Psychedelic Drugs andMystical Experience'

WA L T ERN. PAH N K E

INTRODUCTION

In recent years there has been more and more publicity (muchof which unfortunately has been sensationalized) about the abuseof psychedelic drugs and much less about their potential use.Throughout the complexities of this widening discussion there hasbeen the persistent claim that these drugs could under certain con-ditions trigger or facilitate experiences that have been called peak,cosmic, transcendental, or mystical. Aside from being an interestingproblem for theoretical research, some scientific evidence has indi-cated that such experiences might have therapeutic significance forpsychiatric treatment. These last two points will serve as the focusfor this brief survey of psychedelic drugs and mystical experience.

A BRIEF REVIEW OF PSYCHEDELIC DRUGSAND THEIR EFFECTS

As a background for this discussion, some general informationabout psychedelic drugs and their effects should be reviewed. Psy-

• Based on the presentation, "The Mystical and/or Religious Element in thePsychedelic Experience:' made to the Third Annual Conference of the R. M.Bucke Memorial Society for the Study of Religious Experience: "Do PsychedelicDrugs Have Religious Implications?" October 13-15, 1967.

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chedelic, or "mind-opening," the term first proposed by psychiatristHumphrey Osmond in 1957 [9], refers to a very special class ofdrugs that have specific and highly unusual effects on mental func-tioning. It is important to note that these psychological effects arequite different from those associated with tranquilizers, antipsy-chotics, sedatives (including alcohol), energizers, or narcotics.

As we have described in greater detail with examples elsewhere[11] [12], five major types of psychological experiences can occurwhen psychedelic drugs are administered to human beings.

First is the psychotic psychedelic experience) characterized by anintense negative experience of fear to the point of panic, paranoiddelusions of suspicion or grandeur, toxic confusion, impairment ofabstract reasoning, remorse, depression, isolation, and/or somaticdiscomfort; all of these can be of very powerful magnitude.

Second is the psychodynamic psychedelic experience) character-ized by a dramatic emergence into consciousness of material thathas previously been unconscious or preconscious. Abreaction andcatharsis are elements of what subjectively is experienced as anactual reliving of incidents from the past or a symbolic portrayalof important conflicts.

Third is the cognitive psychedelic experience) characterized byastonishingly lucid thought. Problems can be seen from a novelperspective, and the interrelationships of many levels or dimen-sions can be seen all at once. The creative experience may havesomething in common with this kind of psychedelic experience,but such a possibility must await the results of future investigation.

Fourth is the aesthetic psychedelic experience, characterized bya change and intensification of all sensory modalities. Fascinatingchanges in sensations and perception occur: synesthesia, in whichsounds can be "seen"; objects such as flowers or stones that appearto pulsate and become "alive"; ordinary things that seem imbuedwith great beauty; music that takes on an incredible emotionalpower; and visions of beautiful colors, intricate geometric patterns,architectural forms, landscapes, and almost anything imaginable.

The fifth and last type of psychedelic experience, the focus ofour attention in this paper, has been called by various names:

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psychedelic peak, cosmic, transcendental, or mystical. The psycho-logical phenomena that characterize this experience can be dividedinto nine somewhat interrelated categories, as follows:

1. Unity is a sense of cosmic oneness achieved through positiveego transcendence. Although the usual sense of identity, or ego,fades away, consciousness and memory are not lost; instead, theperson becomes very much aware of being part of a dimensionmuch vaster and greater than himself. In addition to the route ofthe "inner world," where external sense impressions are left be-hind, unity can also be experienced through the external world,so that a person reports that he feels a part of everything that is(for example, objects, other people, or the universe), or more sim-ply, that "all is one."

2. Transcendence of time and space means that the subject feelsbeyond past, present, and future, and beyond ordinary three-dimen-sional space in a realm of eternity or infinity.

3. Deeply felt positive mood contains the elements of joy,blessedness, peace, and love to an overwhelming degree of intensity,often accompanied by tears.

4. Sense of sacredness is a nonrational, intuitive, hushed, palpi-tant response of awe and wonder in the presence of inspiring real-ities. The main elements are awe, humility, and reverence, but theterms of traditional theology or religion need not necessarily beused in the description.

5. The noetic quality, as named by William James [2], is a feel-ing of insight or illumination that is felt on an intuitive, non-rational level and has a tremendous force of certainty and reality.This knowledge is not an increase in facts, but rather is a gain inpsychological or philosophical insight.

6. Paradoxicality refers to the logical contradictions that becomeapparent if descriptions are strictly analyzed. A person may realizethat he is experiencing, for example, an "identity of opposites,"yet it seems to make sense at the time, and even afterwards.

7. Alleged ineffability means that the experience is felt to bebeyond words, nonverbal, and impossible to describe; yet most

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persons who insist on the ineffability do in fact make elaborateattempts to communicate the experience.

8. Transiency means that the psychedelic peak does not last inits full intensity, but passes into an afterglow and remains as amemory.

9. Persisting positive changes in attitude and behavior are to-ward self, others, life, and the experience itself.

This variety of possible effects with the same drug indicates thatthe mechanism is more complex than any easily reproducible drugeffect alone. Most persistent researchers with psychedelic drugshave generally agreed that the exact type of experience is stronglydependent upon the necessary drug dosage, but only as a trigger orfacilitating agent, and upon the crucial extra-drug variables of setand setting. Psychological set refers to factors within the subject,such as personality, life history, expectation, preparation, moodprior to the session, and, perhaps most important of all, the abilityto trust, to let go, and to be open to whatever comes. The settingrefers to factors outside the individual, such as the physical en-vironment in which the drug is taken, the psychological and emo-tional atmosphere to which the subject is exposed, how he is treatedby those around him, and what the experimenter expects the drugreaction will be.

THE EVIDENCE THAT PSYCHEDELIC MYSTICALEXPERIENCE CAN BE FACILITATED BYPSYCHEDELIC DRUGS

What is the evidence that psychedelic mystical experiences do,in fact, occur at all? Some of the strongest indication comes fromthe investigators who have not encouraged or been particularly in-terested in such experiences, but whose patients have reportedphenomena that would correspond to the characteristics listedabove [6]. On the other hand, Masters and Huston [8], who arevery much interested in all kinds of psychedelic experiences-in-cluding the mystical-found that only 3% (6 out of 206) of their

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subjects attained a complete mystical experience as measured bytheir specific definition. The most recent report from LSD re-searchers at the Spring Grove State Hospital in Baltimore hasshown that 27% of their alcoholic patients were judged to havehad the most complete and intense psychedelic peak experience [5].

Lack of agreement among different investigators as to the exactdefinition of a mystical experience is part of the reason for thedifference in rates of occurrence. Any such figures need to be inter-preted carefully unless a method for quantifying the experienceis established, based on a standard description of the basic psycho-logical phenomena.

Partly in response to this need, the Pahnke Mystical ExperienceQuestionnaire [13] was constructed, based on a universal definitionof spontaneous mystical experiences as recorded from all religions,ages, and cultures. The prior analysis of Stace [14] was found to beof the most help in this endeavor. An attempt was made to usepsychological characteristics as free as possible from the intellectualinterpretation that is inevitably conditioned by environmentalfactors. Each item is scored on a 0 to 5 scale of intensity. For anyperson completing the questionnaire, the percentage of the maxi-mum possible score for each category can be determined. Varyingdegrees of completeness are possible, but to be counted as a mysticalexperience it was decided that the total score and the score in eachseparate category had to be at least 60%. The individual items foreach category are as follows:

1. UnityA. Internal

1. Loss of your own identity2. Freedom from the limitations of the self-feeling a

unity or bond with what was felt to be all-encompassingand greater-than-self

3. Pure awareness, being beyond the self-consciousness ofsense impressions, yet not unconscious

4. Cessation of normal impressions followed by an experi-ence of unity in relation to an "inner world" within

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5. Fusion of the self into a larger, undifferentiated whole6. Unity with ultimate reality

B. External7. Sense of oneness or unity with external objects and/or

persons8. Increased intensity of particular sense impressions, re-

sulting in experience of unity in relation to these im-pressions

9. Experience of the insight that "all is one"10. Loss of feelings of difference between yourself and exter-

nal objects or personsII. Intuitive experience of the essences of external objects

and / or persons12. Felt awareness of the life or living presence in all things

II. Transcendence ofA. Time

13. Loss of usual sense of time14. Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity15. Sense of being "outside of" time, beyond past and future

in an "eternal now"16. Feeling that you have been "outside of" history in a

realm where time is nonexistent17. Timelessness

B. Space18. Loss of usual sense of space19. Loss of usual awareness of where you were20. Spacelessness

III. Positive Mood21. Overflowing energy22. Tenderness23. Peace or blessedness24. Ecstasy25. Exaltation26. Universal or infinite love27. Joy

