Messianic Impulses:
A Psychedelic Model of Revolutionary Consciousness
with Ari Brouwer
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What if psychedelic states can spark both spiritual awakening—and revolution?
Psychedelic drugs can elicit spiritual experiences or temporary madness. If used by enough people, they might even contribute to a transformation of society. But are these potentials related?
Join PhD student Ari Brouwer to learn what psychedelics can teach us about the psychology of messianic impulses. Impulses that can seem variously - or all at once - crazy, religious, and revolutionary. Ari helped develop a Pivotal Mental States theory to explain how stress can facilitate psychotic and spiritual experiences by increasing psychedelic-like signaling in the brain.
In this talk he will explore how the same process can help explain the emergence of messianic and revolutionary consciousness under conditions of stress and adversity. People suffer, the powerful persecute, the righteous awaken, and visionaries prophesize change – over and over again – in ways that are disturbingly repetitive. Simply exploring the patterns and mechanisms underlying these narrative structures of thought might help us deal with our problems more effectively, as individuals and societies.
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Your Instructor
Ari Brouwer
Ari Brouwer is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has an undergraduate background in Neuroscience and Religious Studies, and master’s degree in the Scientific Study of Religion from Boston University School of Theology. Ari has spent much of the last 15 years thinking about the intersection of psychedelics, psychosis, and spiritual experiences.
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