Reconciling Mystical Experiences with Naturalistic Psychedelic Science: Reply to Sanders and Zijlmans

Introduction

Sanders and Zijlmans recently argued that psychedelic science should be demystified because concepts such as the mystical experience appear to conflict with a naturalistic, empirical approach. They highlighted that instruments like the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ-30) probe items such as transcendence of space and time, unity, sacredness and ineffability, and warned that such framing may bias participants and therefore pose both methodological and ethical problems—especially for participants who identify as nonspiritual. Jylkkä replies to that Viewpoint by arguing that the subjective aspect of psychedelic experience deserves philosophical as well as scientific attention. Rather than denying or reducing mystical reports to mere neural events, the author proposes treating metaphysical insights arising in psychedelic states as philosophical intuitions that can be evaluated for truth or falsity. To illustrate this reconciliatory stance, Jylkkä discusses how unitary experiences and panpsychist-type intuitions can be given conceptualisations that are compatible with a scientific worldview.