Health Mystical experiences with psychedelics explain later improvements in mental health (study)

[Snafu in the Void]

“Mystical-type experiences under psychedelics explain later improvements in well-being and mental health” – What’s the evidence? – Samuli Kangaslampi

kangaslampi.net

[E]lements of the psychedelic experience, such as experiences of mystical-type, account for the therapeutic benefit” (Palhano-Fontes et al., 2019). “[M]ystical-type experiences are predictive of beneficial outcomes from psychedelics administered in experimental contexts” (Yaden & Griffiths, 2021). Statements such as these are commonly made in recent articles on psychedelics and their potential therapeutic effects, and are typically followed by some references to studies that have indeed found this to be the case. Meanwhile, other authors have questioned the relevance and meaning for therapeutic outcomes of the subjective effects entirely (Olson, 2021) or the concept of mystical experiences in particular (e.g., Sanders & Ziljmans, 2021).

So, what is the evidence that mystical-type experiences under psychedelics associate with or predict changes in well-being and mental health a) in general and b) compared with other possibly relevant acute subjective aspects of the experience (such as psychological insights and emotional breakthroughs)? To my knowledge, no comprehensive reviews on the state of the evidence have been presented1. Therefore, I conducted a comprehensive review based on a systematic search of the available quantitative evidence for such associations.

This blog post presents a rough, general summary of the results of this review to accompany my talk at ICPR 2022. A full, proper article will be published later.

 

[RebirthOfThoth]

I agree mystical experiences and on polarized yet parallel levels empathogenic and quantum experiences respectively (5D, windowpane reality) can alter your perspective on things permanently. I've noticed both psychotic and real observations that linger in the mind even months after a candy flip I spent with a girl who didn't take anything. Both a type of delusional the world's after me and it's all fake (reality) observation I made while peaking and while bad energies from the girl (i said whats going on and she said youll never know suspiciously, she wasnt on drugs) just the place we were staying made some weird stuff happen to us and then jutxtposon that a moment of union with her where I had to relax a certain way for her body to enter rem sleep.



So you see some call the latter a Siddhi while the former psychotic thought pattern is a symptom of negative spiritual influences or a symptom of a siddhi opening up.


I have successfully removed the doubt and negativity of the infinite paranoia I experienced and the weird shit she did and said while not on drugs, oddly. I have retained the ability to nearly feel other people's perception of breath. Take it how you will but its improved my resilience to attacks on my emotional mental and psychological state in any condition, as well as increased my perception to where the ego is present to be developed healthily but can be focused like a lense to attach to others or detach from others

 

[JackARoe]

Wow this thread should have 1000 posts by now. For me, in a nutshell, I feel better after a psychedelic experience because I have more faith in life. Things get funny. I see more and sometimes the thing that were troubling me feel small. Then a few days later I am a mess of stress and anxiety when life swallows me up again.

I think John Hopkins are going to put psychedelics on the board for mental health. They at least do some studies. And while psychedelics are recreational I always consider it something I do for my mental and spiritual health.

 

[Xorkoth]

For me, my early experiences with psychedelics radically and fundamentally changed my entire concept of reality and put me in touch with spirituality, where before I was a nihilistic atheist on a rather dark path, having rebelled from my Christian unbringing and deciding that spirituality was all just bullshit and nothing means anything.

After many hears and many, many trips, now the role psychedelics play in my life is to keep me in touch with my inner child and inspiration and creativity. And to sometimes shake me out of my default mode network and force me to think about the things that have settled into a routine that I no longer truly think about.

There can be no doubt that psychedelics have and continue to have a profoundly positive impact on my mental and emotional wellbeing. I am thankful that they are finally once again being studied for this, as I believe they have the potential to revolutionize the field of psychology and understanding of the mind and the self. In the 50s and 60s, they were considered miraculous and ground breaking drugs in psychiatry, and large amounts of studies were being done that were pointing to them being nothing short of revolutionary. Then they escaped into recreational use, and became associated with movements to stop the military industrial complex and to question the powers that be, and they were demonized and prohibited, and the research was buried practically overnight. But due to the tenacious efforts of many brave folks, they are finally once again being explored for the medicines that they can be, and I am excited to see what the future brings.