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IV. Sense of Sacredness28. Sense of wonder29. Sense of your own finitude in contrast to the infinite30. Sense of profound humility before the majesty of what

was felt to be sacred or holy31. Sense of being at a spiritual height32. Sense of reverence33. Feeling that you experienced something profoundly

sacred and holy34. Sense of awe or awesomeness

V. Noetic Quality35. Feeling that the consciousness experienced during part

of the session was as real as your normal awareness ofeveryday reality

36. Gain of insightful knowledge experienced at an intuitivelevel

37. Certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in thesense of being able to "know" and "see" what is reallyreal) at the time of the experience

38. You are convinced now in retrospect that you encoun-tered ultimate reality in your experience (i.e., that you"knew" and "saw" what was really real)

VI. Paradoxicality39. Experience of paradox40. Sense that an attempt to describe the experience in log-

ical statements becomes involved in contradictory lan-guage

VII. Alleged Ineffability41. Sense that the experience cannot be adequately de-

scribed in words42. Feelings that you could not do justice to your experience

by a verbal description43. You would have difficulty in trying to communicate your

own experience to others who have not had similar ex-periences

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VIII. Transiency44. Return to your usual state of consciousness after the

experience45. Feeling that you are no longer experiencing the state of

consciousness you experienced during the session

It will be noted that these items correspond to the first eightcategories in the definition of psychedelic mystical experience de-scribed above. The ninth category, persisting positive changes inattitude and behavior, obviously must be measured by a follow-upquestionnaire at a time interval after the actual experience. In twosets of double-blind, controlled experiments with normal volun-teers, it was demonstrated that spontaneous and drug-facilitatedmystical experiences are phenomenologically the same.

The first was conducted on Good Friday in 1962 [10]. Twentytheological students from relatively similar religious and socio-economic backgrounds, after medical and psychiatric screening,were carefully prepared several days before the experiment ingroups of four, with two leaders for each group. All thirty partici-pants listened over loudspeakers to a meditative Good Friday wor-ship service in a private basement chapel, while the actual servicewas in progress in the church above. The experiment was so de-signed that half of the subjects received 30 mg. of psilocybin, andthe rest, who became the control group, got as an active placebo200 mg. of nicotinic acid, which causes no psychic effects, onlywarmth and tingling of the skin. From our preparation, all thesubjects knew that psilocybin caused autonomic changes. Thosewho got nicotinic acid thought that they had received psilocybin,and suggestion was thus maximized for the control group. Thedrugs were administered double-blind, so that neither the experi-menter nor the participants knew the specific contents of anycapsule. Data were collected by tape recording, written account,the Pahnke Mystical Experience Questionnaire, and personal inter-view, in that order. When all the data were analyzed, the scores ofpsilocybin subjects were higher to a statistically significant degreein all categories than those of the control subjects.

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The second series of experiments was performed at the Massa-chusetts Mental Health Center during 1965 and 1966 [13]. Fortycarefully screened normal volunteers were selected. Most of thesubjects were over 30 and held responsible professional positions inthe community. The sensational publicity about LSD in the pop-ular press added difficulties to our recruitment. We rejected morethan 50% of our volunteers on the basis of medical and psychiatrichistory, physical examination, psychological testing, and psychiatricinterview. After three hours of preparation in the days prior to theexperiment, drugs were administered to four subjects at a time in acarefully prepared room with flowers, pictures of nature scenes,candle-light, and a place for each subject to recline and relax. Si-lence was maintained during a six-hour program of classical music.The setting was supportive, and there were no interruptions fortesting during the session. We encouraged the subjects to relax andto let the music carry them. In double-blind fashion, two of eachgroup of four subjects received 30 to 40 mg. of psilocybin, and theother two subjects, the control group, received either a thresholddose of psilocybin or an amphetamine-barbiturate combination con-taining 20 mg. of dextroamphetamine and 120 mg. of SodiumAmy tal. The procedure seemed safe for our carefully screened nor-mals. No one suffered apparent physical or psychological harmafter a one-year follow up. In fact, all but one of the subjects saidthey would be willing to take the drug again under controlled con-ditions, perhaps sometime in the future, but not too many wereeager to do so right away. Perhaps reflecting the profundity andpower of their experiences, they expressed a desire for time tointegrate what had been learned.

