This presentation explores the intersection of transcendental and reproductive experiences in female bodies. The structural underrepresentation of knowledge about the somatic manifestation of transcendence unique to the female body, offers a vast untapped potential of research possibilities. Fertility, reproductive choice, and cyclical exposure to change could be seen as moments of metaphysical confrontation between self and other. Looking at the female processing of these experiences from a cultural and phenomenological perspective, there are various levels of integration one might consider, ranging from the hormonal to the political. As a fascinating parallel, the psychedelic experience is often reported and culturally framed as existential by triggering contexts of birth, death, and the encounter of other life forms. These intersections point to the following question: If female bodies are capable of holding the experience of birth and death of potential life within their own conscious physical containers, can reproductive realities be seen as potentially transpersonal? Further, how do these lived experiences compare to similar phenomenological states within the psychedelic domain? 

Drawing from theories from various fields, this presentation has a central focus on cultural anthropology and feminist theory. Psychedelic feminism seeks to present a research idea from which new intersections of philosophy and natural sciences could be investigated with a political lens and an interdisciplinary approach.