New research found that psychedelics and near-death experiences both reduced anxiety about death
found that psilocybin lessened depression and anxiety among 51 patients with life-threatening cancer. Co-author Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is hopeful that psychedelics could one day be used to help anyone who’s struggling with the fear of death.
Evidence suggests that psychedelics can affect the brain, including by promoting neuroplasticity, which refers to its ability to modify, change, and adapt. It’s harder to determine how near-death experiences impact the brain. However, both experiences—nearly dying and taking psychedelics—can be profound. About half of each group in the new study said that they’d encountered something they might call “God”—48% among the non-drug group, and 56% among people who’d used psychedelics.
The study isn’t a perfect representation of the range of what happens when people take psychedelics or have an unusual non-drug experience. For instance, the study authors point out that the participants were mostly white and American. They also opted to join the survey, which means they might have been especially motivated to share their experiences.
The next step is additional scientific research, says Griffiths, including broad surveys of the general population. For now, however, the new findings add hope that while death will always be inevitable, suffering at the end
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