The Meaning-Enhancing Properties of Psychedelics... — Research Summary & Context | Blossom

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The Meaning-Enhancing Properties of Psychedelics and Their Mediator Role in Psychedelic Therapy, Spirituality, and Creativity

This perspective article (2018) looks at the evidence for meaning-enhancing as a mediator in psychedelic therapy, spirituality and outcomes on creativity.

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Authors

Ido Hartogsohn

Published

March 6, 2018

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

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Abstract

Past research has demonstrated to the ability of psychedelics to enhance suggestibility, and pointed to their ability to amplify perception of meaning. This paper examines the existing evidence for the meaning-enhancing properties of psychedelics, and argues that the tendency of these agents to enhance the perception of significance offers valuable clues to explaining their reported ability to stimulate a variety of therapeutic processes, enhance creativity, and instigate mystical-type experiences. Building upon previous research, which suggested the potential role of psychedelic meaning-enhancement in enhancing placebo response, the paper explores the mechanisms by which the meaning-amplifying properties of psychedelics might also play a role in enhancing creativity, as well as in effecting mystical-type experiences. The wider social and public-health implications of this hypothesis are discussed, and suggestions are made as to the various ways in which scientific understanding of the meaning-enhancing properties of psychedelics might be advanced and utilized.

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Research Summary of 'The Meaning-Enhancing Properties of Psychedelics and Their Mediator Role in Psychedelic Therapy, Spirituality, and Creativity'

Introduction

Lebedev and colleagues present the idea that a central, though understudied, property of classic psychedelics is their capacity to amplify the perception of meaning. Earlier clinical reports, historical accounts and contemporary research are invoked to show that psychedelics reliably intensify the perceived significance of mental content and external stimuli. The paper notes that between roughly two thirds (about 66%) and 86% of participants in supportive therapeutic settings rate their psychedelic sessions among the most meaningful or spiritually significant experiences of their lives. Such effects have led to common descriptors of these drugs as "mind-manifesting", amplifiers or magnifiers of consciousness, and to contrasts in the literature between meaning-amplifying psychedelics and experience-flattening agents such as SSRI antidepressants. The study sets out to examine the existing evidence for these meaning-enhancing properties and to argue that this tendency helps explain why psychedelics appear to facilitate therapeutic change, stimulate mystical-type experiences, and sometimes enhance creativity. Drawing on the concept of the "meaning response" (a reframing of placebo effects as biologically potent responses to meaning), the paper proposes that psychedelics amplify placebo/meaning responses and that this amplification interacts with factors such as set and setting. The authors therefore position the paper as a theoretical and interpretive review that links phenomenology, clinical observations and prior empirical work to generate hypotheses about mechanisms and wider implications for therapy, spirituality and creative practice.

References (20)

Papers cited by this study that are also in Blossom

Psychedelics and Creativity: a Review of the Quantitative Literature

Baggot, M. J. · Preprints (2015)

Patient Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Belser, A. B., Agin-Liebes, G. I., Swift, T. C. et al. · Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2017)

LSD enhances suggestibility in healthy volunteers

Carhart-Harris, R. L., Kaelen, M., Whalley, M. G. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2014)

257 cited

The therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs: past, present, and future

Carhart-Harris, R. L., Goodwin, G. M. · Neuropsychopharmacology (2017)

Serotonin and brain function: a tale of two receptors

Carhart-Harris, R. L., Nutt, D. J. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2017)

