Moral Considerations and the Experience of Ego Dissolution: Insights from Psilocybin

Psychedelics, banned from medical research for about fifty years, are now being investigated in early-phase studies that suggest they may provide unique therapeutic benefits for mental health and substance use disorders. When effective, these treatments can produce phenomena not typical of other interventions, including a reduced sense of self-importance, hard-to-articulate insights, and feelings of connection and unity with others.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Although psychedelics were banned from medical research for about fifty years, recent early-phase studies indicate they may offer unique therapeutic benefits for various mental health and substance use disorders. When effective, psychedelic experiences often involve phenomena not typically observed in other medical or psychiatric interventions, such as a diminished sense of self-importance, insights that are difficult to articulate, feelings of connection and unity with others, and encounters wi