ArticlePloS one2025
Navigating groundlessness: An interview study on dealing with ontological shock and existential distress following psychedelic experiences.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extended difficulties after psychedelic experiences: Prevalence and associations in a global, multilingual sample.Research square · 2026Article
- Difficulties following naturalistic psychedelic use and associations with adverse childhood experiences.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Learning from boundlessness: epistemic shifts towards a holistic worldview following psychedelic experiences.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- Ontologically Challenging Psychedelic Experiences: Considerations for Managing Associated Distress.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- Lived experience as systems-relevant evidence in psychedelic public health.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Practitioner perspectives on extended difficulties and optimal support strategies following psychedelic experiences: a qualitative analysis.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Recalled childhood trauma and post-psychedelic trajectories of change in a mixed-methods study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Psychedelic Use and Positive Adult Development in Emerging Adulthood: An Integrative Review.Brain and behavior · 2025Review
- Psychedelic iatrogenic structural dissociation: an exploratory hypothesis on dissociative risks in psychedelic use.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- The central clinical relevance of near-death experiences in acute care contexts: identification, prediction, and management.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Strategies for resolving challenging psychedelic experiences: insights from a mixed-methods study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Psychedelic induced mystical experiences have been largely assumed to drive the therapeutic effects of these substances, which may in part be mediated by changes in metaphysical beliefs. However, there is growing evidence that psychedelic experiences can also trigger long lasting distress. Studies of persisting difficulties suggest a high prevalence of ontological challenges (related to the way people understand reality and existence). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 people who reported experiencing existential distress following psychedelic experiences. We explored the phenomenology of participants' difficulties and the ways they navigated them, including what they found helpful and unhelpful in their process. Thematic analysis revealed that participants experienced persistent existential struggle, marked by confusion about their existence and purpose and preoccupation with meaning-making. Along with cognitive difficulties stemming from the ungrounding of their prior frameworks for understanding, participants' ontologically challenging experiences also had significant emotional, social, bodily and other functional impact. Participants managed to alleviate their distress primarily through 'grounding': practices of embodiment and the social and cognitive normalisation of their experience. Our findings suggest that psychedelic experiences act as pivotal mental states that can facilitate transformative learning processes, challenging and expanding the ways individuals make meaning. This research contributes to the growing field of psychedelic integration by exploring the complex pathways through which people reestablish coherence and grow following ontologically challenging psychedelic experiences.
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