Narratives of the mystical among users of psychedelics

Mystical experiences have long been central to religious and philosophical accounts of human meaning, and recent clinical revival around psychedelics (for example LSD and psilocybin) has placed such experiences back at the centre of scientific interest. Classical dimensions of mysticism—ineffability, noetic quality, unity or loss of ego, and altered sense of time and space—are repeatedly reported in studies of psychedelic administration, yet most empirical work has been clinical and limited in examining how users outside therapeutic settings make sense of these events. There is also an ongoing debate about whether mystical experiences are universal in their core features or are culturally mediated by narrative resources available to the experiencer. Pedersen and colleagues set out to explore how people in Norway narratively construct and explain mystical experiences occasioned by psychedelics. Using a narrative identity framework, the study examines which cultural storylines participants draw on—particularly contemporary ecological and political themes—to render the ineffable intelligible and to account for reported personal changes following psychedelic use. The authors therefore aim to document both archetypal patterns of mystical experience and the culturally specific storylines that shape their interpretation.

The study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 50 self-selected Norwegian psychedelic users recruited predominantly via an online forum for psychedelics (Emmasofia) with additional snowball sampling. Interviews took place in offices at the University of Oslo, lasted about two to three hours (with a short break), and covered biographical background (upbringing, education, occupation), political and cultural interests, substance-use histories, and detailed narratives of psychedelic trips, including substances, typical dosages and ritual contexts. The sample comprised 42 men and 8 women, aged 20–55 (majority in their late twenties to early thirties); most participants were students or employed full time and relatively highly educated, with 70% (N = 35) holding or pursuing academic degrees. Reported experience with substances included LSD (n = 37), psilocybin (n = 36), 2C‑B (n = 20), DMT or ayahuasca (n = 20) and MDMA (n = 34); most use occurred outside formal therapeutic settings and was illegal in Norway, except for some experiences in the Netherlands. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using NVivo. The analytic approach was thematic narrative analysis treating whole stories as the unit of analysis: long sections of text were coded to capture broader narrative contours, the links between trip phenomenology and cultural narratives, and the ways participants integrated these experiences into personal identity stories. The authors acknowledge potential positionality effects—interviewer characteristics, the university setting and the first author's public profile might have shaped responses—and state they could not assess prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the sample. Ethical approval was obtained from the Norwegian Social Science Data Service (NSD) and participants provided informed consent with identifying details anonymised.

Across interviews participants repeatedly emphasised the difficulty of putting their experiences into words, reflecting the ineffability commonly described in the mysticism literature. Nevertheless, they made sustained narrative efforts—using metaphors, analogies and references to philosophy, science and fiction—to render these experiences tellable. Three recurring experiential dimensions were identified: (1) transcendence of time and space (including time dilation and the sense of being simultaneously at different temporal or spatial locations); (2) intense positive mood or euphoria distinct from the empathic effects of MDMA; and (3) a felt unity with a larger whole, often articulated as being one with nature, the universe or close others. On temporal and spatial transcendence, many related episodes where moments stretched into seeming eternities or where they felt set free from ordinary temporal bounds; some accounts described journeys through human prehistory or being simultaneously present in multiple places, and a number reported empathetic merging with family members. Euphoria was described as existential and profound rather than merely pleasurable; several participants contrasted the depth of this bliss with the more superficial euphoria they associated with MDMA. Reports of ego-dissolution or 'death' of the self commonly linked to increased feelings of connection and wellbeing. The unity theme most frequently took ecological and animistic forms in this Norwegian sample. Participants often used nature-based metaphors and drew on indigenous or shamanic references (for example, Terence McKennaʼs ideas about plants), describing trees, berries or landscapes as animate or communicative and sometimes claiming that the plants or earth 'showed' them insights about how to live. Although none identified as active Christians, some recounted God-like voices or entities framed in secular or psychological terms. The authors note that these ecological storylines reflect contemporary cultural and political preoccupations with climate, biodiversity loss and environmental activism, which participants invoked to ground and interpret their experiences. Participants also used these narratives to construct personal identity transformations: many claimed positive changes such as increased openness, reduced judgement of others, humility about knowledge, learning to live closer to nature (for instance by growing plants), and adopting pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Bad trips were acknowledged but often reframed over time as having yielded existential insight. Overall, the data show a pattern consistent with classical mystical categories while simultaneously coloured by locally salient cultural storylines emphasising ecology rather than traditional religion.

Pedersen and colleagues interpret the findings as supporting a dual reading of psychedelic-occasioned mystical experiences: on one level participants’ reports exhibit archetypal features long described in mysticism research—ineffability, noetic quality, time/space transcendence, ego-dissolution and intense positive affect—while on another level those core experiences are mediated and made meaningful through culturally available narratives. In this Norwegian sample, secular ecological and political storylines—concerns about climate, nature, plants and biodiversity—featured prominently as resources for explaining and integrating mystical material, enabling participants to craft personal identity narratives that emphasise moral and behavioural change. The authors situate these observations within debates about universality versus mediation of mystical experiences, aligning with scholars who argue that cultural context shapes how such experiences are interpreted and narrated. They further note that the immediate context of use matters: rituals, ceremonies or therapeutic settings can steer meaning-making differently from party or rave contexts, where bonding and social connection may be emphasised rather than explicit mystical framing. Pedersen and colleagues also compare their findings with prior studies that located other cultural frames (for example neoliberal discourses in earlier UK research), arguing that contemporary Norwegian narratives reflect a political ecology salient among young, educated participants. Limitations acknowledged by the authors include the non-representative nature of the sample (self-selected, highly educated, predominantly male and largely urban), the possible influence of the interview setting and interviewer characteristics on participantsʼ narratives, and the inability to verify clinical or psychiatric histories. They also emphasise that their focus is on how participants narratively make sense of experiences rather than on objective verification of phenomenology. The authors conclude that narratives both explain and shape psychedelic experiences and that understanding cultural storylines is essential for interpreting reports of mystical episodes and associated personal change.