Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The use of hallucinogenic plants has throughout human history been used for religious\npurposes, in order to induce mystical states of mind, often interpreted as meeting with gods\nand spirits. In recent years, this practice has been taken up by people interested in the\nexploration of their psyche and spiritual side. This group of people, referred to as\n“psychonauts”, communicate with each other through internet based forum, where they\nshare their experiences in so called “trip reports”. The aim of this study was to see what\nrole psychedelic drugs can play when used in a spiritual/religious context, and whether\nthese sorts of mystical states of mind could tell us about more traditional mystical\nexperiences. Eleven trip reports from the Swedish psychonaut forum 'Magiska Molekyler'\nwere analysed to see how the psychedelic mystical experience was described, what central\nthemes were present, and in what way it correlated with definitions of traditional mystical\nexperiences. Seven central themes were found; ego and death of the ego, a feeling of unity of\nboth inner and outer kind, fractal hallucinations, passivity and acceptance, relativization, a\ndistorted sense of space, time and the ability to associate, and finally a therapeutic effect. Of\nthese themes, five were found to be collateral to the first theme, death of the ego, while the\nlast theme, the therapeutic effect was found to be a consequence of the aftermath of the same\ntheme. The nature of the psychedelic trips were found to correlate pretty well with\ndefinitions of traditional mystical experiences. The differences found are likely due to the\nfact that drug induced effects are active under a prolonged time, that they occur without\nregard to the psychonaut's state of mind, which is not the case with the traditional mystic,\nand that the psychonaut writes to an audience presumed to already be familiar with the\nmystical experience. Due to the hermeneutic nature of the analysis, it is certainly possible to\nfind other present themes if the reports were to be read in another way.
Author: Robert Wedin
Language: Swedish
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W65553369