self) and the consequent liberation of attention
from its constraints—breaking down the narrow walls of ego. As
Letheby (2021, 220) explains:
When phenomenal reality is ltered and structured less strongly
through the goals and preferences of a reied, essentialised self,
wecan experience wonder, awe, broader perspectives, and feelings
of profound kinship with the entirety of manifest existence.
Similarly, Isuggest that psychedelics’ ability to transform values
and sensibilities is closely tied to reducing egocentricity and
occasioning self-transcendent perspectives. I propose that by
deconstructing egocentric salience psychedelic experiences can open
our attention to the world and widen our evaluative context to
encompass the immediate environment, the whole context of our
personal life, our ingroup, and even broader social, ecological, and
cosmological contexts (cf. Whiteld, 2021). By tuning into these
non-egocentric contexts and evaluative modes, one gains better
epistemic access to various self-transcendent values, which sometimes
leave lasting imprints on personal values.
Next, I chart the changes toward self-transcendent values
associated with psychedelic experiences, using categories from
Schwartz et al.’s (2012, 669) value theory, supplemented by
reconnection to values, esthetic and spiritual values, and then explore
related theoretical issues.
4.1. Self-transcendent psychedelic value
changes
4.1.1. Reconnection to values
In Belser etal.’s (2017) study, all 13 cancer patients who suered
from anxiety described “revised life priorities” as a major eect of
psilocybin therapy:
ese participants came to “remember” during their psilocybin
session what to them was most important about life. […] “We
forget what’s really important; weget carried away with work and
making our money and paying our bills, and this is just not what
life is about.” Participants were compelled to reorient their lives
aerward in a way that continued to connect them to a similar
place. (p.374, emphasis added)
ese participants described shis in their life priorities away
from instrumental pursuits toward more fundamental objects of
valuation, similar to the observation of reduced valuation of
economic success by Lerner and Lyvers (2006). Swi etal. (2017, 24)
observe that these same participants were pulled away from habitual
patterns and overwhelm caused by cancer and “given an expanded
perspective on what was felt to bemost important and meaningful
in life, which endured beyond the session,” allowing patients to
reconnect to life, their authentic selves, and the wider world beyond
their sickness. As argued in Section 3.3, suering tends to narrow
the evaluative perspective—a sense of disconnection is associated
with mental health issues (Carhart-Harris et al., 2018a)—but
psychedelic experiences can reverse this trend, as illustrated by the
case of a terminal cancer patient:
It was less about my illness. Iwas able to put it into perspective.
[…] Not to see oneself with one’s sickness as center. ere are
more important things in life. […] e evolution of human kind
for example. […] Your Inner Ego gets diminished, Ibelieve, and
youare looking at the whole. (Gasser etal., 2015, 62)
ese changes might plausibly beexplained by a widening of the
evaluative context to the full context of one’s life and beyond as a result
of reduced egocentric salience. As egocentric pursuits and worries
likely become relatively less important, there is space for attunement
with pre-existing core values from which one was disconnected—
which oen are self-transcendent values.
4.1.2. Esthetic values
Beauty is perhaps the most commonly grasped intrinsic value in
psychedelic experiences. Examples abound of profound esthetic
psychedelic experiences (Huxley, 1954, 4–6; Masters and Houston, 1966,
156–165; Shanon, 2002, 176). Such experiences sometimes lead to a
sustained appreciation for art and the beauty of nature (Vaughan, 1983;
Shanon, 2002, 176; Studerus etal., 2011; Noorani etal., 2018). Exploring
the phenomenology of ayahuasca experiences, Shanon (2002, 176)
claims that these experiences heighten the esthetic perception to the
extent that “the ayahuasca experience is cardinally aesthetic.” is ts
with the above framework, as unselng frees up attention and salience,
allowing deeper attunement to the present sensory environment.
4.1.3. Benevolence values
Psychedelic unselng can foster allocentric perspectival widening,
opening our concern and care to interpersonal relations and social
contexts in which weare embedded and leading to a better grasp of
relational values and the intrinsic value of other persons. Experiences of
relational embeddedness, social connectedness, identity fusion, and other
relational processes are common in psychedelic experiences (Belser etal.,
2017; Kettner etal., 2021; Newson etal., 2021; Roseman etal., 2021; Weiss
etal., 2021). Moreover, experimental studies have observed increased
prosociality and altruism (Griths etal., 2008, 2011, 2018; Noorani etal.,
2018; Schmid and Liechti, 2018). ese prosocial changes are likely
associated with feelings of empathy and sentiments of love and
compassion, all common self-transcendent emotions in psychedelic
experiences (Shanon, 2002, 157, 164, 339; Pokorny etal., 2017; Watts etal.,
2017, 535; Blatchford etal., 2020; Mulukom etal., 2020; Letheby, 2021,
202). ese changes t the category of “benevolence” in Schwartz’s self-
transcendent values, dened as devotion to ingroup members’ welfare
(although many of these changes overlap with more universal concerns).
4.1.4. Nature values
Psychedelic experiences can foster nature relatedness, appreciation
of nature and non-human animals, and environment-friendly values
(Studerus etal., 2011; Forstmann and Sagioglou, 2017; Nour etal.,
2017; Watts et al., 2017; Kettner et al., 2019; Gandy et al., 2020;
Pöllänen et al., 2022). ese changes t Schwartz et al. (2012)
“universalism–nature” value category, dened as the preservation of
the natural environment.
4.1.5. Universal concern
Schwartz et al. (2012) value category “universalism–concern”—
encompassing commitment to equality, justice, and protection for all
people—is probably enhanced by the increased prosocial attitudes
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 11 frontiersin.org
explored above. Moreover, psychedelic experiences oen involve
reection on and imagination about moral and ethical issues and values.
Watts et al. (2017, 534–535) report cases of moral deliberation in
psilocybin experiences: one-third of 12 participants had insights into the
ongoing refugee crisis, and some pondered climate change, and reported
becoming concerned about global issues aerward. ese processes of
ethical reection and imagination suggest reduced egocentric biases and
a shi to more self-transcendent evaluative modes. As epitomized by one
patient, “I got a wider perspective […] It helped me appreciate that the
world is a big place, that there’s a lot more going on than just the minor
things […] in my head” (Watts etal., 2017, 534). Masters and Houston
(1966, 255) cite an early study in which one-third of the 194 participants
reported increased interest in ethics 10 months aer an LSD session.
Shanon (2002) observes that ayahuasca intoxication tends to aect values
and is oen experienced as a lesson in morals:
Reection about certain values and a sense of commitment
towards them seems to beespecially salient. ose reported by
many individuals include personal responsibility, justice, and love.
Also common is the appreciation of the signicance of faith and
hope, patience, and humility. Common is the appreciation that
values—in particular, love and justice—are not conned to the
province of human life but they also apply to existence at large and
to the forces or beings that govern the universe. (p.174)
Similarly, morally relevant themes can feature in psychedelic
visions (Shanon, 2002, 173–175).
4.1.6. Humility
In Schwartz etal. (2012), humility is a universal self-transcendent
value related to recognizing one’s insignicance in the larger scheme
of things. Notably, quiet ego and hypo-egoism are associated with the
character trait of humility and putting the self in perspective (Leary
and Guadagno, 2011; Wayment and Bauer, 2017), and Murdoch
(1997, 99, 104) used humility as a prime example of non-egocentric
virtue. Humility as both value and trait is integrally connected with
reduced egocentricity and widened perspectives.
Shanon explicitly mentions humility as an important lesson of
psychedelic experiences (2002, 159, 174). Many other features of
psychedelic experiences—including awe (and associated “small self ”),
acceptance, gratitude, sense of connectedness and interconnectedness,
spirituality, and relational embeddedness—are conceptually associated
with humility (Shanon, 2002, 205; Hendricks etal., 2015; Belser etal., 2017,
16–17; Watts etal., 2017; Carhart-Harris et al., 2018b; Letheby, 2021,
197–204).
4.1.7. Spirituality and sacredness
Letheby (2021, 197–204) argues that psychedelic experiences
foster spirituality by enhancing the ability to recognize one’s place in
the larger scheme of things, through developing broader perspectives
and expanding attention beyond self-related concerns. Empirically,
psychedelics are associated with an increased appreciation of
spirituality (Lerner and Lyvers, 2006; Griths etal., 2018). A sense of
sacredness and encounters with the sacred are common features of
psychedelic experiences (Shanon, 2002, 156, 262; Griths etal., 2019;
James etal., 2020). Furthermore, visionary and mystical experiences
sometimes bring insights into values. ese states are associated with
noesis, a sense of gaining knowledge not mediated by reective
thought or sense perception. For example, Shanon (2002) reports an
encounter with Supreme Good and a subsequent noetic insight into
the unity of values, highly reminiscent of Platonic philosophy: “A
major impression these visions had on me is the (Platonic) conclusion
that ultimately, the ethical and the aesthetical as well as the true are
the same” (p.174). e similarity to Maslow’s B-values should also
be noted. Mystical experiences, God encounter experiences, and
similar psychedelic states can plausibly acquaintance one with deep
intrinsic values of existence such as transcendent values postulated by
many religious traditions (Pelser and Roberts, 2015; Griths etal.,
2019), signaling a shi to self-transcendent modes of valuation.
4.2. Factors aecting values during the
psychedelic experiences
4.2.1. Self-transcendent experiences
Psychedelic experiences are a signicant source of STEs (Yaden
etal., 2017; Letheby, 2017, 2021; St. Arnaud, 2019; Isham etal., 2022).
