Altered Consciousness and the Conscious Mind: The Role of Mystical and Psychedelic Experiences in Introspective Ability

Abstract

While an increasing amount of research is being done on the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics for certain mental disorders, substances such as psilocybin and LSD may have capacities that go beyond creating a better outlook on life. Existing research associates psychedelics with introspection, as well as outlining the effects of psilocybin and LSD on the Default Mode Network in the brain and their potential corresponding impacts on internal attention and awareness. Similarities between psychedelics and mindfulness practices also suggest heightened introspection given there is already research supporting meditation’s influence on introspection. In the present article, a novel experiment was used to test if the effects of these drugs could improve the ability of individuals to introspect and better understand what motivates themselves to make certain decisions or behave in particular ways. However, to protect the privacy of participants, this was examined indirectly by comparing individuals who have and have not had mystical-type experiences in their lifetime, which may or may not be induced by psychedelics. To test for introspective ability, we compared how closely their self-perceived reasons for choosing between relationship partners aligned with their actual reasons for making those decisions. The results primarily indicated no significant difference in introspective abilities between participants with and without mystical experiences, although more recent experiences may have been detrimental to introspection. However, these results should be accepted cautiously, especially in their relation to psychedelics, but this research still has the potential to continue to inspire our growing understanding of the possibilities of psychedelics and consciousness.