Can Psychedelics Lead to False Beliefs? with Hugh McGovern, PhD

S1E174 - Can Psychedelics Lead to False Beliefs? with Hugh McGovern, PhD

Published: March 19, 2025

Duration: 37:16

In this episode, Hugh McGovern, PhD joins to discuss his research on the impact of psychedelics on beliefs. Dr. McGovern is a Research Fellow at the School of Medicine, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

To start, Dr. McGovern introduces the inference or predictive processing framework utilized in his paper "An Integrated theory of false insights and beliefs under psychedelics". He explains the role of prediction in cognition, showing how insights occur when our existing perspectives are unable to make sense of our experience. In this vein, Dr. McGovern discusses how the psychedelic experience disrupts our normal modes of p...