Drugs and Mysticism

Chapter VI: Data from Questionnaires, Interviews, and Content Analyses

Data Relevant to the Categories of the Typology of Mysticism

Method of Presentation

The available data for each category will be discussed separately, and the relevant information from the methods used to measure each category will be compared. The post-drug questionnaire (within one week), followup questionnaire (six months later), and judges’ content-analysis of individual accounts (written a day or two after the experience as well as after six months) complement each other and measure the same category from different perspectives. For example, the followup questionnaire was not an attempt to repeat the same individual items exactly as in the post-drug questionnaire, but to measure the same category in a clearer or more precise way. The judges’ score was in most cases a single category score which was based on the definition of each category as explained in the training manual. Each category will also be illustrated by quotations from individual accounts and tape recordings.

The single-tailed, non-parametric Sign Test was used throughout in statistical calculations of significance levels both for individual items and items combined into categories.¹ For each pair the score or sums of scores (for more than one item) of the control subject was subtracted from the comparable score of the matched experimental subject, and the number of differences was counted. In the tables “N” is the number of pairs with a difference (differences of 0 were not counted); the statistical calculation took into account the relative number of differences with a positive or negative sign. The prediction was made for most of the phenomena measured that the experimental subjects who took psilocybin would score significantly higher than the controls. The items for which a higher control score was predicted will be indicated.

The items used for each method of measurement were listed for each category with the level of probability (p) that the difference between the experimentals and controls was due to chance. A p-value less than .05 means that the experimentals (as predicted unless otherwise indicated) scored significantly higher than the controls on the phenomena described by that item or category. In other words, there would be less than five chances in one hundred that the observed difference was due to chance rather than to psilocybin. The p-values were listed for individual items which measured the category, for groups of items within the category, and for each category as a whole (i.e., the combination of all the items in the category).

¹ For a detailed explanation of the Sign Test and the tables used see Siegel, op. cit., pp. 65-78.

The scores of the combined items in each category or sub-category were summarized in table form.² The frequency distribution of scores at comparable levels on the rating scale of each method of measurement were listed (i.e., the number of times that the ten experimentals or controls responded at each level). The total numerical sum of all scores at all levels for the ten experimentals and ten controls was listed next to the maximum possible score (i.e., the numerical sum obtained if all subjects had scored all items at the highest possible level). The p-value for the combination of items was also indicated.

The data were arranged to answer four questions for each category. Each question expressed a progressively more rigorous examination of the data to elicit the similarities and differences between the phenomenology of the drug experience and that of the mystical typology. 1) Did the experimentals score significantly higher than the controls on a combination of the scores of all items in the category? This question was answered by the p-value for the category. 2) If there was a significant difference in the category as a whole, was it because of high or low scores? The difference between “4” and “0” and “1” and “0” counts the same under the Sign Test. This question was answered by a comparison of the total score and frequency distribution for experimentals and controls. 3) Which individual items in the category showed a significant difference between experimental and control scores? This question was answered by each item’s p-value, which was calculated using all scores on the scale for that item. 4) Did the difference in these items remain significant if only the scores at the top of each scale were used in calculation of the difference? This question was answered by another application of the Sign Test to the items selected in question 3, but all differences which were obtained from scores of “moderate” or lower were counted as 0. This loss of data would be expected to increase the probability (p) that the difference between experimentals and controls was due to chance unless, in fact, the difference was originally due to strong scores, which would indicate that this phenomenon of the mystical typology had been experienced to a complete degree. The cluster of items which emerged as most significant were then compared to the original definition of the category.

² See Appendix F for a more detailed explanation of the columns and symbols used in the tables.

Another technique of analysis was also employed. In some categories the number of items which contributed to the category covered a broad range. Some of these items corresponded more closely to the a priori definition of the category than others which were more supplementary but which helped to gather all evidence for the category. Therefore, not only will the results of the combined scores of all items related to the category be given, but also the combination of only those items most crucial to the category as defined in the mystical typology above. The use of this technique added precision to the analysis. The significance level of these essential items when only “strong” scores were used was a valuable measure of the completeness of the category.

