Psychedelics alter metaphysical beliefs.

People who use psychedelic drugs often shift away from materialist views of reality and consciousness toward panpsychism and fatalism, with most changes lasting at least six months. In a large prospective online survey, these belief shifts correlated with greater past psychedelic use and improved mental health. Emotional synchrony with others during the experience mediated the changes, and baseline impressionability moderated them. An independent clinical trial confirmed the direction of belief change, suggesting psychedelics may causally influence metaphysical beliefs away from hard materialism, though contextual independence remains uncertain.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Can the use of psychedelic drugs induce lasting changes in metaphysical beliefs? While it is popularly believed that they can, this question has never been formally tested. Here we exploited a large sample derived from prospective online surveying to determine whether and how beliefs concerning the nature of reality, consciousness, and free-will, change after psychedelic use. Results revealed significant shifts away from 'physicalist' or 'materialist' views, and towards panpsychism and fatalism, post use. With the exception of fatalism, these changes endured for at least 6 months, and were positively correlated with the extent of past psychedelic-use and improved mental-health outcomes. Path modelling suggested that the belief-shifts were moderated by impressionability at baseline and mediated by perceived emotional synchrony with others during the psychedelic experience. The observed belief-shifts post-psychedelic-use were consolidated by data from an independent controlled clinical trial. Together, these findings imply that psychedelic-use may causally influence metaphysical beliefs-shifting them away from 'hard materialism'. We discuss whether these apparent effects are contextually independent.