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

This survey study (n=4258) compares natural (non-drug) and psychedelic (LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT) reported “God encounter experiences” and finds very similar descriptions. For half of the participants the experience qualified as a full mystical experience, more than 67% of participants who identified as atheists didn’t do so after the experience (e.g. became agnostic).

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.”

Authors: Roland R. Griffiths, Ethan S. Hurwitz, Alan K. Davis, Matthew W. Johnson & Robert Jesse

Summary

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Five groups of individuals participated in an online survey with detailed questions characterizing their single most memorable God encounter experience. The 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.

Introduction

Salient experiences, such as personal encounters with God, have been documented for millennia. Some scholars of religion have suggested that some God encounter experiences may be more appropriately classified as religious but not mystical experiences.

The use of psychedelic-containing plants and fungi in ceremonial and religious contexts dates back hundreds of years, and includes the use of mescaline in the peyote cactus by Native American Indians and DMT in ayahuasca by several religious groups.

A series of double-blind studies using the Hood M Scale and the Mystical Experience Questionnaire showed that psilocybin can reliably occasion salient mystical experiences in healthy psychedelic-naive participants, most of whom had no history of having had a spontaneously occurring mystical experience.

Although some scholars of religion argue that psychedelic-induced mystical experiences are not religious experiences, indirect empirical support suggests that they are.

This study was undertaken to advance our understanding of naturally occurring and psychedelic-occasioned religious experiences that are interpreted as an encounter with God. The study included questions about demographics, subjective phenomena, interpretation, and persisting changes attributed to a single most memorable God encounter experience.

Participant recruitment

Participants were recruited primarily via internet advertisements, email invitations, and online social networks. One group completed a questionnaire based on an experience of encountering something that occurred after taking a classic hallucinogen, and the other group completed a questionnaire based on an experience that occurred in absence of taking a psychoactive drug.

Survey administration

The questionnaires were designed to take 50 minutes to complete and were hosted on a widely used online survey administration website.

Inclusion criteria

Participants in the psychedelic version of the questionnaire were required to fulfill the following inclusion criteria: they had to be at least 18 years old, read, write, and speak English fluently, and not have completed the questionnaire previously.

Survey description

Participants answered demographic questions, described their encounter experience, and answered questions about the details of their experience. They also completed the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30), which asked them to answer questions about their feelings, thoughts, and experiences at the time of the encounter.

Statistical analyses

Demographic data were analyzed using Chi-square, ANOVA, and a general linear model with a logit link. Bonferroni corrections were used to control for Type I error rate.

Comparison of ratings of experience between the Non-Drug Group and the Psychedelic Group was done using a general linear model in SPSS 24.0.0.0, with a logit link and Type III Sums of Squares.

Comparisons of ratings of experience among the Non-Drug, Psilocybin, LSD, Ayahuasca, and DMT groups were made using a general linear model in SPSS, with a logit link and Type III Sums of Squares, and Bonferroni corrections were used to control for Type I error rate.

In the Results section, tables with dichotomous measures show percentage of participants who endorsed the item or showed the effect; tables with continuous measures show means and standard deviations of the group.

Survey completion

12,725 individuals began the survey, of which 4,285 provided useable data. Of these, 1,702 were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria, 5,165 were excluded because they did not complete the questionnaire, and 401 were excluded because they indicated taking multiple substances.

Participant characteristics

Participants were 38.3 years old on average, 69% were male, 88% were White, and 48% had a college or graduate degree.

Table 1 shows that the Non-Drug Group was significantly older, more likely to be female, white, not Hispanic, college educated, married, and a resident of the United States, than the Psychedelic Group, and that the Ayahuasca Group was older, more likely to be female, college educated, married, and have higher income.

Details of the encounter

Only about 20% of participants went into the encounter experience with the intention of having an encounter experience. Most participants endorsed communication with the entity and had an emotional response, ascertained a message, mission, or insight, or acquired predictions about the future.

The four psychedelic groups showed similar patterns of differences on all 21 items. The DMT group had the highest rates of endorsement among the drug groups.

Memory, realism, and mystical features of the encounter experience

Both groups provided high ratings of the vividness of their memories of the experience, and both groups provided relatively high similar ratings that the experience was more real than everyday normal reality.

Table 6 shows that the psychedelic groups differed on all measures except for mystical experience, where the DMT group was significantly higher than the other groups.

Interpretation of that which was encountered

Participants were asked to indicate which of four descriptors best described what they encountered. The Non-Drug Group was significantly more likely to endorse encountering God than the Psychedelic Group.

Despite differences in the preferred descriptors of that which was encountered, both groups endorsed the attributes of benevolence, intelligence, sacredness, consciousness, being eternal, and being all-knowing. Furthermore, both groups endorsed that that which was encountered existed in some other dimension or reality.

Table 8 shows that the pattern of differences between psychedelic and non-drug groups occurred in each of the four psychedelic groups, and that the Ayahuasca group had significantly higher rates of endorsement of the positive attributes of that which was encountered than the Psilocybin and LSD groups.

Comparison of encounter experience relative to other lifetime experiences

Participants rated several dimensions of their encounter experience, with personal meaning and spiritual significance being rated highest. Psychological insight and psychological challenge were rated lower.

