Transpersonal Ecodelia: Surveying Psychedelically Induced Biophilia

The paper situates itself within debates about ecological identity and the measurable construct of 'relationship with nature', pointing to ecopsychology and deep ecology as frameworks that link spirituality and a non-anthropocentric view of human–nature relations. Earlier quantitative work has shown that scores of nature connectedness can change and that lifetime psychedelic use and psychedelic mystical experiences have been associated with increases in nature relatedness and pro-environmental attitudes. However, those quantitative measures are limited in capturing the subjective, multisensory and often ineffable qualities of psychedelic-occasioned changes in relation to nature. This study set out to explore, using qualitative methods, how people who have used psychedelics describe changes in their relationship with the natural world. By gathering free-text responses from a large sample of people with prior psychedelic experience, the investigators aimed to identify recurring themes and pathways through which psychedelic experiences may foster nature connectedness, and to highlight directions for further ecodelic research. The emphasis was on eliciting rich, participant-centred descriptions rather than on testing specific hypotheses.

Data were collected via an online survey from a convenience sample of 272 self-selected psychedelic users. Participants were recruited from two online communities: Breaking Convention conference attendees (n = 32) and a psychedelic user group on Facebook (n = 240). Eligibility required reporting prior use of at least one drug listed in the survey. The extracted text does not clearly report additional demographic details beyond these recruitment sources. Participants completed forced-response items including the NR-6 (a brief measure of nature relatedness) and the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) scale, followed by five open-text response boxes asking about factors and experiences related to the development of pro-ecological attitudes. Ethical approval was obtained from the Psychology and Counselling Research Ethics Panel at the University of Greenwich. Qualitative analysis followed an experiential-inductive thematic approach. Two researchers (A.I. and F.H.) independently double-coded responses and iteratively developed codes and themes using NVivo (version 11). Latent superordinate themes were subsequently refined by the first author (A.I.). The analytic strategy was semantic in orientation, emphasising participants' reported content while acknowledging the interpretive role of the researchers. Quantitative data were parsed separately (Qualtrics > SPSS > NVivo) and analysed for a different collaborative manuscript; the qualitative data presented here were retained for thematic analysis.

Thematic analysis produced four superordinate themes: transpersonal, revealer, amplifier, and psychedelic use in nature, with the transpersonal theme being the most prevalent across responses. Participants described multiple pathways by which psychedelic experiences altered or deepened their relationship to nature. Under the transpersonal theme the most commonly reported experience was a unitive or boundary-dissolving sense of interconnectedness, expressed as experiences of "no divide or separation" and "seamless consciousness." Subthemes included reported interspecies communication (for example, feeling comforted by a flower or able to "communicate with trees"), transmogrification or embodiment experiences (participants reporting becoming or being a tree, a river or "I became the forest"), spiritual or energy-based framings (references to Gaia, plant networks, or an undefined life-force), and reinterpretations in which harming nature was experienced as self-harm. The revealer theme captured accounts in which psychedelics disclosed previously unperceived patterns or truths about nature. Participants reported insight and noetic feelings that small things were part of a larger mechanism, enhanced pattern recognition, intense awe in response to natural phenomena, and vivid nature-related visions conveying information (for example descriptions of the mycelial network or trees communicating about ecological harm). Behavioural consequences linked to these revelations included changes in diet for some individuals, commonly reduced meat consumption or vegetarianism/veganism, though a minority reported adopting meat-eating rationales after their experiences. The amplifier theme described how psychedelics reinforced and intensified pre-existing connections to nature. Many respondents who already had childhood or ongoing exposure to natural settings described psychedelics as validating, strengthening and crystallising their prior biophilic attitudes. Reported lifestyle changes in this group included increased recycling, reduced consumption, dietary shifts, and a heightened sense of duty or compulsion to act pro-environmentally. Finally, the theme of psychedelic use in nature described the contextual role of outdoor settings. Participants frequently reported that using psychedelics in natural environments heightened nature-connecting effects and often preferred to take substances outdoors. Common activities included walking, hiking, camping and swimming; psilocybin mushrooms were repeatedly associated with nature-connected experiences. Natural settings were also reported to function as a remedial or harm-reduction resource during challenging trips, with participants using proximity to earth or water to reduce anxiety and regain equilibrium. The extracted text does not provide quantitative effect sizes or prevalence statistics beyond the thematic prominence of transpersonal experiences.

Luke and colleagues interpret these findings as evidence that psychedelics can influence nature connectedness through multiple mechanisms: eliciting transpersonal experiences of interconnectedness, revealing new perspectives or insights about the living world, amplifying pre-existing biophilic dispositions, and interacting with the context of natural settings to potentiate effects and manage acute distress. The authors situate the unitive or boundary-dissolving experiences as a key mediator, linking them to increased empathy, stewardship and pro-environmental attitudes. They also connect reported animistic or spirit-based framings to broader anthropological and indigenous perspectives in which communication with non-human entities is culturally embedded. The discussion links the themes to prior quantitative and qualitative work showing post-psychedelic increases in nature relatedness, and to proposed mechanisms such as awe and ego-dissolution. The authors note that psilocybin in particular has been associated in recent analyses with stronger nature-connecting effects and recommend further investigation of drug-specific and setting-specific differences. They emphasise that natural settings may enhance mystical-type experiences and serve as psychologically soothing contexts but also caution that outdoor settings are less controlled than clinical environments. Limitations acknowledged include the self-selecting nature of the sample (attendees of a psychedelic conference and an online user group), positive reporting bias, reliance on retrospective self-report of often ineffable experiences, and difficulty disentangling psychedelic effects from socially and culturally mediated factors. The authors caution that their sample is likely to over-represent participants with favourable or enthusiastic attitudes towards psychedelics and that negative or adverse experiences are not uncommon outside supervised settings. They propose future research to compare compounds, examine the role of setting systematically, and use more controlled designs to establish mechanisms and generalisability.

The authors conclude that psychedelic experiences, as described by this self-selected sample, can both kindle a new kinship with nature in people without prior nature-centric identities and deepen an existing relationship for those already connected. Such experiences are said to contribute to formation of an 'ecological self'—a broader, transpersonal sense of identity grounded in perceived interconnectivity with the rest of nature. Given the potential relevance to pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour, the authors suggest further research into how psychedelics and context may be harnessed responsibly to support reconnection with the natural world.