Discussion

Recognising psychedelics as meaning-enhancers, Lebedev and colleagues argue, reframes how one understands their mode of action and potential outcomes. Conceptually, the authors suggest that amplification of meaning can account for several hallmark psychedelic effects: increased therapeutic responsiveness via enhanced meaning/placebo effects, the strengthening of mystical-type experiences through heightened noetic quality and perceived authority, and the facilitation of creative exploration by making ideas and solutions feel more significant and plausible. The paper highlights that because meaning is multiplied under psychedelics, contextual factors such as expectation, intention and the therapeutic relationship (set and setting) become especially consequential. The discussion situates the meaning-enhancement hypothesis within a broader cultural frame, noting that late modern societies face an "impoverishment of meaning" which correlates with rising depression, suicidality and other psychopathologies. The authors raise the possibility that psychedelics, by bolstering individual and social senses of meaning and purpose, might contribute to resilience against such trends, while emphasising that current evidence is preliminary and far from definitive. Ethical questions are also addressed: critics who view pharmacologically induced meaning as illusory are countered with the argument that there is no single privileged ‘‘correct’’ mental framework and that artificially amplified meaning can be valuable if it proves durable and beneficial in practice. The authors concede that this normative question should not be settled by medicine alone and note that the concern is less pressing in cases of severe pathology where psychotropic interventions are already commonly accepted. The paper also acknowledges potential downsides: by intensifying significance, psychedelics can facilitate not only spiritual epiphanies but also paranoia, amplified anxiety and other pathological thought patterns. Overall, the authors call for further empirical research to test the proposed mediating role of meaning enhancement, to clarify its clinical benefits and risks, and to explore how deliberate management of meaning-related factors (for example, manipulating expectation, intention or therapeutic context) might optimise outcomes.

