Revelation or Delusion? The Impact of Psychedelics on Belief

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In my previous blog post, Can Psychedelics Lead You to Believe in God?, I reviewed the published evidence that the use of psychedelic drugs—also known as entheogens—can change our religious beliefs. For example, several studies based on cross-sectional survey data have found that psychedelic use can increase belief in God and decrease belief in atheism. However, such studies have also found that belief in monotheistic religious traditions can also decrease with psychedelic use in favor of spiritual beliefs about an “Ultimate Reality” rather than God per se.

Similar surveys have found that psychedelic use is associated with particular political perspectives, including a negative correlation with authoritarianism and a positive correlation with liberalism.¹ Looking at before- and after-effects, a small clinical trial of psilocybin (the psychedelic constituent of “magic mushrooms”) for the treatment of major depression found that support of political authoritarianism decreased following two doses of psilocybin spaced a week apart and persisted up to 12 months later.²

Other surveys have noted that psychedelic use is associated with “nature relatedness” (a subjective sense of connectedness to nature) that is, in turn, related to “pro-environmental behavior” (such as recycling, water conservation, and eco-friendly shopping)³ as well as objective knowledge about and concern about climate change.⁴

In light of such findings, some have asked if psychedelic drugs can really “change your politics or religious beliefs” while claiming that the available evidence suggests that psilocybin does indeed “seem to make people more liberal” and that “the relationship could be causal.”⁵ And if that’s the case, this would pose a threat of harm to conservatives so that they might look even more disapprovingly on psychedelics than they already do.

In response, researchers who published some of the original studies finding that psychedelic use can lead to “God encounter experiences” that have the potential to make believers out of atheists have pushed back on this idea, concluding that the notion “that psychedelics prompt substantial change in political and religious beliefs or affiliations… is not supported by the current scientific data.”⁶ They cite problems with inferring causality from associations—including the possibility of selection bias and reverse causality (for example, that liberals and those with non-traditional religious beliefs are more likely to use psychedelics in the first place)—while reminding us that only some people have “God encounter experiences” on psychedelics and that they are “in no way representative of the general public.” According to one of the researchers with considerable experience talking to hundreds of psilocybin study participants, despite reported changes in some religious beliefs and political attitudes, not a single one ever claimed any spontaneous change in political or religious affiliation.

True to that claim, a recently published prospective longitudinal study of 657 participants who had a psilocybin experience outside a laboratory setting found that while many had increases in beliefs about non-human living things, inanimate objects, or the universe being capable of consciousness, none of them experienced a change in their religious status as either an atheist or believer after their psychedelic experience.⁷

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I have my own anecdote about a close friend and colleague who recently experimented with psilocybin that matches these findings. He had a sustained psychedelic experience—lasting for hours while he remained awake but with his eyes closed—of being immersed in a kind of “netherworld” or “in-between world” that he likened to the Matrix, but with biological features reminiscent of an interconnected mycelium rather than having any digital or technological trappings.

He experienced synesthesia, including feeling sounds and feeling as if he and the music he was listening to were one, as well as other kinds of “ego dissolution” experiences that have been well-described with psychedelic use. In one of his most memorable such experiences, he saw an image of a fish eating a bug on the surface of a pond but felt amusement because though they seemed like distinct objects on a visual level, he experienced the feeling or knowing that the fish and bug were, in fact, one and that there was actually no distinction between the fish, the bug, or himself.

Despite these experiences, he didn’t come away feeling as if he’d gained any new revelation about the world. That is, he didn’t feel like his psychedelic experience necessarily revealed anything about the true nature of the universe or reality itself.

It should come as little surprise that psychedelic experiences don’t always change people’s fundamental beliefs about the world. Many drug-induced beliefs—like feeling paranoid on methamphetamines or believing that you can fly when you’re high on phencyclidine (PCP)—thankfully dissipate when you’re no longer intoxicated.

Psychedelics Essential Reads

Bad Trip: The Dark Side of Psychedelics

Magic Mushrooms, Teens, and Young Adults

Just so, there’s ample evidence that psychedelics are as likely to contribute to fantasies and false beliefs as they are to insights or revelations. For example, a recent study found an association between psychedelic use and conspiracy mentality (assessed based on endorsing statements like “I think that events which superficially seem to lack a connection are often the result of secret activities” or “I think that there are secret organizations that greatly influence political decisions”).⁸

Indeed, some researchers continue to question the premise that psychedelics can really change beliefs and challenge the notion that they can influence anything beyond weakly held beliefs.⁹ Another viewpoint holds that psychedelics may influence beliefs by altering the process of inference, defined as “the best explanation of sensory data based on the sum of prior beliefs.” When the perceptual phenomena caused by psychedelic drugs lead to “Eureka moments” that are experienced as insights, they can give rise to feelings and inferences of truth independent of what is actually true.

The recently proposed False Insight and Beliefs Under Psychedelics (FIBUS) model provides a more detailed explanation of how psychedelics can give rise to false beliefs through such mechanisms, leading to the conclusion that “psychedelics may… act as an amplifier for beliefs that enhance existing pathologies or even create new ones.”¹⁰ With such potential, a clearer understanding of the impact of psychedelic experiences on beliefs is warranted if we are to better understand the clinical and ethical risks of psychedelics when developed and implemented as therapeutic interventions.

In the meantime, the novel experiences made possible by psychedelic use do appear to influence and potentially modify what we believe, including profound beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. Whether such experiences result in insightful revelations, fantasies, or delusions remains to be seen and, as psychedelic researchers have long told us, likely depends on both “setting” (the physical surroundings and environmental context of use) and “set” (that is, a user’s individual mindset).

In other words, as the standard disclaimer goes, when it comes to psychedelic use and its impact on our beliefs, “individual results may vary.”

For more on psychedelics:

• Psychedelics in Psychiatry: New Data Supporting an Old Idea
• Can Psychedelics Lead You to Believe in God?
• Bad Trip: The Dark Side of Psychedelics