School of Psychology, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Northfields Ave, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
3 papers in the library · 20 citations · publishing 2025
After a single significant psychedelic experience, people reported an overall reduction in death anxiety, although some individuals reported an increase. This reduction was linked to a stronger belief in panpsychism—the idea that consciousness is fundamental and pervasive in the universe. No other metaphysical beliefs, such as belief in an afterlife or materialism, were associated with the change. The findings suggest that shifts in metaphysical worldview, particularly toward panpsychism, may play a role in how psychedelic experiences alter attitudes about death, pointing to a specific mechanism for future research.
Meaningful psychedelic experiences are associated with self-reported increases in moral expansiveness—the broadening of one's circle of moral concern. Changes in moral expansiveness were positively correlated with mystical experiences, ego dissolution, and feelings of being moved and admiration during the experience. Heightened moral expansiveness was also linked to longer-term shifts in the propensity to experience self-transcendent positive emotions such as admiration and awe. The findings suggest that acute subjective effects of psychedelics may play a role in expanding moral concern.
A systematic review of 31 studies found largely consistent evidence that psychedelic experiences can change attitudes towards death and reduce death anxiety in both clinical and non-clinical populations. However, significant gaps remain in understanding the role of set and setting, differences across psychedelic substances, underlying psychological mechanisms, the potential for worsening death anxiety, and the influence of expectancy and placebo effects. Less is known about the reliability and strength of these effects, the conditions under which they emerge, and which aspects of the experience best predict them.