Knowledge Tree
psychedelic use
Also known as: psychedelic consumption
Facts (32)
Sources
Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org 16 facts
claimPsychedelic use in early human groups increased participation in social activities such as playing, laughing, singing, dancing, storytelling, and religious rituals.
claimIt is currently unclear whether psychedelic use was established early in hominin life (potentially explaining the evolution of the socio-cognitive niche) or emerged later in human life (potentially enhancing cognition and sociality coincidentally).
claimPsychedelic use could have created a feedback loop in ancient hominins by increasing social cognition and symbolic behavior, which in turn selected for further increases in those capacities by enriching the social and semiotic environment.
perspectivePsychedelic use may have declined in modern human societies because safer, more effective, or more convenient methods to access altered states of consciousness and support social bonding—such as music and religion—have become integral parts of the human niche.
claimThe niche-construction dynamic, involving a combination of cultural and biological selection, explains why psychedelic use is not ubiquitous while institutionalized altered states of consciousness, music, and religion are cross-cultural universals.
claimLifetime psychedelic use is associated with markers of physical health, including self-reported overall health, body mass index, and the incidence of heart conditions or cancer in the past 12 months.
claimPsychedelic use may have established positive feedback loops with core features of the evolving hominin lifeway, contributing to the coevolving dynamic that structured human evolution.
claimRitualized psychedelic consumption was central to group healing, decision-making, management of ecological relations, and the creation of individual and social identity in many premodern societies, as documented by researchers including Rätsch (2005), Guerra-Doce (2014, 2015), and Kennedy (2014).
referenceN. W. Sweat, L. W. Bates, and P. S. Hendricks published a study on the associations of naturalistic classic psychedelic use, mystical experience, and creative problem solving in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 2016.
referenceIn many pre-modern human societies, psychedelic consumption was institutionalized in ritual activities focused on healing, divination (obtaining inaccessible information), and socialization (such as initiations), as documented by Dobkin de Ríos (1984), Furst (1990), Schultes et al. (2001), Rätsch (2005), Quirce et al. (2010), and Leptourgos et al. (2020).
perspectiveThe authors of 'Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution' argue that further empirical research is needed to evaluate the role and impact of psychedelic consumption on human adaptation and evolutionary history.
claimThe reinforcement mechanism for psychedelic use in humans is related to intersubjective, social, and symbolic life, and cognitive capacities involving perceptions of greater awareness and profound insights not found in species with less developed frontal cortices.
claimRitual specialists program and orchestrate psychedelic use to produce experiences of a confirmatory nature, which reinforce socially situated expectations established prior to the altered state.
claimThere is an association between lifetime classic psychedelic use and markers of physical health.
claimKettner et al. (2021) showed that communitas—an intense sense of togetherness and shared humanity—mediates enduring increases in psychological well-being and social connectedness following psychedelic use in ceremonial retreats.
claimPsychedelic use can amplify symbolic behavior and a predisposition for collective rituals and synchronicity by stimulating the deployment of rhythmic, hermeneutical, and rhetorical activity to communicate ecstatic and visionary experiences, as argued by Doyle (2011).
Published Studies — Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and ... hopkinspsychedelic.org 12 facts
referenceA 2017 study by Garcia-Romeu, Griffiths, and Johnson published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence analyzed an online survey regarding addiction remission associated with psychedelic use.
referenceA 2019 study by Garcia-Romeu, Davis, Erowid, Erowid, Griffiths, and Johnson examined the cessation and reduction in alcohol consumption and misuse following psychedelic use.
referenceSweeney, M. M., Nayak, S., Hurwitz, E. S., Mitchell, L. N., Swift, T. C., & Griffiths, R. R. published a study titled 'Acute and enduring effects of naturalistic psychedelic use among Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States' in the journal Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne in 2022.
referenceZeifman, R. J., Yu, D., Singhal, N., Wang, G., Nayak, S. M., Weissman, C. R. published 'Effects of Psychedelic Use on Racial Trauma Symptoms and Ethnic Identity among Asians in North America' in the 'Journal of Psychoactive Drugs' in 2022.
referenceWeiss et al. published a paper titled 'Psychiatric risks for worsened mental health after psychedelic use' in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2024.
claimNaturalistic psychedelic use is associated with persisting reductions in cannabis, opioid, and stimulant misuse, according to an online survey.
referenceHeller and Barrett published a study in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology in 2024 exploring psychedelic use in athletes and their attitudes toward psilocybin-assisted therapy in concussion recovery.
referenceErritzoe et al. published a study in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 2024 regarding the epidemiology of psychedelic use among United States military veterans.
referenceA 2017 study by Johnson, Garcia-Romeu, Johnson, and Griffiths published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology analyzed an online survey regarding tobacco smoking cessation associated with naturalistic psychedelic use.
referenceBrasher, T., Rosen, D., and Spinella, M. published a study titled 'Psychedelic Use and Behavioral Addictions' in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 2024.
referenceZech, J. M., Yaden, D. B., and Jones, G. M. published a study on the associations between psychedelic use and cannabis use disorder in a nationally representative sample in Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2025.
referenceNayak, S. M., Singh, M., Yaden D. B., and Griffiths R.R. published 'Belief changes associated with psychedelic use' in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2023.
The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences - Frontiers frontiersin.org Sep 27, 2017 2 facts
The Montreal model: an integrative biomedical-psychedelic ... frontiersin.org 1 fact
claimPatients with chronic psychiatric disorders may experience a beneficial 'pause' from suffering by temporarily entering a profoundly different state through psychedelic use, though this state carries a risk of developing addiction or pro-avoidance beliefs.
Ancient Roots of Today's Emerging Renaissance in ... pure.johnshopkins.edu 1 fact
claimPsychedelic use has historically been a component of ritual healing experiences in human societies.