
Books

Nietzschean, Feminist, and Embodied Perspectives on the Presocratics: Philosophy as Partnership
Psychedelic Immortality: Nietzschean Perspectives on Reincarnation, Femtheogens, and Philosophy
Recent research has revealed a psychedelic inspiration for Nietzsche’s philosophy and, far from being a novelty in the history of philosophy, there is significant evidence that several of the first western philosophers ingested psychedelics as well. In his first book, Joseph I. Breidenstein Jr PhD maintained that western philosophy began as what we today would call a feminist religious reformation in the sense that many prominent presocratic philosophers were reviving a paleo/neolithic goddess-centered religiosity of rebirth within the largely patriarchal and death-glorifying culture of archaic Greece. And, in this book, Dr. Breidenstein Jr proposes that the presocratics’ psychedelic-reincarnationist-feminine model of education and/or worldview is better suited for democracy in the twenty-first century than the economic model of education that takes the west’s mainstream materialistic-secular worldview for granted. For several decades now, researchers have acknowledged both that the empirical evidence for reincarnation is overwhelming and that psychedelics can evoke past-life recollections, but explanations for either reincarnation or how psychedelics do this have yet to be offered. By combining Nietzsche’s philosophy with the work of other thinkers, Psychedelic Immortality both provides explanations for each of these phenomena and explores how situating education and democracy within the context of reincarnation can incite a renaissance of American culture and politics. For Nietzscheans and philosophers in particular, this book illustrates the contemporary relevance of two neglected aspects of Nietzsche scholarship—i.e. psychedelics and reincarnation—and, for researchers in such fields as feminist philosophy of religion, ecotheology, philosophy of education, social-political philosophy, and eastern philosophy, it offers a more plausible and healthier worldview in which to explore possibilities in their respective fields that are diminished by the mainstream paradigm. For spiritual seekers of all paths, it offers a conception of philosophy as a practice of awakening goddess consciousness that unfolds over the course of successive lifetimes.

For a short summary of the main points of Psychedelic Immortality, click Read More.


Biography
After growing up between West Chester and Ardmore Pennsylvania and studying at Villanova University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Joseph I. Breidenstein Jr earned his PhD in philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario. He is currently exploring how reincarnation, psychedelics, and philosophy as feminine spirituality can help the west in general and America in particular remember the spiritual significance of both education and democracy as well as find a positive way forward beyond the scientific-materialist / liberal-secular paradigm that continues to characterize mainstream western life despite being not just false but also personally and culturally toxic.




Videos
Psychedelics, Reincarnation, and Feminine Spirituality with Nietzsche and the Presocratics
Women, Philosophy, and Democracy

Yoga Classes

Speaking Engagements
April 4th 2024 at Catamount Arts
Women, Philosophy, and Democracy
This lecture will summarize the contents of my first book, and I will be giving it as an Osher talk.
September 26th 2024 at the Rochester Institute of Technology
‘Psychedelics, Reincarnation, and Feminine Spirituality with Nietzsche and the Presocratics’
I will be presenting this paper to the Nietzsche Society as part of the 62nd meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy Conference.