Entity encounters and the therapeutic effect of the psychedelic mystical experience

Lutkajtis, Anna

doi:10.1556/2054.2020.00143

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…This is later discussed in terms of similarity with other exceptional experiences, including possibly shared neurobiological mechanisms, all of which may have implications for therapy. While the psychedelic mystical experience has garnered most attraction as predicting clinical outcome ( Haijen et al, 2018 ; Roseman et al, 2018 ), the profundity of the entity encounter itself has recently gained attention as to its therapeutic potential ( Davis et al, 2020b ; Lutkajtis, 2020 ). Other themes, spanning the particular experiences associated with the ‘self’ (vs. other) such as psychological and emotional effects, including experients’ personal and ontological interpretation and impact, i.e., phenomenological features especially pertinent to DMT’s therapeutic capacity, will be delineated in a subsequent paper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Encounter With the Other: A Thematic and Content Analysis of DMT Experiences From a Naturalistic Field Study

2021

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Introduction:N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in conscious experience. Increasing trends in its use, as well as new trials administering DMT to patients, indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the qualitative content, over and above structure, which the drug occasions. This is particularly in light of the hyper-real, otherworldly, and often ontologically challenging yet potentially transformative, nature of the experience, not least encounters with apparently non-self social agents. Laboratory studies have been limited by clinical setting and lacking qualitative analyses of experiential content, while online surveys’ limitations lie in retrospective design, uncontrolled use, and both of which not guaranteeing ‘breakthrough’ experiences, i.e., producing very strong psychoactive effects.Methods: We report on the first naturalistic field study of DMT use including its qualitative analysis. Screened, healthy, anonymised and experienced DMT users were observed during their non-clinical use of the drug at home (40–75 mg inhaled). In-depth semi-structured interviews (inspired by the micro-phenomenological technique) were employed immediately after their experience. This paper reports on the thematic analysis of one major domain of the breakthrough experiences elicited, the ‘other’. Thirty-six post-DMT experience interviews with mostly Caucasian (83%) males (eight female) of average 37 years were predominantly inductively coded.Results: Invariably, profound and highly intense experiences occurred. The first overarching category comprised the encounter with other ‘beings’ (94% of reports), encompassing super-ordinate themes including the entities’ role, appearance, demeanour, communication and interaction; while the second overarching category comprised experiences of emerging into other ‘worlds’ (100% of reports), encompassing super-ordinate themes of the scene, the contents and quality of the immersive spaces. Many further mid-level themes and subthemes also illuminate the rich content of the DMT experience.Discussion: The present study provides a systematic and in-depth analysis of the nuanced content of the otherworldly encounter within the breakthrough DMT experience, as well as elaborating on the resonances both with previous DMT studies focusing on entity encounters and other types of extraordinary experiences entailing such encounters. These include the alien abduction, folkloric, shamanic and near-death experience. Putative neural mechanisms of these features of the DMT experience and its promise as a psychotherapeutic agent are discussed in light of such findings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Encounter With the Other: A Thematic and Content Analysis of DMT Experiences From a Naturalistic Field Study

2021

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“…These magico-religious activities were rooted in dancing, singing, and enactment that both induced alterations of consciousness and further served as a means for enhancing peace-making, affiliation, and imagination in community-wide nighttime healing and social effervescence rituals ( Dunbar, 2017 , 2020 ; Sterelny, 2018 ; Winkelman, 2021a ). Psilocybin has a capacity to amplify these ecstatic and visionary thinking modalities through inducing ego-dissolution ( Lebedev et al, 2015 ); a sense of connectedness ( Carhart-Harris et al, 2018a ); increased elementary and complex imagery ( Kometer and Vollenweider, 2016 ); and entity-encounter occurrences ( Lutkajtis, 2020 ). In an attempt to endure, make sense of, and communicate such intense, self-defining experiences humans often deploy rhythmic, hermeneutical, and rhetorical activity ( Doyle, 2011 , also see Munn, 1973 and Sterelny, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Psilocybin occasioned mystical experiences produce enduring beneficial changes, such as trait-level increases in prosocial attitudes and behaviors ( Griffiths et al, 2018 ) and in the personality domain of Openness ( MacLean et al, 2011 ). Moreover, both psychedelic mystical experiences and entity encounters have profound and sometimes lasting effects on beliefs and worldviews ( Griffiths et al, 2011 , 2019 ; Davis et al, 2020 ; Lutkajtis, 2020 ).…”

