Mystical and Affective Aspects of Psychedelic Use in a Naturalistic Setting: A Linguistic Analysis of Online Experience Reports
Marija Franka Žuljević, Antonija Mijatović, Stjepan Ljudevit Marušić, Gunnar Kudrjavets, Ivan Buljan, Darko Hren
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs November 3, 2023 DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2023.2274382 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 7,317 |
| Population | Online psychedelic experience reports from Shroomery.org, primarily involving psilocybin |
| Topics | Psilocybin Mystical experience |
| Keywords | Experience reports Language analysis Mystical states Sentiment Psychedelics hallucinogens Entheogens Psychoactive substances Transcendental states Religious experiences Natural language processing Linguistic analysis |
| Citations | 6 |
| Key findings | Mystical language increases with self-reported psychedelic experience intensity, while negative sentiment also increases and positive sentiment decreases. |
Abstract
Analyzing online retrospective experience reports of psychedelic use can provide valuable insight into their acute subjective effects. Such reports are unexplored in relation to mystical states, which are thought to be a therapeutic mechanism within psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. We created a set of words that, when encountered in an experience report, indicate the occurrence of mystical elements within the experience. We used the Shroomery.org website to retrieve 7317 publicly available retrospective psychedelic experience reports of psychedelic use, primarily of psilocybin, and have a designated experience intensity level self-assessed by the text authors during submission of the report. We counted the mystical language words using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software and additionally performed sentiment analysis of all reports. We found that the occurrence of mystical language grew with increased self-reported experience intensity. We also found that negative sentiment increased, and positive sentiment decreased as self-reported psychedelic experience intensity increased. These two findings raise the question of whether mystical experiences can co-exist with challenging elements within the psychedelic experience, a consideration for future qualitative studies. We present a new mystical language dictionary measure for further use and expansion, with some suggestions on how it can be used in future studies.