Category I: Unity

As shown in Table 3, the experimental subjects scored significantly higher than the control subjects on the category of unity as a whole when the scores of individual items in all subcategories were combined (p less than .002 for all three methods of measurement). In other words there were only two chances in 1000 that this difference was due to chance rather than to psilocybin. The score distribution revealed that the experimentals had higher total scores and many more “strong” scores (maximum possible on various rating scales) than the controls, who had relatively few scores as high as “moderate” and a predominance of scores of “0”.

Each subcategory was analyzed both as a combination of items and item by item in order to discover the contributing factors to the significance of the data as a whole.

Internal Unity

As shown in Table 4 the subcategory of internal unity as a whole was significant at the .002 level for all three methods of measurement. The score distribution revealed that with all three methods the experimentals had more total score and a predominance of scores at the top of the scales, while the controls had only a few scores as high as moderate and a predominance of scores of “0”.

The eleven individual items which measured this subcategory are listed in Table 5 with the probability of each that the higher scores of the experimentals were due to chance rather than psilocybin. All the individual items had a p less than .008 except F43 which is the same as F42 only with a negative rather than positive value judgment by the subject about the phenomenon of loss of self. The fact that F43 did not show a significant difference between experimentals and controls would imply that the experimentals regarded their experience of loss of self as more positive than negative. When the highest possible or “strong” scores were used in computing differences between pairs of experimentals and controls, only P74 (unity with ultimate reality) lost its significance (p less than .063). Perhaps this loss was due to the addition of the interpretive phrase, “ultimate reality,” as was suggested by several subjects during the interviews. The items which were most essential to the definition of internal unity (loss of sense of self, loss of all sense impressions, and pure awareness) remained significant at the .04 level and most of the items were significant at the .01 level. All three methods of measurement were consistent.

The content analysis data illustrated these essential elements.

[TABLE 5: LIST OF ITEMS USED TO MEASURE INTERNAL UNITY]

Post-drug questionnaire data (4 items): P9 Loss of self: .001; P72a Sense of the loss of the multiplicity of all particular sense impressions: .004; P73 Pure awareness with no empirical distinctions (i.e., one is beyond the self-consciousness of sense impressions, yet one is not unconscious): .002; P74 Sense of unity with ultimate reality: .008. Follow-up questionnaire data (6 items): F18, F19, F33, F42, F43, F47. Content-analysis data (1 item): C7 Internal unity: .002.

Experimental Subject RM:

I saw the cosmos. It was all molten plastic. Then I knew that I must be somewhere there. Where was my self? What am I? Where am I in the real (plastic) world? Then I was afraid no more. My self is no one place, but in many places. It floats, I float. Body is not real. Only the adventurous self is real. The adventurous self floats into all Being, the orange plastic cosmos. It leaves the old ego behind. The old ego is behind but it glows like a far away harbor light. I can always return.

(Comment: This is a good example of lostness of self and unity with all Being, symbolized by “the orange plastic cosmos”).

Experimental Subject KR:

I found myself grunting in agreement or mumbling “Of course, it has always been this way” over and over again as the panorama of my life seemed to be swept up by this unifying and eternal principle…. I seemed to relinquish my life in “layers”; the more I let go, the greater sense of oneness I received. As I approached what I firmly believed to be the point of death, I experienced an ever greater sense of an eternal dimension to life. There seemed to be infinite possibilities of time and space.

Experimental Subject QX:

I lapsed into a period of complete lostness of self that must have lasted for an hour but seemed very brief. This was a blank sensation, better still, a void…. My experience seemed to be dominated by a sense of oneness, unity, and harmony.

(Comment: This resembles the classical phenomenological description of undifferentiated unity with pure awareness yet no specific content and loss of usual sense of self.)

The evidence from total scores of all items, frequency distribution, and individual item analysis has indicated that psilocybin induced the phenomena of internal unity in the experimental subjects to a rather complete degree.

External Unity

As shown in Table 6, this subcategory was significant at the .016 level for all methods of measurement. The distribution of scores revealed that the controls hardly experienced the phenomena of external unity at all and none to more than a slight degree. The predominance of high scores for the experimentals was not so marked as in the case of internal unity. All individual items were significant at the .032 level except oneness through objects other than people (C8), which had a p greater than .25. C8 is more crucial to the definition of external unity than oneness through people (C9), unless the underlying unity of the whole external world were experienced through people as the means for the expression of this deep and broad unity of all things. For this to be the case, however, the highest scores on the judges’ rating scale should have been used (i.e., “3’s”), but for both C8 and C9, p is greater than .25 when only these top scores were used.

