Psychedelic Trips Resemble Near-Death Experiences, New Study Shows—What Does It Mean?

A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium and Imperial College London has revealed striking similarities between the altered states of consciousness experienced during near-death events and those induced by psychedelic drugs.

Near-death experiences are more common than we think. Estimates suggest that between 5% and 10% of the general population report them. These experiences were recurrently dismissed by scientists as fantastical, but recent research has begun to take them more seriously. As the New York Times reported, the new study builds on this emerging field by directly comparing NDEs with experiences induced by psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin mushrooms.

A New Approach To Studying Near-Death Experiences

Studying near-death experiences in a laboratory setting is inherently challenging, given that they often occur in life-threatening situations. To circumvent this, researchers have sought alternative ways to study similar states of consciousness without putting participants at risk. Psychedelic drugs, known for their ability to profoundly alter perception and consciousness, offer a unique opportunity to explore these states safely.

The study surveyed 31 individuals, predominantly men from the United States and Britain, who had both NDEs and experiences with psychedelic substances. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing various aspects of their experiences, including ego dissolution, psychological insight and memory potency. They also answered open-ended questions that provided deeper insights into their perceptions.

Survey Reveals Common Themes In Altered States

The results showed significant overlap between the two types of experiences. Participants often reported a sensation of leaving the earthly world, altered perceptions of time and feelings of peace and ineffability. Both near-death and psychedelic experiences appeared to have lasting effects on participants, with NDEs often reducing the fear of death and psychedelics enhancing a sense of connection to others, nature and the cosmos.

The substance that gave the most comparable experience was ketamine, followed by Salvia divinorum and a range of typical serotonergic psychedelics, such as DMT and psilocybin.

“For the first time, we have a quantitative study with personal testimony from people who have had both of these experiences,” said Charlotte Martial, a neuroscientist at the University of Liège and one of the study’s authors. “Now we can say for sure that psychedelics can be a kind of window through which people can enter a rich, subjective state resembling a near-death experience.”

“It is significant and intriguing that the researchers' findings replicate many of the findings from prior comparative studies, including enduring effects regarding the personal, psychological, and spiritual meaningfulness of these experiences,” said Anthony Bossis, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University who was not involved in the study.

Key Differences Between Psychedelic And Near-Death States

Despite the similarities, there were notable differences between the two experiences. Psychedelics were more likely to produce strong visual hallucinations, while near-death experiences often involved a more pronounced sensation of leaving the body.

Dinesh Pal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, suggested that psychedelics could be a powerful tool for studying near-death experiences because they do not require participants to be in life-threatening situations. However, he also cautioned that the study’s findings might be limited by the methods used to measure these experiences.

Sandeep Nayak, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, echoed this sentiment, noting that the study was not definitive in distinguishing between the two states. “It could be that these states are all deeply similar in a fundamental way,” he said. “But it could be that our measures are too crude to differentiate them.”

Future Research Directions

The researchers acknowledged that this study is just the beginning. Future research could explore the brain mechanisms underlying mystical experiences and how these phenomena vary across different cultures and individuals. The team also plans to investigate whether certain psychedelic drugs, such as 5-MeO-DMT, might have an even stronger overlap with near-death experiences.

“There's a lot of conjecture that various altered states may be the same kind of thing — that we're just seeing different parts of the elephant,” said Dr. Christopher Timmermann, a research fellow at Imperial College London and one of the study’s authors.

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