Recent studies show that psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can reliably occasion spiritual or “mystical-like” experiences under supportive conditions, and the spiritual dimension of these experiences may contribute to their reported mental health benefits. Scholars have begun exploring how such experiences might relate to spiritual growth within Christ...
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) represent a universal human capacity for accessing and transforming the subconscious mind, employed across cultures and millennia through diverse contemplative, somatic, pharmacological, ritual, and technological modalities. This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence from over 25 distinct disciplines spanning five cl...
The escalating global burden of mental health disorders, coupled with the stagnation of innovation in traditional monoaminergic pharmacotherapy (e.g., SSRIs), has precipitated a critical need for novel therapeutic paradigms. This article presents a comprehensive systematic review of the so-called "Psychedelic Renaissance," focusing on the clinical resurgence...
Introduction In recent years, psychiatry has witnessed a renaissance in the investigation of psychedelic compounds, a broad class of psychoactive substances that induce altered states of consciousness, often characterized by changes in perception, mood, and cognition, which were largely shelved following regulatory crackdowns in the 1970s. The renewed intere...
This thesis explores the psychosocial mechanisms underlying therapeutic responses to psychedelic interventions, advancing an enactive biopsychosocial perspective that foregrounds dynamic and reciprocal causal relationships between biological, psychological, and social processes. While clinical studies increasingly demonstrate the efficacy of serotonergic psy...
The ethical and technical challenges of recent research with psychedelics and the attempt to regulate them as a health technology open a new horizon for reflections on scientific development and questions about how we experience spiritual and non-ordinary experiences of consciousness and relate to nature. We understand that Psychology needs to resort to psyc...
There is notable controversy about the role of psychotherapy in clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). This heated and perpetually evolving debate informs questions such as how much therapy should accompany a psychedelic intervention (Marseille et al., 2022), what type of therapy most effectively complements psychedelic administration (Cavarr...
Background: Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD are anecdotally associated with the phenomenon of "psychedelic afterglow," a set of predominantly pleasant, temporary psychological effects reported after the acute effects have subsided. Since post-acute effects are crucial for the therapeutic use of psychedelics, an instrument to systematically as...
Background: Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD are anecdotally associated with the phenomenon of "psychedelic afterglow," a set of predominantly pleasant, temporary psychological effects reported after the acute effects have subsided. Since post-acute effects are crucial for the therapeutic use of psychedelics, an instrument to systematically as...
Psychedelic medicine is currently being evaluated for numerous mental health indications, and there is significant interest in applying these models of care to eating disorders (EDs) given the limited efficacy of available treatment models, especially for those living with anorexia nervosa. Preliminary findings across a number of studies suggest promise. In ...
Background: Psilocybin and psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) have gained renewed interest due to recent findings that PAT can enhance therapeutic outcomes. In 2019, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved breakthrough therapy status to psilocybin for the treatment of depression, but PAT has yet to be approved as a therapeutic treatment for mental...
This phenomenological research explored the fast-growing societal trend in psilocybin microdosing, whereby a sub-perceptual amount of the psychedelic is consumed regularly. Anecdotal reports of microdosing have suggested that individuals can experience the relief of depressive symptoms, greater creativity and focus, deeper connections, and improvements in se...
This study looked into the transformative effects and integration challenges of psychedelic experiences with psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the Romanian population. The aim was to determine the long-term transformative effects and challenges individuals might encounter during the integration process. The study employed a sequential mixed...
This article will explore a spiritual emergency through a myth or fairy tale that emerged at the same time I had a frightening brush with death. Two days before the accident I had ingested psilocybin mushrooms. Michael Washburn, among other transpersonal theorists, will be used to interpret, amplify and re-frame this potential ‘psychotic episode’ with ‘borde...
ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, the renaissance of interdisciplinary research into psychedelic drugs has challenged the Cartesian notions of subjectivity and identity that have endured throughout modernity. But as work in this field reaches new degrees of complexity, the limitations of verbal and textual language are presenting barriers to conventional...
Presented at a conference titled “Psychedelic Science 2013,” highlighting the resumption of investigations with psychedelic substances (i.e., psilocybin, DMT, LSD, MMDA, etc.) in the United States and Europe after a dormant period of more than two decades, the author presents insights and perspectives gleaned from his 25 years of clinical research experience...
Since 1990, FDA has been willing to approve research with psychedelic drugs. Currently Phase II studies have been conducted or are underway for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), LSD, psilocybin or MDMA for end-of-life anxiety, MDMA for autistic adults with social anxiety, psilocybin for addiction, psilocybin as an adjunct ...
Anthropologists have studied the use of hallucinogens as a spiritual tool by indigenous populations since the turn of the 20th century. However, literature is sparse in describing use by non-indigenous populations. Using a study population of students from a university in the Southwest United States, the current study investigated the spiritual development a...
This study investigates to what extent mystical experiences induced by psychedelics reveal the essential structure of the human spiritual dimension. It hypothesizes a common intentional structure between religious and psychedelic mysticism. To test this hypothesis, phenomenological methods are critically reviewed, the noematic contents and noetic acts of con...
