Entheogenic Experience and Spirituality

This study analyzed survey data (n=319) of those who indicated they had a spiritual experience (a less intense version of mystical experience). Two different parts of spiritual experience were identified as 1) mythical-type and 2) those concerning insight, positive feelings, improved connections to people and nature.

Abstract

“Spiritual experiences with entheogens have usually been studied as a form of mystical experiences. However, entheogen users have also reported less intense experiences that they refer to as spiritual experiences. Using data from the Cannabis and Psychedelics User Survey, this study analyzed the characteristics of such experiences in 319 participants. It found evidence of two types of entheogenic experience that may be called spiritual. The first involved mystical-type characteristics and was predicted in multivariate linear regression models by the spirituality of the participants, operationalized as a spiritual affiliation, motivation, and practice. The second type involved characteristics representing insight, positive feelings, and improved connections to other people and to nature. This type of entheogenic experience was predicted by spiritual motivation, but not by spiritual affiliation or practices. The article discusses the implications of these findings, which may indicate competing conceptualizations of spirituality among the participants in the study.”

Author: Petter G. Johnstad

Summary

This study used data from the Cannabis and Psychedelics User Survey to analyze the characteristics of spiritual experiences with entheogens. It found evidence of two types of spiritual experiences, the first of which involved mystical-type characteristics and was predicted by spirituality.

1 Introduction

Psychedelics are a group of drugs named after the Greek words psyche and deleein, which means soul or mind, and manifest, or reveal.

Huxley’s self-experimentation with mescaline in the early 1960s was confirmed by Pahnke’s study in 1966, and by Doblin’s interview a quarter century later, which found that nine out of ten people in the experimental group reported religious or mystical experiences during the service.

The legal restrictions on entheogenic research were lifted in the late 1990s, and several studies have been conducted since then. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, with participants rating their psilocybin experience as one of the top five most personally meaningful experiences of their lifetime.

Even with very positive reports, about one third of participants nonetheless experienced periods of “significant fear” during the psilocybin session.

In this range of research, entheogenic experiences have generally been equated with full-blown mystical experience. An interview study of spiritually motivated entheogen users challenged this emphasis on mystical experience, however, by finding that most entheogenic experiences were of a more ordinary kind.

Taves’ (2009) ascription model of religious experience identified specialness as the basic criterion for ascription, and distinguished between two types of specialness, ideal things and anomalous things. An experience of unity with a transcendent force could be regarded as special both because it is anomalous and because it involves something ideal and perfect.

This study surveyed psychedelics users online to identify the characteristics of psychedelic experience and to analyze on what basis participants attributed spirituality to such experiences.

2 Materials and Methods

The survey was made available online via SurveyXact and was fully anonymous. The Norwegian Social Science Data Services waived ethical approval.

Participants were obtained from seven communities: www.shroomery.org, www.dmt-nexus.me, www.bluelight.org, the Facebook page for Portland Psychedelic Society, the Reddit group r/Psychedelics, and an informal group of entheogen users in Bergen, Norway.

In total, 527 forms were submitted, but 202 lacked answers to initial demographic questions. Of the 319 included participants, 213 completed the full survey, while 106 opted out from parts of it.

The survey included basic demographic questions relating to age, gender, education, work status, and relationship status. Seven participants were excluded for indicating a third gender. The survey measured use of entheogenic drugs, including the 2C family (2C-B etc.), 5-MeO-DMT, Ayahuasca (or analogues), DMT (smoked), LSD, MDMA, Mescaline/Peyote, Psilocybin/Magic mushrooms, and Salvia divinorum. Participants were also asked about their religious or spiritual background and present affiliations.

The TIPI is a concise measurement tool with only two items for each Big Five trait. It has adequate construct validity, test – retest reliability, and patterns of external correlates.

2.2 Statistical Analysis

The study explored the factor structure of a typical entheogenic experience using participants’ endorsements of emotional, cognitive and relational aspects.

A multivariate linear regression model was used to assess the impact of spiritual motivation, affiliation, and practice on two types of entheogenic experiences while controlling for commonly used demographic covariates and the Big Five personality traits.