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SECTION

Extraordinarily, though the ability of psychedelics to enhance perception of meaning is supported by the literature, it has so far not been the focus of any deliberate and sustained line of inquiry (For current research supporting the meaningenhancing properties of psychedelics see. Nevertheless, hints and traces of this idea and its significant implications permeate both popular and clinical psychedelic literature. In Huxley's Doors of Perception, the classic text that brought psychedelics to popular attention in the West, the author noted that under the effects of the drugs objects were "all but quivering under the pressure of significance by which they were charged, "; For a similar observation seeand made enlightening observations about psychedelic aesthetics and its crucial relation to radical alterations in the perception of meaning; for similar observations see also. Clinical research has also provided data to support the claim that psychedelics enhance the perception of meaning. Remarkably, one of the most striking qualities of psychedelics, which was noted on by both 1960s as well as by contemporary psychedelic researchers, is their ability to induce experiences which people regard as extremely meaningful. Between two thirds to 86% of those who have psychedelic experiences in a supportive therapeutic setting consider them to be either one of the five most meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives, or the single most meaningful experience. Proving the clinical efficacy of psychedelics has posed considerable challenges for psychedelic researchers for decades, yet the ability of these agents to reliably elicit subjectively-perceived highly meaningful experiences is beyond doubt. While this in itself constitutes no proof, it is telling that the very word "psychedelic" (from the Greek Psykhe-psyche + Deloun-reveal, manifest) seems to quite straightforwardly convey the idea that psychedelics enhance the perception of meaning. The widely accepted designation of these substances as "mind-manifesting" or "mind-revealing" speaks to their ability to enhance and accentuate (by "manifesting" or "revealing") whatever objects exist in the mind. Psychedelics have commonly been described as magnifiers, amplifiers, and augmenters of consciousness. What these overlapping, perhaps even coterminous, terms seem to share is the recognition that psychedelics intensify mental phenomena and cause them and their significance to appear bigger, vaster, and more dramatic than otherwise. Additional evidence of the widespread recognition that a key aspect of psychedelic efficacy relates to the agents' ability to enhance the perception of meaning can be found in the growing discourse contrasting the dissimilar modes in which psychedelics and SSRI-anti depressants treat depression. Several recent papers present SSRI medication as agents that diminish the intensity of experience, thereby allowing individuals who are otherwise overwhelmed by feelings to adequately cope and function. In these and similar accounts, SSRI's are regarded as commensurate with a less dramatic, more flattened experience of the world. Psychedelics, by contrast, are regularly described in these and other accounts as doing the exact opposite: as drugs which amplify consciousness, and augment the intensity of perception, emotional reactions, and neurological indicators such as amygdala response. Without engaging the validity of such ideas, this discourse, which brings psychedelics in conjunction with another, allegedly diametrically opposed family of psychoactives, provides further evidence of the widely held view that psychedelics enhance perception of meaning. SSRI therapy, it argues, functions by diminishing emotional volume, thereby making experiences more bearable, while psychedelic therapy functions by amplifying emotional volume and demanding that patients "face the demon." Examining psychedelics through the prism of their ability to enhance perception of meaning provides valuable insights into their remarkable effects by allowing a keener appreciation of the different ways in which amplification of experience shapes key aspects and characteristics of psychedelic action. More specifically, the meaning-enhancing effects of psychedelics seems to play a key role in the fields of therapy, spirituality, and creativity enhancement. Coming first to the issue of therapy. In a recent paper I have argued that a substantial part of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics might be explained by bringing psychedelic theory into contact with the growing field of placebo research. This relation becomes evident when one considers the fact that placebo researchers have proposed the concept of "meaning response" as a more accurate term to replace the arguably problematic term "placebo". The concept of "meaning response" advances the idea that subjective experiences of knowledge, symbol, and meaning can have pronounced biological, and medically therapeutic effects of the type commonly described as "placebo". The amplification of meaning by psychedelics therefore automatically entails amplification of placebo, and can offer help in explaining psychedelics' extraordinarily versatile uses and applicability in a wide variety of medical conditions. Understanding psychedelics as enhancers of meaning-response also explains why the concept of Set and Setting-a doctrine for the beneficial management of meaning response-has emerged within psychedelic research. The psychological context (set) and sociocultural context (setting) of a psychedelic experience are considered crucial because their meaning is significantly multiplied by the effects of the drugs, rendering each and any factor of extreme importance. The relevance of set and setting, and the validity of the psychedelics-as-placebo-enhancers approach can be clinically tested by controlling for variables such as expectation, intention, and doctor-patient relationship (for more concrete on how this might be done see. Mystical-type experiences are also enhanced by the meaningenhancing properties of psychedelics. Evidence of the ability of psychedelics to induce spiritually significant experiences were provided in Pahnke's 1962 Good Friday Experiment, whose results were later corroborated by recent studies into the mysticomimetic qualities of psychedelics. Crucially, one of the four principal features of such mystical-type experiences, as defined by James, is their noetic quality, i.e., the experience of gaining access to a profounder, more significant plane of existence imbued with paramount authority and significance which transcend ordinary reality. It is highly conceivable that such noetic qualities would be strengthened by meaning-enhancement. Similarly, conversion experiences are often triggered by a sense of encounter with a formidable, awesome, "greater-than-human" presence that radiates immense significance and meaning-an encounter with an hyperreal dimension of overblown metaphysical proportions, which some religious scholars classically referred to as the numinous or mysterium tremendum. This experience of confronting an overwhelming, ineffable, and even unfathomable quality of the world is arguably facilitated by the tendency of psychedelics to imbue the mind and the external world with vibrant significance, as noted by. By causing mental and external phenomena to appear immensely more significant, psychedelics facilitate magical thinking and a reenchanted experience of the world (Carhart-Harris, 2013). Crucially, the perception of the significance of psychedelically induced mystical-type experiences is magnified as well. In other words, mystical-type experiences and insights obtained on psychedelics subjectively appear more significant than comparable non-psychedelically induced experiences and insights by virtue of the meaning-enhancing action of these drugs. Meaning-enhancement arguably plays an additional role in psychedelically induced enhancement of creativity and problemsolving capabilities. While research on psychedelic enhancement of creativity is scant, largely dated, and often inconclusivesome evidence does point to the creativity enhancing properties of psychedelics. Beyond popular lore which credits psychedelics for the performance of great creative feats, several clinical studies have indicated creativity improvements following psychedelic use, while others have called for the renewal of research into the creative benefits of psychedelic use. Here as well, meaning enhancement might play a key role. By magnifying the perceived significance of creative challenges and insights psychedelics provide users with the impetus to pursue new, less obvious lines of ideation that they might otherwise have ignored; and with enhanced motivation to explore new creative directions to their fullest ramifications. Some investigators have noted the potential role of meaning finding in enhancing creativitywhile others have pointed to the importance of other mediators that could arguably be correlated with enhanced perception of meaning such as reduced inhibition or heightened empathy. By imbuing possible solutions with a magnified sense of meaning and plausibility, psychedelics might assist in reducing inhibitions, self-criticism, and kindle greater concentration and enthusiasm for creative exploration. Crucially, here as well, psychedelics might also enhance the perceived significance of such creative breakthroughs. As with spiritual experiences, this is not to say that creativebreakthroughs with psychedelics are invalid, but that one should be aware of the tendency to overstate the importance of such breakthroughs, particularly during, or shortly after psychedelic experience. Finally, it should be noted that the meaning-intensifying properties of psychedelics also play a key role in precipitating what has been described as their psychotomimetic or psychosis inducing properties. The increased intensity that psychedelics bring to experience, and the increased significance with which they imbue mental objects can manifest itself equally in spiritual epiphanies as well as in paranoid thought patterns, intensified anxieties, amplified fantasies, and other pathological thought patterns.

