"The human mind barely works as it is" - When Neil deGrasse Tyson told Joe Rogan why he doesn't use psychedelics

UFC commentator Joe Rogan is no stranger to psychedelics. The 55-year-old is, in fact, a big propounder of the benefits of marijuana and even occasionally dabbles in stronger psychedelics like DMT.

However, in episode #1904 of the Joe Rogan Experience, American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explained to Rogan why stays away from hallucinatory substances, saying that he values objective reality above all else.

The 64-year-old scholar added that the human brain was barely capable of decoding the natural world and adding mind-altering chemicals to it was far from ideal:

"The human mind barely works as it is... Our brain barely works as an accurate decoder of the natural world around you, you now want to stir in chemicals? I have always valued objective reality. I don't want anything interfering with my understanding of what is actually happening in front of me."

Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson explain his aversion to psychedelics below:

Furthermore, Tyson challenged the claims of people accessing alternate realities under the influence, saying that they have never been able to bring back any quantifiable evidence. He explained:

"There are people who would claim that under the influence, they are accessing some actual other reality. All I can say is, if in that other reality you can invent a James Webb space telescope, tell me about it... People say I visited Venus when I was on a head trip. Did you bring back evidence? Evidence matters. It was in their head."

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When Neil deGrasse Tyson explained the basic principles of the scientific process to Joe Rogan

During the same JRE episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson explained to Joe Rogan the basis of the scientific process. The astrophysicist stated that no scientific discovery ever gets undone but rather gets added to the already understood principles to birth a deeper understanding. He said:

"This is the way science has worked since basically the year 1600... If you have an idea about something then you test it multiple ways... And if the tests give you consistent results, then you have a new understanding of the universe. When that happens that knowledge of the universe doesn't go away, it doesn't get undone."

"What happens, typically, is you have a deeper understanding of the universe in which that understanding gets embedded."

Watch Neil deGrasse explain the scientific process to Joe Rogan below:

The 64-year-old added that it was when scientists started analyzing rules of separate principles like general relativity and quantum physics together, concepts like multiverse were conceived.

Watch the full podcast below: