Speaker
Description
In many cultures worldwide, the use of psychedelics is an integral part of spiritual practices. Psychedelics are suggested to increase mental wellbeing, while their potential for improving nature and social connectedness as part of spiritual wellbeing is an emerging research area.
With this cross-sectional survey based on 212 participants, we assessed whether experiences with natural and synthetic classic psychedelics were associated with spiritual wellbeing in general, and its four subdomains, i.e. nature, transcendental, personal and communal connectedness. Participants who consumed classic psychedelics before (n=108) were further asked whether their experiences were enriching or harmful. We also assessed the effect of frequency of experiences with classic psychedelics and specifics for each drug.
Participants who had consumed classic psychedelics compared to those who had not showed greater nature and transcendental connectedness. The frequency of psychedelic drug experiences in general was positively associated with spiritual wellbeing, as well as nature and transcendental connectedness. Regarding specific drug effects, the more psilocybin experiences people reported, the greater their spiritual wellbeing, while also increases for nature, transcendental and communal connectedness were found.
Of participants with psychedelic drug experiences, 67% stated that the experiences made were enriching for their lives, while 7% reported harmful effects. Enriching experiences were specifically found for psilocybin, while doing psychedelics in nature opposed to a party setting probably buffers adverse effects.
We could show that the consumption of psychedelics - in particular of psilocybin - is associated with nature and transcendental connectedness, while less associations were found for the social connectedness domains of spiritual wellbeing. In view of the relevance of spiritual wellbeing for mental health, psychedelics may offer innovative revenues for complementing established therapeutic approaches. At the same time, psychedelics probably reconnect people with nature, thereby fostering environmental stewardship.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | No, I prefer to present only as a talk. |
