Psychometric brahman, psychedelic science: Walter Stace, transnational Vedanta, and the Mystical Experience Questionnaire

The Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), widely used in psychedelic research to assess mystical experiences, draws on philosopher Walter Stace's typology of mysticism. This article shows that Stace's typology was shaped by dialogue with major figures in modern, transnational Vedantic Hinduism, an influence that has been under-investigated. The authors demonstrate how these Vedantic approaches to religious experience are preserved in Stace's framework and, through the MEQ, embedded in contemporary psychedelic science. The article argues that scientists' insistence on the MEQ's theoretical rigor perpetuates Stace's interpretation of modern Vedantic ideas, linking science and religion in the field.

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Abstract

The longstanding juncture between science and religion in psychedelic research is mediated most notably by the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). The MEQ is a psychometric survey for assessing mystical experiences, and it relies on the work of philosopher Walter Stace for its typology and philosophy of mysticism. Yet there is an under-investigated influence from Vedantic Hinduism that contributed to Stace’s thinking. In an analysis of Stace’s hermeneutics of mysticism, this article demonstrates how Stace’s typology of mystical experience was created in dialogue with major figures in the field of modern, transnational Vedanta. From there, we investigate how these figures’ approaches to religious experience manifest in Stace’s typology of the mystical experience and are preserved in the MEQ. We conclude by discussing how the enduring use of the MEQ, and scientists’ insistence on its theoretical rigour, embeds Stace’s interpretation of modern Vedantic ideas in the contemporary practice of psychedelic science.