Healing at death’s door: one patient’s mystical experience with psilocybin
International Journal of Whole Person Care January 6, 2023 DOI: 10.26443/ijwpc.v10i1.373 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Psilocybin |
| Topics | Mysticism Psilocybin Mystical experience |
| Keywords | Psychoanalysis Hallucinogen Psychotherapist Traditional medicine |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy shows promise for addressing psychospiritual suffering in cancer patients, an area where conventional treatments have limited effectiveness. |
Abstract
eath is of the most certain and undeniable truths in an existence shrouded by mysteries and unknowns, yet many don't have the opportunity for a meaningful reflection on this matter until the very end of their life.Existential suffering often awaits at death's door while effective solutions remain limited.The reality is that saving lives has been a key pillar of our medical ethos and so the concept of healing while dying may seem contradictory.Palliative care has offered a paradigm shift but despite significant advances in the field with respect to controlling physiological symptoms, the psychospiritual aspects of suffering don't respond as well to conventional treatments.Psilocybin is the active ingredient in fungal species within the genus Psilocybe, which are popularly known as magic mushrooms.They grow all around the world and their ceremonial use by the indigenous has been documented for hundreds, if not thousands of years.There has been increasing interest in the use of these substances in Western medicine.Some of the earliest research studies on psychedelic therapies were focused on existential distress in cancer patients.This psychotherapeutic approach employs the use of
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic psychedelics: An integrative review of epidemiology, therapeutics, mystical experience, and brain network function. General population | 2019 | Integrative review | |
| Classic Hallucinogens and Mystical Experiences: Phenomenology and Neural Correlates. | 2018 | Review | |
| Peak experiences and the afterglow phenomenon: When and how do therapeutic effects of hallucinogens depend on psychedelic experiences? | 2015 | Review | |
| Are “mystical experiences” essential for antidepressant actions of ketamine and the classic psychedelics? | 2024 | Review | |
| Psychedelic Mystical Experience: A New Agenda for Theology | 2022 | Review |