The altered states of consciousness produced by psychedelic drugs are very similar to dreams, according to new research published in
Frontiers in Neuroscience.
"I am puzzled about the range of different experiences a human being can have throughout his or her lifetime. Here I mean
qualitatively different experiences, this is not eating two different ice-cream flavours, but being in very different states such as awake, dreaming, deep sleep, coma, deep meditation, and under the influence of different psychoactive drugs," said study author Enzo Tagliazucchi of the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris.
"My hypothesis is that there is a reduced number of these states, much lower than what many neuroscientists think, so that some states we label as different are in fact very close in terms of 'what they feel like' and in terms of the underlying brain physiology - you simply don't recognise this fact because you reach those places coming from different routes.
Comment: Evolutionary accounts are not to be judged, disregarded, or 'fixed' lightly. There's a reason they took millions of years to evolve.
These researchers would do well to learn from two people who have 'been there, done that' with respect to the biological roots of moral psychology: