Acute Subjective Effects of Psychedelics within and Beyond WEIRD Contexts

Summary

Psychedelic experiences share some similarities across cultures, but most research has focused on Western settings. This article reviews historical non-Western psychedelic use and compares firsthand accounts from diverse cultural contexts. It examines themes using psychometric tools like the mystical experiences questionnaire and the five-dimensional altered states of consciousness scale. The authors recommend future empirical research to quantify cultural similarities and differences in psychedelic experiences.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reports of psychedelic experiences may contain similarities and differences across cultural contexts, but most current characterizations and quantifications of psychedelic experiences come from Western medical and naturalistic settings. In this article, we begin with a brief history of the diversity of psychedelic use in non-Western settings. We then compare and contrast accounts of psychedelic experiences within and beyond Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) contexts. We focus on specific reports of direct testimony of the acute subjective effects of psychedelics experienced across these contexts. We compare themes from each of these various contexts, with special emphasis on psychometric measures such as the mystical experiences questionnaire (MEQ), the five-dimensional altered states of consciousness (5D-ASC) scale, the Survey of God Encounters, and the Survey of Entity Encounters, the Challenging Experiences Questionnaire, and the Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE). Finally, we offer recommendations for future research to quantify these similarities and differences across cultures to assess them empirically in the future.

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