TESCREAL hallucinations: Psychedelic and AI hype as inequality engines with Neşe Devenot, PhD

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 684 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Neşe Devenot is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS) at the University of Cincinnati and the Medicine, Society & Culture Research Fellow at Psymposia. I decided to use the title of her profoundly important journal article for this podcast. Psychedelics are all the rage. When I gave a talk at the American Psychiatric Association, there were many, many talks about the studies being done to see how drugs like psilocybin, ketamine, and MDMA might assist psychotherapeutically. However, many people are experimenting on their own. Some get caught up with a malignant narcissist “shaman” or teacher and experience horrendous trauma and abuse. While the public is doing widespread experimentation, Silicon Valley billionaires reportedly use large quantities of these substances. Devenot points out these tech billionaires appear to believe, in her words, a “TESCREAL bundle of ideologies, which describes an interrelated cluster of belief systems: transhumanism, Extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and longtermism.” This is an utterly fascinating discussion about how the super-wealthy promotes these beliefs, and either people follow the leaders or they will be left behind. Listen to this brilliant researcher on bioethics! Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Steven Hassan with another episode of the influence continuum.
0:11.0	And I have a fascinating interview today on, to just jump to it, psychedelic Fascism with Nishay Davino.
0:22.3	Nishay, I listened to your interview with a colleague and friend Dave Troy on his podcast,
0:28.8	Dave Troy Presents.
0:30.0	And I was like, whoa, this is really, really, really, really important.
0:36.4	And my listeners know that I've interviewed Rachel Harris on psychedelics in the past, Dr. Peter Grinspoon about cannabis.
0:45.6	I have a deep interest in all issues of healing and helping people recover, as well as a deep interest in undue influence and how
0:58.9	people can be harmed by use of ayahuasca and mushrooms and other things and indoctrinated in that tender state.
1:13.3	So for my listeners, I want to just give an intro to you to start our discussion.
1:19.0	Nishay Devinot is a PhD, senior lecturer in writing at John Hopkins University,
1:25.4	and you've contributed in the interdisciplinary field of psychedelic studies
1:29.7	since 2010. You completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Bioethics at Case Western
1:37.6	Reserve University School of Medicine, received your PhD in comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
1:46.1	Your scholarship explores the intersections between medical humanities,
1:51.2	psychedelic bioethics, and rhetorical analysis.
1:55.8	You're the 2015 Research Fellow at the New York Public Libraries, Timothy Leary's papers, and a research fellow
2:03.8	with the New York University psilocybin cancer anxiety study, where she participated in the first
2:10.9	qualitative study of participant experiences.
2:15.5	And Niche, you wrote a really important journal article that I've read several
2:21.8	times now. It's called Tiscreal hallucinations, psychedelics, and AI hype as inequality engines.
2:31.7	So all I can say is I'm very grateful to you for this research, for your thinking,
2:41.2	your critical thinking. And you were positive on psychedelics. You didn't start as a critic.
	...

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