Without going into the complexities of the analysis here, it canbe stated that in both experiments, the high-dose psilocybin grouphad a statistically higher number of mystical experiences than didany of the control groups. Using the 60% level of completeness onthe questionnaire as the definition of a mystical experience, onlyone control subject out of a combined N of 30 controls for bothexperiments had a mystical experience, whereas at least 35% of the

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high-dose psilocybin subjects (total N= 30) did so in each of theresearch projects.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHIATRY

Human experiments have been performed with synthesizedmescaline during the last 50 years, but it was not until the introduc-tion of LSD in the 1940's that interest in psychedelic drugs as anexperimental psychiatric tool became widespread. These drugs,especially LSD, have been used for a variety of purposes in psy-chiatry: production of "model psychosis"; research on brain en-zymes;change in sensorymodalities, cognitive processes,and psycho-motor coordination; and study of the range of human emotion.However, it is the potential for therapeutic usefulness that is mostgermane to our present discussion.

In attempts to harness the psychedelic experience for psychothera-peutic effectiveness,three major methods have evolved: psycholytictherapy, psychedelic chemotherapy, and psychedelic peak therapy[1]. In psycholytic therapy, the aim is usually the uncovering ofunconscious material that can be psychodynamically analyzed bothconcurrently and in subsequent therapeutic sessions. This type oftherapy is relatively long-term, with multiple sessionsover time andusually with a small dose of the drug. In psychedelic chemotherapy,the major emphasis is on the psychedelic drug session itself, duringwhich intensive psychotherapy mayor may not be carried out.There is minimal preparation and follow-up therapy. A single ses-sion with a relatively high dose of the drug is the usual practice.Sometimes hypnosis is combined with this method (so-called hyp-nodelic therapy). The major differencesbetween psychedelic chemo-therapy and psycholytic therapy are number of drug sessions,amount of therapy outside the drug sessions, and drug dosage. Inpsychedelic peak therapy, one major aim is the achievement of apeak or mystical experience; also essential are concentrated psycho-therapeutic preparation for the psychedelic drug session and inten-sive follow-up therapy to help with the work of integration. Prepa-

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ration involves not only the usual psychotherapeutic concerns butalso the religious ideas and feelings of the patient. The latter areespecially important during the work of follow-up integration, whenthere is a persistent demand on the part of the patient to interpretthe experience in a way that is intellectually satisfying. The pa-tient's own religious framework is usually a useful aid in this effort.

At the American Psychiatric Association meetings in May, 1968,three research teams reported their results using a combination ofLSD and psychotherapy in the treatment of alcoholics. Ludwig etal. [7] and Johnson [3], who used varieties of psychedelic chemo-therapy with varying degrees of actual psychotherapy, reportednegative results. Kurland et al. [5], who used psychedelic peaktherapy, reported positive results so far in a study not yet completedat the Spring Grove State Hospital. The most striking finding ofKurland's group was that those patients who have the most in-tense and profound mystical experiences are the ones who do bestin terms of follow-up evaluation for as long as 18 months aftertherapy. Psychedelic peak therapy is at present being investigatedby the same group for potential therapeutic usefulness in ongoingresearch projects at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center withalcoholic, narcotic addict, neurotic, and terminal cancer patients [4].Results thus far have been quite promising. It is important inevaluating such conflicting reports to note that the method of pro-cedure is quite different with psychedelic chemotherapy and psyche-delic peak therapy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RELIGION

Mystical experiences can be interpreted in religious language,but not necessarily. Whether or not a mystical experience is areligious experience depends upon one's definition of religion. Thedefinition of religion could be made so specific and narrow thatmost mystical experiences by the above definition would not beincluded. Conversely, all religious experiences are not necessarilymystical. The conviction by some individual experiencers that

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psychedelic mystical experiences are religious has led to the for-mation of four formal psychedelic churches who use some sortof psychedelic drug as their sacrament: the League for SpiritualDiscovery (LSD), founded by Dr. Timothy Leary; the Neo-Amer-ican Church, founded by psychologist Arthur Kleps; the NativeAmerican Church, established more than 50 years ago by theAmerican Indians; and the Church of the Awakening, founded bytwo physicians, Drs. John and Louisa Aiken. These organizationsno doubt will face many legal challenges in the future.