The dissolving of the subject-object dichotomy (P68) and loss of feelings of difference from objects (F25) are essentially the same phenomenon and were the only items which remained significant at the .032 level under such a rigorous treatment of the data. This phenomenon is an important element in the experience of external unity and is alone enough to make the data from this category qualify as an example of this subcategory of the mystical typology.

Against this evidence must be placed the lack of confirmation from the judges. The content analysis data showed a greater depth of underlying cosmic unity or oneness through people than through objects.

Experimental Subject HQ:

A couple of times I kicked against YS’s leg accidentally, and I opened my eyes, for my foot seemed to combine with his left leg.

Experimental Subject QX:

I remained in a bent, prayerful position, but I was not praying. What seemed to be happening was my becoming complete, i.e., my body was whole or one. My arms seemed to merge into my body, yet I knew I still had arms. I could rub my hands into my legs, yet I still had hands. Everything was a part of the other yet distinct in itself. From this, I moved to a oneness with the pews, both the one I was sitting on and the one in front of me. The pew seemed to be giving itself to me when I would turn in my seat or assume different positions. It seemed to “give” to my movements all the while aiding and giving to my comfort. Even my legs which touched against the pew in front of me seemed to find an extremely giving and helping friend in the wooden pew.

(Comment: These two examples of the dissolution of the subject-object dichotomy do not have the cosmic dimension at this point in the experience.)

Experimental Subject KR:

Early in the sequence, the “I”-“You” structure broke down both in relation to my inner experience and to the others in the room. A sense of “we-ness” took its place eventually.

Experimental Subject OX:

My attention was directed toward L6 when I felt a sensational oneness with him. I felt he and I had seen and interpreted life as it truly was meant to be understood, i.e., as man in harmony and love and oneness through all eternity.

For more examples of oneness through people see the section on love in Category III below.

The strongest evidence for external unity is from the questionnaire data because of the dissolution of the subject-object dichotomy. The content analysis failed to show the depth and breadth necessary for the most complete level. We conclude, therefore, that the phenomenon of external unity did occur in the experimental subjects but in an incomplete way.

Supplementary Phenomena

The items in this subcategory as explained in the typology are corroborative, but not definitive, phenomena which may occur in connection with either internal or external unity or both. Table 9 lists these items and their significance levels which indicate that the experimentals showed significantly higher scores than the controls (p less than .016) for most individual items. Only P77 (consciousness of a “Beyond” or “More”) and P67 (sense of being a part of a larger whole) showed no significant difference between experimentals and controls. During the interviews several subjects commented that the “Beyond” or “More” seemed to imply a theological interpretation which they were not ready to make. Only items F36 (feeling of completeness) and F49 (unity with ultimate reality) lost significance when only “strong” scores were used. In F49 the interpretive phrase “ultimate reality” (cf. P74) may have been responsible.

As seen in Table 8 the scores of the experimentals compared to those of the controls followed the same pattern in score distribution and significance level of difference, as for the category of unity as a whole (p less than .001). We conclude that these closely related items strengthen, and certainly do not weaken, the conclusions made about the subcategories “internal and external unity.”

[TABLE 9: LIST OF SUPPLEMENTARY PHENOMENA OF UNITY]

Post-drug questionnaire data: P77 Consciousness of a “Beyond” or “More”: (.15); P78 Expansion of usual personal consciousness to other dimensions within the self: .001; P79 Expansion of usual personal consciousness to other dimensions beyond the self: .004; P96a Sense of belonging to a new and greater unity during the experience: .008; P67 Sense that what is experienced forms part of a larger whole: (.26). Follow-up questionnaire data: F31 Expansion of usual personal consciousness to other dimensions within the self: .001; F32 Expansion of usual personal consciousness to other dimensions beyond the self: .004; F36 Feeling of completeness: .004; F41 Sense of belonging to a new and greater unity: .008; F49 Unity with ultimate reality: .016.