Section: Psychedelic Instrumentalization In the Human Socio-cognitive Nichementioning

confidence: 99%

Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution

Arce¹,

Winkelman

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Our hominin ancestors inevitably encountered and likely ingested psychedelic mushrooms throughout their evolutionary history. This assertion is supported by current understanding of: early hominins’ paleodiet and paleoecology; primate phylogeny of mycophagical and self-medicative behaviors; and the biogeography of psilocybin-containing fungi. These lines of evidence indicate mushrooms (including bioactive species) have been a relevant resource since the Pliocene, when hominins intensified exploitation of forest floor foods. Psilocybin and similar psychedelics that primarily target the serotonin 2A receptor subtype stimulate an active coping strategy response that may provide an enhanced capacity for adaptive changes through a flexible and associative mode of cognition. Such psychedelics also alter emotional processing, self-regulation, and social behavior, often having enduring effects on individual and group well-being and sociality. A homeostatic and drug instrumentalization perspective suggests that incidental inclusion of psychedelics in the diet of hominins, and their eventual addition to rituals and institutions of early humans could have conferred selective advantages. Hominin evolution occurred in an ever-changing, and at times quickly changing, environmental landscape and entailed advancement into a socio-cognitive niche, i.e., the development of a socially interdependent lifeway based on reasoning, cooperative communication, and social learning. In this context, psychedelics’ effects in enhancing sociality, imagination, eloquence, and suggestibility may have increased adaptability and fitness. We present interdisciplinary evidence for a model of psychedelic instrumentalization focused on four interrelated instrumentalization goals: management of psychological distress and treatment of health problems; enhanced social interaction and interpersonal relations; facilitation of collective ritual and religious activities; and enhanced group decision-making. The socio-cognitive niche was simultaneously a selection pressure and an adaptive response, and was partially constructed by hominins through their activities and their choices. Therefore, the evolutionary scenario put forward suggests that integration of psilocybin into ancient diet, communal practice, and proto-religious activity may have enhanced hominin response to the socio-cognitive niche, while also aiding in its creation. In particular, the interpersonal and prosocial effects of psilocybin may have mediated the expansion of social bonding mechanisms such as laughter, music, storytelling, and religion, imposing a systematic bias on the selective environment that favored selection for prosociality in our lineage.

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“…Spiritual and ecstatic FPs are often associated with neurological insult (such as epilepsy or brain tumour [17]), with phenomenology that overlaps with FP in other religious contexts or mystical experiences. This includes deep meditative states, in which the FP encounter is the desired outcome [34][35][36]. In modern culture, individuals known as Tulpamancers actively engage in meditative practices to intentionally create a Tulpaan FP with a quasi-agentive nature, that over time and practice may become an interactive agent [37][38].…”

Section: Phenomenology and Philosophy Of Fpmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Felt Presence experience: From cognition to the clinic

Barnby¹,

Park²,

Baxter³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The Felt Presence (FP) experience is the basic feeling that someone else is present in the immediate environment, without any other clear sensory evidence. Ranging from benevolent to distressing, personified to ambiguous, FP has been observed in neuropsychological case studies, within psychosis and paranoia, associated with sleep paralysis, anxiety, and recorded within endurance sports and spiritualist communities. In this review we summarise the philosophical and phenomenological, clinical and non-clinical correlates of FP, as well current measurement using psychometric, cognitive, and neurophysiological methods. We present current mechanistic explanations for FP, suggest a unifying cognitive framework for the phenomenon, and discuss outstanding questions for the field. FP offers a sublime window of opportunity to understand the cognitive neuroscience of own-body awareness and social agency detection; an intuitive, but poorly understood experience in health and disorder.

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Entity encounters and the therapeutic effect of the psychedelic mystical experience

Cited by 15 publications

References 38 publications

An Encounter With the Other: A Thematic and Content Analysis of DMT Experiences From a Naturalistic Field Study

An Encounter With the Other: A Thematic and Content Analysis of DMT Experiences From a Naturalistic Field Study

Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution

The Felt Presence experience: From cognition to the clinic

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