Psychedelics oen induce various changes in the sense of self, ranging
from experiences of connection to union experienced in mystical
experiences (Millière, 2017; Millière etal., 2018; Letheby, 2021, 46–53;
Nour and Carhart-Harris, 2017). e sensed boundary between self
and the world might weaken, and one can experience empathy,
anity, blending, identication, and even unication with what is
ordinarily other (Shanon, 2002, 205; Belser etal., 2017, 16–17; Yaden
et al., 2017). Also commonly experienced are perceived
interconnectedness; an increased sense of connectedness to oneself,
nature, and the world; and states of communitas and social
connectedness (Belser etal., 2017; Watts etal., 2017; Carhart-Harris
etal., 2018a; Kettner etal., 2019; Blatchford etal., 2020; Forstmann
etal., 2020; Kettner etal., 2021). Similarly, psychedelic experiences can
bring enhanced meaningfulness of ordinarily uninteresting aspects of
the world and enhanced present-centered attention, suggesting the
release of salience from constraints of egocentricity (Huxley, 1954;
Shanon, 2002, 61; Letheby, 2017; Letheby and Gerrans, 2017;
Hartogsohn, 2018). Sense of awe, wonder, and the so-called overview
eect are commonly reported expanded perspectives in psychedelic
experiences (Shanon, 2002, 61–62; Yaden etal., 2016; Flanagan and
Graham, 2017; Letheby, 2017, 637; Hendricks, 2018, 302–307).
4.2.2. Role of STEs in value changes
Various STEs are associated with psychedelic value changes in all
but two of the studies outlined in Table2. In seven of the 15 studies,
STEs were either statistically mediated or were statistically associated
with observed changes in values. A connection is also suggested in the
phenomenological reports of four studies and the discussions of
ndings in two studies. is evidence indicates that the self-
transcendent perspectives and expanded self–other boundaries
associated with STEs are likely to mediate long-term changes in values
and life priorities. Congruently, STEs also mediate many other long-
term benets of psychedelics. In a meta-analysis of 15 therapeutic
studies, Kałużna etal. (2022) found that experiences of unity and
connectedness in psychedelic experiences strongly predicted long-
lasting therapeutic outcomes. While ego-dissolution was a weaker
predictor of therapeutic gains, many studies described it as a tool for
gaining a wider perspective, reinforcing the hypothesis that
perspectival widening results from reduced egocentric salience.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 12 frontiersin.org
Mystical experiences have been observed to mediate changes
toward increased prosociality and spirituality (Griths etal., 2008,
2018; Orlowski et al., 2022). Similarly, the literature suggests a
connection between ego-dissolution and change toward more
environment and animal-friendly values (Pöllänen et al., 2022).
Forstmann and Sagioglou (2017, 1) suggest that people might become
more environmentally friendly “by changing their self-construal in
terms of an incorporation of the natural world.” In the longitudinal
study aptly titled “From Egoism to Ecoism,” Kettner etal. (2019) found
that ego-dissolutions mediated increases in nature-relatedness,
suggesting a causal connection. If construed and experienced as less
separate from nature, the self becomes embedded in the wider context
of the natural world, and the intrinsic value of nature might
beperceived as higher than under egocentric modes.
One prominent reason why mystical experiences and
ego-dissolution might lead to changed values is that they bring an
acute awareness of the transient nature of self, as this center of
valuation temporarily ceases to exist. In an embodied and felt way,
radical deconstruction of self might give recognition of the
nothingness of ourselves—“the existential shock that attends the
vivid apprehension of one’s own mortality” (Letheby, 2021, 187; see
also Baillie, 2013, 187; Baillie, 2020). In mystical experiences and
ego-dissolution, the sense of self and boundaries between oneself
and the world can dissolve altogether, temporarily collapsing the
ordinary frames of reference for egocentric pursuits (Swanson, 2016;
Millière, 2017; James etal., 2020; Laukkonen and Slagter, 2021).
Although everyone intellectually understands their mortality and
embeddedness in a vast cosmos, psychedelic experiences can
animate these facts by presenting them in a visceral, emotionally
deep fashion (Grob, 2007, 213; Letheby, 2021, 184–191). Psychedelics
can foster facing one’s mortality and radically resituating oneself as
part of a wider whole with long-lasting eects (Gandy, 2017; Malone
etal., 2018, 4; Schmid and Liechti, 2018; St. Arnaud, 2019; Sweeney
etal., 2022).
Literature on awe suggests similar although lesser gestalt shis in
our perspective on self. Awe can situate the self as part of our wider
world, causing a perspective of reduced self-importance termed “small
self ” in reaction to the vast stimuli transcending one’s current frames
of reference, thus broadening our attention and perspective beyond
egocentric and instrumental concerns (Vervaeke and Ferraro, 2013;
Pi etal., 2015; Hendricks, 2018; Perlin and Li, 2020). Awe and the
related perception of “small self ” are likely to mediate many value
changes, as these experiences allow for tuning into wider contexts of
evaluation. Mulukom etal. (2020) observed that psychedelic-induced
awe and sense of connection toward nature and humanity (but not the
universe) led to increased aective empathy and reduced narcissistic
tendencies. Moreover, St. Arnaud and Sharpe (2022) found that
awe-proneness mediated positive adult development associated with
psychedelics. Signicantly, awe is also an important psychological
mediator of psychedelics’ therapeutic eects (Hendricks etal., 2015).
4.2.3. Increased motivational salience of values
As another possible mechanism of value change, psychedelic
experiences might enhance the felt importance and motivating force
(i.e., salience) of our values. rough enhanced meaning and
meaningfulness and increased suggestibility, psychointegration eects,
and visceral representation of knowledge, psychedelics can make our
abstract convictions and conceptions experientially alive (Shanon,
2002, 242–255; Carhart-Harris etal., 2015; Hartogsohn, 2018; Letheby,
2021; Timmermann et al., 2022, 184–191). Transposing Letheby’s
(2021), 188–190) notion of gaining a deeper knowledge of old facts,
psychedelic experiences can acquaint us with our values in a deeper,
more vivid, and embodied manner than is usually possible, enabling
deeper and more meaningful experience of these convictions.
erefore, psychedelic experiences might better align our motivation
and experiential salience with our values, perhaps leading to more
committed action according to these values, as values gain more
“incentive or motivational salience” (Ratclie and Broome, 2022, 51).
eoretically, activation of the 5HT2a serotonin system—the primary
neurobiological mechanism activated by psychedelics—has been
linked to active coping and enhanced capacity for change (Carhart-
Harris and Nutt, 2017; Brouwer and Carhart-Harris, 2021), and might
mediate the increased motivational salience of values and increases in
value-laden striving.
is supposed increase of “volume” in value–salience connections
might signicantly contribute to (re)connecting to self-transcendent
values and play role in other kinds of value changes as well, as it is
conceptually independent of self-transcendence (see Section 4.4).
Increases in the motivational salience of values are morally signicant,
as values should mandate us to experience certain things as strongly
salient and solicit a response (cf. Siegel, 2014; Cavedon-Taylor, 2022,
15). It is morally problematic if a person’s values do not inform an
embodied, experiential sense of salience and meaningfulness, nor
motivate action (although not all values can be “active” at every
moment; see Oyserman, 2015).
4.3. Connections between values and other
long-term changes
Psychedelics can bring other signicant long-term changes, such
as increases in the traits of self-transcendence, mindfulness capacities,
psychological exibility, openness to experience, and alterations in
neural networks. Together these ndings support the notion that
changes in values are associated with self-transcendence and reduced
egocentricity and oer further theoretical possibilities to account for
value changes.
4.3.1. Trait self-transcendence
As discussed in Section 3.7, developmental self-transcendence is
associated with self-transcendent values. Psychedelic use is associated
with increased trait-level self-transcendence and correlated neural
changes (Bouso etal., 2012, 2015; Révész etal., 2021). St. Arnaud
(2019) explores the idea that the psychedelic mystical experiences
might help to treat existential anxiety by fostering traits of self-
transcendence. Expanded self–other boundaries are theoretically
central to many notions of developmental self-transcendence,
supporting the hypothesis that psychedelic changes in sense of self
could lead to similar long-term changes (St. Arnaud, 2019).
Signicantly, St. Arnaud and Sharpe (2022) found an association
between psychedelic use and positive adult development (a construct
similar to developmental self-transcendence). Psychedelics further
enhance many tendencies associated with the trait of self-
transcendence, such as a sense of connection, gratitude, death
transcendence, and meaning in life (Belser etal., 2017, 16–17; Watts
etal., 2017; Griths etal., 2018; Schmid and Liechti, 2018).
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 13 frontiersin.org
4.3.2. Mindfulness capacities
Both short-and long-lasting increases in mindfulness capacities
support the idea that psychedelic experiences can induce changes in
attentional capacities (Bouso etal., 2012; Soler etal., 2016; Radakovic
etal., 2022). Smigielski etal. (2019a,b) conducted a double-blind
intervention combining psychedelics and mindfulness training; they
found that neurobiological changes in areas associated with self-
relevant processing [such as the default mode network (DMN) and
posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)] and ego-dissolution during
psychedelic experiences mediated increases in mindfulness capacities
for up to 4 months aer the intervention. Sampedro etal. (2017)
found that similar structural changes in the brain correlated with
enhanced mindfulness capacities 2 months aer ayahuasca intake. As
mindfulness capacities involve decentered and present-moment-
oriented modes of attention, these empirical ndings strongly
support the hypothesis that psychedelics can lead to long-lasting
unselng (i.e., reduced egocentric attention and salience). e
development of mindfulness capacities is also empirically associated
with both value-oriented life (Franquesa et al., 2017) and self-
transcendence (Vago and David, 2012).
4.3.3. Psychological flexibility
Psychological flexibility processes are one avenue to account
for (re)connection to values and possibly other value changes.
Psychedelics have been observed to increase psychological
flexibility, a central construct of acceptance and commitment
therapy (ACT), which involves a) connection and commitment
to values and value-driven action, and b) a decentered sense of
self (Davis etal., 2020). Studies exploring psychedelics’ impact on
psychological flexibility processes suggest that psychedelics
might help to shift flexibility-fostering modes of selfhood (i.e.,
perspective-taking self or self-as-context in ACT terminology;
Hayes etal., 2019; Watts and Luoma, 2020; Whitfield, 2021).
Converging with the framework presented here, ACT posits that
these flexible modes of selfhood imply reduced identification
with our self-conceptions and personhood (self-as-content) and
foster living according to one’s values.
