The Contemplative Science Podcast Minds, Models, and Invisible Beings w/ Zach Buck
Apr 27, 2026
Zach Buck, a cognitive science researcher studying spirituality, psychedelics, and ritual, explores why people report encounters with spirits and deities. He discusses predictive processing accounts, how sensory uncertainty and ritual aesthetics shape perceived agents, and how social and cultural scaffolding guides interpretations during altered states. The conversation also covers collective ritual dynamics and implications for integration and therapy.
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Low Sensory Reliability Lets Beliefs Become Perception
- Psychedelic and ritual encounters with gods emerge when sensory reliability drops and high-level priors fill in perception.
- Predictive processing explains these as shifts in precision where low sensory trust amplifies cultural or personal beliefs about spirits.
Salvia Trip With Elves And Elders At A Cosmic Table
- A friend on Salvia described slipping between reality blocks to a subatomic realm where elves moved reality and elders judged him at a cosmic table.
- The vivid narrative illustrates how psychedelics produce elaborate agentic cosmologies that feel subjectively authoritative.
Psychedelics Inject Entropy That Culture Quickly Fills
- Psychedelics inject entropy by increasing brain connectivity and reducing hierarchical priors, creating ambiguous sensory content.
- That ambiguity invites social and cultural scaffolds to impose familiar supernatural models during ceremonies.