Can You Really Consent to Psychedelics Research? - Daniel Villiger

Wonderful.

Thank you.

And since you brought up the concept of transformative experience, what would that mean specifically in the context of, um, for patients in the context of psychedelic-assisted therapy, for example?

Yeah.

So the concept of transformative experience is originated by Laurie Paul.

She wrote a book with the title Transformative Experience, 2014.

And there she, she makes two arguments.

The first one is that there are experiences which are transformative, and she distinguishes two types of experiences.

So there are epistemically transformative experiences, which means that by undergoing this experience, you learn something that you can only learn by undergoing the experience.

The other type of transformation is a personal transformation.

So experiences can also be personally transformative, which means that undergoing the experience changes your preferences, changes your point of view in a radical way.

So that's the, the first argument that she makes, that there are these types of experiences, and she uses becoming a parent as her primary example.

So many parents tell you that before you become a parent, you cannot really understand what it will be like when you are a parent.

You really have to become a parent to know how it feels to be a parent.

And so that's the epistemic transformation that parenthood brings.

And many parents also say that becoming a parent changed them personally, so they became a slightly different person when they became a parent and now look on the world and themselves in a slightly different way.

That's a personal transformation.

So that's, like, the concept of transformative experience.

And now Laurie Paul makes a second argument, which is that in, in the face of a transformative experience, we cannot make a rational decision.

So we cannot rationally choose whether to undergo, for example, to, to the experience of becoming a parent.

And now, of course, it's, that's a problem for rational decision-making, but it's also a problem in the context of informed consent in psychedelics.

And now if we go to, like, a psychedelic experience, the epistemic transformation is quite obvious.

So if you never had a psychedelic experience before, if you've never taken some kind of psychedelic substance, your first psychedelic trip will be epistemically transformative because you cannot imagine what it will be like, for example, for your ego to, to dissolve before you actually experience this.

So that's the epistemic transformation.

And many people also say, who took psychedelics, that it transformed them personally, so it, that it was a very meaningful experience and that n- they now have a different perspective on themselves and the world.