4.3.4. Openness to experience
Some value changes might beexplained by changes in personality
factors, such as openness to experience. Multiple studies observe that
the trait of openness to experience is increased by psychedelics
(MacLean etal., 2011; Carhart-Harris etal., 2016; Nour etal., 2017;
Erritzoe etal., 2018, 2019). Aspects of openness to experience might
berelated to changes in values. For instance, appreciation of art and
nature is plausibly connected to “openness to aesthetics” (partly
explained by reduced latent inhibition—the tendency to lter
habituated sensory content from perception; St. Arnaud, 2021, 99).
Openness to experience is also related to absorption, a tendency to pay
total attention (McCrae, 2004), consonant with the unselfed mode of
attention. Erritzoe et al. (2019) found that psychedelics have an
especially strong eect on “openness to actions” and “openness to
values,” the latter encompassing tolerance toward other people’s
lifestyles and willingness to redene one’s own values. ese ndings
support both the notion of a general tendency for value change and
specic change toward the universalist value of tolerance (i.e.,
acceptance and understanding of those dierent from oneself;
Schwartz etal., 2012).
4.3.5. Neurocognitive changes
eoretically, many of the changes associated with unselng can
beexplained by psychedelics’ ability to deconstruct the self-model—
our ordinary phenomenal experience of being a separate self and the
underlying neural and cognitive processes (Letheby, 2021). It is
theorized that psychedelics weaken the power of models built by prior
experience and that the self is a high-level prior central to our overall
modeling of the world (Swanson, 2016, 2018; Letheby and Gerrans,
2017; Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2019). Huxley (1954) framed the
ego as a “reducing valve” that lters our perception of the world into
a utilitarian form useful for instrumental pursuits and proposed that
psychedelics might temporarily relax this valve. His ideas have since
been corroborated by neuroscientic research. In predictive
processing terminology, self-related priors constrict evaluative
processes and values; therefore, temporary radical destabilization and
subsequent relaxation of (overweighted) self-related priors might do
much of the work associated with self-transcendent value changes.
Proposed outcomes of destabilizing high-level priors include increased
context sensitivity and a more uid ability to tune into various
perspectives (Carhart-Harris et al., 2018b; Carhart-Harris and
Friston, 2019).
From a neurodynamic viewpoint, reduction in egocentric
attributions of salience and evaluations likely occurs through altered
brain areas and networks associated with selood, such as the default
mode network, posterior cingulate cortex, and salience network;
changes in these correlates acutely and in the long-term with
psychedelic STEs (Bouso etal., 2015; Letheby and Gerrans, 2017;
Millière etal., 2018; Smigielski etal., 2019a). Similar neural changes
are observed in meditation practices (Vago and David, 2012; Brewer
etal., 2013; Letheby, 2022).
4.4. The role of contextual factors
4.4.1. Psychedelic pluripotency
It is clear from various anecdotal accounts that there are mechanisms
of psychedelic value change other than self-transcendence, and that self-
transcendent values are not the only possible outcome. Psychedelics have
been used by cults such as the Manson Family and Aum Shinrikyo, by
neo-Nazis and the right-wing intelligentsia, and among bellicose
Amazonian and Mesoamerican societies, with no apparent challenge to
respective values or causing further enculturation towards these
worldviews and values (Rios, 1996; Piper, 2015; Pace and Devenot, 2021,
6).
5
ese counter-examples disprove the claim that psychedelics
inevitably lead to the unidirectional change of values.
To account for this “pluripotency” of psychedelic
transformations, many explanations cite contextual factors—the
immediate context of and the cultural matrix surrounding the use
of psychedelics (Dupuis, 2021; Pace and Devenot, 2021).
Psychedelics increase suggestibility and psychedelic experiences are
highly sensitive to inuences from contextual factors (Carhart-
Harris etal., 2015; Hartogsohn, 2017, 2018, 2020; Carhart-Harris
etal., 2018b; Eisner, 1997). Dupuis and Veissiere (2022) and Dupuis
5 See also Langlitz’s (2020) ‘Rightist Psychedelia’: https://culanth.org/
fieldsights/rightist-psychedelia (Accessed 16.3.2023).
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 14 frontiersin.org
(2021) suggest that psychedelics might act as “super-placebos” and
as “tools for cultural transmission” of beliefs and values, utilizing
temporary cognitive openings created during experiences (see also
Katz, 1978; Pace and Devenot, 2021, 6; Dupuis, 2022a). us,
psychedelics could make one to adapt or emphasize various values,
beliefs and political orientations provided by the social and cultural
context of psychedelic use.
No existing research has conclusively determined the relative
strength of directionality toward self-transcendent values and the
amplication of specic cultural values (Langlitz etal., 2021). In general,
to what extent does the observed directionality in psychedelic belief
(Griths etal., 2019; Timmermann etal., 2021; Nayak and Griths,
2022) and value change (see Table2) stem from social and cultural
factors, personal background and intrinsic features of psychedelic
experiences is an open question requiring further exploration.
Still, it is doubtful that a purely contextual or cultural account can
explain all the observed patterns in the change of values. First, changes
contravening (sub)cultural values are also possible (Wallace, 1956;
Roseman and Karkabi, 2021). Second, if psychedelics reliably
deconstruct the self-model, deconstruction of egocentric valuation
modes and values and movement toward self-transcendent values is
plausibly one higher-order constant across value changes occurring in
dierent social and cultural settings.
Importantly, even if changes toward self-transcendent values are
a higher-order constant of value change, they are still plausibly
mediated by one’s worldview and epistemology and negotiated with
one’s other values. Culturally mediated conceptions, beliefs, and
models of the world aect how weesh out what abstract values and
good mean and what values imply for action (Murdoch, 1992,
323–325). For example, seen through the biasing lens of a particular
ideology and worldview, even activities such as pursuing societal
collapse or sacricing humans to prevent apocalypse might
beconceived as non-egocentric (on Aztecs and mushrooms, see Rios,
1996; on accelerationism, see Pace and Devenot, 2021); similarly,
nature relatedness could bechanneled to ecofascism, and allocentric
widening to loyalty to a xenophobic ingroup (Pace and Devenot, 2021).
4.4.2. Optimal conditions for value change
e argument presented here has claried ways to understand cases
where psychedelic STEs translate to long-term changes in values. As
discussed in Section 3.9, the translation of momentary experiences into
lasting values is far from automatic, many contextual factors likely mediate
the relation between momentary experiences and long-term changes, and
might hinder or amplify the change toward self-transcendent values.
Notably, St. Arnaud and Sharpe (2022) found that prior intentions
and integration or post-experience reection mediated whether
psychedelic experiences led to positive adult development. Lasting
value change is highly likely to bemediated by similar factors, as well
as by the individual’s prior developmental stage (St. Arnaud, 2019).
Relatedly, the importance of a “rich context” for moral
neuroenhancement is stressed by Earp etal. (2017) and Earp (2018).
Value changes might be most likely where psychedelic use is
embedded in rich cultural contexts with a mature understanding of
the good life and self-transcendence, and with ecologies of practice
that can support a positive long-term change of values.
To maximize the wise and benecial use of psychedelics, the
contextual factors supporting self-transcendent value changes should
be more closely explored. For example, the synergistic eects of
psychedelic and meditative practices should befurther investigated
(Griths et al., 2018; Smigielski et al., 2019a,b; Heuschkel and
Kuypers, 2020; Payne etal., 2021; Simonsson and Goldberg, 2022).
5. Discussion
5.1. Implications of the framework
To conclude, one plausible psychological or personal-level
mechanism for psychedelic value change is better access to
non-egocentric intrinsic and self-transcendent values via reduced
egocentric biases in attention and salience. Both long-term changes in
values and momentary STEs and perspectival shis in psychedelic
experiences can beplausibly explained through the same unselng
mechanisms. e idea that many value changes are toward self-
transcendent values, resulting from processes and experiences of self-
transcendence, is a parsimonious way to explain various value changes
in a unied fashion, given that STEs are already a central proposed
mechanism for psychedelics (Liester and Prickett, 2012; Letheby, 2021,
197, 202; Letheby, 2022; van Elk and Yaden, 2022) and self-
transcendence in general (Maslow, 1971; St. Arnaud, 2019).
Furthermore, this article’s theoretical integration supports the claim
that temporary reductions in self-saliency and seless experiences
might sometimes translate into long-term self-transcendent changes in
values and traits (cf. Millière etal., 2018; St. Arnaud and Sharpe, 2022).
Although STEs do not automatically bring long-term changes in values
and behavior, as many contextual factors mediate such changes.
Unselng and changes toward self-transcendent values are
existentially and morally signicant phenomena. e proposed
framework explains self-transcendent value changes as part of wider
self-transcendent changes, seen by many theories as a desirable part
of optimal human development (cf. St. Arnaud, 2019). Self-
transcendent values are important or even central for good life and
morality (if one does not subscribe to extreme forms of moral egoism
or nihilism). Similarly, states of self-transcendence and reduced
egocentricity have been empirically linked to increased wellbeing
(Leary and Guadagno, 2011, 139; Wong, 2016; Yaden et al., 2017; St.
Arnaud, 2019; Isham et al., 2022).
Psychedelics and other techniques for achieving self-transcendence
might thus be important for living good lives, especially where a person
lacks access to non-egocentric perspectives. It is notoriously dicult
to rationally argue why certain intrinsic values (such as nature or art)
should be adopted for non-instrumental reasons; these values must be
personally and experientially recognized and understood. Psychedelics
might be especially helpful for generating such axiological insights and
expanded salience perspectives.6
My argument supports the interpretation that psychedelic
experiences sometimes expand one’s view into fundamental values of
our lives. With the relaxation of egocentric attributions of salience,
evaluative context may widen enabling one to better grasp self-
transcendent values and to connect to one’s core values. Visiting
6 Cf. Whiteley (2022) and her concept of “harmful salience perspectives.”
STEs might generate the opposite: existentially and morally uplifting salience
perspectives.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 15 frontiersin.org
psychedelic states might allow for existentially and morally important
direction-giving glimpses and the activation of self-transcendent
values, even if more is needed for inner transformation. us,
psychedelics might sometimes provide a potent source of proleptic
rationality, giving reasons to aspire toward valuable directions in life
(Callard, 2018; Letheby, 2021; 198). Psychedelic experiences might
enhance moral agency by reducing overt attribution of egocentric
salience impeding one’s moral agency, by increasing epistemic access
to non-egocentric values and by aligning one’s salience and motivation
with them. In this way psychedelic experiences might straighten
egocentric misconceptions and biases about the good.
