ABSTRACT
Psychoactive compounds can have more or less noticeable effects on conscious experience, through neuropharmacological pathways involving activation (agonism) or blockade (antagonism) of different neurotransmitter receptors. Some of these compounds are specifically known to alter or disrupt bodily awareness in various ways. Philosophical and empirical discussions of bodily awareness have mostly focused so far on bodily disorders – such as somatoparaphrenia – and bodily illusions induced in an experimental setting – such as the rubber hand illusion. However, drug-induced alterations of bodily awareness also include a wide range of conditions that are highly relevant to these discussions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of these lesser known bodily effects, and to outline some way in which they can bear on recent debates regarding bodily awareness and bodily ownership.
