On psychedelic experiences “mystical” and otherwise: A basic dimensional model

This recent Journal of Psychedelic Psychiatry article begins: "Extraordinary psychological states occasioned by the use of psychedelic compounds — so called “mystical experiences” — occupy a central role in contemporary psychedelic research.  The prevailing assumption is that mystical experiences are fundamentally positive, can be validly measured through specialized instruments such as the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire, and that such experiences drive the beneficial outcomes documented in clinical reports. Critics of this model contend that the full range of experiences that occur during psychedelic sessions, which may also be deemed “mystical”, are not captured by this positivity bias, arguing for a fuller conceptual framework that would include such experiences as the profoundly destabilizing and dissociative states that are the hallmark of “bad trips”. This article provides a basic conceptual model that categorizes the varieties of psychedelic experience as a function of two continuous dimensions: Meaningfulness (ranging from High Meaning to Meaninglessness) and Affect (ranging from Positive to Negative Affect). The model accounts for the phenomenological differences that underpin prototypical mystical experiences, identifies key attributes of specific states, and describes dynamical processes that may emerge during a psychedelic session.  Moreover, the model differentiates experiences traditionally framed as mystical from putatively non-mystical varieties as a function of the intensity of experience — thus, as a matter of degree, not of kind. Finally, the model has the potential to prepare psychedelic therapists and their clients for the range and variety of experiences that may be encountered during psychedelic sessions."

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