5.1.1. Justification of value changes
e proposed framework provides prima facie philosophical
justication for psychedelic value changes toward self-transcendent
values. According to this framework, self-transcendent value changes
occur through personal-level processes that are epistemically and
normatively justied, and respect individual autonomy, as enhanced
access to self-transcendent perspectives and values gives reasons for
value changes (cf. Earp et al., 2017; Lavazza, 2017; Langlitz et al.,
2021). However, the matter of psychedelic pluripotency warrants some
concern. If value changes sometimes stem from being exposed to
values and value-laden cultural beliefs and worldviews from the
sociocultural setting of psychedelic use, the ethical issues whether
psychedelic value changes respect autonomy and are desirable become
more complex. It is possible that some contexts of use could lead to
coercive or semi-coercive value changes that do not respect individual
autonomy (cf. Earp etal., 2017; Lavazza, 2017; Dupuis, 2021, 2022a,b;
Dupuis and Veissiere, 2022). us, how social and cultural inuences
aect psychedelic value changes should befurther explored.
e risks associated with the possibility of suggestive inuences
involved in the change of values highlight the need for epistemic
responsibility, enhanced informed consent, and further inquiry into
the wider epistemic and moral context for psychedelic use, as Smith
and Sisti (2021), Langlitz et al. (2021), and Letheby (2021) have
already advocated. Moreover, Timmermann etal. (2022) proposed
psychedelic apprenticeship, entailing practices of intersubjective
guidance, validation, and inquiry into the sometimes-controversial
knowledge gained during psychedelic. is is also highly relevant for
value changes. Psychedelics should beoptimally embedded in wise
cultural, epistemic, and therapeutic contexts giving room for moral
reection and inquiry into possible value changes.
5.1.2. Societal implications and moral
neuroenhancement
Given the challenges of climate change and other existential
questions facing humanity, the potential of psychedelics to enhance
self-transcendence and self-transcendent values should befurther
explored from a societal viewpoint. For example, increased nature-
relatedness is among the strongest predictors of environment-friendly
behavior (Kettner etal., 2019). e possibility of self-transcendent
value changes is a prominent reason why psychedelics might be useful
as a pharmacological means to enhance humans’ moral state (Earp
etal., 2017; Earp, 2018). e proposed framework could unify and
enrich many proposals in the psychedelic moral enhancement
literature (Tennison, 2012; Ahlskog, 2017; Earp, 2018, 18–19;
Ballesteros, 2019; Germann, 2019; Lange and Marie, 2021; Kirkham
and Letheby, 2022).
5.2. Future directions and limitations
5.2.1. Toward a theory of psychedelic value
change
To build a comprehensive theory of psychedelic value change,
future work must identify the various types of value changes and
mechanisms and explore their interactions. For example,
increased suggestibility (Carhart-Harris et al., 2015), the
influence of sociocultural factors (Hartogsohn, 2020; Dupuis,
2021; Dupuis, 2022b), alterations in meaning processing, and
fluidity of cognition (Shanon, 2002, 143, 243, 340; Hartogsohn,
2018; Vervaeke etal., 2018) might all play a role irrespective of
unselfing. Similarly, reduced discrepancy between one’s values
and salience, increased positive affect and vitality, personality
factors such as openness and optimism, and changes in emotional
processing and motivation might also play a part (Winkelman,
2001, 2017; MacLean etal., 2011; Carhart-Harris etal., 2016;
Vollenweider and Smallridge, 2022). There are likely other
mechanisms to bediscovered.
This article focused on the possible psychological mechanisms
of value change associated with unselfing. An in-depth
exploration of how the psychological or experiential levels of
value change fit with other levels of explanation (e.g.,
neuroscientific) is a worthwhile future research task. The possible
mechanisms on psychological, socio-cultural, and neurobiological
levels, and the relations between various levels of explanation,
should beexplored (cf. van Elk and Yaden, 2022). Integrating an
existing neuroscientific understanding of values (e.g., Moll etal.,
2015) with theoretical and neuroscientific models of psychedelics,
such as the models based on the predictive processing paradigm
(Letheby and Gerrans, 2017; Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2019),
could yield many insights.
Another important theoretical question is whether psychedelic
value changes t value dimensions or polarities other than those
explored here (i.e., self-enhancement versus self-transcendence). For
example, psychedelic value changes in political attitudes and openness
to values might map to the dimension “openness to change” versus
“conservation” in Schwartz etal.’s (2012) value theory (Nour etal.,
2017; Lyons and Carhart-Harris, 2018; Erritzoe etal., 2019).
5.2.2. Empirical inquiry into value change
Another important research avenue is to operationalize and
empirically test the hypotheses presented in this article. It is
especially important to explore the connections among various
psychological constructs associated with unselng and value
change. Direct psychometric measurement of various constructs
related to unselng (such as quiet ego and ego development) and
measurements of value changes (for instance, using Schwartz’s
scales and ACT value subscales) would provide further evidence for
the questions posed herein.
5.2.3. Philosophical issues
Similarly, there are many pressing philosophical questions
concerning value change. Future research should investigate the
justication of psychedelic value changes, their relevance for moral
enhancement literature, and the normative and metaethical questions
raised (such as which conceptions of values and of the good life are
congruent with the proposed framework).
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 16 frontiersin.org
5.2.4. Limitations
This article is based on a broad-stroke review of multiple
bodies of literature, suggesting hypotheses on the psychological
mechanisms of psychedelic value change. To test these ideas
against solid evidence, a more rigorous empirical inquiry into
psychedelic value changes is required. As this article is based on
a selective reading of philosophy and broad bodies of empirical
and theoretical literature, efforts to explore alternative theoretical
and philosophical hypotheses to explain the findings of various
studies should beconducted. It should also benoted that most
prior studies into psychedelic value changes are either
correlational or relatively small scale and that there are many
open empirical questions concerning the change of values
patterns (for example, regarding the relative influence of cultural
context; see Langlitz etal., 2021). Moreover, many studies suffer
from self-selection bias and draw individual participants from
relatively narrow socio-economic backgrounds, who share a
cultural worldview and hold a certain set of values.
6. Conclusion
is article establishes a plausible connection between psychedelic
experiences and value changes toward self-transcendent values. According
to the proposed framework, these value changes stem from unselng—a
reduction in egocentric attributions of salience, enabling (re)connection
to self-transcendent values. Iargue that this increases our capacity to pay
attention to reality outside the self and can widen our evaluative context.
e central idea is that self-transcendent values are inherently tied to the
goods of these various self-transcendent evaluative contexts. us, by
opening to these wider contexts, an individual gains enhanced epistemic
access to self-transcendent values.
The framework fits with the reviewed insights from statistical,
theoretical, and qualitative research on psychedelic value
changes. Psychedelics can enhance reconnection to values,
esthetic values, benevolence/prosocial values, universalism values
associated with the good of mankind and the natural world,
humility, and spirituality. Empirical and theoretical accounts of
psychedelics support the connection between these self-
transcendent changes and various STEs (such as awe and mystical
experiences), alterations in self-construal, and other
psychological and neural changes typically induced by
psychedelics. Furthermore, independently of psychedelic
research, STEs are linked to reduced trait-level egocentricity and
self-transcendent values. Convergence between various
theoretical constructs suggests that morally and existentially
relevant long-term changes can occur through reducing
egocentricity and that STEs can contribute to these processes. If
the proposed framework is correct, psychedelic value changes
have potential ethical significance and are justified, although
these philosophical issues warrant further investigation.
Although the presented evidence indicates robust theoretical
and empirical associations between reduced egocentricity and
change in values, there are many cases where STEs do not lead to
value change. Thus, the personal and contextual factors mediating
the link between experiences and long-term value changes need
further exploration. Psychedelic value change is supposedly
optimal in well-planned, rich moral contexts and in combination
with other supporting practices. Future research should
empirically explore the hypotheses presented in this article and
chart the relation between self-transcendence and other possible
mechanisms of value change.
Data availability statement
e original contributions presented in the study are included in
the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can bedirected
to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
e author conrms being the sole contributor of this work and
has approved it for publication.
Funding
Signe & Ane Gyllenberg Foundation funded writing this article in
fall 2022 by funding the author’s doctoral research (grant number
5848). University of Helsinki funded the open access publication fees.
Acknowledgments
The thinking behind this article has been shaped by countless
dialogues on these topics. Dear friend Anssi Pitkänen and my
supervisors Jussi Jylkkä and Antti Kauppinen, as well as Sanna
Tirkkonen, who supervised my Master Thesis, deserve their
credit, as well as the supportive environment of Finnish
Psychedelic Research Association. Chris Letheby kindly advised
and encouraged me in the early phases of the research. The work
of John Verveake has been a significant source of inspiration and
an important guide to relevant research. I am grateful for the
Signe & Ane Gyllenberg Foundation for funding my work, and
the editors of this special issue for the invitation to contribute.
Conflict of interest
e author declares that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or nancial relationships that could
beconstrued as a potential conict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 17 frontiersin.org
References
Ahlskog, R. (2017). Moral enhancement should target self-interest and cognitive
capacity. Neuroethics 10, 363–373. doi: 10.1007/s12152-017-9331-x
Albahari, M. (2006). Analytical Buddhism: the two-tiered illusion of self, London, UK:
Palgrave-Macmillan.
Albahari, M. (2014). Insight knowledge of no self in Buddhism: an epistemic analysis.
Philosophers Imprint 14, 1–30.
Aldwin, C. M., Igarashi, H., and Levenson, M. R. (2019). “Wisdom as self-transcendence”
in e Cambridge handbook of wisdom. eds. J. Glück and R. J. Sternberg (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology)), 122–143.
Archer, S. (2022a). Salience: A philosophical inquiry. London: Routledge.
