Spirituality of Psychedelics
Overview of the Spirituality of Psychedelics Can using psychedelic substances cause long-term changes in philosophical beliefs? While it is widely assumed that they can, this question has never been fully tested. We used a large sample from prospective online surveys to investigate whether and how ideas about the nature of reality, awareness, and free will change following psychedelic use. Results showed significant movements away from 'physicalist' or'materialist' attitudes and towards panpsychism and fatalism after use. With the exception of fatalism, these changes persisted for at least 6 months and were associated with higher levels of previous psychedelic use and better mental health outcomes. Path modelling revealed that impressionability at baseline affected the belief alterations, which were then mediated by perceived emotional synchrony with others during the psychedelic experience. The observed belief alterations following psychedelic use were supported by f