Linkages between Psychedelics and Meditation in a Population-Based Sample in the United States

Research into classic psychedelics has re-emerged, with accumulating experimental and clinical evidence suggesting potential therapeutic benefits, particularly for internalising disorders. Classic psychedelics—substances such as DMT, ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, and peyote—are often characterised pharmacologically by agonism at serotonin 2A receptors. One phenomenological feature that has been implicated in psychedelic therapeutic mechanisms is ego dissolution, a loss or disintegration of subjective self-identity. Earlier work has noted overlaps in phenomenology and neurophysiology between psychedelic-induced ego dissolution and experiences reported during meditation, and prior trials and cross-sectional studies have suggested that psychedelics can influence meditation interest, frequency, and depth of practice. Simonsson and colleagues set out to examine associations between classic psychedelic exposure and multiple meditation-related variables in a nationally stratified online sample of US adults. Specifically, the study assessed lifetime classic psychedelic use and ego dissolution during the respondent’s most intense psychedelic experience in relation to (1) lifetime exposure to meditation; (2) current amount and type of meditation practice; (3) motivations for practice; (4) perceived barriers to practice; (5) subjective benefits including perceived efficacy and decentering skills; and (6) meditation-related adverse effects. The authors framed this as an exploratory, population-based assessment to clarify potential linkages and inform future causal studies.

Data were collected via a large online survey of US residents recruited through Prolific Academic. The full sample comprised 953 adults aged 18 or older, stratified by age, sex and ethnicity to reflect the US adult population. Participants who failed an attention check were removed (n = 33). Those reporting any lifetime meditation experience (n = 582) were invited to a second-stage survey; 92.1% of invitees completed that follow-up (n = 536). Institutional review board approval was obtained from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The extracted text does not clearly report additional recruitment dates or compensation. Two psychedelic-related variables were measured. Lifetime classic psychedelic use was assessed with an ASSIST-adapted multiple-choice item asking which classic psychedelics (ayahuasca, DMT, LSD, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin) participants had ever used; responses were coded dichotomously (ever used vs never). Ego dissolution during the respondent’s most intense classic psychedelic experience was measured with a single item from the Ego Dissolution Inventory asking agreement with "I experienced a disintegration of my 'self' or ego," rated on a 0–100 slider and standardised (z-scored) for analysis. A broad battery assessed meditation-related variables. Lifetime exposure to several meditation types was measured with a checklist. Current amount of practice was a single item rated on a 1–5 scale (Never to Daily). Current primary type of meditation was coded into categories (Buddhist, Hindu, spiritual, part of movement practice, other). Motivations for practice were captured by a multi-select item and coded into categories including mental health and enlightenment. Perceived barriers used the 12-item Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory–Revised (DMPI-R) with subscales for perceived benefit, knowledge, and pragmatic barriers and a total score; subscale alphas ranged from .72 to .78 after dropping a poorly performing cultural subscale. Subjective outcomes included single-item measures of feeling glad to have practised and perceived efficacy (both 1–6 Likert scales), decentering skills measured by the 11-item Experiences Questionnaire–Decentering subscale (alpha = .91), and meditation-related adverse effects assessed by the 11-item MRAES-MBP (items dichotomised and summed; Kuder–Richardson = .89). Additional single items assessed occurrence, functional impairment, and duration of impairment following meditation-related challenging experiences. Analyses used linear and logistic regression models. Lifetime classic psychedelic use (binary) and ego dissolution (z-scored) were entered separately as independent variables, with demographic and substance-use covariates included in all models to reduce confounding. Covariates comprised age (continuous), sex (male, other), educational attainment (Bachelor’s degree or higher, other), lifetime cocaine use (yes/no) and lifetime alcohol use (yes/no); the text notes that lifetime alcohol use was dropped in some models because of collinearity. Bivariate correlations were also computed using Pearson, point-biserial, and Phi coefficients. The extracted text does not specify whether analyses used any weighting to reflect population strata or whether multiple testing correction was applied.