Archer, S. (2022b). “Salience and what matters” in Salience. ed. S. Archer. 1st ed
(London: Routledge), 193–212.
Ardelt, M. (2008) in Self-development through selessness: the paradoxical process of
growing wiser. eds. H. A. Wayment and J. J. Bauer (Washington: American Psychological
Association), 221–233.
Baillie, J. (2013). e expectation of nothingness. Philos. Stud. 166, 185–203. doi:
10.1007/s11098-012-0081-7
Baillie, J. (2020). e recognition of nothingness. Philos. Stud. 177, 2585–2603. doi:
10.1007/s11098-019-01329-6
Ballesteros, V. (2019). Applied mysticism: a drug-enabled visionary experience against
moral blindness. Zygon 54, 731–755. doi: 10.1111/zygo.12544
Barberia, I., Oliva, R., Bourdin, P., and Slater, M. (2018). Virtual mortality and near-
death experience aer a prolonged exposure in a shared virtual reality may lead to
positive life-attitude changes. PLOS ONE 13:e0203358. doi: 10.1371/journal.
pone.0203358
Belser, A. B., Agin-Liebes, G., Swi, T. C., Terrana, S., Devenot, N., Friedman, H. L., et al.
(2017). Patient experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy: an interpretative
phenomenological analysis. J. Humanist. Psychol. 57, 354–388. doi: 10.1177/0022167817706884
Blatchford, E., Bright, S., and Engel, L. (2020). Tripping over the other: could psychedelics
increase empathy? J. Psychedelic Stud. 4, 163–170. doi: 10.1556/2054.2020.00136
Boer, D., and Boehnke, K. (2015). “What are values? Where do they come from? A
developmental perspective” in Handbook of value: perspectives from economics,
neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford:
Oxford University Press), 129–151.
Bouso, J. C., González, D., Fondevila, S., Cutchet, M., Fernández, X., Ribeiro
Barbosa, P. C., et al. (2012). Personality, psychopathology, life attitudes and
neuropsychological performance among ritual users of Ayahuasca: a longitudinal study.
PLoS One 7:e42421. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042421
Bouso, J. C., Palhano-Fontes, F., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., Ribeiro, S., Sanches, R.,
Crippa, J. A., et al. (2015). Long-term use of psychedelic drugs is associated with
dierences in brain structure and personality in humans. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol.
25, 483–492. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.01.008
Brosch, T., and Sander, D. (2015). Handbook of value: perspectives from economics,
neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brouwer, A., and Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2021). Pivotal mental states. J.
Psychopharmacol. 35, 319–352. doi: 10.1177/0269881120959637
Bukowski, H., Bigot, A., and Samson, D. (2022). Narcissists are not more egocentric:
evidence from a performance-based perspective-taking measure. PsyArXiv. doi:
10.31234/osf.io/rtyfm
Burbea, R. (2014). Seeing that frees meditations of emptiness and dependent arising.
Hermes Amara Publications
Brewer, J. A., Garrison, K. A., and Whiteld-Gabrieli, S. (2013). What about the “Self ”
is Processed in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7:647.
Available at:. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00647
Callard, A. (2018). Aspiration: the agency of becoming, New York: Oxford
University Press.
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Erritzoe, D., Haijen, E., Kaelen, M., and Watts, R. (2018a).
Psychedelics and connectedness. Psychopharmacology 235, 547–550. doi: 10.1007/
s00213-017-4701-y
Carhart-Harris, R. L., and Friston, K. (2019). REBUS and the anarchic brain.
Pharmacol. Rev. 713, 316–344. doi: 10.1124/pr.118.017160
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Kaelen, M., Bolstridge, M., Williams, T. M., Williams, L. T.,
Underwood, R., et al. (2016). e paradoxical psychological eects of lysergic acid
diethylamide (LSD). Psychol. Med. 46, 1379–1390. doi: 10.1017/S0033291715002901
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Kaelen, M., and Whalley, M. G. (2015). LSD enhances
suggestibility in healthy volunteers. J. Psychopharmacol.:232 785.
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Roseman, L., Haijen, E., Erritzoe, D., Watts, R., Branchi, I., et al.
(2018b). Psychedelics and the essential importance of context. J. Psychopharmacol. 32,
725–731. doi: 10.1177/0269881118754710
Cavedon-Taylor, D. (2022). “Life through a lens: aesthetic virtue and salience
vs Kantian disinterest” in Salience. ed. S. Archer. 1st ed (London: Routledge),
193–212.
Chappell, S.-G. (2018). “Love and knowledge in Murdoch” in Murdoch on truth and
love. ed. G. Browning (Cham: Springer Verlag), 89–108.
Cohen, E. H., Sagee, R., and Reichenberg, R. (2005). ‘Being, having and doing
modes of existence: conrmation and reduction of a new scale based on a study
among Israeli female teachers, student-teachers and counselors’, bulletin de
méthodologie sociologique. Bull. Sociological Methodol. 87, 38–60. doi:
10.1177/075910630508700104
Carhart-Harris, R. L., and Nutt, D. J. (2017). Serotonin and brain function a tale of
two receptors. J Psychopharmacol [Preprint]. doi: 10.1177/0269881117725915
Dambrun, M., and Ricard, M. (2011). Self-centeredness and selessness: a theory of
self-based psychological functioning and its consequences for happiness. Rev. Gen.
Psychol. 15, 138–157. doi: 10.1037/a0023059
Davis, A. K., Barrett, F. S., and Griffiths, R. R. (2020). Psychological flexibility
mediates the relations between acute psychedelic effects and subjective decreases
in depression and anxiety. J. Contextual Behav. Sci. 15, 39–45. doi: 10.1016/j.
jcbs.2019.11.004
Denham, A. E. E. (2001). Envisioning the good: Iris Murdoch’s moral psychology. MFS
Mod. Fict. Stud. 473, 602–629.
Driver, J. (2020). Love and unselng in iris Murdoch. R. Inst. Philos. Suppl. 87,
169–180. doi: 10.1017/S1358246120000028
Dupuis, D. (2021). Psychedelics as tools for belief transmission. Set, setting,
suggestibility, and persuasion in the ritual use of hallucinogens. Front. Psychol.
12:730031. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730031
Dupuis, D. (2022a). e psychedelic ritual as a technique of the self: identity
reconguration and narrative reframing in the therapeutic ecacy of ayahuasca. HAU:
J. Ethnographic eory 12, 198–216. doi: 10.1086/719792
Dupuis, D. (2022b). e socialization of hallucinations: cultural priors, social
interactions, and contextual factors in the use of psychedelics. Transcult. Psychiatry 59,
625–637. doi: 10.1177/13634615211036388
Dupuis, D., and Veissiere, S. (2022). Culture, context, and ethics in the therapeutic use
of hallucinogens: psychedelics as active super-placebos? Transcult. Psychiatry 59,
571–578. doi: 10.1177/13634615221131465
Earp, B. D. (2018). Psychedelic moral enhancement. M. Hauskeller and Coyne, L..
Royal Institute of philosophy supplement. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
Earp, B. D., Savulescu, J., and Douglas, T. (2017). “Moral neuroenhancement” in
Routledge handbook of neuroethics. eds. S. Johnson and K. Rommelfanger (New York
(NY): Routledge), 166–184.
Eisner, B. (1997). Set, setting, and matrix. J. Psychoactive Drugs 29, 213–216. doi:
10.1080/02791072.1997.10400190
Erritzoe, D., Roseman, L., Nour, M. M., MacLean, K., Kaelen, M., Nutt, D. J., et al.
(2018). Eects of psilocybin therapy on personality structure. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 138,
368–378. doi: 10.1111/acps.12904
Erritzoe, D., Smith, J., Fisher, P. M., Carhart-Harris, R., Frokjaer, V. G., and
Knudsen, G. M. (2019). Recreational use of psychedelics is associated with
elevated personality trait openness: exploration of associations with brain serotonin
markers. J. Psychopharmacol. 33, 1068–1075. doi: 10.1177/0269881119827891
Fiehler, K., Wolf, C., Klinghammer, M., and Blohm, G. (2014). Integration of egocentric and
allocentric information during memory-guided reaching to images of a natural environment.
Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:636. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00636
Flanagan, O., and Graham, G. (2017). “Truth and sanity positive illusions, spiritual
delusions, and metaphysical hallucinations” in Extraordinary science and psychiatry
responses to the crisis in mental health research. eds. J. Poland and S. Tekin (Cambridge
MA: MIT Press), 293–312.
Forstmann, M., and Sagioglou, C. (2017). Lifetime experience with classic psychedelics
predicts pro-environmental behavior through an increase in nature relatedness. J.
Psychopharmacol. 31, 975–988. doi: 10.1177/0269881117714049
Forstmann, M., Yudkin, D. A., Prosser, A. M. B., Heller, S. M., and Crockett, M. J.
(2020). Transformative experience and social connectedness mediate the mood-enhancing
eects of psychedelic use in naturalistic settings. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 117, 2338–2346. doi:
10.1073/pnas.1918477117
Franquesa, A., Cebolla, A., García-Campayo, J., Demarzo, M., Elices, M., Pascual, J. C.,
et al. (2017). Meditation practice is associated with a values-oriented life: the mediating
role of decentering and mindfulness. Mindfulness 8, 1259–1268. doi: 10.1007/
s12671-017-0702-5
Fromm, E. (1976). To have or to be? Harper & Row.
Furnham, A., Richards, S., and Paulhus, D. (2011). e dark triad: a 10 year review.
Social Personality Psychol. Compass 7, 199–215.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 18 frontiersin.org
Grob, C. S. (2007). “e use of psilocybin in patients with advanced cancer and
existential anxiety” in Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogenic Substances
as Treatments. eds. M. Winkelman and T. B. Roberts (Westport, CT: Praeger), 205–216.
Gandy, S. (2017). Dying to live: the power of transcendence in the treatment of
existential anxiety. reshold: J. Interdiscip. Conscious. Stud. 1, 25–36.