Category II: Transcendence of Time and Space

As is shown in Table 10, this category as a whole had significantly higher scores for experimentals than for controls (p less than .001 for all three methods of measurement). The distribution of scores showed a predominance of high scores for the experimentals and “0’s” for the controls. On the basis of total scores, controls experienced these phenomena to a negligible extent. As shown in Table 11, when the subcategories of time and space were analyzed separately, all the differences between experimentals and controls were in the same direction as in the analysis of the category as a whole (p less than .001 for time and less than .004 for space). In other words there were less than four chances in 1000 that this transcendence of time and space was due to chance rather than psilocybin.

The individual items which were used to measure the subcategories of time and space are shown in Table 12. All individual items were significant in the same direction (p no greater than .004 for any item). When only the “strong” level scores were used, all the items remained significant on at le … [OUTPUT TRUNCATED – 454 chars omitted out of 50454 total] … n because they had not even tried to describe their experience to someone who would be unsympathetic enough to accuse them of such contradiction. These subjects readily admitted the difficulty of being strictly logical in descriptions of their experience. The content-analysis data and other items which are paradoxical even in their description did show significant differences from the controls even when only the “strong” scores were used (p less than .032). Paradoxicality was also supported implicitly by item P64, the converse of item P65. Item P64 stated that “the experience is describable by logical statements which are not contradictory” and did not show a significant difference between experimentals and controls (p equal to .35).

[TABLE 23: LIST OF ITEMS USED TO MEASURE PARADOXICALITY]

Post-drug data (4 items): P65 Sense that an attempt to describe the experience in logical statements becomes involved in contradictory language: .016; P68 Paradoxical dissolving of the subject-object dichotomy in spite of the empirical multiplicity of objects (they are still perceived as separate): .008; P72 Paradoxical transcendence of space as defined in 68-71: .004; P73 Pure awareness with no empirical distinctions (i.e., one is beyond the self-consciousness of sense impressions, yet one is not unconscious): .002. Follow-up data (3 items): F73 You have been accused of logical contradiction in trying to describe the meaningfulness of your own experience: (.063). Content-analysis data (1 item): C13 Paradoxicality: .001.

Some examples of paradoxicality from the content-analysis data are as follows:

Experimental Subject OX:

Everything was part of the other, yet distinct in itself.

(Comment: This is an example of external unity as well as paradoxicality.)

Experimental Subject GP:

In fact, I’m not sure I have one over-riding impression, unless it is one of a confused kind of clarity.

Experimental Subject TD:

I had a vision in which the flowing colors seemed to be me. It was infinity, with many timelines running through it….I decided then that words were adequate to describe the experience, but only if you could describe each tributary, and say the words all at once.

(Comment: The description is not only paradoxical but is also an example of the next category, alleged ineffability.)

From the consistency of statistical evidence from all methods of measurement we conclude that the experimentals who got psilocybin experienced the phenomena of paradoxicality to the most complete degree defined by this category in our typology of the mystical consciousness.

Category VII: Alleged Ineffability

As seen in Table 24, the experimentals scored significantly higher than the controls in this category for all three methods of measurement (p less than .008). The experimentals had more strong ratings than the controls, as demonstrated by the distribution of scores.

All phenomena which were used to measure alleged ineffability are listed in Table 25. All individual items were significant at the .008 level and most were even more significant than this. Alleged ineffability was also supported indirectly by the nonsignificance of item F57b, “the ease of communication of your experience,” which was the converse of F57a. When only the “strong” scores were used, all individual items remained significant (p less than .032) except for the content-analysis data. There were, in fact, a sparsity of statements in the accounts which explicitly stated the difficulty of describing the experience. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the subjects were at the time actually describing their experiences as best they could. Implicit allusions to this phenomenon were more frequent.

Some of the best examples from the content-analysis data of those who had psilocybin are as follows:

[TABLE 25: LIST OF ITEMS USED TO MEASURE ALLEGED INEFFABILITY]

Post-drug data (1 item): P66 Sense that the experience cannot be adequately described in words: .008. Follow-up data (3 items): F16 Feeling that you could not do justice to your experience by a verbal description: .001; F57a You have had difficulty in trying to communicate your own experience to others who were not present: .002; F92 You now feel that the meaningfulness of your own experience is beyond words: .004. Content-analysis data (1 item): C14 Ineffability: .008.

