Phenomenology of Mystical Psychedelic Experiences: The Case of Existential Anxiety
Sophia March 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s11841-024-01049-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Anxiety Mystical experience Philosophy of mind |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that mystical psychedelic experiences overcome existential anxiety by transforming one's stance toward nothingness into a sense of belongingness to the field of emptiness. |
Abstract
Abstract The essay offers an interpretation of psychedelic peak experiences. It criticizes the quasi-scientific naturalistic attempts to explain such experiences and offers an alternative ontology underlying a more complex sense of naturalism, thus defending an entheogenic view irreducible to mere psychological effects. First, the mainstream ontology in the paradigm of natural sciences is exposed as being a version of the ontology of presence. This fact is shown as the reason for the phenomenological gap and the impotence of the natural sciences to address human experience. Next, existential anxiety is interpreted in terms of Heidegger’s ontology and is suggested as the core dimension of possible spiritual transformation. Finally, the phenomenology of mystical psychedelic experiences (MPE) is interpreted in terms of overcoming existential anxiety– a well-documented effect of MPE – and explicated in ontological terms. The psychedelic experience is shown to be mystical in a sense of transcending the everyday mode of existential denial of the enigmatic nature of the universe by facing the nothingness in a way that transforms one’s stand within it into a stand of original belongingness to the field of emptiness (Nishitani). Different aspects of psychedelic experience are explained and co-related in terms of such a transformation.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on anxiety, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm General population | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Taking Psychedelics Seriously | 2018 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics | 2019 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 7
- Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006
- Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms: Acute and enduring positive and negative consequences Journal of Psychopharmacology August 31, 2016
- Peak experiences and the afterglow phenomenon: When and how do therapeutic effects of hallucinogens depend on psychedelic experiences? Journal of Psychopharmacology February 9, 2015
- The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death Harvard Theological Review 1969
- Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics Psychopharmacology November 29, 2019
and 2 more in the library