Ho voluto compiere un veloce studio su scienziati e filosofi contemporanei che hanno usato sostanze psichedeliche o marijuana. Da questo studio ho escluso personaggi che sono legati esclusivamente a queste sostanze (personaggi come Albert Hofmann, Terence Kemp McKenna, y, Laura Ann Shulgin, Alexander Theodore “Sasha” Shulgin) e personaggi sui quali non esistono evidenze solide e comprovate ma solo aneddotiche.
I risultati sono interessanti, specialmente nelle conclusioni.
Carl Sagan — Astronomy / Astrophysics
- Substance: Cannabis
- Evidence: Direct authorship of the essay “Mr. X” (later attributed to him by Lester Grinspoon)
- Nature of admission: First-person, detailed phenomenology of use
- Assessment: Very strong (quasi-autobiographical primary source)
- Context of Use: Reflective, cognitive exploration
- Epistemic Framing: Enhancement of perception & associative thinking
- Cognitive Domain: Perception, creativity, introspection
Richard Feynman — Theoretical Physics
- Substance: Cannabis
- Evidence: Autobiographical account in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
- Context: Used marijuana prior to sensory deprivation experiments to explore altered cognition
- Assessment: Very strong (explicit self-report in autobiography)
- Context of Use: Experimental (sensory deprivation studies)
- Epistemic Framing: Testing limits of cognition and hallucination
- Cognitive Domain: Perception, cognition
Ralph Abraham — Mathematics (Dynamical Systems)
- Substance: LSD
- Evidence: Written autobiographical reflections and published interviews
- Statement: Explicit acknowledgment of LSD use beginning during his Princeton period
- Assessment: Very strong (direct written admission)
- Context of Use: Exploratory / intellectual
- Epistemic Framing: Expansion of mathematical intuition & pattern perception
- Cognitive Domain: Abstraction, pattern recognition, creativity
Jean-Paul Sartre — Philosophy (Existentialism)
- Substance: Mescaline
- Evidence: Documented medical administration + Sartre’s own later discussions of persistent hallucinations (e.g., crabs)
- Assessment: Strong (clinical documentation + self-referential accounts)
- Context of Use: Clinical (administered setting)
- Epistemic Framing: Distortion of perception & ontological instability
- Cognitive Domain: Perception, existential cognition
Walter Benjamin — Philosophy / Critical Theory
- Substance: Hashish (also mescaline/opium in some sessions)
- Evidence: First-person experimental writings compiled in On Hashish
- Nature: Structured phenomenological reports during intoxication
- Assessment: Very strong (primary experimental documentation)
- Context of Use: Structured phenomenological experiments
- Epistemic Framing: Systematic exploration of altered consciousness
- Cognitive Domain: Perception, introspection, language
Borderline but still acceptable (if verified interviews are allowed)
Carlo Rovelli — Theoretical Physics
- Substance: LSD
- Evidence: Direct interview statements (e.g., The Guardian)
- Content: Describes psychedelic experience as epistemically significant in shaping his understanding of perception vs. reality
- Assessment: Moderate–strong (direct statement, but journalistic source rather than formal writing)
- Context of Use: Reflective / formative experience
- Epistemic Framing: Relativity of perception & observer-dependence
- Cognitive Domain: Perception, abstraction
Explicitly excluded because they are not supported by solid, proven evidence or because they are purely anecdotal
These fail the “solid evidence” threshold:
- Michel Foucault → based primarily on third-party memoir (Foucault in California)
- Francis Crick → widely repeated but evidentially weak / disputed
- Bertrand Russell → no reliable primary or strong secondary confirmation found
Final curated set (methodologically clean)
Core (highest confidence):
- Carl Sagan
- Richard Feynman
- Ralph Abraham
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Walter Benjamin
Extended (still acceptable with slightly looser criteria):
- Carlo Rovelli
Observational synthesis (brief, analytical)
Across this filtered group, a few non-trivial patterns emerge:
- Epistemic framing differs by discipline
- Physicists (Sagan, Feynman, Rovelli) describe altered states in terms of perception, cognition, and model-dependence of reality
- Philosophers (Benjamin, Sartre) treat them as phenomenological probes of consciousness
- No evidence of causal claims about scientific breakthroughs
- Unlike popular narratives, none of the high-confidence cases claim “discovery via psychedelics”
- The framing is exploratory, not instrumental
- Controlled or reflective contexts dominate
- Benjamin → structured protocols
- Feynman → quasi-experimental mindset
- Sartre → clinical administration