Experimental Subject TD:

I imagined I heard someone describing or explaining our experience, and I wanted to object because they were lying. And yet I felt that it was all that could be said. Somehow it was theological ideas they were messing up, yet I could understand that these lies were the best we could do. But they were lies, and that was important, too.

Experimental Subject KR:

During this time the sense of “we-ness” became a sense of oneness with what I can only describe as “Logos” or a personal Word…(Theological terms were given great meaning in this experience but are totally inadequate in describing the depth and impact of it.)

(Comment: This was also the beginning of the phenomenon of internal unity for this subject.)

Experimental Subject FK:

I cannot describe the sense of the Divine–He was the eternal mystery that is; He was everywhere, but completely transcendent; the Divine, truly not of this world, but whose message had the greatest significance for this world. I felt compelled to go to the front of the chapel, to minister in the name of Christ–for no one else was doing it, and it had to be done…For really the first time, I realized that man cannot challenge and try to limit God to a conceptual system: it is God who challenges men to do His will. God is, and that is all one can say. I am human; I will still try to build an elaborate theological system, for my egocentric gratification, and also to be able to communicate with others. (I am not saying that intellectual theology is bad, but that it is so completely inadequate to interpret the Divine.)

(Comment: This is an example not only of alleged ineffability but expresses the sense of sacredness as well. The reality which he felt is an example of the category: objectivity and reality.)

We therefore conclude that the experimentals did experience the phenomenon of alleged ineffability to a considerable degree–certainly sufficient for inclusion as an example of this category as defined by the mystical typology but not in the most intense way possible. In other words, the psilocybin experience under the conditions of this experiment can be concluded to closely resemble this aspect of mystical experience.

Category VIII: Transiency

As seen in Table 26, when the scores of all items were combined, the experimentals scored significantly higher than the controls for all methods of measurement (p less than .004). The frequency distribution of scores demonstrated the predominance of high scores for the experimentals and scores of “0” for the controls. In other words, there are only four chances in a thousand that the phenomenon of transiency was not due to psilocybin.

All the items which were used to measure transiency are listed in Table 27 in two groups: essential and supplementary phenomena. When all scores were used in the analysis, all individual items showed a significantly higher score for experimentals than for controls at the .004 level except for suddenness of appearance which was still significant at the .02 level. Under the most rigorous analysis using only “strong” scores, most of the essential items which directly defined transiency as such, remained significant (p less than .032) except for F31 and F52. It was interesting that these last two items are consistent because they would indicate that the lighter levels of unusual consciousness (F31) were the ones which did not disappear completely by the next day; such an “afterglow effect” was confirmed during the interviews.

[TABLE 27: LIST OF ITEMS USED TO MEASURE TRANSIENCY]

Essential Phenomena: Post-drug data (2 items): P30 Transiency of duration of deepest levels: .002; P31 Transiency of duration of levels other than the deepest: .004. Follow-up data (2 items): F52 Return to your usual state of consciousness day after the experience: .002; F86a You have lost by now the state of consciousness you experienced on Good Friday: .004. Content-analysis data (1 item): C10 Transiency of unity: .004.

All items which directly measured suddenness remained significant under the most rigorous analysis (P27, F28, and F9), as did those which indicated a change in usual consciousness, P26 and F8 (p less than .020 for all these items). The only other item which did not remain significant (p less than .13) when only the “strong” scores were used was the experience of several levels (of consciousness) at once (P12) which was not so closely related to transiency as the other items.

Other substantiating evidence that the experimentals experienced change from usual consciousness was item P29 (stability of level of consciousness during the experience) which was significant for the controls (p less than .035).

Examples of transiency from personal accounts of two experimentals are presented below as further evidence:

Experimental Subject GP:

…after I was quite completely “out” of the experience, talking with my group and eating an apple….

Experimental Subject OX:

At this point, the service had come to a close, and I was beginning to lose the full strength of my experience.

For more precise analysis, the items most essential to the definition of the category were analyzed as a group separately from those items which were only closely related. As seen in Table 26, the results in terms of total scores, score distribution, and significance level, followed a pattern similar to that of the combined scores of all the items (p less than .004 for all subcategories).

The most important individual item was F86a because here the return to usual consciousness was measured after six months rather than after a few days. The experimentals had significantly more “strong” scores than the controls (p less than .016).