Gandy, S., Forstmann, M., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Timmermann, C., Luke, D., and
Watts, R. (2020). e potential synergistic eects between psychedelic administration
and nature contact for the improvement of mental health. Health Psychol. Open
7:2055102920978123. doi: 10.1177/2055102920978123
Gasser, P., Katharina, K., and Passie, T. (2015). LSD-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety
associated with a life-threatening disease: a qualitative study of acute and sustained
subjective eects. J. Psychopharmacol. 29, 57–68. doi: 10.1177/0269881114555249
Germann, C. B. (2019). 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine: an ego-dissolving
endogenous neurochemical catalyst of creativity. bioRxiv:578435. doi: 10.1101/578435
Gibbs, J. C. (2003). Moral development and reality: beyond the theories of Kohlberg and
Homan. ousand Oaks, USA: SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Greyson, B. (1983). Near-death experiences and personal values. Am. J. Psychiatry 140,
618–620. doi: 10.1176/ajp.140.5.618
Griths, R. R., Hurwitz, E. S., Davis, A. K., Johnson, M. W., and Jesse, R. (2019).
Survey of subjective “god encounter experiences”: comparisons among naturally
occurring experiences and those occasioned by the classic psychedelics psilocybin, LSD,
ayahuasca, or DMT. PLoS One 14:e0214377. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214377
Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., Jesse, R.,
MacLean, K. A., et al. (2018). Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in
combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring
positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial
attitudes and behaviors. J. Psychopharmacol. 32, 49–69. doi:
10.1177/0269881117731279
Griths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards,, B. D., McCann, and U.,
Robert, J. (2011). Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and
persisting dose-related eects. Psychopharmacol 218, 649–665. doi: 10.1007/
s00213-011-2358-5
Griths, R. R., Richards, W., Johnson, M., McCann, U., and Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-
type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning
and spiritual signicance 14 months later. J. Psychopharmacol. 22, 621–632. doi:
10.1177/0269881108094300
Griths, R. R., Richards, W. A., Mccann, U., and Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can
occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning
and spiritual signicance. Psychopharmacology 187, 268–283; discussion 284-292. doi:
10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5
Garcia-Romeu, A. (2010). Self-transcendence as a measurable transpersonal
construct. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 42, 26–47.
Hadot, P. (2004) What is ancient philosophy? Translated by M. Chase. Cambridge: MA
Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press.
Hadot, P. (1995). Philosophy as a way of life-spiritual exercises from Socrates to
Foucault, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Hanley, A. W., Baker, A. K., and Garland, E. L. (2017). Self-interest may not beentirely
in the interest of the self: association between selessness, dispositional mindfulness and
psychological well-being. Personal. Individ. Dier. 117, 166–171. doi: 10.1016/j.
paid.2017.05.045
Hartogsohn, I. (2017). Constructing drug eects: a history of set and setting. Drug Sci.
Policy Law 3, 1–17.
Hartogsohn, I. (2018). e meaning-enhancing properties of psychedelics and their
mediator role in psychedelic therapy, spirituality, and creativity. Front. Neurosci. 12:129.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00129
Hartogsohn, I. (2020) American trip: set, setting, and the psychedelic experience in the
twentieth century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: e MIT Press.
Hayes, S., Stu, L., Mark, M., Zhu, Z., and Xiaoyu, B., et al. (2019). e centrality of
sense of self in psychological exibility processes: what the neurobiological and
psychological correlates of psychedelics suggest. J. Contextual Behav. Sci. 15, 30–38. doi:
10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.11.005
Hendricks, P. S. (2018). Awe: a putative mechanism underlying the eects of classic
psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Int. Rev. Psychiatry 30, 331–342. doi:
10.1080/09540261.2018.1474185
Hendricks, P. S., Thorne, C. B., and Clark, C. B. (2015). Classic psychedelic use
is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United
States adult population. J. Psychopharmacol. 29, 280–288. doi:
10.1177/0269881114565653
Heuschkel, K., and Kuypers, K. P. C. (2020). Depression, mindfulness, and
psilocybin: possible complementary effects of mindfulness meditation and
psilocybin in the treatment of depression. A review. Front. Psych. 11:224. doi:
10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00224
Hobbs, D. J. (2021). Towards a phenomenology of values, New York: Routledge.
Hofmann, A. (1980) LSD, my problem child. Translated by J. Ott. New York: McGraw-
Hill.
Horney, K. (1999). Neurosis and human growth: e struggle toward self-realization.
Repr. [d. Ausg.] 1951 London: Routledge (psychoanalysis, 14).
Hunt, H. (2013). Implications and consequences of post-modern philosophy for
contemporary perspectives on transpersonal and spiritual experience, I. e later
Foucault and Pierre Hadot on a post-Socratic this-worldly mysticism. Int. J.
Transpersonal Stud. 32, 1–15. doi: 10.24972/ijts.2013.32.1.1
Huxley, A. (1954). e doors of perception. 1st Edn, New York: Harper & Row.
Higgins, E. T. (2015). “What is value? Where does it come from? A psychological
perspective” in Handbook of Value: Perspectives from Economics, Neuroscience,
Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, p.0. Available at:) doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716600.003.0003
Isham, A., Elf, P., and Jackson, T. (2022). Self-transcendent experiences as promoters
of ecological wellbeing? Exploration of the evidence and hypotheses to betested. Front.
Psychol. 13:1051478. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1051478
James, W. (2008) e varieties of religious experience: a study in human nature. London;
NewYork: Routledge (Routledge classics).
James, E., Robertshaw, T. L., Hoskins, M., and Sessa, B. (2020). Psilocybin occasioned
mystical-type experiences. Hum. Psychopharmacol. Clin. Exp. 35:e2742. doi: 10.1002/
hup.2742
Kähönen, J. (2020). Psychedelic unselng and moral perception: a philosophical account
of the change of values induced by psychedelic experiences. Master’s esis University of
Helsinki Available at: https://helda.helsinki./handle/10138/315556.
Kałużna, A., Marco, S., Emily, G. C., James, C. (2022). Being no one, being one: the
role of ego-dissolution and connectedness in the therapeutic eects of psychedelic
experience. J. Psychedelic Stud. 6, 111–136. doi: 10.1556/2054.2022.00199
Katz, S. T. (1978). “Language, epistemology, and mysticism” in Mysticism and
philosophical analysis. ed. S. T. Katz (New York: Oxford University Press), 22–74.
Kegan, R. (1982) e evolving self: Problem and process in human development.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Kettner, H., Gandy, S., Haijen, E. C. H. M., and Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2019). From
egoism to Ecoism: psychedelics increase nature relatedness in a state-mediated and
context-dependent manner. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16:5147. doi: 10.3390/
ijerph16245147
Kettner, H., Rosas, F. E., Timmermann, C., Kärtner, L., Carhart-Harris, R. L., and
Roseman, L. (2021). Psychedelic Communitas: intersubjective experience during
psychedelic group sessions predicts enduring changes in psychological wellbeing and
social connectedness. Front. Pharmacol. 12:623985. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.623985
Kirkham, N., and Letheby, C. (2022). Psychedelics and environmental virtues. Philos.
Psychol., 1–25. doi: 10.1080/09515089.2022.2057290
Kitson, A., Chirico, A., Gaggioli, A., and Riecke, B. E. (2020). A Review on Research
and Evaluation Methods for Investigating Self-Transcendence. Front. Psychol. 11:
547687. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.547687
Kohlberg, L., and Ryncarz, R. A. (1990). “Beyond justice reasoning: moral development
and consideration of a seventh stage” in Higher stages of human development: perspectives
on adult growth, eds. C.N. Alexander and E. Langer (New York, NY: Oxford University
Press), 191–207.
Koltko-Rivera, M. E. (2004). e psychology of worldviews. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 8, 3–58.
doi: 10.1037/1089-2680.8.1.3
Lange, V., and Marie, S. (2021). Exploring moral bio-enhancement through
psilocybin-facilitated Prosocial eects. J. Cognit. Neuroethics 8:42.
Langlitz, N., Dyck, E., Scheidegger, M., and Repantis, D. (2021). Moral
psychopharmacology needs moral inquiry: the case of psychedelics. Front. Psych.
12:1104. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.680064
Laukkonen, R. E., and Slagter, H. A. (2021). From many to (n)one: meditation and the
plasticity of the predictive mind. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 128, 199–217. doi: 10.1016/j.
neubiorev.2021.06.021
Lavazza, A. (2017). “Ways of being well. Realistic and unrealistic wellbeing” in New
perspectives on realism. eds. L. Taddio and K. W. Molìn (Mimesis International)
Le, T., and Levenson, M. (2005). Wisdom as self-transcendence: what’s love (&
individualism) got to do with it? J. Res. Personal. 39, 443–457. doi: 10.1016/j.
jrp.2004.05.003
Leary, M. R., and Guadagno, J. (2011). “e role of hypo-egoic self-processes in
optimal functioning and subjective well-being” in Designing positive psychology: taking
stock and moving forward. eds. K. M. Sheldon, T. B. Kashdan and M. F. Steger (Oxford
University Press)
Leary, M. R., and Tangney, J. P. (2012). “e self as an organizing construct in the
behavioral and social sciences” in Handbook of self and identity. eds. M. R. Leary and J.
P. Tangney. 2nd ed (New York: Guilford Press)
Lerner, M., and Lyvers, M. (2006). Values and beliefs of psychedelic drug users: a cross-
cultural study. J. Psychoactive Drugs 38, 143–147. doi: 10.1080/02791072.2006.10399838
Letheby, C. (2017). Naturalizing psychedelic spirituality. Zygon 523, 623–642.
Letheby, C. (2021). Philosophy of psychedelics, New York, NY, US: Oxford
University Press.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 19 frontiersin.org
Letheby, C. (2022). “Psychedelics and meditation: a neurophilosophical
perspective” in e Routledge handbook of the philosophy of meditation. ed. R. Repetti
(London: Routledge)
Letheby, C., and Gerrans, P. (2017). Self unbound: ego dissolution in psychedelic
experience. Neurosci. Conscious. 2017, 1–11. doi: 10.1093/nc/nix016
Levenson, M., Aldwin, C., and Cupertino, A. (2001). “Transcending the self: toward
a Liberative model of adult development” in Maturidade & Velhice: Um Enfoque
Multidisciplinar. ed. A. L. Neri (Papirus: Sao Paulo, BR), 99–116.
