Death Anxiety Among Users and Non-Users of Psychedelics.

A survey of 517 Brazilian adults found that people who never or almost never used psychedelics reported higher death anxiety than those who had used them. The study also validated the Death Anxiety Scale in Brazil. Death transcendence—especially creative and religious forms—consistently explained variations in death anxiety across all models. A negative relationship emerged between death anxiety and mystical and religious factors of death transcendence. The authors interpret that psychedelics themselves do not directly reduce death anxiety; rather, they may facilitate experiences of transcending death—the sense of continuity beyond physical death, whether spiritual or symbolic—which in turn helps lower death anxiety.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study is a survey-type, cross-sectional study conducted in Brazil (n = 517), with online data collection taking place from April to June 2022. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the death anxiety in users and non-users of psychedelics. To this end, we also assessed the validity and reliability of the Death Anxiety Scale in Brazil. The following instruments were used for data collection: a questionnaire for sociodemographic characterization, Death Anxiety Scale, Death Transcendence Scale, and Spiritual Well-Being Scale. Our main results indicated the following: 1) increased death anxiety is associated with never or almost never having used psychedelics; 2) death transcendence, especially creative and religious factors, was the only constant variable in all the explanatory models of the variation in death anxiety; 3) there is a negative relationship between death anxiety and mystical and religious factors of death transcendence. We interpret these results as follows: it's not psychedelics that reduce death anxiety - psychedelics can favor the experience of transcending death. And it's the possibility of transcending death, (idea of continuity beyond physical death, taking both spiritual and symbolic forms) that helps reduce death anxiety. These findings offer valuable insights into the role of psychedelics in human mortality perception.