The closely related items were really a prerequisite for the essential ones, because a return to usual consciousness would not be relevant if there had been no change during the experience. The most specific item in this regard is from the content-analysis data. C10 represents the whole category because this distinction between “during” and “after” the experience was explained. Judges were told to score evidence of transiency of unity–a basic phenomenon of the mystical typology.¹ The fact that this item remained significant under the most rigorous analysis confirms the conclusion from the rest of the data that the phenomena of transiency indeed were experienced more by the experimentals than controls, and to the most complete degree in the typology. In other words this phenomenon was induced by the ingestion of psilocybin under the conditions of this experiment.

¹ See instruction manual in Appendix E under “transiency of unity.”

Category IX: Persisting Positive Changes in Attitude and Behavior

As seen in Table 28, the experimentals scored significantly higher than the controls for both methods of measurement, when all items were combined which rated persisting positive changes, compared to the subjects’ condition before the experiment (p less than .001 for followup data, and less than .002 for content-analysis data). The frequency distribution of scores indicated that there was a predominance of “strong” scores for the experimentals, and “0’s” for the controls. The individual items which measured this category were listed in Table 29 in four subcategories: (1) changes toward self, (2) changes toward others, (3) changes toward life, and (4) changes toward the experience.

Changes toward self

Seven out of the twelve items which represented persisting changes toward self, were significant below the .016 level. These items indicated a definite positive change in both behavior (F58b) and attitude in terms of better inner functioning–e.g., increased personal integration (F55b), inner authority (F63a), dynamic quality (F64b), and joy (F87a), and decreased anxiety (F74b). Increased creativity (F77b) and decreased depression (F61b) were almost significant (p less than .063). When only “strong” scores were used, inner authority (F63a) remained significant (p less than .032), and F55b, F58b, and F64b had higher scores for experimentals than for controls but just above the .05 level of significance (p less than .063).

[TABLE 29: LIST OF ITEMS USED TO MEASURE PERSISTING POSITIVE CHANGES IN ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR]

Toward self: Follow-up data (11 items): F55b You have more personal integration: .002; F58b Your behavior has changed in ways you would consider positive since the experience: .002; F63a You have a greater sense of inner authority: .004; F64b You have more dynamic quality: .008; F87a You have increased feelings of joy: .008; F74b You have decreased feelings of anxiety: .016; F77b You have increased creativity: (.063); F61b You have decreased feelings of depression: (.063); F66b You have increased feelings of happiness: (.11); F69b You have more peace in your life: (.11); F71b You have an increased achievement efficiency: (.50). Content-analysis data (1 item): C15 Changes toward self after six months: .004.

Changes toward others

Five out of the seven items which represented changes toward others were significant (p less than .032). These items indicated a definite positive change in interpersonal relations in terms of more sensitivity (F54a), authenticity (F60b and F91a), tolerance (F68a), and love (F85b). More positive relationships with others (F76a) was almost significant (p less than .063). Of these five most significant items, three remained significant at the .032 level when only “strong” scores were used. These most important items were the phenomena of more sensitivity and more authenticity in being one’s true self with others (F54a, F60b, F91a).

Changes toward others: Follow-up data (7 items): F54a You have become more sensitive to the needs of others: .002; F60b You are more your true self with others: .008; F91a You are a more authentic person: .016; F85b You now feel more love toward others: .016; F68a You are more tolerant toward others: .032; F76a You have a more positive relationship with others: (.063); F65b Others have remarked about a positive change in you since Good Friday: (.19). Content-analysis data (1 item): C17 Changes toward others after 6 months: (.812).

Changes toward life

Thirteen out of the 17 items which represented changes toward life were significant at the .035 level. Increased sense of reverence (F72a), vocational commitment (F75b), and enthusiasm for life (F78a), were only significant at the .063 level. Of the 13 most significant items, the four most important, as indicated from “strong”-score analysis were: positive change in philosophy of life (F53a), knowledge of a new dimension of life (F82), and increased sense of the preciousness of life (F90b)–p less than .032; increased meaning (F67a), sense of reverence (F72a), vocational commitment (F75b), and appreciation for creation (F84a) were significant under such analysis only at the .063 level.