Liester, M. B., and Prickett, J. I. (2012). Hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of
ayahuasca in the treatment of addictions. J. Psychoactive Drugs 44, 200–208. doi:
10.1080/02791072.2012.704590
Loevinger, J., and Blasi, A. (1976) Ego development: conceptions and theories. 1st ed.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers (Jossey-Bass behavioral science series).
Lumber, R., Richardson, M., and Sheeld, D. (2017). Beyond knowing nature:
contact, emotion, compassion, meaning, and beauty are pathways to nature connection.
PLoS One 12:e0177186. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177186
Lyons, T., and Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2018). Increased nature relatedness and decreased
authoritarian political views aer psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. J.
Psychopharmacol. 327, 811–819.
MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., and Griths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences
occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin Lead to increases in the personality domain of
openness. J. Psychopharmacol. 25, 1453–1461. doi: 10.1177/0269881111420188
Malone, T. C., Mennenga, S. E., Guss, J., Podrebarac, S. K., Owens, L. T.,
Bossis, A. P., et al. (2018). Individual experiences in four cancer patients following
psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Front. Pharmacol. 9:256. doi: 10.3389/
fphar.2018.00256
Martial, C., Fontaine, G., Gosseries, O., Carhart-Harris, R., Timmermann, C.,
Laureys, S., et al. (2021). Losing the self in near-death experiences: the experience of
ego-dissolution. Brain Sci. 11:929. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11070929
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Religions, values, and peak-experience, Middlesex, England:
Penguin Compass.
Maslow, A. H. (1971). e farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking Press.
Masters, R. E. L., and Houston, J. (1966). e varieties of psychedelic experience. Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.
McCrae, R. R. (2004). “Openness to experience” in Encyclopedia of applied psychology.
ed. C. D. Spielberger (New York: Elsevier), 707–709.
Miller, W. R., and C’de Baca, J. (2001). Quantum change: when epiphanies and sudden
insights transform ordinary lives. New York: Guilford Press.
Millière, R. (2017). Looking for the self: phenomenology, neurophysiology and
philosophical signicance of drug-induced ego dissolution. Front. Hum. Neurosci.
11:245. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00245
Millière, R. (2020). e varieties of selessness. Philos. Mind Sci. 1I:8.
Millière, R., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Roseman, L., Trautwein, F. M., and
Berkovich-Ohana, A. (2018). Psychedelics, meditation, and self-consciousness. Front.
Psychol. 9:1475. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01475
Mole, C. (2022). “e moral psychology of salience” in Salience. ed. S. Archer. 1st ed
(London: Routledge), 193–212.
Moll, J., Zahn, R., and de Oliveira-Souza, R. (2015). “e neural underpinnings of moral
values” in Handbook of value: perspectives from economics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology
and sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Mulukom, V., Patterson, R., and Elk, M. (2020). Broadening your mind to include
others: the relationship between serotonergic psychedelic experiences and
maladaptive narcissism. Psychopharmacology 237, 2725–2737. doi: 10.1007/
s00213-020-05568-y
Murdoch, I. (1992). Metaphysics as a guide to morals Harmondsworth Penguin.
Murdoch, I. (1997) Existentialists and mystics writings on philosophy and literature.
London: Chatto & Windus.
Murdoch, I. (2001) e sovereignty of good. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Nagel, T. (1986). e view from nowhere. Revue Philosophique de la France Et de
l’Etranger 178, 221–222.
Nayak, S. M., and Griths, R. R. (2022). A single belief-changing psychedelic
experience is associated with increased attribution of consciousness to living and non-
living entities. Front. Psychol. 13:852248. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.852248
Newson, M., Khurana, R., Cazorla, F., and van Mulukom, V. (2021). I get high with a
little help from my friends – how raves can invoke identity fusion and lasting co-
operation via transformative experiences. Front. Psychol. 12:719596. doi: 10.3389/
fpsyg.2021.719596
Noorani, T., Garcia-Romeu, A., Swi, T. C., Griths, R. R., and Johnson, M. W.
(2018). Psychedelic therapy for smoking cessation: qualitative analysis of participant
accounts. J. Psychopharmacol. 32, 756–769. doi: 10.1177/0269881118780612
Nour, M., and Carhart-Harris, R. (2017). Psychedelics and the science of self-
experience. Br. J. Psychiatry 210, 177–179. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.116.194738
Nour, M. M., Evans, L., and Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2017). Psychedelics, personality and
political perspectives. J. Psychoactive Drugs 49, 182–191. doi: 10.1080/02791072.2017.1312643
Olsson, A.-L. (2018). A moment of letting go: iris Murdoch and the morally transformative
process of unselng. J. Philos. Educ. 52, 163–177. doi: 10.1111/1467-9752.12278
Orlowski, P., Ruban, A., Szczypiński, J., Hobot, J., Bielecki, M., and Bola, M. (2022).
2021-naturalistic use of psychedelics is related to emotional reactivity and self-
consciousness the mediating role of ego-dissolution. J. Psychopharmacol. 36, 987–1000.
doi: 10.1177/02698811221089034
Oyserman, D. (2015). Values, psychology of. Int. Encyclopedia Social Behav. Sci.
[Preprint]. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.24030-0
Pace, B. A., and Devenot, N. (2021). Right-wing Psychedelia: case studies in cultural
plasticity and political pluripotency. Front. Psychol. 12:733185. doi: 10.3389/
fpsyg.2021.733185
Panizza, S. (2019). Moral perception beyond Supervenience: Iris Murdoch’s radical
perspective. J. Value Inquiry 1, 1–16.
Payne, J. E., Chambers, R., and Liknaitzky, P. (2021). Combining psychedelic and
mindfulness interventions: synergies to inform clinical practice. ACS Pharmacol. Transl.
Sci. 4, 416–423. doi: 10.1021/acsptsci.1c00034
Peck, J. (2020) Psychedelics for systems change: could drugs help us save the planet?,
openDemocracy. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/
psychedelics-systems-change-could-drugs-help-us-save-planet/. (Accessed: 20
May 2022).
Pelser, A. C., and Roberts, R. C. (2015). “Religious value and moral psychology” in
Handbook of value: perspectives from economics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and
sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Perlin, J. D., and Li, L. (2020). Why does awe have Prosocial effects? New
perspectives on awe and the small self. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 15, 291–308. doi:
10.1177/1745691619886006
Pi, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., and Keltner, D. (2015). Awe, the
small self, and prosocial behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 108, 883–899. doi: 10.1037/
pspi0000018
Piper, A. (2015). “Strange drugs makes for strange bedfellows: Ernst Junger, Albert
Hofmann and the politics of psychedelics” in Create space independent publishing
platform. eds. D. Darling, J. Getzendanner and G. Llwydd, Portland, OR, USA:
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Plato (2008) in Symposium. ed. R. Watereld (Oxford; NewYork: Oxford University
Press (Oxford world’s classics))
Pokorny, T., Preller, K. H., Kometer, M., Dziobek, I., and Vollenweider, F. X. (2017).
Eect of psilocybin on empathy and moral decision-making. Int. J.
Neuropsychopharmacol. 20, 747–757. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyx047
Pöllänen, E., Osika, W., CUD, S., and Simonsson, O. (2022). Classic psychedelics and
human–animal relations. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19:8114. doi: 10.3390/
ijerph19138114
Radakovic, C., Radakovic, R., Peryer, G., and Geere, J. A. (2022). Psychedelics and
mindfulness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Psychedelic Stud. 6, 137–153. doi:
10.1556/2054.2022.00218
Ratclie, M., and Broome, M. R. (2022). “Beyond “salience” and “aordance”:
understanding anomalous experiences of signicant possibilities” in Salience. ed. S.
Archer. 1st ed (London: Routledge), 193–212.
Révész, D., Ona, G., Rossi, G. N., Rocha, J. M., dos Santos, R., Hallak, J. E. C., et al.
(2021). Cross-sectional associations between lifetime use of psychedelic drugs and
psychometric measures during the COVID-19 connement: a transcultural study. Front.
Psych. 12:687546. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.687546
Rios, D. (1996). Hallucinogens cross-cultural perspectives Waveland Pr Inc.
Rokeach, M. (1973) e nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Roseman, L., and Karkabi, N. (2021). On revelations and revolutions: drinking
Ayahuasca among Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Front. Psychol. 12:3668. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718934
Roseman, L., Ron, Y., Saca, A., Ginsberg, N., Luan, L., Karkabi, N., et al. (2021).
Relational processes in Ayahuasca groups of Palestinians and Israelis. Front. Pharmacol.
12:607529. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.607529
Sampedro, F., de la Fuente Revenga, M., Valle, M., Roberto, N., Domínguez-Clavé, E.,
Elices, M., et al. (2017). Assessing the psychedelic “aer-glow” in Ayahuasca users:
post-acute Neurometabolic and functional connectivity changes are associated with
enhanced mindfulness capacities. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol. 20:698. doi: 10.1093/
ijnp/pyx036
Schmid, Y., and Liechti, M. E. (2018). Long-lasting subjective eects of LSD in normal
subjects. Psychopharmacology 235, 535–545. doi: 10.1007/s00213-017-4733-3
Schopenhauer, A. (1818) ‘e world as will and representation’. New York Dover.
Translated by E.F.J. Payne.
Kähönen 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627
Frontiers in Psychology 20 frontiersin.org
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online
Readings Psychol. Culture 2, 3–20. doi: 10.9707/2307-0919.1116
Schwartz, S. H. (2015). “Basic individual values: sources and consequences” in
Handbook of value: perspectives from economics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology
and sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford: Oxford University Press),
63–84.
Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Davidov, E., Fischer, R., Beierlein, C., et al.
(2012). Rening the theory of basic individual values. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 103, 663–688.
doi: 10.1037/a0029393
Shanon, B. (2002) e antipodes of the mind: charting the phenomenology of the
Ayahuasca experience. 1st ed. Oxford, NewYork: Oxford University Press.
