Ruben Laukkonen: Psychedelics, insight, and the pursuit of truth – A recording of our webinar with Ruben Laukkonen now available

The emergence of insights during psychedelics is remarkably important for therapeutic progress. Insights can be a source of creativity, discovery, and even healing, but they can also mark the beginning of a delusional episode, or potentially entrench and perpetuate false beliefs. From this starting point, neuroscientist Ruben Laukkonen presented a fascinating webinar lecture on August 2023.

In the talk, Dr. Laukkonen reviews evidence from a series of experiments that expose both the light and the dark side of insight. These findings will be integrated within an active inference account, wherein feelings of insight can give rise to, and entrench, new beliefs and perspectives during psychedelic experiences. Put simply, the combination of intense insights and relaxed beliefs creates the profound potential for plasticity and change. However, this plasticity risks the insight-catalysed lodging of false or maladaptive beliefs (possibly triggering mania). These ideas are then grounded by discussing the different kinds of insights that arise and how to nudge them in the “right” direction, and how we might define that direction.

The lecture is now available on our Youtube channel!