Translated from our German original by AI. The German text was researched, written, and edited by the Psychedelia Foundation team and remains the authoritative version.
The author and consciousness researcher Markus Berger has started a new series on psychedelic spirituality, or spiritual psychedelia, on his YouTube channel. At its center are basic questions about the nature of consciousness, mystical experience, and what psychedelic states mean for spiritual insight.
The opening episodes take up one of the central themes of the spiritual traditions: the dissolution of the self. Berger describes the phenomenon of ego dissolution, in which the subjective sense of being a separate person can disappear entirely while conscious perception remains intact. Working out from that account of experience, he discusses the view held in many mystical teachings that the self is not an ultimate reality but a mental construct.
The series takes an interdisciplinary approach, connecting findings from consciousness research, philosophy, and psychedelia with spiritual traditions. The aim is to treat unusual states of consciousness not only as neurobiological phenomena, but also to examine their philosophical and existential implications.
According to the author, coming episodes will address themes including nonduality, mystical experience, spiritual awakening, and the role of psychedelic substances in self-knowledge and the development of consciousness.
With the new series, Berger continues his long-standing work as a writer and researcher on psychedelics, ethnopharmacology, and spiritual states of consciousness. The first two episodes are available now on his YouTube channel.
