Stoicism
An ancient Greek philosophical school teaching that virtue (wisdom, courage, justice, temperance) is the sole good, and that tranquility comes from aligning with nature and distinguishing what is 'up to us' (our judgments, intentions, responses) from what is not (external events, others' actions, bodily sensations). Applied to altered states, Stoicism offers tools for maintaining equanimity during overwhelming experiences and for interpreting difficult states as opportunities for practicing virtue.
Core Propositions
Uncited. These state what the framework asserts. They are not findings Psychedex has verified, and no reference is attached to any of them.
Effects
Compatible with Stoic physics — the individual is a temporary expression of the logos (universal reason). Ego dissolution can be understood as experiential contact with this Stoic insight.
Apply the dichotomy of control: the anxiety-producing sensations are not 'up to us.' Our response to them is. 'It is not things that disturb us, but our judgments about them.' (Epictetus)
Stoic caution: intense pleasure is an 'indifferent' — neither good nor bad. The danger is forming attachment to the state. Enjoy without clinging.
Substances
Stoics were not abstainers — Seneca discussed wine at dinner — but emphasized moderation as temperance practice. Drunkenness impairs the rational faculty (hegemonikon), the seat of virtue.
Framework record
An interpretive framework: a lens for reading experience, not a measured record. Its claims are the framework’s own. No references are attached to this entry on Psychedex, and nothing on this page has been verified against a source here.
- references
- none on file
- epistemic status
- Established
- revision
- 1
- published
- not recorded
- content origin
- LLM generated
- psx id
- FRM-stoicism
Origin
Founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens around 300 BCE. Developed through the Roman period by Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Experienced modern revival in cognitive-behavioral therapy and popular philosophy.
Key Figures
Key Texts
The framework’s own foundational literature, not sources cited for this entry.
Related Frameworks
Both emphasize that suffering arises from judgments/clinging rather than from events themselves. Epictetus's 'it is not things that disturb us' echoes the Buddhist teaching on the second arrow.