One study found that near-death experiences and psychedelic visits have a “remarkably” similar effect on people’s attitudes to death.
For a paper in an open-access journal one moreResearchers from the Center for Psychedelics and Consciousness Research and the Department of Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine compared how attitudes changed after the two types of experience.
Near-death experiences, or related events such as out-of-body experiences, have a fundamental effect on death and attitudes toward death, as previous research has shown. Many people who have gone through an NDE have a reduced fear of death.
Key features of the NDE are sensations of altered time perception, seeing visions of the past or future, feelings of joy and peace, a sense of oneness with the world, a sense of detachment from the physical body, and apparent encounters with mystical beings. , dead souls or religious persons.
Similar reactions have been reported by people who have taken well-known psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, ayahuasca, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
In previous research, people taking these substances have reported powerful mystical experiences that are often characterized by a sense of oneness or oneness, an intensely positive mood, a sense of incompetence, and superiority of time and space.
However, it is important to note that the effects of any psychedelic experience depend on the individual’s dosage, individual characteristics and mood, and the setting in which the drug is taken.
In some cases, psychedelic experiences have been linked to positive changes in attitude, mood, and behavior that last for months or even more than a year.
Like NDEs, one of the most common effects of taking psychedelics is a fundamental change in a person’s attitudes toward death and death—which often takes the form of reducing fear.
A participant in a previous study by Johns Hopkins researchers described a “feeling that all is one, that I experienced the essence of the universe,” after an experience with psilocybin — a psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. And knowing that God asks us nothing. Except to find love. I am not alone. I am not afraid of death.”
As a result, some research has found that classic psychedelics may reduce anxiety about death in people with life-threatening illnesses.
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Despite the apparent similarities, there has been little research directly comparing psychedelic experiences and NDEs. This prompted the Johns Hopkins study published Wednesday.
Roland Griffiths, a psychedelics researcher and study author, said, “We were concerned that psychedelic experiences and non-drug near-death and other non-ordinary experiences can sometimes lead to major changes in attitudes to death and dying. newsweek,
“We also published a relevant study in 2016,” he said. “In that study, which was a randomized trial among 51 cancer patients with clinically significant anxiety or depressive symptoms, high-dose psilocybin delivered in a structured therapeutic environment resulted in a significant reduction in anxiety about death.”
For the latest study, Griffiths and colleagues surveyed more than 3,900 people who reported having an NDE (or similar experience), or following an experience with LSD, psilocybin, DMT, or ayahuasca in their outlook on death and mortality. Variation was reported – a hallucinogenic brew originated from the Amazon.
Griffiths said he found that the psychedelic and NDE groups were “remarkably” similar when it came to changes in attitudes to death.
Nearly 90 percent of both groups said their fear of death had subsided, with many reporting lasting improvements in personal well-being, life satisfaction, feelings of life purpose and life meaning. About 5-6 percent reported an increased fear of death.
Between 75 and 85 percent rated the experience as the top five most meaningful of their lifetimes. Those who had non-drug experiences were more likely to report that their experience was most meaningful to them.
Those who took ayahuasca or DMT reported that the effects they experienced were stronger and more positive than those who took psilocybin or LSD.
According to Griffiths, the study’s findings have implications for our understanding of NDEs and psychedelics.
“The similarities between ‘naturally occurring’ and psychedelic-occasional experiences suggest that further studies with psychedelics may provide a model system to better understand near-death experiences,” Griffiths said. “The similarities also raise the possibility that experiences may share common underlying mechanisms of action.”
This could prove beneficial to researchers who are looking into the use of psychedelics as a treatment for mood disorders or other mental conditions, such as end-of-life anxiety.
“Individuals with existential anxiety and depression at the end of life account for substantial suffering and the desperate and often futile demand for intensive and expensive medical treatment has greatly increased health care spending,” Griffiths said.
The study had some limitations, its authors pointed out. The subjective nature of psychedelic experiences and NDEs makes it difficult to obtain information about them. The research was also based on retrospective self-reporting by people describing changes in their attitudes, which can be unreliable.
Study participants were also self-selected and therefore may not be representative of all people who have had psychedelic experiences or NDEs.
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)