Meditation and psychedelics facilitate similar types of mystical, psychological, and philosophical-existential insights predictive of wellbeing: A qualitative-quantitative approach

Both psychedelic substances and meditation have been proposed to facilitate personally meaningful and transformative experiences, where insights have been proposed as a central component. However, previous research has mainly relied on questionnaires, which limit the range of insights that can be identified. We recruited participants who reported personally meaningful experiences facilitated by either a psychedelic substance (including classic and non-classic psychedelics; n = 147) or meditation (n = 66) and asked them to provide narrative reports of the insights they experienced. Qualitative analysis revealed three main insight themes: Mystical-type (subclasses Unity, Metaphysical, and Other), Psychological (subclasses Metacognitive, Value, and Compassion), and Philosophical-existential (subclasses Purpose, Value, and Other). Mystical-type insights were more frequent in reports of meditation experiences, while value insights were more frequent in psychedelic reports. Otherwise, the reported insights were highly similar across the two types of reports, and no differences were observed between various psychoactive substances. Regression analyses indicated that metacognitive insights were positively associated with perceived improvements in positive affect, while mystical-type insights predicted increased meaning in life. Unexpectedly, compassion insights predicted lower levels of peace of mind and cognitive defusion. These findings suggest that both psychedelics and meditation can facilitate a broad range of insights that are not fully captured by existing questionnaires. The findings extend previous research indicating similarities between psychedelic and meditation experiences and can be taken to support the notion that transformative experiences are not unique to psychedelics and can be facilitated through various means.