Healing through the Body: The Potential Role of Daoist Meditation in Psychedelic Therapy
Kenneth Shinozuka, Ben Cox, Leor Roseman
PsyArXiv December 4, 2024 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/s32pm (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Psychedelic healing Psychedelic integration Daoist meditation Taoist meditation Daoist practices Energy cultivation Mind-body healing Holistic health Somatic awareness Body-mind integration Spiritual practices Ancient wisdom Contemplative practices |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Proposes that Daoist meditation can guide participants in psychedelic therapy to attend to and resolve somatic symptoms of psychiatric conditions. |
Abstract
Psychedelics are hallucinogenic drugs that have the potential to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other psychiatric conditions. The dominant paradigm in contemporary psychedelic-assisted therapy is non-directive; that is, participants undergo the psychedelic treatment with minimal external guidance from therapists. However, the clinical outcomes of psychedelic therapy could be improved by explicitly guiding participants to attend to and resolve specific symptoms of their condition. Here, we propose a variant of Daoist meditation – the outer dissolving technique in the water method – as one such framework for guiding participants in psychedelic therapy. This technique can aid participants in noticing and letting go of bodily tensions or “blockages” that are associated with repressed emotions. Practicing this technique during the preparatory and integration phases of psychedelic therapy, as well as during the acute effects of the drug, could foster deeper insights into the somatic manifestations of psychiatric conditions, while also empowering participants to release the emotions that underlie those conditions. Overall, Daoist meditation is a promising technique to facilitate psychological healing, and we encourage future researchers to consider implementing it as an adjunct to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on psychedelic-assisted therapy, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theorizing that Psychedelic Assisted Therapy May Play a Role in the Treatment of Trauma-Induced Personality Disorders. | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Awe: a putative mechanism underlying the effects of classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy | 2018 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Ethical and legal issues in psychedelic harm reduction and integration therapy | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Towards psychedelic apprenticeship: Developing a gentle touch for the mediation and validation of psychedelic-induced insights and revelations. | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |