Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
January 1, 2023
Sandeep M Nayak, Manvir Singh, David B Yaden et al.
87 citations
A survey of 2374 people who reported a belief-changing psychedelic experience found that a single experience increased non-physicalist beliefs, including dualism, paranormal/spirituality, and consciousness in both mammals and non-mammals, with medium to large effects. Beliefs in superstition changed negligibly. The percentage identifying as a believer in a higher power or ultimate reality rose from 29% before to 59% after the experience. Greater mystical experiences during the psychedelic session were linked to larger belief shifts. These changes persisted an average of 8.4 years later.
Manvir Singh
35 citations
Shamanism—including medicine-men, mediums, and prophets—is a near-universal feature of human societies, especially among hunter-gatherers, and is often considered the first profession, the earliest institutionalized division of labor beyond age and sex. This paper proposes a cultural evolutionary theory explaining why shamanism consistently develops and exhibits recurrent features worldwide, why it professionalizes early even without other specialization, and how social conditions shape its form. The theory argues that shamanism adapts to people's intuitions by convincing observers that a practitioner can influence unpredictable, significant events. The shaman ostensibly transforms during initiation and trance, violating folk-intuitions of humanness to assure group-members of interaction with invisible forces controlling uncertain outcomes. Entry requirements persist because credibility depends on transformation, unlike problems with identifiable solutions where credibility hinges on results.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
September 7, 2023
Marianna Graziosi, Manvir Singh, Sandeep M. Nayak et al.
10 citations
Reports of psychedelic experiences show both similarities and differences across cultural contexts, yet most current characterizations come from Western medical and naturalistic settings. This article reviews the history of diverse psychedelic use in non-Western settings and compares accounts of acute subjective effects within and beyond Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) contexts. It contrasts themes from direct testimony and psychometric measures including the mystical experiences questionnaire, five-dimensional altered states of consciousness scale, Survey of God Encounters, Survey of Entity Encounters, Challenging Experiences Questionnaire, and Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences. Recommendations are offered for future empirical research to quantify cross-cultural similarities and differences.
PsyArXiv
June 30, 2022
Sandeep Manel Nayak, Manvir Singh, David Bryce Yaden et al.
4 citations
preprint
A single psychedelic experience can increase non-physicalist beliefs, including dualism, paranormal/spiritual beliefs, and consciousness in both mammals and non-mammals, with medium to large effects. Belief in superstition changed negligibly. The percentage of participants identifying as a believer in a higher power or ultimate reality rose from 29% before the experience to 59% after. Greater mystical experience during the session was linked to larger belief changes. These shifts remained largely stable an average of 8.4 years later.
The Behavioral and brain sciences
July 1, 2025
Manvir Singh
1 citation
Human societies everywhere develop complex cultural traditions—such as shamanism, supernatural punishment beliefs, heroic tales, dance songs, justice systems, and corporate groups—that share striking similarities. These "super-attractors" form what is called the "cultural manifold," a set of equilibrium states that hypothetically cultureless humans would eventually produce in a novel habitat. While previous explanations have emphasized individual or group benefits, this work argues that the primary driver is "subjective selection": humans produce and retain cultural variants they judge instrumentally useful for satisfying universal goals like healing illness, explaining misfortune, calming infants, and inducing cooperation. This goal-driven shaping of culture explains the convergence of complex traditions worldwide.
April 23, 2026
Eli Stark-Elster, Mamosebetsi Sethathi, B. van der Merwe et al.
Traditional use of serotonergic psychedelics has been reliably documented almost exclusively in the Americas, leading to overgeneralizations about their global prevalence. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 Basotho traditional healers and 8 non-healers in Lesotho and South Africa, 15 healers and 6 non-healers independently identified Psilocybe maluti, a recently described psilocybin-producing mushroom endemic to southern Africa. Reported uses include incorporation into a psychoactive initiation brew, treatment of physical, mental, and spiritual ailments, recreation, and magical protection. Unlike the large ritualized doses of Mesoamerican psilocybin use, Basotho healers apply small doses of P. maluti alongside other psychoactive plants, especially Boophone disticha. Multiple lines of evidence suggest these practices predate the mid-twentieth-century popularization of psilocybin, expanding the known geographic scope of traditional psilocybin use and revealing a distinct mode of psychedelic application.