3.1 Participant Characteristics

Participants were mostly male, aged 32 with some university education, unmarried and childless but with a partner, situated in North America and working a full-time job. Most commonly used entheogen was psilocybin, followed by LSD and DMT.

Participants were generally eclectic in their religious and spiritual preferences, and most endorsed having a spiritual motivation for their entheogen use. Those who considered themselves affiliated to Buddhism or New Age/Alternative spirituality were more likely to endorse having a spiritual motivation.

3.2 Characteristics of Psychedelic Experiences

Participants in the study endorsed feelings of joy, peace, and love, insight into oneself, one’s relations, and the world, and an improved connection with nature and with other people.

The most meaningful experience differed from a typical psychedelic experience in a group of specific characteristics, whereas the worst experience differed in every characteristic except ego death or dissolution. The most prominent of these divergent characteristics were ego death, contact or unity with non-ordinary beings and transcendent forces, and ineffability.

Participants in the study were more likely to endorse fear as an element of their most meaningful psychedelic experience than of a typical experience.

A principal component analysis of the characteristics of typical psychedelic experiences revealed six factors, including insight, connectedness, positive emotions, joy, love, and peace. The first factor can be taken to represent a basic structure that most psychedelic experiences will tend to include. The second factor, F2, represents unusual forms of experience, and the third factor, F3, represents cognitive characteristics that render the experience difficult to understand. The last three factors, F4 to F6, represent aspects of a difficult or challenging psychedelic experience.

3.3 Spirituality and Personality Structure as Predictors of Psychedelic Experiences

Two multivariate linear regression models found that the spirituality, personality structure, and demographics of psychedelics users predicted the occurrence of specific types of psychedelic experiences. A high score on the Openness trait positively predicted mystical experiences.

Table 5 shows that the multivariate regression model for psychedelic experiences of insight, connectedness, and positivity has an adjusted R2 of 0.13, and that only the spiritual motivation variable and two Big Five traits Conscientiousness and Openness are significant predictors.

4 Discussion

This study identified six factors that make up a typical psychedelic experience, including states of insight, positive feelings, and connectedness, as well as mystical-type characteristics. The worst experience was characterized by negative emotions and confusion, although some participants had mixed experiences that included positive characteristics.

In multivariate regression analysis, the factors representing the spirituality and personality structure of the participants predicted the occurrence of mystical experiences. The factors representing the motivation for obtaining spiritual experience and a high score of Openness combined with a low score of Agreeableness were significant predictors.

Participants who engaged in practices that are generally labeled spiritual and endorsed having a spiritual motivation for entheogen use tended to endorse mystical-type characteristics to describe their entheogenic experiences. This type of entheogenic experience is therefore associated with spirituality on several levels.

Entheogen users describe experiences of insight, connectedness, and positivity as an integral element of their entheogenic spirituality. These experiences include feelings of joy, peace, and love, as well as states of insight.

The multivariate regression model for experiences of insight, connectedness, and positivity did not strongly relate such experiences to spiritual predictor variables, including affiliation for a religious or spiritual tradition or active spiritual practice.

The fact that entheogen users strongly associate spirituality with experiences of insight, connectedness, and positivity may be interpreted in at least two ways: either the tendency to ascribe spirituality to such experiences mirrors similar tendencies among other spiritually or religiously inclined people.

Two thirds of the Secular Humanist participants endorsed having spiritual experience as a motivation for entheogen use, which suggests that they have an understanding of spirituality that differs substantially from Taves’ conceptualization.

5 Conclusion

This study found that entheogen users have two types of spiritual experiences, one involving mystical-type characteristics and the other involving insight, positive feelings, and improved connections to other people and to nature.

In this explorative study, respondents who felt connected to one or more spiritual or religious traditions were significantly more likely to report the first type of spiritual experience, but not the second type.

The main limitations of this study were that participants had to self-select for participation and were recruited via online psychedelic communities. This may have biased the results towards positive results.