Consciousness and Psychedelics¶
On May 17, 2026 - @ 5 pm PDT (9 pm EDT)
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Dissolving the Self: Psychedelics, Consciousness, and the Boundaries of Personal Identity
A journal club by the Carboncopies Foundation.
Session guided by Dr. Randal A. Koene
May 17, 2026
What happens when the self model breaks down, and when it comes back? For this session, we're stepping away from our usual neurophilosophy and into some decidedly stranger territory. We'll examine what altered states of consciousness, induced by psilocybin, DMT, ketamine, LSD, and their chemical kin, can teach us about the architecture of ordinary experience. Our previous journal club sessions have frequently leaned on Thomas Metzinger's Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity as a theoretical backbone, so we can ask: when 5-HT2A agonism temporarily collapses the brain's predictive self-model, what exactly is lost, and what remains? Is ego dissolution a window into a more fundamental form of consciousness, or an artefact? What do the phenomenological reports of "boundary dissolution," "noetic quality," and "oceanic boundlessness" tell us about how subjectivity is normally constructed?
The topic is broad, the session will be more participatory than lecture. There will likely be follow-up sessions interspersed with our usual systematic investigation, so let’s regard this as an introduction.
We may discuss the neuroscience (e.g. the REBUS hypothesis, default mode network disruption, entropy and criticality), the phenomenology (e.g. from Stace's mystical experience typology to Carhart-Harris's five-dimensional model), and some of the harder philosophical questions these experiences provoke about personal identity, the metaphysics of the self, and whether these states are epistemically meaningful at all.
This session will not be recorded, so that participants can feel more free to discuss an otherwise potentially sensitive topic.
Come ready for some conceptual vertigo. Sober attendance is expected, though not enforced.
Recommended reading¶
Carhart-Harris, R. & Friston, K. (2019). REBUS and the anarchic brain: Toward a unified model of the brain action of psychedelics. Pharmacological Reviews, 71(3). — The central mechanistic paper for the session; highly recommended as assigned reading
Vollenweider, F.X. & Kometer, M. (2010). The neurobiology of psychedelic drugs. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11. — Excellent review of receptor pharmacology and circuit-level effects.
Millière, R. et al. (2018). Psychedelics, meditation, and self-consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology. — Excellent comparative piece on psychedelics and meditation; directly relevant to the convergence question.
Nour, M.M. et al. (2016). Ego-dissolution and psychedelics: Validation of the ego dissolution inventory. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. — The key self-report measure for ego dissolution.
Carhart-Harris, R. et al. (2021). Trial of psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression. New England Journal of Medicine. — The Imperial College comparison trial; useful for grounding discussion in clinical reality.
Let us know at contact@carboncopies.org if you wish to be notified about future Consciousness and Subjective Experience Journal Club sessions.