Descriptive details reported in supplemental material indicate the subsample of meditators (n = 536) had a mean age of 44 and 55.8% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Across the full sample (n = 953), 23% reported lifetime classic psychedelic use. Controlling for covariates, lifetime classic psychedelic use was associated with greater odds of lifetime exposure to meditation (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.04, p = .002); 28% of those exposed to meditation reported lifetime classic psychedelic use versus 17% of those not exposed. Ego dissolution during one’s most intense psychedelic experience was also associated with lifetime meditation exposure (aOR = 1.39, p = .047). Among participants who reported meditation experience, ego dissolution but not lifetime classic psychedelic use was associated with a greater current amount of meditation practice (standardised β = .19, p = .032; lifetime use β = .03, p = .554). Ego dissolution was additionally associated with current use of Buddhist meditation (aOR = 1.58, p = .019), whereas lifetime classic psychedelic use was not (aOR = 0.97, p = .890). Neither psychedelic variable was associated with current use of Hindu meditation, spiritual meditation, meditation as part of movement practice, or other types. Motivations for practice differed by psychedelic-related variables. Both lifetime classic psychedelic use and ego dissolution were linked with reporting ‘enlightenment’ as a motivation (aOR = 2.38, p = .009 and aOR = 1.64, p = .043, respectively). Ego dissolution, but not lifetime classic psychedelic use, was associated with mental-health motivation (aOR = 1.69, p = .008; lifetime use aOR = 0.97, p = .905). Neither predictor was associated with other motivations such as physical health, social/cultural/religious identity, general spiritual reasons, or other reasons. A robust pattern emerged for perceived barriers to meditation. Both lifetime classic psychedelic use and greater ego dissolution were associated with lower overall perceived barriers (standardised β = −.16, p < .001 and β = −.23, p = .001, respectively). Subscale findings showed lower perceived barriers related to benefit (β = −.13 and −.23, p = .001 and .001) and pragmatism (β = −.14 and −.14, p = .001 and .045). Lifetime classic psychedelic use was associated with lower knowledge-related barriers (β = −.12, p = .004), whereas the association for ego dissolution on knowledge barriers was marginal (β = −.13, p = .062). Ego dissolution was associated with higher perceived efficacy of meditation practice, while lifetime classic psychedelic use was not. Neither psychedelic variable was associated with feeling glad to have practised meditation (β = .06, p = .250 and β = .12, p = .160, respectively). The extracted text indicates decentering skills were not associated with the predictors, but the exact beta for decentering is not clearly reported in the extraction. Regarding harms, neither lifetime classic psychedelic use nor ego dissolution were associated with the total score of meditation-related adverse effects (β = −.01, p = .850 and β = .05, p = .560, respectively). Likewise, neither predictor was associated with lifetime occurrence of adverse effects, functional impairment (aOR = 0.94 and 1.01; p = .876 and .987), or impairment lasting longer than a day.

Simonsson and colleagues interpret the results as evidence of multiple, modest linkages between psychedelic-related variables and meditation-related variables in this population-based sample. The principal observations were that both lifetime classic psychedelic exposure and the degree of ego dissolution during one’s most intense psychedelic experience were associated with having ever tried meditation, and that ego dissolution in particular related to greater current meditation frequency and a higher likelihood of practising Buddhist meditation. Both psychedelic variables were linked with reporting ‘enlightenment’ as a motivation for practice, while ego dissolution alone was linked to mental-health motivation and higher perceived efficacy of meditation. The authors emphasise that causality cannot be inferred from the cross-sectional design. They note alternative explanations such as unmeasured third variables (for example, trait openness or psychological mindedness) that could drive both psychedelic use and meditation engagement, or reverse temporal sequences (meditation leading to psychedelic use or to greater ego-dissolution experiences). One of the most consistent findings was that meditators with psychedelic exposure or greater ego dissolution reported fewer perceived barriers to meditation; the researchers suggest this could reflect either reduced confusion about meditation due to experiential overlap with psychedelics or pre-existing differences that lessen barriers to practice. Several limitations acknowledged by the study team temper interpretation. The sample, while stratified by age, sex and ethnicity, may not be fully representative of the US population; online recruitment platforms can bias samples and the study’s prevalence of lifetime classic psychedelic use (23%) exceeded estimates from national surveys (about 14%), raising representativeness concerns. Meditation experience in the sample was generally limited: 65% of meditators reported 0–100 hours of lifetime practice and only 6% had ever attended a meditation retreat, which constrains conclusions about interactions in more experienced or retreat-practising populations. The survey did not assess set and setting, dose, frequency, or timing of psychedelic use relative to meditation practice, limiting temporal or contextual inferences. Other measurement caveats included potential variability in respondents’ interpretation of the perceived-efficacy item and the necessity of dichotomising some covariates due to sample-size limitations; lifetime alcohol use was dropped from some models because of collinearity. Finally, the cross-sectional design prevents establishing whether psychedelics influence meditation engagement or vice versa. Despite these limitations, the investigators conclude that the findings point to potentially intriguing synergies between classic psychedelics and meditation practice and recommend larger samples and randomised controlled trials to clarify causality, safety, and the circumstances under which combining meditation and classic psychedelics might be beneficial or risky.