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. The emergence of insights during psychedelics is also remarkably important for therapeutic progress. In this talk, I will review 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. I will ground these ideas by discussing how we might mould a set and setting to improve the probability of adaptive insights.

Register for the online event here.

Zoom link for the event can be found here.

BIO: 

Ruben is a principal investigator and lecturer at Southern Cross University and holds honourary fellowships at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and The University of Queensland. Ruben’s research uncovers empirically grounded and experientially authentic models of meditation, insight, and non-duality. Using a combination of methods including behaviour, neuroimaging, machine learning, and phenomenology, he is investigating some of the rarest states of consciousness available to human beings. Ruben’s research is deeply theoretically driven and traverses multiple levels of explanation, from neurons to psychology. He has published articles in leading journals, regularly speaks at international conferences, consults for the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, and has written on topics that range from artificial intelligence to psychedelics. Ruben has an eclectic contemplative background, including traditions such as Zen, Advaita, and Theravada.