Organized orthodox religion has reacted in general to the phe-nomenon of psychedelic mystical experience with suspicion. Yetwith increasing numbers of serious people becoming interested inpsychedelic drugs as a possible means for spiritual growth, theChurch might do well to find ways to help persons integrate theirpsychedelic mystical experiences in a healthful way. The frameworkand symbology of religion seem naturally suited as an aid to theunderstanding of these experiences. Religious themes and symbolsmany times are an important part of the content of psychedelicexperiences. One of the most important applications of psychedelicdrugs may be as a valuable tool for research in the psychology ofreligion for a more scientific understanding of the dynamics andpsycho-physiological mechanisms of the mystical experience. Inaddition, an excellent opportunity is provided for a controlled studyof the effects of such experiences over time on stable, well-adjusted,adequately functioning members of society who might volunteerfor such psychedelic drug experiments.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY

A major cause for social concern about psychedelic drugs hasbeen the growing black market and inevitable psychiatric casualtiesfrom their increasing uncontrolled use, although it must be ad-mitted that we still have no reliable figures on the incidence orrate of occurrence of harmful effects. However, the dangers ofabuse must not be allowed to cloud the solid scientific evidence that

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when psychedelic drugs are administered under controlled medicalconditions (as has been the case in several large-scale research proj-ects in recent years), permanent adverse effects have been quiterare. At the Spring Grove State Hospital, for example, more than300 patients have been treated with LSD without a single case oflong-term psychological or physical harm directly attributable tothe treatment, although there have been two transient post-LSDdisturbances that have subsequently responded well to conventionaltreatment.

Yet the growing social problem of the black market in psychedelicdrugs remains. The most reasonable and effective method of attack-ing this problem is through education and research. People needto know the facts, free from sensationalism. Increased research isurgently needed to understand more about what these drugs cando and how they work.

CONCLUSIONS

We now have the technology for studying and facilitating experi-mental mystical experience, but much more must be learned aboutthis fascinating phenomenon. The only way the psychedelic mys-tical experience will ever find a constructive and socially acceptableuse in an inter-disciplinary way in both religion and psychiatry isthrough an expansion of research. Such research must be sensitiveto the religious dimension as a powerful factor in human life.Whether or not we can harness this potential for the mutualbenefit of religion and psychiatry remains, at present, an openquestion.

REFERENCES

1. Abramson, H. A. (Ed.). The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy andAlcoholism. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

2. James, W. The Varieties of Religious Experience (ModernLibrary Edition). New York: Longmans, Green, 1902, pp. 371-72.

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3. Johnson, F. G. LSD in the Treatment of Alcoholism. Paperpresented to the American Psychiatric Association meeting inBoston, Massachusetts, May 15, 1968.

4. Kurland, A., Pahnke, W., Unger, S., and Savage, C. Psyche-delic therapy (utilizing LSD) with terminal cancer patients.J. Psychopharm. 1968.

5. Kurland, A., Unger, S., Savage, C., Olsson, J., and Pahnke, W.N. Psychedelic Therapy Utilizing LSD in the Treatment of theAlcoholic Patient: A Progress Report. Paper presented to theAmerican Psychiatric Association meeting in Boston, Massachu-setts, May 15, 1968.

6. Leuner, H. Die Experimtelle Psychose. Berlin: Springer Ver-lag, 1962.

7. Ludwig, A., Levine, J., and Stark, L. A Clinical Evaluationof LSD Treatment in Alcoholism. Paper presented to the Amer-ican Psychiatric Association meeting in Boston, Massachusetts,May 15, 1968.

8. Masters, R. E. L., and Huston, J. The Varieties of PsychedelicExperience. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966, p. 307.

9. Osmond, H. A review of the clinical effects of psychotomi-metic agents. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 66:418, 1957. Also in LSD:The Consciousness Expanding Drug. D. Solomen (Ed.). NewYork: Putnam, 1964, pp. 128-51.

10. Pahnke, W. N. Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of theRelationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Con-sciousness. Harvard University Ph.D. thesis, 1963. Results aresummarized in Pahnke, W. N. The contribution of the psy-chology of religion to the therapeutic use of the psychedelicsubstances. In The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcohol-ism. H. A. Abramson (Ed.), op. cit., pp. 629-52.

11. Pahnke, W. N., and Richards, W. A. Implications of LSD andexperimental mysticism. J. Relig. HUh. 5:175, 1966.

12. Pahnke, W. N. LSD and religious experience. In LSD, Man,and Society. R. C. DeBold and R. C. Leaf (Eds.). Middletown,Conn.: Wesleyan U. Press, 1967, pp. 60-84.

13. Pahnke, W. N., Salzman, C., and Katz, R. Experimental datain preparation.

14. Stace, W. T. Mysticism and Philosophy. New York: Lippin-cott, 1960.