DISCUSSION

How does the recognition of the meaning-enhancing role of psychedelics alter our perception of these agents and their utility? One implication is to allow us a clearer understanding of their mode of action, of the potential outcomes of psychedelic experiences, as well as of the ways in which deliberate use of such meaning-enhancing qualities might assist therapy, enhance religious life, and facilitate creative activity. From a wider theoretical perspective, psychedelics' function as enhancers of meaning can be seen in the broader cultural context of late modernity's struggle to make sense and meaning of life in increasingly atomized, individualized, and stress-ridden societies; a difficulty compounded by the disappearing role of religion and the implosion of linear narratives of progress. Philosophers and sociologists have long warned that life in industrialized, technological societies is undergoing a process of impoverishment of meaning. Such tendencies might be brought in conjunction with growing empirical data on the rising prevalence of depression, suicidality, and other psychopathologies in modern societies. Several studies have demonstrated correlations between feelings of meaning in life and increased psychological well-being, increased longevity, as well as reduced risk of suicidality and depression. Perhaps, says Michael Steger, who studies the psychology of meaning, "meaning is a matter of life and death". Could psychedelics help fight rising rates of psychopathologies by bolstering individual and social sense of meaning and purpose? We are unquestionably still far from answering such questions, but evidence does point to potentially significant implications which the psychedelic meaning-enhancement model might have for fortifying society's resistance to mental pathology. Finally, considering the utility of psychedelics for the enhancement of sense meaning, certain metaphysical questions might enter the discussion. Namely, is it ethically acceptable to artificially bolster the meaning of experiences and relationships? Some might argue that the ability of psychedelics to amplify meaning beyond its normal dimensions turns them into nothing else than mental illusogens that create only illusions of profoundness. When drugs cause their users to find more meaning in their experiences and relationships than ordinary circumstances allow, might this represent an insidious form of self-deception? The argument seems compelling at first, yet it is arguably flawed. It relies on the assumption that there exists one "correct" mental framework from which to approach the world and that any psychochemically induced digression from that norm is inherently wrong. In practice, human ability to meaningfully relate and to authentically appreciate experiences is contingent on myriad factors of everyday life, and arguably strongly disrupted by the circumstances of life within atomized, competitive, high-stress, bureaucratized societies. The psychedelic perspective could thus be viewed along a two-poled spectrum which runs the gamut from utter depletion of meaning to overwhelming abundance of meaning. The question, then, is whether there is anything inherently wrong in using a chemical to find more meaning in one's life or in a close human relationship even when such artificiallystimulated insights of newly found intimacy and authenticity continue to prove themselves meaningful and helpful in the long run, as demonstrated by studies?. This is an intriguing and arguably normative issue which should not be left for medicine to decide, and it is rendered moot in cases where pathology and deep suffering is involved, as can be seen by the ample use of psychotropic medicine in contemporary psychiatry.

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