Navigating Ontologically Challenging Psychedelic Experiences: From groundlessness to grounding
AbstractThere is growing evidence that psychedelic experiences can trigger long lasting distress and studies of persisting difficulties suggest a high prevalence of ontological challenges (related to the way people understand reality and
existence) [1]. In our latest Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project study [2], we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 people who reported 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 the kinds of distress that accompanied participants’ worldview and identity shifts; persistent preoccupation with making sense of the experience and confusion about their existence and purpose. 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 primarily alleviated their distress through ‘grounding’ practices of embodiment, and the social and cognitive normalization of their experiences. Psychedelic-induced ontological shock leads to the ungrounding of fundamental structures for understanding reality, which in absence of appropriate resources can destabilise individuals and impair their ability to function in everyday life. Psychedelic integration that follows ontologically challenging experiences may be conceptualised as a process of normalisation, rebuilding stable ground following the dissolution of prior frameworks for understanding the world. Findings will be discussed in the context of psychedelic-related difficulties and the challenges of integration. 1. Evans J, Robinson OC, Argyri EK, Suseelan S, Murphy-Beiner A, McAlpine R, Luke D, Michelle K, Prideaux E. (2023). Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: A mixed methods study. Plos ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293349 2. Argyri, E.K., Evans, J., Luke, D., Michael, P., Michelle, K., Rohani-Shukla, C., Suseelan, S., Prideaux, E., McAlpine, R., Murphy-Beiner, A., Robinson, O. (2024). Navigating Groundlessness: An interview study on dealing with ontological shock and existential distress following psychedelic experiences. SSRN https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4817368 |
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Speaker
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Eirini Ketzitzidou Argyri is a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter and a Research Fellow with the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project . She completed her Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology degree at the University of Ioannina, in Greece, and her MSc in Psychology of Education at the Institute of Education, UCL. Her work explores normality challenging and diversifying experiences. Prior to her shift to psychedelic academia she worked on projects studying prejudice and open mindedness in development, looking at the role of norms and morality in reasoning about exclusion. Eirini is particularly interested in the mechanisms triggered by challenging perceptions of normality, and their layered impact on individual and collective potential for transformation and eudaimonia. Currently, her research discusses uncertainty (in)tolerance, vulnerability, and prosociality, in relation to the worldview shifts triggered by psychedelic substances
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