This cross-sectional internet survey study with 4,285 participants is the first study to provide a direct and detailed comparison of naturally occurring (non-drug) and psychedelic-occasioned experiences that participants interpreted as an encounter with God (using any of four descriptors of such experiences). The study also provides new information about the characteristics and consequences of such experiences and permits comparison of experiences among those who consumed psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, or DMT.

Because of the large number of outcome measures and complexity the results, this Discussion section will first summarize the most salient similarities and differences between the non-drug and the psychedelic-occasioned experiences followed by a summary of comparisons among the four psychedelic groups.

Similarities and differences between Non-Drug and psychedelic-occasioned experiences

Despite a few demographic differences (e.g. age, sex, country of residence), there were striking similarities in the details and consequences of the encounter experiences between the Non-Drug and Psychedelic groups, many of which are consistent with numerous historical descriptions of naturally occurring God encounter and mystical experiences [1,3]. In both groups, the encounter experiences were largely unbidden, with only about one in five participants indicating they had an intention for such an experience. All participants reported one or more senses being involved, with extrasensory, visual, auditory, and tactile senses being the most frequently endorsed. The majority as well as similar proportions of both groups reported communication (i.e. an exchange of information with that which was encountered), having a personal emotional response during the encounter, and having ascertained a message, mission, or insight, while only about one in five reported having acquired predictions about the future or that which was encountered having an emotional response during the encounter. Both groups provided moderately high ratings on the vividness of their memories of the encounter, that the experience seemed more real than everyday consciousness, and on the total score and most subscales of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire. Likewise, similar high proportions of the two groups endorsed a range of qualities attributed to that which was encountered, with the majority endorsing benevolent, intelligent, sacred, conscious, eternal and all knowing, but fewer than one in ten endorsing negatively judgmental or malicious. The majority of both groups endorsed that that which was encountered existed, at least in part, in some other reality and that it continued to exist after the encounter. About three-quarters or more of both groups indicated that the encounter was among the 5 most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes, with about one in three indicating that it was the single-most such experience. With regard to persisting changes attributed to the experience, most participants in both groups endorsed desirable change in contemplative, prayer, or meditation practice and in understanding religious or spiritual traditions other than their own, and both groups had moderate to strong mean ratings of desirable changes in life satisfaction, purpose, meaning, spiritual awareness in everyday life, attitudes about life and self.

Despite these many similarities, there were some notable differences in details and consequences of the encounter experiences between the Non-Drug and Psychedelic groups. To emphasize the most robust differences between groups, this discussion will focus on significant differences (p≤0.001) in proportions of the two groups with the additional requirement that the difference was >10%. Compared to the Psychedelic Group, the Non-Drug Group was more likely to be alone at the time of the experience (58% vs. 35%) and less likely to endorse visual, auditory, or extrasensory senses being involved. Interestingly, the Non-Drug Group was more than twice as likely to endorse God (the God of your understanding) as the best descriptor of that which was encountered (41% vs. 18%), but less than half as likely to endorse the descriptor Ultimate Reality (26% vs. 55%). Consistent with the most common attributes of "God" in monotheistic traditions, the Non-Drug Group was significantly more likely to endorse that which was encountered had agency (could affect events in this reality) and was petitionable (responsive to prayer or petition), and less likely to endorse that the participant was the same as that which was encountered. The Psychedelic Group was more likely to endorse decreased fear of death.

Both groups showed moderately high scores on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ-30). The Psychedelic Group, however, was significantly higher than the Non-Drug Group in total scores, each of the four factor scores, and proportion of the group fulfilling a priori criteria for having had a "complete" mystical experience (43% vs. 64%). It seems likely that the higher MEQ-30 scores in the Psychedelic Group may be due in part to the fact that the MEQ-30 was developed and validated to assess such experiences occasioned by psilocybin [29,30], and therefore may have more sensitivity to psychedelic experiences. These findings indicate that theistically interpreted, naturally occurring God encounter experiences may fulfill Stace’s [4] criteria for mystical experience that make no reference to God. The findings also suggest that the MEQ-30 may be useful for assessing naturally occurring spiritual and God encounter experiences.

Fig 1 presents a summary of the most notable similarities and differences between the Non-Drug Group and the Psychedelic Group.

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larger image TIFF original image Download: Fig 1. Similarities and differences in God encounter experiences between Non-Drug and psychedelic participants. Summary of notable similarities and differences in details, features, interpretation, and persisting changes of God encounter experiences between the Non-Drug Group (naturally occurring experiences) and the combined Psychedelic Group (psychedelic-occasioned experiences). Approximate percentages of the participants in the groups that endorsed the item are presented for some items; actual percentages are presented in Tables 3–11 and Results section. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214377.g001

A recent cross-sectional internet survey study by Yaden and colleagues [37] examined religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSMEs) and psychedelic use. In their study, a group of participants reporting that they had used one or more psychedelic substance that had influenced their lifetime RSMEs were compared to a group reporting they had not used a psychedelic that influenced their RSMEs. The study showed that the psychedelic group attributed to their lifetime RSMEs a greater sense of purpose and spirituality and a reduced fear of death. Consistent with Yaden et al., psychedelic users in the present study were more likely to endorse decreased fear of death. In contrast to Yaden et al., in the present study, the great majority of items assessing persisting changes attributed to the encounter experience were not different between the psychedelic and nonpsychedelic users (Table 11) and psychedelic users rated their persisting spiritual awareness in everyday life significantly lower than nonpsychedelic users. Although the Yaden et al. study and the present study both focus on the effects of psychedelic substances on spiritual experiences, there are important differences in methods that could partially explain these inconsistencies. Notably, the focus of the Yaden et al. study was on broadly described lifetime religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences in contrast to the present study which focused much more narrowly on a single experience of an encounter with something that might be called God, Higher Power, Ultimate Reality, or an Aspect or Emissary of God. In further contrast to the present study, Yaden and colleagues did not assess whether the RSMEs occurred on the same occasions that the psychedelic substances were taken, did not exclude the possible use of non-psychedelic drugs during the time of the RSMEs, and had much smaller sample sizes (≈330 and ≈330 vs. 809 and 3476).