Making Sense of a Transformative, Mystical Psychedelic Experience: Will People Frame It as Spiritual, Supernatural, Psychological, Physical, or a Sign of Mental Illness?

Psychedelic substances sometimes lead to spiritually transformative or mystical experiences. What interpretive lenses do people use to explain these powerful experiences? Do they see them as physical/biological, spiritual or supernatural, reflections of normal psychological processes, or signs or triggers of mental illness? As part of an internet survey on attitudes about psychedelics among U.S. adults (N = 788), we asked participants to imagine a trusted person telling them about a psychedelic experience involving powerful feelings of connectedness and divine love. Participants endorsed spiritual explanations most, followed by psychological and physical/biological explanations (which did not differ). They endorsed supernatural explanations less and mental illness least. Psychological and physical interpretations correlated positively with spiritual and supernatural ones, echoing research showing that natural and supernatural explanations for events often coexist. Spiritual, supernatural, psychological, and physical explanations were endorsed more by younger people with more positive attitudes about psychedelics and more prior psychedelic use. Spiritual explanations were favored by those who identified as non-Christian, who identified as spiritual but not religious, and who had positive past experiences with psychedelics-especially experiences seen as spiritual or supernatural. Mental illness interpretations showed consistent links with negative attitudes about psychedelics, greater perceptions of spiritual and psychological risk, lower levels of past use, and more negative (and less positive) experiences from prior use. Supernatural, spiritual, and mental illness explanations were also related-though modestly-to believing that psychedelics could open the door to demonic messages (i.e., from the devil, demons, or evil spirits).