Survey of subjective "God encounter experiences": Comparisons among naturally occurring experiences and those occasioned by the classic psychedelics psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, or DMT

Abstract

Naturally occurring and psychedelic drug–occasioned experiences interpreted as personal encounters with God are well described but have not been systematically compared. In this study, five groups of individuals participated in an online survey with detailed questions characterizing the subjective phenomena, interpretation, and persisting changes attributed to their single most memorable God encounter experience (n = 809 Non-Drug, 1184 psilocybin, 1251 lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 435 ayahuasca, and 606 N , N -dimethyltryptamine (DMT)). Analyses of differences in experiences were adjusted statistically for demographic differences between groups. The Non-Drug Group was most likely to choose "God" as the best descriptor of that which was encountered while the psychedelic groups were most likely to choose "Ultimate Reality." Although there were some other differences between non-drug and the combined psychedelic group, as well as between the four psychedelic groups, the similarities among these groups were most striking. Most participants reported vivid memories of the encounter experience, which frequently involved communication with something having the attributes of being conscious, benevolent, intelligent, sacred, eternal, and all-knowing. The encounter experience fulfilled a priori criteria for being a complete mystical experience in approximately half of the participants. More than two-thirds of those who identified as atheist before the experience no longer identified as atheist afterwards. These experiences were 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 attributed to these experiences. Among the four groups of psychedelic users, the psilocybin and LSD groups were most similar and the ayahuasca group tended to have the highest rates of endorsing positive features and enduring consequences of the experience. Future exploration of predisposing factors and phenomenological and neural correlates of such experiences may provide new insights into religious and spiritual beliefs that have been integral to shaping human culture since time immemorial.

Psychedelic Treatment for Trauma-Related Psychological and Cognitive Impairment Among US Special Operations Forces Veterans

“…Additionally, because some questions may have been distressing to some individuals, participants were given the option to select "prefer not to answer" to skip any individual item in a survey. b Score range for each measure: PTSD symptoms (0-80; scores above 31-33 suggest need for PTSD treatment; decrease of 10 or more considered clinically meaningful) 48 ; depression symptoms (0-6; score above 3 suggests major depressive disorder likely) 49 ; anxiety symptoms (0-6; score above 3 suggests generalized anxiety disorder likely) 50,51 ; cognitive impairment (0-5) 54 ; suicidal ideation (0-12) 52,53 ; psychological flexibility (1-7). 57 c Effect sizes are approximately 2 to 4 times greater than what would be considered a "large" effect (i.e., >.80).…”

“… 50 In a recent prospective study, a single administration of vaporized 5-MeO-DMT from toad secretion was associated with reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress as well as increased life satisfaction and mindfulness-related capacities. 51 The observed psychotherapeutic effects of 5-MeO-DMT may occur in part through occasioning mystical-type experiences 52 or experiences of ego dissolution 51 similar to other classical psychedelics such as psilocybin 53 , 54 and LSD. 55 5-MeO-DMT also demonstrates neuroprotective, regenerative, and anti-inflammatory properties which may prove therapeutic in addressing the underlying etiology of cognitive impairment and PTSD.…”

Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings

“…however, it is likely that due to the specific aim of the study the respondents had intentions of achieving this kind of experience [69]. Given that psychedelics have previously been shown to enhance suggestibility [70], and strong assumptions and increasing evidence for the role of expectation [26] one must be mindful of the influence of priming on the reported content of psychedelic experiences.…”

2019: A year of expansion in psychedelic research, industry, and deregulation

“…Additionally, there was a call to consider individual differences, such as age-related concerns in psychedelic treatment (Aday et al., 2020), and the first experiment to evaluate microdosing in a strictly older adult population was published online in late 2019 (Family et al., 2020). Finally, 2019 was an important year for psychedelic research because a number of impactful findings were published on the drugs’ effects on depression (Davis et al., 2019), substance misuse (Garcia-Romeu et al., 2019), mindfulness (Smigielski et al., 2019), life satisfaction (Uthaug et al., 2019), nature relatedness (Kettner et al., 2019), spiritual experiences (Griffiths et al., 2019), and neural processing (Pallavicini et al., 2019).…”