Journal of Psychedelic Studies
January 16, 2023
Anna Lutkajtis, Jules Evans
58 citations
Nine out of thirty participants (30%) at a legal psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands spontaneously reported post-experience integration challenges, including mood fluctuations, 'post-ecstatic blues', disconnection from community, re-experiencing symptoms, spiritual bypass, and perceived lack of support. These challenges were transient, occurring immediately after the psychedelic effects wore off and resolving over days or weeks. Integration challenges were correlated with positive after-effects such as long-term remission of significant health conditions. The experiences align with the 'spiritual emergency' phenomenon, suggesting such challenges may be integral to transformative potential. The findings have implications for psychedelic integration, harm reduction, and future research.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
January 15, 2021
Anna Lutkajtis
32 citations
Psychedelic-induced mystical experiences, particularly encounters with seemingly autonomous entities, may have therapeutic value. While empirical research is limited, qualitative studies and anecdotal reports indicate these encounters can produce profound and lasting positive after-effects. The article argues for exploring the therapeutic potential of entity encounters and proposes three possible mechanisms by which they might mediate the therapeutic effects of the psychedelic mystical experience.
Fieldwork in Religion
March 31, 2020
Anna Lutkajtis
20 citations
Psilocybin mushrooms have been used in Indigenous Mesoamerican healing ceremonies since at least the sixteenth century. Westerners discovered this practice in the early to mid-twentieth century, notably when amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson met Mazatec curandera María Sabina in 1955, leading to widespread popularization of magic mushrooms in the West. For the Mazatec, the mushrooms were sacred and used only for healing, but Western hippies consumed them as psychedelic drugs with little regard for cultural sensitivities, desacralizing them. This article argues that this desacralization constitutes spiritual abuse with far-reaching consequences at individual, local, and global levels, and that recognizing it as such has implications for restorative justice and understanding psilocybin as sacred medicine.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
April 16, 2021
Anna Lutkajtis
13 citations
Four healthy individuals who attended a legal psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands reported experiences that included mystical-type features, changes to their sense of self, and a generalized feeling of connectedness. Participants described moments of key insight related to connection with self, others, and a broader relational worldview. Embodiment emerged as a notable but understudied theme. The case studies suggest that, in a well-controlled and supportive retreat setting, a high dose of psilocybin can lead to enduring positive after-effects lasting up to twelve months.
International Journal for the Study of New Religions
March 23, 2022
Anna Lutkajtis
3 citations
Psilocybin churches in the United States offer an alternative to the clinical framing of psilocybin by enabling followers to engage in a dynamic social process of sacred sensemaking. In this process, psilocybin mushrooms are treated as a sacrament, church members follow ritual-based psychopharmacological practices, and the psychedelic experience is interpreted as a direct encounter with the divine. While different churches have unique approaches, rituals, and cosmologies, they may be united by this common process of sacred sensemaking, which provides a religious form of meaning making around the psychedelic experience.