Changes toward life: Follow-up data (16 items): F53a The experience has changed your philosophy of life positively: .001; F89a Time spent in quiet meditation has increased: .008; F83b You spend more time for devotional life: .008; F78a You have more enthusiasm for life: (.062); F75b You now have a more certain vocational commitment: (.063); F93b You have more of a sense of the adventurous outreach of life: (.09).

Changes toward the experience

Two of the six items which represented persisting changes toward the experience were significant at the .020 level: learned something useful (F56a) and considered the experience valuable (F94a). These differences between experimentals and controls also remained significant when only the “strong” scores were used (p less than .032 for both items).

Changes toward the experience: Follow-up data (5 items): F56a You learned something useful from the experience: .004; F94a Your experience has been valuable for your life: .020; F96 You have tried to recapture any parts of the Good Friday experience since then: (.15); F98a You would be interested in repeating the same experience you had on Good Friday: (.26); F99a You would be interested in having more of these kinds of experiences (not necessarily with the hope of an exact repetition of your Good Friday experience): (.23). Content-analysis data (1 item): C21 Changes toward the experience after six months: (.19).

As shown in Tables 30-33, the combined scores for the subcategories, changes toward self and toward life, were significant for the experimentals from both methods of measurement (p less than .016). The total scores and score distribution from these two subcategories were consistent with those of the combined scores of all items in the category (predominance of “strong” scores for experimentals and “0’s” for controls). While the other two subcategories, changes toward others and toward the experience were significant from the follow-up data (p less than .001 for others and less than .055 for the experience), there was no significant difference between experimentals and controls in the content-analysis data (p greater than .19).

Both the follow-up questionnaire and content analysis of the follow-up accounts were designed to measure negative as well as positive changes. The positive items discussed above had their negative counterparts, but the only individual items significant below the .1 level were F74a, increased feelings of anxiety (p less than .032), and F61a, increased feelings of depression (p less than .063). When only “strong” scores were used, neither of these items remained significant (p greater than .5). Some ambiguity existed, however, because the positive expressions of both these items (F74b and F61b) were at least, if not more, significant than the negative. These two negative items belong to the subcategory “changes toward self,” which tended toward significance (p = .062) in the follow-up data for this subcategory as a whole, but was clearly not significant in the content-analysis data. None of the negative subcategories showed a significant difference between experimentals and controls, at the .05 level, from either method of measurement. (See Tables 30-33.) The total negative scores of these categories were relatively low in relation to the number of items represented, and the score distribution was predominantly at the low end of the scale–almost entirely “0’s” for both experimentals and controls. The positive changes far outbalanced in number and intensity the few and relatively moderate negative changes reported.

Some examples of persisting positive changes from the content-analysis data are as follows:

Changes toward self:

Experimental Subject HQ:

Very strongly beneficial: I have had a much greater degree of self-realization since Good Friday. By this I mean a greater certainty of being and becoming. Closely connected with this is the feeling of being a creature of purpose. I feel that I have a greater realization of my motives that lie behind my various actions. I do believe I have an awareness of the selfishness that underlies many of my actions. This realization has been met with attempts to cast this selfishness aside to go beyond it.

I have made reference to the joy I experienced when I came back to life since the Good Friday afternoon experience. At times I have felt a joy of being alive and having real existence. I do not believe I have ever experienced it previous to Good Friday to the degree I did then or to the degree I have since, even though I intellectually knew of it.

Experimental Subject GP:

Very strongly beneficial: Expanded awareness of myself. Regularly, in introspection, occasionally spontaneously, I recognize dimensions of my life that I had not known before: longings, goals, abilities, kinds of strength.

Changes toward others:

[Experimental Subject GP:]

Strongly beneficial: Increased willingness, though not necessarily ability, to see interpersonal relations from the side of the other person. An increased insight into interpersonal relations.

Experimental Subject FK:

Strong benefit: A startling sensitivity to others–especially to those with “problems”.

Changes toward life:

Experimental Subject FK:

Very strong benefit: A sense of “call”–insofar as this means that the Word must be proclaimed to the “world”–not so much verbally as “existentially”, and that somehow I must respond to this challenge, as it has appeared to me.

Changes toward the experience:

Experimental Subject EB:

Moderately beneficial: An appreciation of and ability to enter in a limited way into experiences dealing with that beyond one’s usual consciousness (two aspects of which are “mystical” elements and “unconscious” elements).