Table 10 shows that the patterns of similarities and differences between Psychedelic and Non-Drug groups were the same in each of the four psychedelic groups.

Persisting changes attributed to the encounter

The Non-Drug and Psychedelic groups rated positive, desirable changes in nine persisting effect items, with the only significant difference being a greater rating of positive changes in spiritual awareness in everyday life in the Non-Drug Group.

Table 12 shows that the four psychedelic groups had similar ratings on most measures, with the exception of the DMT group having a higher rating on positive changes in life satisfaction.

Changes in identification as atheist and monotheist

The Non-Drug Group was less likely to identify as atheist or other than the Psychedelic Group, but more likely to identify as a monotheist. Both groups’ identification as atheist decreased significantly from before to after the encounter.

Table 14 shows that identification as atheist decreased significantly in each of the four psychedelic groups, and that identification as monotheist increased significantly in the Psilocybin, LSD, and DMT groups.

Discussion

This cross-sectional internet survey study with 4,285 participants provides new information about the characteristics and consequences of experiencing an encounter with God.

Similarities and differences between Non-Drug and psychedelic-occasioned experiences

Despite a few demographic differences, the details and consequences of the encounter experiences between the NonDrug and Psychedelic groups were strikingly similar. Both groups reported communication and having a personal relationship with the entity encountered.

Both groups of participants reported having had an mystical experience, with moderate to strong ratings on the vividness of their memories, that the experience seemed more real than everyday consciousness, and on the total score and most subscales of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire.

Despite many similarities, there were some notable differences in details and consequences of the encounter experiences between the Non-Drug and Psychedelic groups. The Non-Drug Group was more likely to be alone at the time of the experience and less likely to endorse visual, auditory, or extrasensory senses being involved.

Both groups showed moderately high scores on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ-30), but the psychedelic group had significantly higher scores in all four factor scores and proportion of the group fulfilling a priori criteria for having had a “complete” mystical experience.

A recent cross-sectional internet survey study showed that psychedelic users had greater sense of purpose and spirituality and a reduced fear of death than non-users.

The present study focused on a single experience of an encounter with something that might be called God, Higher Power, Ultimate Reality, or an Aspect or Emissary of God. It found that psychedelic users rated their persisting spiritual awareness in everyday life significantly lower than nonpsychedelic users.

Similarities and differences among different psychedelics

Psilocybin and LSD groups were very similar on all 76 items assessing the details and consequences of the encounter experience.

The Ayahuasca Group compared to the other psychedelic groups had the highest ratings for positive attributes of that which was encountered and for persisting changes in life satisfaction, social relationships, spiritual awareness in everyday life, attitudes about life and self, mood, and behavior. Although demographic differences between groups were adjusted statistically, detailed information about context of use was not obtained. This is an important consideration because the potent influence of both psychological set and physical setting on classic psychedelics is well-known.

DMT Group compared to Ayahuasca Group: DMT users had lower positive changes in their social relationships, were less likely to endorse that that which was encountered was petitionable, and had 1-way communication.

DMT users had more experiences than psilocybin and LSD users, including more encounters with entities, more visual or extrasensory communication, and more experiences with entities that existed in some other dimension but were less likely to continue to exist after the encounter.

The results suggest that N,N-dimethyltryptamine, the principal psychedelic component in DMT and ayahuasca, produces a unique profile of effects that is phenomenologically distinct from two widely used classic psychedelics (psilocybin and LSD), which were indistinguishable on all measures assessed.

Changes in identification as atheist from before to after the experience

In the present study, most atheists who identified their religious affiliation as atheist before the experience no longer identified as atheist after the experience. This finding is consistent with sudden religious conversion experiences.

Encounter experiences are not infrequently psychologically challenging

Although most participants rated the experience as personally meaningful and spiritually significant, about one-third rated it as psychologically challenging, with 15% indicating that it was the single most psychologically challenging experience of their lifetime.

Can psychedelic drugs occasion genuine God encounter experiences?

Although there are similarities and differences in the God encounter experiences described by the Non-Drug and Psychedelic groups, the most robust generality is that the descriptive details, interpretation, and consequences of these experiences are markedly similar.

Although descriptive studies of religious experiences have shown strong associations with brain processes, neither neurotheology nor the emerging science of neurotheology can definitively address ontological claims about the existence of God.

Study strengths and limitations

This study has several methodological strengths including a large sample size, exclusion of people who had God encounter experiences after taking any psychoactive drug, and statistical adjustment for demographic differences between groups.

The data are based entirely on self-reports collected retrospectively, often years after the experience occurred. The delay between the experience and completing the questionnaire raises concerns about whether these memories may have changed over time. Although the demographic characteristics of the psychedelic group were quite similar to those of past internet surveys, the study sample was underrepresented by Black/ African-American participants.

Conclusions

This study compared naturally occurring (non-drug) and psychedelic-occasioned experiences that participants frequently interpreted as an encounter with God or Ultimate Reality. The similarities among these groups are striking, and future exploration of biological and psychological predisposing factors may provide a deeper understanding of religious and spiritual beliefs.