Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors

Griffiths, Roland R.; Johnson, Matthew W.; Richards, William A.; Richards, Brian D; Jesse, Robert L.; MacLean, Katherine A.; Barrett, Frederick S.; Cosimano, Mary P; Klinedinst, Maggie A

doi:10.1177/0269881117731279

Cited by 327 publications

(353 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…200-250 ug/kg body weight) for 2 mg intravenously. In two studies, psilocybin was administered either in combination with spiritual practice support [18] or to experienced meditators [77]. Compared to our analysis, both studies reported a similar pattern of responses for visual and auditory alterations for the administered doses, but substantially larger effect sizes for Oceanic Boundlessness and smaller effect sizes for Dread of Ego Dissolution than predicted by our dose-response estimates.…”

Section: Comparison To Previous Reportssupporting

confidence: 56%

“…We therefore excluded the following datasets: Grob et al, Bogenschütz et al, Griffiths et al. [15][16][17] because these studies investigated the effects of psilocybin in patient populations; Griffiths et al [18] because psilocybin administration was combined with meditation; Carhart-Harris et al [19] because psilocybin was administered intravenously (i.v.) and it is unclear how the dose compares to oral administration.…”

Section: Included Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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How does it feel to be on psilocybin? Dose-response relationships of subjective experiences in humans

Hirschfeld

Schmidt

2020

Preprint

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Psilocybin is the active component of magic mushrooms and is well known for its psychoactive properties. Different questionnaires have been developed to systematically quantify altered states of consciousness induced by psychoactive drugs. The aim of this study was to obtain the dose-response relationships of the subjective experiences induced by psilocybin in healthy study participants. For this purpose, we applied a linear meta-regression approach on questionnaire ratings after oral administration of psilocybin in a controlled setting. Data was obtained from The Altered States Database, which contains psychometric data extracted from peer-reviewed articles published in MEDLINE-listed journals that used standardized and validated questionnaires. Our meta-analysis included data of the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale, the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30), and the Hallucinogen Rating Scale (HRS). We used the Robust Variance Estimation Framework to obtain linear dose-response relationship estimates for each dimension of the given questionnaires. Ratings on most dimensions and subscales of the included questionnaires correlated positively with dose. Since subjective experiences are not only determined by dose, but also by individual differences and environmental factors, our results do not necessarily generalize to recreational use, as our analyses are based on data from controlled laboratory experiments. The paper at hand could serve as a general literature citation for the use of psilocybin in experimental and clinical research, especially for the comparison of expected and observed subjective drug experiences.

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Section: Comparison To Previous Reportssupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Included Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

How does it feel to be on psilocybin? Dose-response relationships of subjective experiences in humans

Hirschfeld

Schmidt

2020

Preprint

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“…Psychedelic and stroboscopic ASC differ in many respects, for example in terms of the profundity of experience. Psychedelic ASC are reported as being similar to life-changing spiritual or mystical experiences 9,55 , which can lead to enduring increases in prosocial attitudes and behaviours as well as healthy psychological functioning 56 . Additionally, psychedelic experiences typically occur with eyes open, with the inherent interplay between the hallucinatory content and normal perception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased spontaneous EEG signal diversity during stroboscopically-induced altered states of consciousness

Schwartzman

Schartner

Ador

et al. 2019

Preprint

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What are the global neuronal signatures of altered states of consciousness (ASC)?Recently, increases in neural signal diversity, compared to those found in wakeful rest, have been reported during psychedelic states. Neural signal diversity has previously been identified as a robust signature of the state of consciousness, showing lower scores during sleep or anaesthesia compared to wakeful rest. The increased neural signal diversity during psychedelic states raises the additional possibility that it may also reflect the increased diversity of subjective experiences associated with these states. However, psychedelic states involve widespread neuropsychopharmacological changes, only some of which may be associated with altered phenomenology. Therefore, we used stroboscopic stimulation to induce nonpharmacological altered states of consciousness while measuring the diversity of EEG signals. Stroboscopic stimulation caused substantial increases in the intensity and range of subjective experiences, with reports of both simple and complex visual hallucinations. These experiences were accompanied by increases in EEG signal diversity scores (measured using Lempel-Ziv complexity) exceeding those associated with wakeful rest, in line with studies of the psychedelic state. Our findings support the proposal that EEG signal diversity reflects the diversity of subjective experience that is associated with different states of consciousness.

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“…MM and psilocybin are thought to exert their effects on behavior via a variety of psychological and biological mechanisms, potentially resulting in expeditious and longlasting effects (e.g., [66][67][68][69].…”

Section: Alternative Treatments Of Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Noteworthy here is that meditative elements, such as inwarddirected attention and relaxation practices, are already being incorporated in psilocybin-assisted trials (69,102,103). One study in healthy volunteers concluded that determinants of the longer-lasting positive effects on prosocial attitudes and behaviors as well as psychological functioning following psilocybin administration were the psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience and the rate of meditative or spiritual practices (69).…”

Section: Aim and Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Depression, Mindfulness, and Psilocybin: Possible Complementary Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Psilocybin in the Treatment of Depression. A Review

Heuschkel

Kuypers

2020

Front. Psychiatry

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Depression is a major public health problem that affects approximately 4.4% of the global population. Since conventional pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies are only partially effective, as demonstrated by the number of patients failing to achieve remission, alternative treatments are needed. Mindfulness meditation (MM) and psilocybin represent two promising novel treatments that might even have complementary therapeutic effects when combined. Since the current literature is limited to theoretical and empirical underpinnings of either treatment alone, the present review aimed to identify possible complementary effects that may be relevant to the treatment of depression. To that end, the individual effects of MM and psilocybin, and their underlying working mechanisms, were compared on a non-exhaustive selection of six prominent psychological and biological processes that are well known to show impairments in patients suffering from major depression disorder, that is mood, executive functioning, social skills, neuroplasticity, core neural networks, and neuroendocrine and neuroimmunological levels. Based on predefined search strings used in two online databases (PubMed and Google Scholar) 1129 articles were identified. After screening title and abstract for relevance related to the question, 82 articles were retained and 11 were added after reference list search, resulting in 93 articles included in the review. Findings show that MM and psilocybin exert similar effects on mood, social skills, and neuroplasticity; different effects were found on executive functioning, neural core networks, and neuroendocrine and neuroimmune system markers. Potential mechanisms of MM's effects are enhanced affective self-regulation through mental strategies, optimization of stress reactivity, and structural and functional adjustments of prefrontal and limbic areas; psilocybin's effects might be established via attenuation of cognitive associations through deep personal insights, cognitive disinhibition, and global neural network disintegration. It is suggested that, when used in combination, MM and psilocybin could exert complementary effects by potentiating or prolonging mutual positive effects, for example, MM potentially facilitating psilocybin-induced peak

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Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors

Cited by 327 publications

References 52 publications

How does it feel to be on psilocybin? Dose-response relationships of subjective experiences in humans

How does it feel to be on psilocybin? Dose-response relationships of subjective experiences in humans

Increased spontaneous EEG signal diversity during stroboscopically-induced altered states of consciousness

Depression, Mindfulness, and Psilocybin: Possible Complementary Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Psilocybin in the Treatment of Depression. A Review

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