Changes in Spirituality Among Ayahuasca Ceremony Novice Participants

Introduction

Andritzky and colleagues situate this study within a broader debate about whether conventional psychopharmacology sufficiently addresses the needs of people with psychological distress, and whether psychoactive substances used in ritual contexts might instead foster enduring spiritual growth and wellbeing. Earlier literature, largely anthropological and anecdotal, documents longstanding ritual use of ayahuasca in Amazonian traditions and reports that psychedelic experiences can resemble spontaneous mystical episodes; however, empirical research specifically addressing ayahuasca's effects on subjective spirituality is scarce. The authors also note methodological limitations in prior psychedelic research, including small samples, uncontrolled designs, and measures that may conflate religiosity with broader spiritual or mystical constructs. This study set out to examine whether participating in a single ayahuasca ceremony changes participants' subjective experience of spirituality and, if so, how. Spirituality was operationalised as focus on, reverence for, openness to, and connectedness with something believed to be beyond one’s full understanding or individual existence. The primary hypothesis was that first-time ceremony participants would show positive changes in spiritual wellbeing and mystical-type experiences, measured with quantitative scales and explored via qualitative interviews and written accounts. The investigation combines observational, quantitative, and qualitative methods to capture immediate and short-term follow-up effects in two geographically distinct ceremony groups.