This online survey study (n=6209) investigated how often people who are sampled for reporting mystical-religious experiences attribute these to drug use. Stratified sampling was conducted via the application of Google Consumer Surveys, to gather data on activities that occasion mystical-type experiences. Amongst the subset of internet users who had mystical experiences, 4.7% of them attributed it to drug-use, which is less common than what might be naively predicted from studies of psychedelic users.

Abstract:

“Introduction: Many people report having had mystical-religious experiences. The prevalence of these experiences has increased over time, which suggests changing cultural factors may contribute the experience.

Methods: I conducted an online survey of 6,209 adults to determine how common different activities, including drug use, were before the onset of a mystical-religious experience.

Results: 19.6% (1,045) reported having had a mystical-religious experience and were asked a follow-up question on their activities before the experience. The most commonly endorsed pre-onset activity categories were: Prayer, meditation, or contemplation (37.2%); Being outdoors in nature (19.6%); and Religious ceremony, practice, or ritual (16.1%). Less commonly, respondents reported fasting (5.7%) or drug use (4.7%). A large percent (35.2%) reported not engaging in any of these activities before their experiences.

Discussion: Psychoactive drugs and nature are precedents to mystical-religious experience that are not selectively associated with traditional religious institutions and deserve additional study.”

Author: Matthew Baggot

Summary

Abstract

Many people report having had mystical-religious experiences. The most common pre-onset activity categories were prayer, meditation, or contemplation, being outdoors in nature, and religious ceremony, practice, or ritual, with less common categories including fasting and drug use.

There has been an increase in the prevalence of people who have had mystical-religious experiences, with polls showing that this prevalence has increased from 20.5% in 1962 to 37% in the 1970s to 49% in 2009.

Studies have examined many correlates of mystical-religious experience, including frequency of prayer and reading scripture. Older individuals are more likely to report religious experiences.

Studies at Johns Hopkins have confirmed that psychedelic drugs can occasion mystical experiences in previously drug-naive people, and that traditional psychedelic use in non-Western cultures often has mystical-religious aspects.

Given the prevalence of psychedelic drug use in Western society, drug-occasioned mystical religious experience may be common. These experiences may explain some of the increase in reported mystical religious experience.

To address this question, I conducted an anonymous online survey using Google Consumer Surveys. The survey responses were weighted to reflect the Internet-using adult population in the United States, and the response rates were higher than typical for most Internet intercept surveys.

I collected data on activities occasioning mystical/religious experience using Google Consumer Surveys, which stratified Internet users based on age, gender, and location. The data was weighted to reflect all Internet users.

The initial survey question asked if participants had ever had a religious or mystical experience. The second question asked if participants had done any of the following immediately before their religious or mystical experience.

The survey collected data from February 20 through 22 2015 and had a response rate of 16.3% (6,209 of 38,109). It was successful in sampling the Internet-using population.

A small proportion of participants reported having had a religious or mystical experience. There was some evidence of an effect of age, with younger respondents more likely respond ‘I don’t know’.

1,045 individuals who endorsed a religious or mystical experience were asked about activities they were doing during the experience.

Most participants endorsed one activity, 9.1% endorsed two, 3.2% endorsed three, and 35.1% endorsed “None of the above”.

Psychedelic-occasioned mystical-religious experiences are thought to be common, but studies are biased and unlikely to represent the general public. An online survey found that 19.6% of respondents endorsed having had a mystical-religious experience, and that 4.7% of this subset had experiences after drug use.

Drug-related mystical-religious experience is less common than might be naively predicted from studies of psychedelic users. However, mystical-religious experiences are a significant motivation for using psychedelics and are well documented in psychedelic users.

The current estimate of 0.8% adults with drug-related mystical-religious experience is not implausible, because 2.4% of 18-54 year-olds used psychedelics in the last year.

Thirty-three in 1,000 Internet-using adults reported having been outdoors in nature before a mystical-religious experience, while 8 in 1,000 reported using a drug. Natural environments increase positive affect and decrease negative affect.

Few of those who reported drug use before a mystical-religious experience also reported involvement in a religious ceremony, but many reported prayer, meditation, or contemplation.

While it is outside the scope of this survey, it would be valuable to compare nature and drug related mystical-religious experiences. There are likely profound differences among the phenomenologies and consequences of experiences occasioned by drugs, nature, and more institutionally common religious activities.

This study attempted to sample adult Internet users in the U.S. who reported having mystical-religious experiences. However, due to the brevity of the survey and the inferential nature of the sampling method, results may not generalize to ‘offline’ segments of the adult U.S. population.

Mystical-religious experiences are temporally associated with religious institutions and traditions, such as prayer, ritual, and fasting. However, significant subsets of experiences have other precedent activities, including use of drugs and exposure to nature.

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