HUM 202 | The Psychedelic Renaissance

This course situates what is being called "the psychedelic renaissance" (the recent movement to legalize psychedelic substances for clinical use in treating a variety of mental illnesses) within several intersecting areas of study: philosophical idealism, religious mysticism, shamanism, Romantic era poetry, depth psychology and psychotherapy. While mainstream media outlets focus on the successes of psychedelic therapies in clinical trials, the decriminalization of psilocybin in several U.S. cities, and financial opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry, little attention is paid to what it might mean for our society to embrace the use of consciousness-expanding drugs, given their potential to radically challenge our most fundamental beliefs about the nature of reality and human identity. Our study of the psychedelic renaissance thus serves as a platform for thinking about some of the big questions that attend the human condition: Why does anything exist? Is the universe intelligential and purposive or mindless and mechanistic? Does the brain create the mind, or does the mind create my brain? Does consciousness extend beyond waking awareness? If so, what does it experience? To what extent do I exist separately from others? What is death?