Michael Pollan

How might meditation support preparation for, navigation of, and learning from psychedelic experiences? I'm delighted to share our new manuscript, "Exploring the Interface of Meditation and Psychedelics: A Qualitative Analysis of Experienced Practitioners' Perspectives on Psychedelic Preparation," now published in Psychedelics. We analyzed open-ended responses from 82 regular meditators across 18 countries, each with at least one psychedelic experience, such as psilocybin or LSD. Three core themes emerged: 1️⃣ Optimizing Pre-Psychedelic Mindset: Participants described meditation as cultivating a positive mood, openness, cognitive flexibility, and a capacity to surrender before the experience. 2️⃣ Navigating Challenges: Participants felt that meditation made non-dual states and intense emotions feel more familiar, and helped them meet difficult moments with acceptance, equanimity, and an understanding of impermanence. 3️⃣ Facilitating Psychological Development: Participants used meditation to both set intentions before their experience and to integrate insights afterward. They viewed the changes from psychedelic experiences as short-term and opposed treating them as a “magic pill.” These accounts suggest meditation and psychedelics may work synergistically along a continuum of psychological development, with psychedelic experiences embedded in a longer trajectory of meditative development. These findings are based on participants' self-reported experiences. Because participants were recruited for their experience with both meditation and psychedelics, their responses may be biased in favor of meditation-based preparation for psychedelics. Future research is needed to fully understand possible synergies between these practices. Congratulations to our first author Mia C. Riedel, and co-authors Rosalind G. McAlpine (@rosmcalpine) and Terje Sparby (@terjesparby). We are grateful for the practitioners who participated in our research. Do our results resonate with your research, teaching, or practice? Let us know! The full article is included in the comments below ⤵️ May this work benefit many 🙏