Do Psychedelics Just Provide Comforting Delusions?
There's an "elephant in the room" of psychedelic science, according to an opinion paper published in May in ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science.
The elephant, in this case, is the issue of mystical experiences and their role, often presumed to be causal, in how psychedelics act as a valuable treatment option for those with depression, addiction, end-of-life anxiety, and more. “In scientific journals and throughout the halls of any psychedelic conference, researchers and therapists teach the importance of mystical experiences for the efficacy of psychedelic therapies," the authors wrote.
Many people have transcendent, mystical-type experiences while taking psychedelic drugs. These experiences have been measured using psychological tools like the Mystical Experience Questionnaire, Hood’s Mysticism Scale, and the Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire. Again and again, it's been shown that people who have these kinds of experiences tend to have better outcomes from psychedelic therapy.
Yet this prominence and centering of mystical experiences can be contentious. Researchers like Johns Hopkins' Matthew Johnson have cautioned that therapists and guides need to be careful about projecting their own spiritual interpretations and assumptions onto others, and that relying on narrow forms of spirituality and mysticism could be alienating some from seeking out the treatment. The authors of the new opinion piece write that they "are concerned that use of the mysticism framework creates a 'black box' mentality in which researchers are content to treat certain aspects of the psychedelic state as beyond the scope of scientific inquiry."