Siegel, S. (2014). “Aordances and the contents of perception” in Does perception have
content? ed. B. Brogaard (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 39–76.
Simonsson, O., and Goldberg, S. B. (2022). Linkages between psychedelics and
meditation in a population-based sample in the UnitedStates. J. Psychoactive Drugs 55,
11–18. doi: 10.1080/02791072.2021.2022816
Smigielski, L., Kometer, M., Scheidegger, M., Krähenmann, R., Huber, T., and
Vollenweider, F. X. (2019a). Characterization and prediction of acute and sustained
response to psychedelic psilocybin in a mindfulness group retreat. Sci. Rep. 9:14914. doi:
10.1038/s41598-019-50612-3
Smigielski, L., Scheidegger, M., Kometer, M., and Vollenweider, F. X. (2019b).
Psilocybin-assisted mindfulness training modulates self-consciousness and brain default
mode network connectivity with lasting eects. Neuro Image 196, 207–215. doi:
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.009
Smith, W. R., and Sisti, D. (2021). Ethics and ego dissolution: the case of psilocybin.
J. Med. Ethics 47, 807–814. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2020-106070
Soler, J., Elices, M., Franquesa, A., Barker, S., Friedlander, P., Feilding, A., et al.
(2016). Exploring the therapeutic potential of Ayahuasca: acute intake increases
mindfulness-related capacities. Psychopharmacology 233, 823–829. doi: 10.1007/
s00213-015-4162-0
St. Arnaud, K. O., and Sharpe, D. (2022). Opening to awe: psychedelic-assisted self-
transcendence and positive adult development. J. Adult Dev. [Preprint], 1–15. doi:
10.1007/s10804-022-09419-2
St. Arnaud, K. (2019). Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for existential suering:
facilitating self-transcendence at the end-of-life. Int. J. Transpersonal Stud. 38, 31–52.
doi: 10.24972/ijts.2019.38.2.31
St. Arnaud, K. (2021). Entheogen-assisted self-transcendence & psychospiritual development:
a study of positive psychedelic drug use. Doctoral esis University of Alberta.
Studerus, E., Kometer, M., Hasler, F., and Vollenweider, F. X. (2011). Acute, subacute and
long-term subjective eects of psilocybin in healthy humans a pooled analysis of experimental
studies. J. Psychopharmacol. 25, 1434–1452. doi: 10.1177/0269881110382466
Sui, J., and Humphreys, G. W. (2015). e integrative self: how self-reference integrates
perception and memory. Trends Cogn. Sci. 19, 719–728. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.015
Swanson, L. R. (2016). e predictive processing paradigm has roots in Kant. Front.
Syst. Neurosci. 10:79. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2016.00079
Swanson, L. R. (2018). Unifying theories of psychedelic drug eects. Front. Pharmacol.
9:172. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00172
Sweeney, M. M., Nayak, S., Hurwitz, E. S., Mitchell, L. N., Swi, T. C., and
Griths, R. R. (2022). Comparison of psychedelic and near-death or other non-ordinary
experiences in changing attitudes about death and dying. PLoS One 17:e0271926. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0271926
Swi, T. C., Alexander, B. B., Gabrielle, A-L., Neşe, D. C., Saras, T., Harris, L. F., et al.
(2017). Cancer at the dinner table: experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for
the treatment of Cancer-related distress. J. Humanist. Psychol. 57, 488–519. doi:
10.1177/0022167817715966
Tennison, M. N. (2012). Moral Transhumanism: the next step. J. Med. Philos. 37,
405–416. doi: 10.1093/jmp/jhs024
ompson, E. (2020). Death: the ultimate transformative experience. 269–288. doi:
10.1093/oso/9780198823735.003.0016
Timmermann, C., Kettner, H., Letheby, C., Roseman, L., Rosas, F. E., and
Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2021). Psychedelics alter metaphysical beliefs. Sci. Rep. 11:22166.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01209-2
Timmermann, C., Watts, R., and Dupuis, D. (2022). Towards psychedelic
apprenticeship: developing a gentle touch for the mediation and validation of
psychedelic-induced insights and revelations. Transcult. Psychiatry 59, 691–704.
doi: 10.1177/13634615221082796
Tappolet, C., and Rossi, M. (2015). “What is value? Where does it come from? A
philosophical perspective” in Handbook of Value: Perspectives from Economics, Neuroscience,
Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology. eds. T. Brosch and D. Sander (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, p.0. Available at:) doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716600.003.0001
Vago, D. R. P. D., and David, S. A. M. D. (2012). Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-
transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of
mindfulness. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 6:296. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00296
van Elk, M., and Yaden, D. B. (2022). Pharmacological, neural, and psychological
mechanisms underlying psychedelics: a critical review. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
140:104793. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104793
Varela, F. J., ompson, E., and Rosch, E. (1993). e embodied mind: cognitive science
and human experience. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press (14. print).
Vaughan, F. (1983). Perception and knowledge reections on psychological and spiritual.
Vervaeke, J., and Ferraro, L. (2013). “Relevance, meaning and the cognitive science of
wisdom” in . eds. M. Ferrari and N. M. Weststrate (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands),
21–51.e scientic study of personal wisdom: from contemplative traditions to neuroscience
Vervaeke, J., Ferraro, L., and Herrera-Bennett, A. (2018). “Flow as spontaneous thought
insight and implicit learning” in e Oxford handbook of spontaneous thought mind-
wandering, creativity, and dreaming. eds. K. Christo and K. Fox (Oxford: Oxford
University Press)
Vervaeke, J., Mastropietro, C., and Miscevic, F. (2017). Zombies in Western culture: a
twenty-rst century crisis, England: Open Book Publishers.
Vollenweider, F. X., and Smallridge, J. W. (2022). Classic psychedelic drugs: update on
biological mechanisms. Pharmacopsychiatry 55, 121–138. doi: 10.1055/a-1721-2914
Wallace, A. F. C. (1956). Revitalization movements. Am. Anthropol. 58, 264–281. doi:
10.1525/aa.1956.58.2.02a00040
Watts, R., Day, C., Krzanowski, J., Nutt, D., and Carhart-Harris, R. (2017). Patients’ accounts
of increased “connectedness” and “acceptance” aer psilocybin for treatment-resistant
depression. J. Humanist. Psychol. 57, 520–564. doi: 10.1177/0022167817709585
Watts, R., and Luoma, J. B. (2020). e use of the psychological exibility model to
support psychedelic assisted therapy. J. Contextual Behav. Sci. 15, 92–102. doi: 10.1016/j.
jcbs.2019.12.004
Watzl, S. (2022). “e ethics of attention: an argument and a framework” in Salience.
ed. S. Archer. 1st ed (London: Routledge), 193–212.
Wayment, H., and Bauer, J. (2017). “e quiet Ego: concept, measurement, and well-
being” in e happy mind: cognitive contributions to well-being e Happy Mind:
Cognitive Contributions to Well-Being, eds. M.D. Robinson and M. Eid (Cham:
Springer International Publishing), 77–94.
Weinstein, N., Przybylski, A. K., and Ryan, R. M. (2009). Can nature make us more
caring? Eects of immersion in nature on intrinsic aspirations and generosity. Pers. Soc.
Psychol. Bull. 35, 1315–1329. doi: 10.1177/0146167209341649
Weiss, B., Nygart, V., Pommerencke, L. M., Carhart-Harris, R. L., and Erritzoe, D.
(2021). Examining psychedelic-induced changes in social functioning and
connectedness in a naturalistic online sample using the ve-factor model of personality.
Front. Psychol. 12:749788. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.749788
Whiteley, E. (2022). “Harmful salience perspectives∗” in Salience. ed. S. Archer. 1st ed
(London: Routledge), 193–212.
Whiteld, H. J. (2021). A Spectrum of selves reinforced in multilevel coherence: a
contextual behavioural response to the challenges of psychedelic-assisted therapy
development. Front. Psych. 12:727572. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.727572
Wiese, W. (2019). Explaining the enduring intuition of substantiality: the phenomenal
self as an abstract “salience object”. J. Conscious. Stud. 26, 64–87.
Winkelman, M. (2001). Psychointegrators multidisciplinary perspectives on the
therapeutic eects of hallucinogens. Complement. Health Pract. Rev. 6, 219–237. doi:
10.1177/153321010100600304
Winkelman, M. (2017). e mechanisms of psychedelic visionary experiences
hypotheses from evolutionary psychology. Front. Neurosci. 11:539. doi: 10.3389/
fnins.2017.00539
Wong, P. (2016). Meaning-seeking, self-transcendence, and well-being. Logotherapy
and Existential Analysis Cham: Springer International Publishing (Logotherapy and
Existential Analysis: Proceedings of the Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna), ed. Betthyany.
Cham: Springer International Publishing, 311–321.
Wright, J. R. (2005). Transcendence without reality. Philosophy 80, 361–384. doi:
10.1017/S0031819105000343
Yaden, D. B., Haidt, J., Hood, R. W. Jr., Vago, D. R., and Newberg, A. B. (2017). e
varieties of self-transcendent experience. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 21, 143–160. doi: 10.1037/
gpr0000102
Yaden, D. B., and Newberg, A. B. (2022). “Transformations” in e varieties of spiritual
experience: 21st century research and perspectives. eds. D. B. Yaden and A. Newberg
(Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Yaden, D., Jonathan, I., Kelley, S., Johannes, E., Yukun, Z., George, V., et al. (2016).
The overview effect awe and self-transcendent experience in space flight. Psychol.
Conscious. Theory Res. Pract. 3, 1–11. doi: 10.1037/cns0000086
Yaden, D. B., Yukun, Z., Kaiping, P., and Andrew, N., et al. (2020). Rituals and practices
in world religions: cross-cultural scholarship to inform research and clinical contexts.
Cham: Springer 5. (religion, spirituality and health: a social scientic approach).
Zhang, J., Pi, P., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., and Keltner, D. (2014). An occasion for unselng:
beautiful nature leads to prosociality. J. Environ. Psychol. 37, 61–72. doi: 10.1016/j.
jenvp.2013.11.008
