Psychedelics and Mystical Experiences (original) (raw)
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Book Review – Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
Spiritual Psychology and Counseling
The quest for more holistic forms of treatment and healing in modern psychology has been provoked by its sole focus on the management of symptoms. This has led to an alarming rise in the use of psychedelic substances. Yet the true cause behind these maladies of the mind is the burgeoning ‘crisis of meaning’ that we find in the world today. This largely undiagnosed predicament has led to religion being supplanted by psychology, and to the realm of the psyche becoming confused with that of the spiritual. Modern societies have clearly lost a sense of the sacred. To the extent that we fail to see this, the use of entheogens will never be able to replace a true “science of the soul,” which offers a more satisfying conception of reality, and a fuller understanding of what it means to be human. In this way, we may discover a properly integrated approach to healing that is grounded in the deeper wisdom to be found in the world’s time-honored spiritual traditions.
2024
In the 21st century, there is a growing and renewed interest in psychoactive substances among the scientific and medical community, as well as the general public. This growing interest is apparent from the increasing commercial interest in psychedelic therapy, the revival of psychedelic science, and ritualistic use in resacralized contexts. Psychedelic-induced (pi) religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (piRSMEs) have been rated as among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant lifetime experiences, with moderate to strong persisting positive changes in life satisfaction, purpose, and meaning. Some even suggest that through psychedelics, we can come to understand the nature of ancient symbolic and conceptual capacities of the human brain and the kind of experiences that generate the human quest for transcendence. In this field review, twenty-five contemporary studies on neuropsychopharmacology and piRSMEs will be examined, highlighting those that might lead to breakthroughs in the future and critiquing the “mystical experience” discourse.
A Gratuitous Grace: The Influence of Religious Set and Intent on the Psychedelic Experience
Journal of psychoactive drugs
Psychedelic drugs, or entheogens, have been used for religious purposes among various cultures for thousands of years. Recently, these substances have caught the attention of Westerners for many reasons, including their propensity to induce mystical experiences. This study examined the relationship between religion and having mystical experiences. A total of 119 participants were drawn from psychedelic-related websites and asked to complete an anonymous online questionnaire containing items regarding history of psychedelic use, set and setting for psychedelic use, and a measure for mystical experiences. A majority of respondents were White males who displayed at least some level of post-secondary education. The findings indicated that respondents who used psychedelics for specifically religious purposes, as well as those who identified with a religion, were more likely to score higher on the Mysticism Scale than those who did not.
Psychedelic Drugs and the Religious Experience: A Study of Neurological and Mystical Relationships
This paper explores numerous articles and publications from research performed on the neurological and cognitive effects of psychedelic drugs, also called entheogenic, in relation to religious or spiritual experiences. In defining religious experiences and drug-induced experiences, the similarities of their neurological activity can then be compared. Looking at fMRI and SPECT scan results, the brain stimulation and activity of both experiences prove to be more alike than different. With an ancient history of civilizations using psychoactive substances as medicinal, ritualistic, and spiritual remedies, these drugs have still shown positive treatments in more recent years. Now that a long-time research ban is being re-evaluated, the discussion of these psychoactive substances as beneficial or harmful to individuals must be revisited. The copying or publishing of this document is prohibited without the author's permission, and/or proper citations of the work. All rights reserved.
What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us About Psychedelics
Bill of Health, 2020
** Note: The URL link below works better than the PDF for viewing ** https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/11/04/what-the-study-of-religion-can-teach-us-about-psychedelics/ This piece is part of a digital symposium on "Psychedelics and America" through Harvard Law School's Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics.
Psychedelics & Mystical Experience: A Spark to an Eternal Flame
Philosophy & Religion major, Music minor -Class of 2014 Intro to Mysticism -Brian Karafin This paper discusses the spiritual and therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances, used as tools for awakening to a larger sense of reality. I go over the basics of what a mystical experience can be defined as, and the relationships which various cultures around the world have with entheogenic plants. A taboo topic, the facts about psychedelics are often suppressed by the ideologies of mainstream society, but this paper shows how there is still much hope for the healing potentials of psychedelics on an individual level. I also discuss the importance of set and setting, and careful integration of a psychedelic experience as necessary factors in providing a positive and perhaps even mystical experience.
Psychedelics and the Spiritual Path – critical voices and considerations
Transpersonal Psychology Review
This paper was originally presented at the British Psychological Society’s Transpersonal Psychology Section’s 19th annual conference – ‘Psychedelics, Psychology and Spirituality’. It was my intention, in the best spirit of academic debate and inquiry, to offer some critical perspectives and considerations related to the use of psychedelics in relation to the origins and development of Transpersonal Psychology. To this end I reflected on the work and lives of some influential counter-culture figures including Albert Hofmann, Abraham Maslow, Ram Dass and others – each of whom raised particular concerns and doubts in relation to the potential risks associated with psychedelics, which I will argue still resonate today. Where appropriate I have also included some of the varied positions one might encounter in relation to spiritual traditions and psychedelics (specifically Buddhism, Judaism, Daoism and Hinduism).
Zygon, 2019
Scientific interest in drug-induced mystical experiences reemerged in the 1990s. This warrants reexamining the philosophical issues surrounding such studies: Do psychedelic drugs cause mystical experiences? Are drug-induced experiences the same in nature as other mystical experiences? Does the fact that mystical experiences can be induced by drugs invalidate or validate mystical cognitive claims? Those questions will be examined here. An overview of the scientific examination of drug-induced mystical experiences is included, as is a brief overview of the history of the use of psychedelic drugs in religion.
"On the Role of Mystical Experiences in Psychedelic Therapy and Research"
Journal of Psychedelic Psychiatry, 2023
Should mysticism be excluded from psychedelic therapy and from broader scientific research on psychedelics? One camp argues that it should because experiences are not part of what produces positive effects in psychedelic therapy and because the language of mysticism is inexact and makes psychedelic research appear unscientific. The other camp argues that at present the role of experience currently appears needed for the strongest effect in psychedelic therapy and so must also be studied in psychedelic science. It is argued here that there is evidence that these experiences appear to be a necessary part of the best effect in psychedelic therapy. Unless that data can be refuted, psychedelicenabled experiences cannot be dismissed from therapy or scientific research on psychedelics. In such circumstances, these experiences must also remain a topic within consciousness studies. Moreover, "mystical" is the appropriate term for depicting at least some of the psychedelic experiences involved.
2021
This paper examines the implications of the recent research on psychedelic substances and their effects on mental health. Specifically, the paper analyzes the findings concerning the correlation between a particular state of consciousness reliably induced by ingestion of psychedelics – the so-called “mystical experience” – and long-term improvements in mental health. The central thesis pursued is that the “self-model” of mental suffering – the view that mental illness should be understood primarily as part of that flow of subjective experience that human consciousness and selfhood are grounded in – best accommodates the evidence from psychedelic research, which indicates that the therapeutic effects of psychedelics are achieved through a profound alteration in the conscious self.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5447835\*es