Individual Differences in Mystical-Type Experience Intensity During Psychedelic VirtualReality in Recent Psychedelic Users: Preparatory Intention and ExploratoryPsychophysiological Correlates
Jakub Schimmelpfennig, Ewa Tużnik, Anna Duszyk-Bogorodzka, Kamila Jankowiak-Siuda
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized within-subject experiment |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 57 |
| Population | Adults who had used classic psychedelics within the previous six months |
| Measures | MEQ-4 |
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key findings | Psychedelic-themed immersive VR elicited higher mystical-type experience intensity than neutral VR (dz = 5.93), along with ego dissolution and state mindfulness. Preparatory mindset, past-month psychedelic use, and age predicted experience intensity within the psychedelic condition, with intention the largest contributor; the model showed moderate cross-validated performance (R2 CV = .505). |
Abstract
The study examined whether immersive virtual reality (VR) can non-pharmacologically induce psychedelic-like altered states and what predicts their intensity. Fifty-seven adults who had used classic psychedelic within the previous six months completed neutraland psychedelic VR conditions in randomized order. Relative to neutral VR, psychedelic VR elicited higher mystical-type experience intensity (non-overlapping MEQ-4 ranges; dz = 5.93), ego dissolution, and state mindfulness. Within the psychedelic condition, bootstrap elastic net predictor screening identified preparatory mindset (set and intention), past-month psychedelic use, and age as the most consistently selected pre-experience predictors of mystical-type experience intensity, with intention the largest contributor; conditional on these predictors, the selected model showed moderate cross-validated performance (R2 CV = .505; procedure-level R2 OOF = .427). The psychedelic condition comprised an intense ”hyperbolic” phase followed by a quieter ”meditative-reflective” phase. With phase-specific cardiac candidates added to these four retained predictors, screening kept only nonlinear ones: higher hyperbolic-phase multifractal asymmetry and lower meditative-phase geometric complexity, conditionally associated with higher experience intensity and selected in 73.9% and 72.5% of resamples with moderate inclusion Bayes factors under model averaging(BFincl = 3.85 and 4.38). Their addition raised in-sample R2 from .60 to .68 and lowered BIC by 5.3. In exploratory EEG analyses (N = 36), a larger hyperbolic-minus-meditative Lempel–Ziv difference was associated with higher experience intensity beyond mindset and age (β = .36; BFincl = 49.47). Fixed phase order confounds phase with elapsed time. These findings identify psychological and phase-sensitive physiological correlates and position psychedelic VR as a standardized altered-state paradigm.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on mystical experience, most cited first.