12/09/2025
A note on high-dose psychedelic experiences, inspired by Sam Harris' account of his high-dose mushroom trip (link in comments)...
Putting words to an ineffable mystical experience is very difficult, as Sam starts out by stating - after which he proceeds to do a remarkably good job of describing his own, and I highly recommend listening.
From my perspective, both personal and having facilitated a number of such high-dose experiences, there is a high degree of variability to the kinds of journeys that people have. And not everyone will access the "mystical territory".
So while his account is of total and permeating cosmic love, that falls on a spectrum of possible outcomes. And some will embark on such a journey hoping for (or worse: expecting) such an outcome, but there really is no guarantee, and I think it depends more on the psychology of the journeyer than on the substance and dose.
I think a crucial factor is the ability to accept, let go, not to fight the natural course of the experience. It's a cliché, but that's because it's true. So in Sam's case, you have the kind of experience that someone will have as a very experienced mindfulness practitioner. Whereas others might take a similar dose, and not reach the escape velocity of the ego, and the *whole journey* will be one of resistance and egoic struggle for survival.
In Roland Griffith's groundbreaking work with psilocybin in 2006-2008, about two thirds of the participants qualified for a "complete mystical" experience. So that leaves one third who probably could not relate Sam's account to their own.
And this was in a population of "healthy normals"; from my own observation I don't think the statistic improves in a population who might already be suffering from an unhealthy ego structure, such as severe depression. In one clinical study (Brudner et al 2025, source in comments), less than 30% of treatment-resistant depressive patients qualified for a full mystical-type experience on the first session - climbing to about 50 and 60 percent on subsequent trials.
As a practitioner, while Sam's account describes fairly well the promise of a "good" journey, I think it's important to manage expectation. Ineffable cosmic love and unity is great, but the road there is not predictable and may lead through a lot of tension and learning to let go on the way.
