People who’ve had a psychedelic experience and those who’ve had a near-death experience that didn’t involve drugs report less fear of death.

People in both groups also reported that the experience had a lasting positive effect, providing personal meaning, spiritual significance, and psychological insight.

The survey study of more than 3,000 adults appears in the journal PLOS ONE .

The results are consistent with several recent clinical trials showing that a single treatment with the psychedelic psilocybin produced sustained decreases in anxiety and depression among patients with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

The author of the new survey conducted the largest of these trials (Griffiths et al., 2016) at Johns Hopkins University. That study, a randomized trial of 51 patients with cancer who had clinically significant anxiety or depressive symptoms, demonstrated that receiving a controlled, high dose of psilocybin given with supportive psychotherapy resulted in significant increases in ratings of death acceptance, as well as decreases in anxiety about death .

For the present study, the researchers analyzed data gathered from 3,192 people who answered an online survey between December 2015 and April 2018. Participants were divided into groups: 933 individuals had non-drug-related near-death experiences, and the rest of the participants had psychedelic experiences, which were prompted by either lysergic acid diethylamide ( LSD ) (904), psilocybin (766), ayahuasca (282), or N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) (307). Participants were predominantly white (85%) and mostly from the United States.

Compared with the non-drug group, there were more men in the psychedelic group (78% versus 32%), and they tended to be younger (32 versus 55 years of age) at the time of the experience.

Similarities between the groups include:

• About 90% of participants in both groups reported a decrease in fear of death when considering changes in their views from before to after the experience.
• Most participants in both groups (non-drug group, 85%; psychedelics group, 75%) rated the experience to be among the top five most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their life.
• Participants in both groups reported moderate to strong persisting positive changes in personal well-being and life purpose and meaning.

Differences between the groups include:

• The non-drug group was more likely to report that their life was in danger (47% versus the psychedelics group, 3%), being medically unconscious (36% versus the psychedelics group, 10%), or being clinically dead (21% versus the psychedelics group, less than 1%).
• The non-drug group was more likely to report that their experience was very brief, lasting five minutes or less (40% versus the psychedelics group, 7%).

The researchers say that future studies are needed to better understand the potential clinical use of psychedelics in ameliorating suffering related to fear of death.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

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