Pascal Michael | “The Meta-Phenomenon: Its Relationship with Psychedelics and Implications for Therapy “

Human beings have weird experiences. Such high strangeness manifests in a panoply of different phenomena, variously attempted to be integrated together – such as by the term ‘exceptional human experiences’ (White, 1997) – or one author’s terming it, the meta-phenomenon (Fowler, 2023) wherein these differential facets point to a singular higher-order reality (Madden, 2023). The transpersonal experiences to be focussed on here will mainly encompass the near-death experience (NDE) and alien abductions, and also so-called extra-sensory perception (ESP) and mediumship – but where their similarities with, or even induction by, psychedelics will have special emphasis. Comparing psychedelics with NDEs is rapidly picking up traction (Fritz et al, 2024), both quantitatively (Timmermann et al, 2018), and qualitativey (Michael et al, 2024, Michael, 2021); comparing them with abduction phenomena has also been addressed, mainly phenomenologically (Michael et al, 2021, 2022; Davis et al, 2020; Hancock, 2006; Strassman, 2000); the appearance of ESP with psychedelics is widely reported (Luke, 2012, 2018), with recent up-ticks in experimental study (Luke et al, in preparation); and the indigenous use of psychedelics for mediumship is well-documented (e.g. Luke, 2018; Hunter & Luke, 2014), while other resonances have been less highlighted such as certain phenomenological echoes, and the discarnate appearing to be in a psychedelic-like space (Michael, in preparation).

Finally, all of these phenomena have deep therapeutic implications, in both a positively (NDEs: van Lommel et al, 2021; Groth-Marnat & Summers, 1998; Abduction: Mack, 1999; ESP: Luke, in preparation; Mediumship: Roxburgh & Roe, 2011; Beischel et al, 2017) and negatively (NDEs: Cassol et al, 2019, Pratte, 2021; Abduction: Mack, 2007; ESP: Wargo, 2018) valenced manner. Very few studies have systematically looked at the impacts of these experiences in direct comparison to psychedelics (NDEs: Sweeny et al, 2022, Michael, 2022). Ultimately, as is being currently investigated as per psychedelics (Evans et al, in preparation), much of the challenges in the experiential fall-out orient around existential or ontological shock – but which may still be transfigured into some beneficent outcome.