Experimental Subject KR:

Very strong benefit: A profound recognition of the role of the “mystical” in the full religious life–but this attitude seemed not as an escape from the world, rather giving me a greater sense of concern for the here and now.

Experimental Subject RM:

Very strongly beneficial: Strong desire for prayer, communion with God, and time in the “wilderness”.

Experimental Subject KR:

Strongly beneficial: Aid in spiritual growth.

A significant difference between experimentals and controls in persistent positive changes after six months in all four subcategories has been demonstrated by these data. The most significant subcategories were changes toward self and changes toward life. The most important changes were those due to strong scores, as has been suggested. Changes toward others and toward the experience, occurred in both the experimentals and the controls, as seen from the total scores of these subcategories. Perhaps the interaction with the experimentals was a factor in these results, as is suggested by the following quotes from three controls:

Control Subject NJ:

The entire day was meaningful–helped to draw friendships tighter and added much meaning to my religious life….Reverend “X”, FK, and his entire activity (including playing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”), and the talks afterward, were contributors to an extremely meaningful experience.

Control Subject IA:

It was one of the most exciting days of my life. The fellowship with the students, and particularly with all of the wonderful group leaders, was very meaningful.

Control Subject JN:

I was very glad to have been able to be part of the experience; for the first time I was really able to talk in depth with RM and TD.

(Comment: RM and TD were the experimentals in JN’s group.)

The conclusion can be drawn that in terms of certain changes toward self and changes toward life, the drug experience is similar if not identical with changes resulting from mystical experiences as defined by our typology. This conclusion is not as certain for changes toward others and toward the experience because of lack of confirmation from content-analysis data, although specific items, as well as these subcategories as a whole, were strongly significant in the followup data.

Other Data

Items which were not directly applicable to categories of our typology of mysticism are listed in Appendix G, in four main groups:

Integrative and constructive phenomena.

Disturbing changes in attitude and behavior.

Physical sensations.

Miscellaneous.

The significance level of the difference in scores between experimentals and controls was given both when all scores were counted and also when only “strong” scores were used. This information, while interesting, does not contribute directly to the argument presented above.

Integrative and constructive phenomena

The most striking phenomena under this grouping were the death-rebirth experiences during the experiment (significant at .032 level), which may have helped foster the lasting sense of new significance and meaning to life.

Disturbing changes in attitude and behavior

Almost all of these phenomena which showed a significant difference between experimentals and controls, took place during the experience. In the six-month follow-up questionnaire, as has been shown above, only increased anxiety was significant below the .05 level, and this was not due to “strong” scores. Nine out of ten of the experimentals gave a positive evaluation to their experiences as a whole, in spite of the occurrence of some negative elements of which transient fear was the most striking, as shown in the following examples from the content-analysis:

Experimental Subject FK:

Afterwards (by that, meaning Saturday and somewhat Sunday), I did have a distinct negative feeling beside the much, much stronger feeling of having been through a most meaningful, deep and significant experience. I would like to sincerely thank you for making this opportunity available for me…and I am sure it will have positive and creative effects on my “quest for realization” as I integrate the insights which were gained.

Experimental Subject PT:

Despite the fear and negative attitude when I was in that one violent and painful dream, my reaction to the whole experience was a positive one, and I think I should like to do it again.

The relation between mysticism and phenomena generally considered as psychopathology is an interesting one which needs further elucidation and research, but is beyond the scope of this dissertation.

Physical phenomena

The variety of physical sensations, especially visual, which accompanied the drug experiences, were interesting and could be compared to the equally diverse physical manifestations reported by the mystics, but again, such a comparison was not the chief area of interest of this research. It is noteworthy that no experimental subject became preoccupied with negative physical phenomena such as dizziness or vomiting, although transient nausea was experienced (p less than .008). This result may have been due to the lack of emphasis on physical phenomena in the preparation of the subjects. The controls had significantly higher scores than the experimentals on the sensations of warmth and itching (P115 and P116) at the .035 level. These scores reflected the effectiveness of action of nicotinic acid on the controls.

Miscellaneous

There was 100% agreement among experimentals and controls as to who got psilocybin, as shown by the score difference between experimentals and controls on P128, F100a, and F100b, when only “strong” scores were used (p less than .001).