Recreational Psychedelic Users Frequently Encounter Complete Mystical Experiences: Trip Content and Implications for Wellbeing
Tianhong Tim Qiu, John Paul Minda
PsyArXiv November 29, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/xrbzs (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Mixed-methods study (text mining of written reports plus quantitative survey analysis) Qualitative |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1,424 |
| Population | Recreational psychedelic users reporting first-person experiences outside laboratory settings |
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key findings | Psychedelic users in a large survey reported complete mystical experiences in high proportions, with rates varying by drug type and showing dose-response effects. Complete mystical experiences were strongly associated with diverse measures of psychological wellbeing. The authors argue that ordinary people without contemplative or religious backgrounds appear to reach such experiences through recreational use. |
Abstract
A growing proportion of the population is engaging in recreational psychedelic use. Psychedelics are uniquely capable of reliably occasioning mystical experiences in ordinary humans without contemplative or religious backgrounds. While clinical research has made efforts to characterize psychedelic experiences, comparably little is understood about how humans naturalistically engage with psychedelics. The present study employs a mixed-methods approach to examine the content and implications of psychedelic and mystical experiences, occurring outside of laboratory settings. We use text mining analyses to arrive at a qualitative description of psychedelic experiential content by abstracting from over two-thousand written reports of first-person psychedelic experiences. Following up, we conducted quantitative analyses on psychometric data from a large survey (N = 1424) to reveal associations between psychedelic use practices, complete mystical experiences, and psychological wellbeing. Topic-modelling and sentiment analyses present a bottom-up description of human interactions with psychedelic compounds and the content of such experiences. Psychometric results suggest psychedelic users encounter complete mystical experiences in high proportions, dependent on factors such as drug type and dose-response effects. Furthermore, a salient association was established between diverse metrics of wellbeing and those with complete mystical experiences. Our results paint a new picture of the growing relationships between humans and psychedelic experiences in the real-world use context. Ordinary humans appear to encounter complete mystical experiences via recreational psychedelic use, and such experiences are strongly associated with improved psychological wellbeing.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The nature of peak experience in wilderness. Participants who had visited wilderness areas in Victoria, Australia, recruited via a... | 2009 | Qualitative study | n = 39 |
| Qualitative and Quantitative Features of Music Reported to Support Peak Mystical Experiences during Psychedelic Therapy Sessions Individuals with extensive experience administering psilocybin or psilocybin-containing... | 2017 | Survey and qualitative/quantitative analysis | n = 10 |
| Cannabis as entheogen: survey and interview data on the spiritual use of cannabis. Participants recruited from seven online communities, median age 33, 81% male | 2020 | Mixed methods (qualitative interviews and quantitative survey) | n = 319 |
| Clarifying and measuring the characteristics of experiences that involve a loss of self or a dissolution of its boundaries. Adults who reported an experience involving dissolution of self-boundaries or loss of... | 2024 | Cross-sectional survey with confirmatory factor analysis and qualitative thematic analysis | n = 386 |
| The developmental impact of not integrating childhood peak experiences Adults recalling their childhood peak experiences | 2007 | Qualitative study | n = 12 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Synergistic, multi-level understanding of psychedelics: three systematic reviews and meta-analyses of their pharmacology, neuroimaging and phenomenology. Translational Psychiatry December 4, 2024
- Mystical and Affective Aspects of Psychedelic Use in a Naturalistic Setting: A Linguistic Analysis of Online Experience Reports Journal of Psychoactive Drugs November 3, 2023
- Comparing psychedelic and meditation experience reports with natural language processing. Scientific Reports December 16, 2025
- Natural language signatures of psilocybin microdosing. Psychopharmacology September 1, 2022
Cites 31
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety. Journal of Psychopharmacology July 1, 2008
- Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Psychopharmacology December 1, 2011
and 26 more in the library