Introduction

Oxford University Press eBooks

Abstract

Abstract This chapter sets the stage for this interdisciplinary volume on Psychedelics, Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical experiences. It introduces the interdisciplinary foundations of psychological inquiry by revisiting William James’s argument that psychology must integrate biological science with philosophical and humanistic perspectives to avoid both reductionism and ignorance of scientific methods. It positions psychology as a hub discipline and emphasizes its role in connecting neural mechanisms, embodied experience, and socio-cultural meaning across different levels of explanation. The chapter defines the book’s focus on intense altered states—variously labeled religious, spiritual, mystical, or self-transcendent—and highlights diverse triggers such as psychedelics, meditation, prayer, brain stimulation, and sensory deprivation, which complicate classification and interpretation amid growing scientific and clinical interest. It reviews debates since James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience, contrasting biological reductionism with purely cultural interpretations, and introduces three guiding questions on common core theories, psychedelics’ relevance, and the relationship between experience and belief. These questions are addressed by all authors in this volume from their own disciplinary perspective.

Authors 2

1. David B. Yaden

   University of Pennsylvania

   Affiliation as printed

   Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

2. Michiel van Elk Aachen Psychology

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Psychology, Leiden University